Day 223 – Chemistry to concordance…

In today’s BBTL book entry, Chet writes of concordance – a sense of complete ONEness and agreement.  More than simple team chemistry, it’s chemistry on steroids.  And, as Chet’s continues, creating concordances requires the ability and willingness to stay curious and listen – really listen — deeply listen, in order to not only understand but to fully empathize with another.  This is the road to true ONEess and agreement.

As I reflected on this idea, my mind went back several years to the book Flow, by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.  More fascinating even than his name are MC’s ideas around what he calls the “state of flow” — the mental state of optimal experience, in which a person is fully immersed in an activity with an energized focus and a deep sense of enjoyment.  Flow, like being “in the zone,” is characterized by a person’s complete concentration on the task and effortless absorption in the experience.

To me, true ONEness — or concordance — is like being in flow…not with an activity or task, but with another person. Those are rare and precious times when you fully lose yourself in someone else.  Everyone and everything around you seems to melt away when you’re fully consumed in one another.  Time passes, often a long time, but you’re  oblivious to the clock.  Not unlike, I suppose, Chet’s time with his old friend he wrote about this morning.

The power and value of this unique ONEness, this concordance, is a feeling and a synergy no individual effort can match.  It’s the a-lone to all ONE we all long for.  Those of you who have experienced it know what I mean.  Those who haven’t, or haven’t in quite some time, can up your odds for achieving it by following the BTL recipe.  

Get with another and practice seven good minutes.  Then practice seven more.  Then do it again.  And again.  And again.  Rinse and repeat until you find concordance.  You’ll surely know it when you do.