Parameters which promote Flow. The Flow Channel is the balanced "Zone". The balance is a perfect match-up between your skill level of an activity, and the challenge of the activity. The higher the skill level and challenge level, the more opportunity for intense Flow. The narrower you can fine tune that zone, the stronger you Flow on the razor's edge. Your ego and superego are obliterated, allowing your *body=mind* to take over and Be. Its amazing. Its magical. Its a healthy addiction, leading you out of boredom and anxiety, and into ...well - the real flow of life.
Its a fulfilling, effective way to get rid of anxiety and boredom, but it does entail getting off the couch and shutting off the TV.
There are two cool Flow links on the left.
(from"moflow" link)
"Csikszentmihalyi", the name of the guy who wrote "the book" on Flow, is pronounced "chick-sent-me-high-ee"! Seems to fit :)
March 23, 2005
Chick sent me high-ee!
Posted by Ocean at 05:16 PM | Permalink | | Comments (0)
March 08, 2005
Groovin on a Sunny Afternoon
...flowing
(pic of me by god remembers...)
Posted by Ocean at 11:50 AM | Permalink | | Comments (0)
March 01, 2005
Ahhhhh...
october past...
After helping a friend out at a boat show, I had one of the best 1/2 hours of the year. After sitting on a $250,000 boat all day and surrounded by $500,000 boats, I was alone, driving my small boat home. My boat is worth about $500. I was a little envious, but, hey it runs. I started heading down the channel, a perfect sunset at my back. I mean really perfect. I had to keep turning around. The water surface was a mirror, not a ripple. The low warm light that photagraphers love, made the marsh glow. It was a deep, rich green with a bit of yellow gold to it, and it was speckled with the bright pure white of the many flocks of seabirds. Egrets by the dozens. At 14 I stopped counting the herons I saw. (Usually, a single one is a nice visual treat.) The orange, red, purple, pink and yellow of the sky was perfectly mirrored on the water I rode along on. I turned into a narrow cut in the marsh, a curvey, hidden, shallow passageway with an exagerated "S" shape. The water and sky became almost indistinguishable, with just up and down and some protrusions of marsh providing reference. It was exhillerating, I felt like James Bond cooking through there. Coming out of the cut, I entered the inner bay. The water was crystal clear and shallow, so I slowed the boat to about 20 mph and could still see large blue-claw crabs crawling and swimming in the eel grass on the bottom. The light was fading a bit, but you could still see all this. For a while I kept focused on the water in front of me, until it dawned on me to look back at the sun, which had set by now. The water and sky were blood red. I mean just about my whole damn field of vision was lit up deep red. I kinda felt like..."Oh...wow...wait a second here! Ok, OK, I'm listening!". I turned down the throttle, and killed the engine. The eastern sky was purple and dark pink. Not much of this whole boat ride looked real. I had just had one of the best 1/2 hours of boating all summer, alone, in a $500 boat. It was kind of like a passive flow ..no thoughts, just observing, appreciating. I was back in the moment. I was where I wanted to be at that moment.(Anyway it got darker, and cooler and as I headed across the bay, I rested my right shoulder against the windshield. The refreshing wind almost felt like putting ice on an injury, but the magic of the moment kept the cold out. Still it felt good as my arm is in a sling due to a torn rotator cuff and separated shoulder. But hey, I guess its better than having your ass in a sling. Then again, as I write, I feel a bowel movement coming on, and I'm right handed. Ouch.)
Posted by Ocean at 01:00 AM | Permalink | | Comments (0)
February 28, 2005
Franconia, NH. rock hops
Posted by Ocean at 02:48 PM | Permalink | | Comments (0)
rock hop
.....a short piece of writing by Dean Potter, a rockclimber:***Cold air from the valley drifts upwards. It's predawn and I've been moving on the north Nose of El Cap through the night, focused on the rock in front of me in the faint light of my headlamp. Suddenly, I think of how tired and exposed I am, alone, ropeless, far past any point of retreat. A surge of panic courses through me. I try to think of the summit but that thought, too, is dangerous.An image floats into my mind. I'm following my father in the early through a pasture in the White Mountains in New Hampshire. He strides towards Moosebrook, his favorite fishing spot. I'm not even half his height, and the frosty grass brushes all the way up to my waist.
We reach the river. My Dad skips from rock to rock, downstream to the first hole, and looks back for me. The water is freezing, and the rocks are covered in slime. I'm afraid to follow. I burrow painfully through the thickets of pricker bushes, swamp, and blackflies as my father calls for me. The bugs chase me back to the river's edge. and I timidly wade in and try to catch up. Tense and anxious, I lose my footing, and fall into the river. I gasp for breath in the icy water, but manage to scramble onto a rock where I bawl until my father comes back. "I don't like fishing. I want to go home".My father shakes his head at me, and his eyes sparkle. "Dean, put everything else aside. There's nothing to be afraid of, except a little cold water. Just focus on the next step you are taking. I feel so happy running down the river, the sun reflecting off the water, my body naturally going where it's supposed to. I almost don't think at all. I just respond to what's in front of me."
He stops talking and heads downstream again. We slowly pick our way across the rocks, catching rainbows and brook trout. The day passes quickly and my confidence rises. Soon, I'm playing and racing down the rapids with eyes wide and senses alert, not knowing I've just recieved my first lesson in Zen.The air drifts over my body. I grasp the immediate. I reach for the next hold.****
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I remember being about 6 or 7 and visiting my Grandma in upstate NY. There was a gully with a stream rushing through it, complete with rocks at all angles, slippery moss, and icy water. This story struck a chord in me. I used to love hiking in that stream as a kid. It was beautiful. Fairly quickly, I learned the art of sprinting from rock to rock, without any distractions. As you pushed of with your right foot, your body already knew where your left foot was going to land, and how much angle you should land on to prevent slipping and to send you in the direction of the next "pre-selected" rock. And it was all so effortless. It exhilerated and calmed me at the same time. I guess my addiction to "Flow" started here. I never would have remembered if not for that article. In winter, I progressed to "Don't Break the Ice", using frozen spots to step on, the trick being to move very quickly over the ice without breaking it. (Its amazing how warm you can stay when you are exercising after your mom bundles you up for outdoor winter play, and you are soaked from the waist down.)
When I experience Flow, I experience Being. In the moment, at peace and harmony, in complete concentration without effort, feeling like you are more than you are...but also less of a self, being part of a system (like becoming one with the stream - I know ..cliche) When you experience this, there is a deep joy, a smile on your face for days. You have tapped into a great state of conciousness that is not always easy to do.
Ok, so enough rambling... Go back and read the artical again. Instead of reading about climbing and rock-hopping, read it as a metaphor for life ...
Posted by Ocean at 02:29 PM | Permalink | | Comments (0)
February 24, 2005
The Pull of Flow
(thanks to cousin pete for pic)
...when this becomes, effortless, almost automatic, ...riding the razor's edge in perfect, confident balance...
Posted by Ocean at 01:07 AM | Permalink | | Comments (0)
FLOW
...flow
conversation snippets...
big problem ---> Lack of FLOW. I used to be addicted to FLOW. I used to adjust my life to attaining flow, like a junkie. Its been too, way too long since I was in a state of FLOW. This describes what I mean. Here is a quote from the back of a book...
"...For more than two decades Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has been studying states of "optimal experience" - those times when people report feelings of concentration and deep enjoyment. These investigations have revealed that what make experience genuinely satisfying is a state of consciousness called flow - a state of concentration so focused that it amounts to absolute absorption in an activity. Everyone experiences flow from time to time and will recognize its charactoristics: People typically feel strong, alert, in effortless control, unselfconscious, and at the peak of their abilities. Both the sense of time and emotional problems seem to disappear, and there is an exhilarating feeling of transcendence. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience reveals how this pleasurable state can, in fact, be controlled, and not just left to chance, by setting ourselves challenges - tasks that are neither too difficult nor too simple for our abilities. With such goals, we learn to order the information that enters consciousness and thereby improve the quality of our lives."
Flow is basically living in the moment. (It's NOT the "going with the flow" that 9's*** get stuck in - that is just going along with whatever). This is real Flow.
...You are the boat, the river, and you are even generating the current. It all becomes one and you are an active but seemingly effortless director. Perfection. You are 100% in the moment, and adjust your (re)actions perfectly to the situation/activity/environment as they happen to acommodate your intent.
Activities that have routinely delivered Flow, for me: Slalom waterskiing, snowboarding, mountainbiking, motorcycling, diving, running, moments of football, softball, climbing. Sometimes playing guitar with another guitar and drums. Shooting pool. Working out.
For a somewhat less intense flow, sometimes reading, writing, having a conversation, having sex. It can happen doing anything. The key though seems to be having an adequate level of skill that matches the activity. The more skill, the higher the level of activity, the more intense the flow. If you dont have enough skill for a certain activity, its awkward or frustrating. If you have too much skill, it is boring so there is not 100% absorption. For me, physical, often rythmic activities did the trick the best. Most of those things I dont do anymore. I guess as I've gotten older, I've tried to get the same flowing satisfaction in other, less physical ways, such as everyday activities, but I'm either bored or frustrated it seams. I can think of a few reasons why I lack flow. I am out of shape, and no longer do my fun things on a regular basis. For non-physical activities, again, Im out of shape, leaving me more stuck in my head. Also, I have to many toxins in me leaving my brain sluggish. Nope, haven't found anyone to flow with lately, and thats the best flow of all.
Step 1. Get to gym and lay off the cheeseburgers.
That "moment" of flow IS spirituality to me. Imagine having flow 24/7, in the moment, fully living Now to the fullest.
I don't think I've had an especially intense life. Although I've spent a lot of time doing those activities, and have had many peak experiences, it all seemed pretty normal except for some really peak experiences that I guess bordered on transendantal or endorphin overload due to unplanned danger. I'm sure I've spent more time watching TV overall. But I thrive on the peak stuff, wither watching TV.
It seems like those experiences have to do with being forced/drawn out of my head and into my gut.
Re: Raw foods diet. I have noticed that a combo of eating very clean - not junk, tons of fresh fruit and vegetables - (basically healthy vegetarian with small amounts of protien - very little or no meat or dairy or processed food), ...combined with physical exercise and meditation, really helps to make me more prone to get that flow going. Performing an activity on a regular basis also helps, of course.
***
enneagram type 9; enneagram is a kind of personality system, with esoteric aspects, based on basic motivations arising from innate fears. good googling.
Posted by Ocean at 01:01 AM | Permalink | | Comments (0)