Hedonic Calendaring

“The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.” – William Blake

Here are some thoughts on how to hack the "Left Hand" Path without coming undone.

As we've mentioned before, seeking Flow involves opening up to pleasure, getting out of our heads, taking risks,
and a whole slew of otherwise questionable behaviors—how then, do we pursue a path like this without
overshooting the mark--getting "hooked on the high", becoming a Bliss Junkie or some other kind of reprobate?

Well, the simplest way is to do what folks always have--make use of timing, seasons and ritual.

Here's a way to have your cake and eat it too, so you can continue to pursue Hedonic Engineering without going
off the rails…

Step One: Figure out how potent/distracting/damaging your given Flow activity is--the higher the risk/reward ratio,
the less often you should do it. (Think daily sun salutations vs. an annual ultra-marathon, or 15 min meditation vs.
trip to see a Peruvian shaman)

Step Two: Jot down all of the things that you love to do to get out of your head/into the Zone, and stack rank them
from low risk/low reward all the way to high risk/high reward (action sports, EDM festivals, sex, self medication,
workshops, etc.)

Step Three: Sort your Flow seeking activities into one of five buckets--daily, weekly, monthly, seasonally, annually

Step Four: Connect your practices with pre-existing cultural rhythms to make them self-propelling rituals. If you do
it daily connect it to sunrise/sunset, waking/sleeping etc. Weekly--make it your own contemporary Sabbath
observance. Monthly? Connect it to a full or new moon, or beginning or end of a calendar month. Seasonal?
Solstices and Equinoxes are easy--but Christmas, Easter, July 4th and Halloween all work in a pinch (and often
have days off work to go with them). Annual? Take your pick--birthdays, anniversaries, New Year--whatever's
significant.

Research shows that we are more likely to make and keep habits that cue off cultural milestones--so hack them for
your benefit!

Step Five: Last, but not at all least, how do you know if you're truly pursuing a Flow Hacker’s path to liberation, or
just kidding yourself and hiding out in the Bliss? Short answer--you don't. Longer answer, build into each year a
forced hiatus--a stretch where you set all of your Left Hand indulgences up on the shelf and test to see how itchy
you get--Lent, whether you're a believer or not, works admirably for this purpose--40 days Cold Turkey, flush out
the pipes, and when you return to the Good Stuff, you've got a renewed perspective on how sticky it gets. Plus, it
really puts the exclamation point on Mardi Gras' Fat Tuesday, when the ashes of Wednesday's abstinence are
waiting in the morning!

So in a contemporary society that's fully dismantled most of the "oughts" and "shoulds" of the orthodox "Right
Hand" path, and we've devolved perilously close to "if it feels good, do it" entitlement--here's a happy medium that
lets us put the pedal down on hacking Flow while maintaining just enough steer to stay on the tracks.

Good luck and let us know how this works for you!

Daily Activities:

Weekly Activities:

Monthly Activities:

Annual Activity:

Gut Check: (like Lent or any other period of planned total abstinence from…)

Additional Hacks: (e.g. don’t get to do fun activities unless some hard and important thing…is completed on time)

Limitations on quantity, frequency, intensity, etc. that you can set in stone here to help keep you on track—not more
than 2x per week, or once a month.

“I hereby solemnly swear…and if I don’t, I empower…to come and kick my ass, take my money, string me up by
my underpants, etc.

Pro-tip—How will I know if I’ve put the right activities in the right frequency on my calendar? You’re slightly
underwhelmed/disappointed by how often you’ll get to shoot the moon. It’s far better to start a little slowly, and
follow the plan rigorously with lots of time for integration, than to go out too hot, and go off the tracks in Turn One.
Depending on what techniques of ecstasy you deploy, this process is more than potent, can melt the paint off your
self identity and leave you in deep waters with no floatation. Heed the advice of the ancients and MAKE HASTE
SLOWLY!