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The little book of Flow

Chapter 1

Introduction

I have a naive trust in the universe......that at some level it all makes sense, and we can get glimpses of that sense if we try.”

......Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

The idea of a ‘flow’ state was popularised in the book ‘Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience’ by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in 1990. In that landmark book he describes states of peak experience that are almost transcendental and goes on to present an in depth study of the conditions for these Flow experiences. That book made a big impression on me at the time but I always had an inkling of a idea that what Mihaly was dealing with was something far more profound and accessible than we might imagine and also, could exist independent of the conditions that he described.

Many sports people have told stories about being in ‘the zone’. Sprinters call it ‘tipping’ when they run with only the tips of their toes brushing the track as if they were flying. Basketball players call it ‘going unconscious’. They tell us how everything is experienced in slow motion and there is a sense of total freedom and confidence to do whatever they want when they want. Being in 'the zone' can be so euphoric that it often becomes the ultimate goal for anyone who has once experienced it.

These experiences are not just confined to sports either - most of us have experienced something like this at least once in our life, usually by accident rather than design. They can be the most beautiful, sublime, carefree, creative and happy moments in our lives. We often recall them later in life - how we felt more alive and everything seemed more real than anything we had experienced previously or since - almost like tantalizing postcards from a magical kingdom that we never really got to go to.

The only sad thing is that these moments are all too rare.

The premise of this little book is that this need not be. What I'd like to show is that these illusive moments are in fact glimpses of our true nature and as such have nothing to do with technique or circumstance (although ‘flow’ does often seem to miraculously transform circumstance). Once we recognise that the flow state is our original and natural way of being, instead of trying to create the 'conditions' for flow we can learn how to access it directly and let flow infuse every aspect of our lives - let genius shine into all our doing, replace chaos or stress with clarity and ease, and to gain insight into the true nature of our problems so they can be resolved easily at their cause.