Ramblings on flow

Author: Brodie Boland
Published on Sep 24th, 2008
http://brodie.nomadlife.org/

Almost all of us have experienced the state of flow at one point in our lives. It's the feeling of being so immersed in a book that when you put it down and look at the clock, hours have passed in what seemed like minutes. It's being 'in the zone' in a basketball game, when it seems as if one is almost able to intuitively sense the position of other players on the court. It's that sense of ease, of effortlessness and energy in the last leg of a long run, when the pace, the hearbeat, the sounds are all in rhythym and one feels as if floating. Csikszentmihalyi, a rather famous psychologist, has studied this state and identified a number of effects, as well as preconditions of flow.

The most immediate effect is the feeling of enjoyment. Csikszentmihalyi found that many of the moments we enjoy most in our lives are those in which we experience flow. And not only are we enjoying ourselves, but we perform best, we feel most empowered afterwards, we leave the activity with a sense of energy, and we develop psychologically through repeated experiences of the flow state. It is, perhaps, one of the most precious of human states.

So what enables flow? There are a number of preconditions, including:
- Clear goals and ongoing feedback
- The ability to concentrate on the task at hand (continuous email checking is, I suspect, one of the greatest barriers to flow for many)
- The ability to immerse oneself in the task, such that one can lose self-consciousness (this is both a cause and effect of flow)
- A balance between one's ability and the challenge at hand, such that one is challenged but not frustrated
- A sense of control over the result
- The activity is intrinsically rewarding (again, both cause and effect)

Along with flow and positive emotions, a third pillar of postive psychology is that of meaning. I interpret meaning to indicate the feelings of importance one has as to their own narrative. In other words, can they tell a story about their life that gives it some significance. In my view, meaning can be seen as flow scaled up from the level of one activity to one's whole life. My sense of meaning in my life is dependent upon whether I am able to enter a more macro state of flow. Do I have clear goals that are in some way tied to a broader narrative I tell about life and the world? Can I immerse myself in my life, or do I feel as if I am never really making contact with the substance of my existence? Am I fit to meet the challenges that life throws my way?

And not only does flow matter at the levels of enjoyment and performance in a moment and of one's sense of meaning in life, but I think that flow also connects us with the most fundamental essence of our existence. As in the state of flow one becomes immersed in a task or experience and loses the sense of self, these flow moments are those in which we most directly participate in the flow of existence itself. We have, even for a moment, released our self-contraction and taken joy in this convergence of a creative process and our own satisfaction.

It is no surprise then, that in these deepest moments of flow a fortunate few members of humanity experience that falling away of self that characterises the mystical revelation. For what is the state of samadhi if not a much deeper form of flow? It is an absorption in the object of concentration such that there is oneness with that object, and, in Buddhism and Hinduism, it is often seen as the staging ground of enlightenment.

And so flow is not only what we enjoy most, when we perform best, and (in extended form), how we derive meaning from life, but it is also a first step on a much more profound journey.

Probably worth turning off the crackberry for ;-)

Statutes of Man

Thiago de Mello

Be it decreed
that now what counts is the truth.
that now what counts is life
and that hand in hand
we will all work for what life really is.

Be it decreed that all the days of the week,
including the grayest Tuesdays,
have the right to be converted into Sunday mornings.

Be it decreed that, from this instant on,
there will be sunflowers in all the windows,
and that the sunflowers will have the right
to open in the shade;
and that the windows must stay open the entire day,
open to the green where hope grows.

Be it decreed that man
will never again
doubt another man.
That man will trust man
like the palm tree trusts the wind,
like the wind trusts the air,
like the air trusts the blue field of the sky.
Man will trust man
like a child trusts another child.

Be it established during ten centuries
the practice dreamed of by the prophet Isaias:
that the wolf and the lamb will pasture together,
and the food of both will have the same taste as long ago.

By irrevocable decree be it established
the permanent kingdom of justice,
and clarity,
and joy
will be the generous flag
forever unfurled in the soul of the people.

Be it decreed that the greatest pain
always was and always will be
not to be able to give yourself in love to the one you love
and to know that it is the water
that gives to the plant the miracle of the flower.

Be it permitted that the bread of each day
have in it from man the sign of his sweat.
But above all that it always have
the warm flavor of tenderness.

Be it permitted
that any person
at any time in life
be allowed to wear
party clothes.

Be it decreed, by definition,
that man is an animal that loves
and for this reason is beautiful,
much more beautiful than the morning star.

Be it decreed that nothing
will be ordered or forbidden,
everything will be permitted,
including playing with a rhinoceros
and walking in the afternoon
with an immense begonia in the lapel.
Only one thing is forbidden:
to love without loving.

Be it decreed that money
never more will be able to buy
the sun of future mornings.
Driven out of the big trunk of fear
money will be transformed into a fraternal sword,
in order to defend the right to sing
and the celebration of the day that has arrived.

Be it prohibited:
the use of the word liberty,
which will be abolished
from the dictionary and
from the deceptive mires
of the mouth.
From this instant on
liberty will be something
alive and transparent
like a fire or a river
or like a grain of wheat,
and its home will be forever
in the heart of man.

Written by the Brazilian poet Thiago de Mello in Santiago (Chile) in 1964, as areaction to the military junta which had seized power in Brazil that same year, issuing a series of repressive extra-constitutional decrees.

Linking global problems with individual habits

Recently, as part of an assignment for the BTH Introduction to Sustainable Development course I'm taking, I came across an interesting piece of data: 60% of deforestation in the Amazon forest in 200-2005 was due to cattle ranches.

It can be even more alarming if we cross that with other facts:
- we need 20 kilograms of feed to make a kilogram of beef
- China's per capita intake of poultry, pork, fish and beef has more than tripled since 1970 and keeps on rising (remember that China has 1.6 billion inhabitants)
- 15 of the 24 ecosystems vital for life on Earth have been seriously degraded or used unsustainably

It seems to me it would be smart to reduce or even stop eating meat. Therefore we could keep eating our veggies, eat a portion of the food that is currently directed to cattle raising to compensate the lack of meat, fight poverty and still transform all the cattle raising areas into environmental recovering reserves, at the same time we prevent further degradation of the soil and more deforestation.

Facing such scenario, I've started doing my part by reducing significantly my meat consumption and therefore my individual contribution to the problem.

Data sources: http://www.mongabay.com, http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2008/05/carnivores_like_us.php, http://www.millenniumassessment.org/en/index.aspx

Feelings outside in

Last week I had the pleasure of taking a course about Brazilian music, Which I guess could be described as an engaging two hours of hearing stories about some of the classic names of Brazilian music + singing their songs, led by two great musicians.

In love with music, one of the teachers expressed his special appreciation for this particular type of art which invades the listener. There's no way a person can "watch" a song; music always interacts with us in a different level, bringing remembrances, fostering daydreams and influencing on how we feel.

Reflect about that made me wonder why we tend to think we need a reason to be who we are and feel how we feel, when there are uncountable examples of "external" stimuli which influence our mood and / or the way we behave.

In one of his recent book (I think it is Blink), Malcolm Gladwell described he would arrive home angry after a whole afternoon practicing angry / upset / sad faces. Without a reason, anger would appear from the simple fact angry faces were being tried.

Even more impressive have been my yoga classes. Frequent physical exercises of chest opening, spine twisting, turning upside down and projecting the body forward have brought unbelievable benefits to practitioners when it comes to being more open and affectionate, becoming more flexible to different points of view, believing in ourselves and happily planning the future.

That is probably why in meditation we first learn how to maintain our bodies still before we are truly able to calm down our minds.