Flow = Spirituality?
“Flow” is an activity you fully engage with.
I find it hard to recall if I actually read somebody making the connection in between flow and spirituality or if it came from my own reflection after reading about the joy of working in a flow. Everybody knows the moment when all of a sudden you feel very peaceful because some activity or mindset was making you forget all the tomorrows and yesterdays and had you fully engaging in this one thing. May it be that you put all your focus in crafting something, that you got lost in playing with kids for hours, that you were fully involved in a sport activity or that you forget yourself over a song or piece of art or strong emotion. I am freely translating Max Frisch because I could not find an official quote:
Most of the time one is not living in the moment. Excitement about a moment comes either from the excitement about the memory it will create (past) or the excitement about what the moment will mean for your future and how it lives up to your expectations (future). It is extremely hard to only be in the moment. When you are it creates a powerful, earthly, calmly humming energy.
Most kind of meditations have the same goal in one way or another, to forget what was and will come, to only focus on the now. The same counts for people searching for ecstasy, a more active form of flow. Being in a flow can even become a sort of holy/divine moment when you are able to strip of your worries, fears and expectations for some time and you become aware of yourself in the moment. Isn’t that an essential part of what humans long for? The use of drugs or the desire for it also plays a role in this topic but won’t be examined here.
The origin of the word holy is interesting here. Holy comes from the old english word hālig which means whole, entire, uninjured, complete. In a way this connotation doesn’t feel as heavy as what the word represents in nowadays christian believes with an idea of divine entitlement. It could be interesting to see the word in a much more temporary way. It is a beautiful image if a person would say: “Right now I feel entire.” or “uninjured” or when a moment feels “complete for what it is”.
You can be in a flow alone or with other people. Sharing a moment of being in the same flow can be an extremely satisfying and bonding moment which doesn’t need to be explained.
Unfortunately the permanent access to information technology and hunt for updates make it harder and harder to get into a flow and easier to get distracted. It needs ritualistic actions for many people to pause the permanent stream of distractions.
Activities which can get me into the flow:
dancing
grief
sport
playing
taking photos
exhaustion
being in nature
meditation
train rides
right music at the right time
enjoying art