Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a wolf?

“ The demon wolf is not evil, unless the man he has bitten is evil. And it feels good to be wolf, doesn’t it? Power without guilt, love without doubt.”

Dr. Vijay Alezias, in the film “Wolf”.

Have you ever wondered what it would feel like to be a wolf? What kind of perceptions, sensations, emotions, and thoughts might it have while running, jumping, hunting, tearing apart prey, seeking a mate, or caring for its pups? With a little imagination, it’s not hard to picture a purely sensory experience guided by instincts.

But let’s try to go further: can we imagine a wolf assailed by doubts, prey to fear and indecision? A wolf suffering from guilt while trying to provide food for its family? Or one grappling with ethical dilemmas while fighting to secure its place in the pack, perhaps to attain the position of alpha male?

That’s hard to imagine, isn’t it?

The figure of the wolf holds a special meaning for me, and perhaps one day—when I’m in the right frame of mind—I’ll talk about that too. But what I want to demonstrate now is that a series of psychological problems we struggle with daily (stress, anxiety, doubts, procrastination, second thoughts, rumination, blocks of all kinds) make absolutely no sense from an animal’s perspective:
an animal’s sole purpose is to survive and reproduce; it possesses all the tools to do so, and uses them to the fullest of its ability. Any kind of doubt, hesitation, rigidity, or block can only lead to a decline in its performance and, consequently, to a reduction in its chances of survival.

I have discussed the so-called “flow state” elsewhere: https://www.fluxogenics.com/the-flow-state/

I have great admiration for Prof. Csikszentmihaly, who has conducted in-depth studies on this particular psychophysical condition over the past 30 years, and I have had the opportunity to read much of his work, which establishes him as an undisputed global authority; however, it seems to me that he lacks the courage to cross the threshold beyond which his ideas would become truly revolutionary. That is to say, he limits himself to describing the characteristics of the flow state as if it were something extraordinary and reserved for those who perform at a high level, without observing that it is something absolutely natural—in fact, the most natural state possible.

What I mean by this is: despite our perception of ourselves as an undivided “self,” the brain is in fact composed of a vast number of different parts. Even if we limit ourselves to an extremely basic division, we encounter the concept of the right hemisphere and the left hemisphere (one intuitive, the other rational, to simplify to the utmost degree); moving toward the center, we first find the “emotional” brain and finally the oldest part, the so-called reptilian brain. Each of these parts is in turn composed of a staggering number of fully automatic processes that determine its behavior.

These processes—which we share with animals—function perfectly and have enabled our survival for millions of years, until an embryonic form of social structure began to emerge, alongside a rudimentary form of what we call rational consciousness.

Consequently, suddenly a series of strategies—extremely effective for survival in the jungle—were no longer suitable for life in the society that was forming: suddenly we are no longer permitted to kill, beat, steal, and so on (at least in theory…)

So today we find ourselves with a brain and a body almost entirely equipped for survival in an archaic environment, and with a ridiculously small part—the cortex, simplifying to the utmost—that tries as best it can to control these automatic processes which, from its perspective, are incorrect. In fact, the entire educational process aims to transform a potential criminal and serial killer (which is, in fact, a two-year-old child…) into a person capable of living civilly with others while respecting social rules.

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. One need only watch the news to be forced to admit that the results often leave much to be desired. However, at least one outcome is certain: we are faced with a constant conflict between what the oldest parts of the brain would urge us to do and what the most recent part—namely, rational consciousness—advocates.

The result is constantly in front of our eyes: we want one thing but end up doing another; we find ourselves caught in a whirlwind of stress, fears, doubts, rumination, second thoughts, and guilt; we don’t know what we want; and very often we feel at the mercy of forces that push us toward behaviors we know in advance we will regret.

(It is no coincidence that all religions have in some way personified these parts of the brain, attributing to the devil or his equivalent the thoughts that conflict with a supposed “higher self”; psychoanalysis—claiming in this way to be scientific—no longer speaks of the devil but of the unconscious, without, however, providing us with any further insight.)

In this whole mechanism, the rational mind—the one we’re so proud of and value most—tries to keep all processes under control, obviously failing but interfering with automatic procedures and effectively preventing the brain from functioning efficiently. In other words, it behaves like those office managers—we all know them—who wander among the employees, constantly interfering, criticizing, and explaining, with the result of complicating the work as much as possible and hindering efficiency and productivity.

I am aware that I have attempted—I don’t know how successfully—to summarize an entire course in evolutionary psychology in a few lines, but it was necessary to better explain what I mean by the expression “state of flow”: a situation in which the higher/rational part sets a goal, and then steps aside, letting those parts of the brain that are millions (yes, that’s right, millions…) of times more efficient than rational consciousness do their work and achieve the desired result without unnecessary interference.

We have thus met all those conditions of clarity of goals, relaxation, concentration, alignment, trust, mastery, non-judgment, etc., that define the flow state.

In traditional martial arts, where effectiveness had to be maximized, most of the training is directed precisely toward this result: the warrior must be able to unleash all aggression and fury toward the enemy, and this without any hint of critical thought that might diminish their effectiveness, knowing above all that this would mean death.

Perhaps it is not something we like to admit, but this is the attitude that has allowed us to survive and evolve up to now; in Walt Disney films, the wolf is the villain and the piglets are the heroes: in nature, each simply plays its role to the best of its ability.

In conclusion: the flow state is nothing more than a state of maximum efficiency, a state in which every animal living in the jungle must constantly find itself if it wants to eat and not be eaten, a state of absolute focus on the goal in which all components of the brain and body function in perfect synergy without being blocked by doubts and useless thoughts.

And this while the rational mind—which, of course, no one wants to exclude—does the work for which it was created, namely choosing goals from time to time and evaluating their effects on personal and social life, but without jeopardizing the brain’s efficiency.

Obviously, easier said than done. But some techniques derived from martial arts can prove extremely useful in this regard, and for more peaceful, everyday purposes.

I have been working hard recently to select—from among the available techniques—those that are most immediately applicable and easiest to learn for those without a specific background, and I have organized them into a system I have chosen to call “Fluxogenica” (meaning, that which produces the state of flow), and I will present them to the public as soon as possible.

In the meantime, do some self-observation, and keep in mind what I’ve said:

-How many of your thoughts are truly useful?

-Do stress and anxiety serve any purpose? Do doubts help?

-Does criticism improve performance?

-Or are all these intellectual ruminations—wonderful when used at the right moment—nothing more than the greatest obstacle we face? The one that gives us the constant feeling of being our own worst enemy?

So, every time our mind torments us with its incessant, obsessive chatter, let’s try to imagine ourselves as wolves chasing prey… power without guilt… love without doubt… doesn’t sound bad, does it?

Happy hunting

Bruno