Flow

The other day, my friend sent me a Ted Talk by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (leading researcher in positive psychology) about 'Flow, The Secret to Happiness'. 

My opinion was that 'Flow' is a state that we also enter in meditation, so the process that Csikszentmihalyi discusses in his video is similar to the idea of 'being' not 'thinking'. This is the flow we capture during any moment of creativity when we are completely present. No judgement whatsoever. 

 For example I feel that whilst making music  there is indeed a moment that you are simply watching the music pour out of you and you become an observer. A composer mentions this state of 'flow' in the video as well. 

My friend and I also discussed how there is a difference between entering the state of 'flow' consciously - through meditation or just simply finding yourself in it - whilst acting, making music, dancing, painting, cooking etc. Or even simply whilst at work and extremely focused on a particular task.

What is flow?

It is simply sitting silently, witnessing the thoughts, passing before you. Just witnessing, not interfering not even judging, because the moment you judge you have lost the pure witness. The moment you say “this is good, this is bad,” you have already jumped onto the thought process. 

It takes a little time to create a gap between the witness and the mind. Once the gap is there, you are in for a great surprise, that you are not the mind, that you are the witness, a watcher. 

And this process of watching is the very alchemy of real religion. Because as you become more and more deeply rooted in witnessing, thoughts start disappearing. You are, but the mind is utterly empty.

That’s the moment of enlightenment. That is the moment that you become for the first time an unconditioned, sane, really free human being.” 

FLOW IN THE OFFICE - A short train of thought:

"You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop."

 “Merge with others, if you stay in self, you are a grain, you are a drop. If you merge with others, you are an ocean, you are a mine.” 

~Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi~

“Everything flows, nothing stands still’’

“Change is the only constant”

 ~Heraclitus~

Life truly is like a river. It flows constantly and it never stops flowing... It opens up into the vast ocean to join all the other rivers. We are all a part of this flow. Change is the only constant. We are not static beings. We are constantly changing, evolving, dying, being born, re-born. We are evolving and flowing beings. Life is the here and now. In-between the small cracks of the past and the future. It is here where life resides and where everything takes part, where everything happens. In this present moment. Everything is the moment. The moment is everything. 

I sometimes sit at my office desk and in-between listening to Icelandic post-rock, American thrash metal, Indian meditation music or Jamaican reggae I enter a trance like state as I type away, write emails, translate documents or simply organise my desktop folders. It’s during this trance like state that I have a sudden deep realisation that whatever I’m doing at that very moment is completely and utterly meaningless. I feel my hands melting into the keyboard, my fingers automatically pushing down on the keys before me. I lose complete interest in whatever I’m doing and time stands completely still. Or should I say time doesn’t seem to exist. I am time and time is nothing. Flashbacks of memories appear in front of my eyes. Or at least that’s where they seem to accumulate. How do we ‘see’ memories I wonder? They are strange. Memories appear on the screen before my eyes, my remote control brain switching channels accordingly. Different memories, different frequencies. At times I can control the channels, other times I let the memories flow. When I let them flow I sometimes lose control and I return to the time of the memory, that particular moment in its entirety. I experience the memory as if it was happening right now. The thing is...it IS right now. The past is present. As is the future. The memories sometimes pour out, sometimes trickle and other times I am flooded by these strange tableaux’s that used to be me. Or are me? Or aren’t. What are they? 

These internal home-videos show me that time is meaningless, superfluous... I realise that I am nothing but this moment. 

And suddenly the moment is gone... 

‘Dear Sir, thank you for your email. I am writing with regards to....’