{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "bskyPostRef": {
    "cid": "bafyreidnyhn4p5msupffzazupvfjf4h6ar6o2no3havp42f5rdmvxxtkwu",
    "uri": "at://did:plc:a2liw7vr2avabmr5qionzzxu/app.bsky.feed.post/3mnegm2aqbmz2"
  },
  "coverImage": {
    "$type": "blob",
    "ref": {
      "$link": "bafkreibqiyxfqojekuuawmkwsup4y76jqkjgxj5laufxv4nxqtpbtucpfi"
    },
    "mimeType": "image/jpeg",
    "size": 77641
  },
  "description": "What's the problem here? Is it flow, or is it the mind? 🤔",
  "path": "/does-being-in-flow-make-you-cranky/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-06-03T06:00:10.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.gilespcroft.com",
  "tags": [
    "creating a sense of self",
    "Creativity is endlessIt’s just not something that can, or will, ever dry up 🌊The Daily RemindersGiles P Croft"
  ],
  "textContent": "Sounds like an odd question, doesn’t it?\n\nBecause being in flow (i.e. in the zone/pure presence/in the Now) is supposed to be where it’s at, isn’t it? That’s what I’m always saying!\n\nBut it’s been making my 10yo daughter cranky.\n\nYou see, I bought her a new audiobook, to listen to on her Yoto player and she’s been devouring it. Listening to it at every available opportunity.\n\nWhen she’s listening, she’s very much ‘in flow’, one of the defining characteristics of which is, _she's not there_.\n\nWhat does that mean? It means in that moment, there’s no need for her human operating system to go creating a sense of self.\n\nInstead, she’s just in the story. More accurately, she  _is_ the story! Her mind is bringing to life the words she’s hearing and she’s inhabiting all of  _those_ fictional characters (instead of her own fictional character, lol).\n\nAnd ‘no self’ feels good.\n\nBut boy, is it making her cranky.\n\nEvery time we try and engage with her for, oh you know, the usual: eating food, getting dressed for school, that sort of thing, we get our heads bitten off.\n\nIn truth, I can be the same from time to time, and I bet you can too.\n\nYou’re totally into something creative—no self!—and then someone interrupts you with a demand.\n\nIn that moment, it really looks like you’ll never get that nice feeling of flow back, and there’s a real risk of crankiness… but you can relax.\n\nBecause the nice feeling doesn’t come from what you’re doing, or from audiobooks. It comes from ‘no self’, and that’s something (nothing?) that never goes away (was never there in the first place?)\n\nOh god, I’m tying my self in knots here.\n\nThe things we can do with thought!\n\n> _“The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.”_\n>  ~ John Milton\n\nIndeed.\n\nHave a lovely day.\n\n💟\n\nGiles\n\nSIGN UP FOR THE DAILY REMINDERS newsletter\n\nWant to start __your__ days with helpful, insightful content like this? The Daily Reminder is a quick, lighthearted email that arrives in your inbox, to help keep you grounded in reality, so that you get to __‘Think less, and live more.’__\n\n __“They feel like a moment of stillness in a world of madness.” ~__ Neil, UK\n\n __“One of those small things with big impact. Honestly, just sign up!”__ ~ Paula, UK\n\nGET YOURS NOW\n\n### Related\n\nCreativity is endlessIt’s just not something that can, or will, ever dry up 🌊The Daily RemindersGiles P Croft\n\nFlow… creativity… presence… there's no end to any of them 🤷🏻‍♂️",
  "title": "Does being in flow make you cranky?",
  "updatedAt": "2026-06-03T06:00:10.087Z"
}