Wednesday, October 11, 2023

Flow






I am one of those compulsively on time people.  Which, here in the real world, means that I’m early for everything because I have planned for traffic, earthquake, tsunami, kidnapping, and a few million other eventualities.  The clock in my mind is always ticking.  Most of the time, I think of this as a feature and not a bug, but.

It makes it hard to get into flow.

 

Why is this important?  Flow is the state in which we do our best work.  We’re fully present with what we’re doing.  We’re both totally mindful of what we’re doing and totally mindless about it because everything comes together.

 

Of course, our ability to find flow is increased by mindfulness practices like Pilates, yoga, and meditation.  It’s right there in that word:  practice.  As we practice, we get better.

 

One other thing that helps me (and maybe other people, too) is to try to find at least some fairly large blocks of unstructured time.  If I know I have a day off, for example, I know I don’t have to be watching the clock while I’m working out to make sure I am done in time for the next thing on the list.  It can be hard to find those blocks, but it is so worth it!

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