One of the main benefits of an exercise or physical movement program of some sort is the ability to get into a state of FLOW. What is FLOW you ask? In the 1990s, a great deal was made of the ability of an athlete to get into a Zone or a state of what became called FLOW.
In 1990, Author Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced Chick-sent-me-hi) wrote a now classic book on the subject called Flow, The Psychology of Optimal Experience where he describes FLOW as “being completely involved in an activity for it’s own sake. . . Your whole being is involved and you are using your skills to the utmost.” Mihaly C. says that the feelings you get from being in the state of flow are: You feel completely involved and focused; you get a feeling of being outside everyday reality; you feel a sense of serenity; and very importantly you have a feeling of intrinsic motivation in that whatever produces your experience of FLOW becomes its own reward.
FLOW is a feeling of COMING ALIVE!
Earlier than Mihaly C’s trendsetting book on FLOW, was George Leonard’s excellent 1974 book, The Ultimate Athlete. In it, Leonard described an interview between his sometime co-author, Michael Murphy and John Brodie, the former quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers football team. Brodie said this:
“Often in the heat and excitement of a game, a player’s perception and coordination will improve dramatically. At times . . . I experience a kind of clarity that I’ve never seen adequately described in a football story. Sometimes, for example, time seems to slow way down, in an uncanny way, as if everyone were moving in slow motion . . . The whole thing seems like a movie or dance in slow motion.”
— The Ultimate Athlete, George Leonard, p. 35.
Again, intense physical movement inspires FLOW
Much more recently, authors Steven Kotler & Jamie Wheal and a team of Neuropsychologists are revitalizing the term. In their 2017 book Stealing Fire, the authors describe Flow by linking it to the feeling one might get as an altered state much the same as that produced by psychedelic mood altering substances.
I find exercise and physical movement far preferable to achieving FLOW than the idea of using mind altering substances. From my reading and research, the effects last much longer and are much more beneficial with exercise.
So, why am I writing about the flow state? I have personally found the ability to get into a FLOW state as one of the great motivators for me to be consistent in my own exercise program. Over the last ten years, I created a program for myself where I become so focused on the feeling of aliveness I get during and after exercise, that I simply don’t want to stop.
The experience of FLOW with movement and exercise is real. I’ll be continuing to write about the benefits of the FLOW STATE and how you can use movement and exercise to achieve it.
Thank you for reading.
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Bob McMillan is a blogger, speaker and seminar leader on the topic of Health, Fitness and Personal Energy for Active Seniors. Email Bob at bob@thecomealiveproject.com