Flow

I remember my first flow experience very well. I was a high school student and we had to run 400 meters for grades. During those days I played soccer day and night and also did some jogging so I was pretty fit, but I had never really invested much of my mental energy into track and field. The person I was up against was a rower, he was full of muscles, but I wasn't intimidated since I very much doubted that upper body strength was correlated with speed. Well, I was in for a surprise, he took off on the 400 meters the way I would have run a 100 meter sprint. But with intense willpower I managed to stay next to him. I felt incredible pain, but miraculously, after 200 meters or so, I didn't feel my body any more. All I could perceive were thoughts. I got a glimpse then of what it means to be in the 'zone', it was a terrific feeling of connectedness. If my body was aching, I couldn't feel it, the race just seemed effortless. It turned out that we both got an A plus for our finishing time, so being in the flow definitely pays off.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi expressed this theme beautifully in his book 'The Flow'. It introduces the theme from a psychological perspective, but it really is a spiritual gem. Eckhart Tolle's 'The Power of Now' describes exactly the same thing. You always have the chance to get lost in the here and now and when you do, a magic world opens up to you. If I had to sum up the way towards getting to this stage  it would be 'embrace life wholeheartedly'. Like it happened to me in the first few meters of the race, it might be a little uncomfortable to be synchronized to the new Force, but it will be well worth the effort and after this adjustment, all you really have to do is to follow the lead. Everyone can do this, spiritual or not. Love what you do and if you also love the people you are connected with, the flow will be just around the corner.