FINDING YOUR SWING IN THE FLOW

What is your unique selling point, your USP. What makes you standout, what will give you the edge over the competition? How can you find your flow?

Music is the language through sound of lived experiences. As life changes and we adapt to the many questions it throws up, so it is in music, we must be ready to answer the many questions presented to us.

Improvisation, is what makes music unique and individual as each artist dares to be. In hip hop we called it ‘flow.’

Find your flow by removing the clutter from your mind.

In one form or another, it is the foundation of all music styles, from jazz and freestyle rapping, to rock and dance music. And each musician who taps into it seems to have their own way of expressing what flow is for them. It is when everything is in alignment. Your excitement and energy override your doubts and fears. Your output levels evaporate perfectionism, as the music becomes an extension of you in the moment. You become completely absorbed in the music, in the moment.

Time goes out the window as you are immersed in the moment. When your in the flow you don’t notice the distractions that you usually slow your progress.

You get more done in that moment than in a normal day. You instinctively know what to do next and one thing naturally flows into another. Times like this make you remember why you’re making music. They can be the most enjoyable moments in your career. In this moment it doesn’t feel like your working.

You’re inspiration is coming from inside, your tapping into your music inside. You truly realise at that moment you’re merely the vessel.
What you produce in this time is as good as anything else you’ve done, period.

How can I get in the flow?

Most people think it happens randomly. When we are on purpose and inspired, our focus is different to when we are stuck and struggling. It is the difference to positive and negative energy. The Law Of Attraction says you will receive what you give out. Whatever we communicate will come back magnetically. Practicing positive affirmations allows your mind to become the creative hub that will release your inner genius. As a rapper I always knew when I was in the flow, you feel the energy inside and it flowed whenever I performed live. For me it was always about releasing it.

In The Legend of Bagger Vance, we’re told about Rannulph Junuh. He’d once been one of the greatest golfers in the country, but after his traumatic experiences in the Great War he lost his passion. Completely heartbroken and traumatized, Junuh lost his way.

Opportunities come at the most unexpected times and for the majority of us we never feel ready.

He was asked to represent his town in a golf tournament. At first Junuh rejected the request, but he is encouraged to face his fears by a mysterious stranger named Bagger Vance.

Nothing faced can be changed, nothing will change unless it’s faced.

Junuh had lost his swing, he lost his music inside, his reason for being. His traumatic experience was so noisy it drowned out the melodic sounds of his music inside.

Bagger says, “Well, you lost your swing. We got to go find it. Now, it’s somewhere in the harmony of all that is, all that was, all that will be. Inside each

and every one of us is one true authentic swing, something we was born with, something that’s ours and ours alone. Something that can’t be taught to you or learned. Something thats got to be remembered. Over time, the world can rob us of that swing. It gets buried inside us under all our wouldas and couldas and shouldas. Some folks even forget what their swing was like. But inside every one of us has one true, authentic swing.” When you find your swing then you’re in the flow.

Everyone’s got that one thing they were born to do, I call it your Music Inside.

Finding the Music Inside your inner algorithm to a more meaningful life is all about finding and unleashing your true potential. Listening to music uses the entirety of the human brain, this is one of the few activities that does this.

At the heights of social unrest in the eighties an emerging culture sparked an internal revolution in my life. It made visible the invisible parts of society giving us a voice and a platform. In the eighties I searched for meaning and direction, I found it through hip hop.

Basil Reynolds

Coaching Consultant

Finding the Music Inside