And @tmbchr: Check out the animated gif from the page fujako links to. Pretty awesome.

Yeah, I really like this subject. I’m not sure how to continually maintain these states though, but I’m experimenting with techniques to do so lately.

Here is a summary/review of the theory in M.C.’s book. For the details on practical aspects you’ll need the book itself.

It’s our natural, genuine state of being, if only we can stop ourselves from shying away from it.

That’s the one thing books can’t do for us

Key elements include recognizing challenges in a process and matching them with current skill levels; projecting future goals and obtaining feedback on the development towards that goal; creating a set and setting conducive to concentration and creativity; minimizing boredom and anxiety.

This sounds exactly like moving forward without obstacles to me, just on a purely mental level. My Parkour piece is a metaphoric way of exploring the same thing as Mihalyi’s “flow”. Training in a discipline like Parkour can help to create the mental conditions necessary for realizing the experience of “flow” that Mihalyi discusses, at least in the way that you describe it here:

a self that creates its own meaning through process rather than result, synchronicity rather than competition, acceptance rather than judgement, and action rather than reaction.

This is exactly what I’m getting at with my Parkour article. Mastery of the mind by way of mastery of the body. I’m not a practitioner of Parkour, I’m just using it metaphorically to paint a picture of this exact same state of mind. I don’t see how this quote from my piece could describe anything other than Mihalyi’s idea of “flow”:

Parkour teachers the practitioner how to stay in control, even when they make a mistake. It’s that same idea of committing fully to the experience, and placing the emphasis on maintaining momentum irregardless of what happens along the way.

It’s “acceptance rather than judgement, and action rather than reaction”, and it’s the continuance of forward momentum in the face of obstacles. Moving without obstacles not because there are no obstacles, but because one’s manner of movement allows for all obstacles. It’s our natural, genuine state of being, if only we can stop ourselves from shying away from it.

Key elements include recognizing challenges in a process and matching them with current skill levels; projecting future goals and obtaining feedback on the development towards that goal; creating a set and setting conducive to concentration and creativity; minimizing boredom and anxiety.

The great thing about Mihalyi’s theory is that it addresses the human capacity for happiness from a supremely practical standpoint. This way it remains compatible with any system, scientific or not. It is scientifically derived (rigorously so) yet it just so happens to mesh elegantly with Eastern scientific thought and even magick. Flow is all about body-mind-environment harmony/transcendence, zen awareness, and metaprogramming!

What’s more, the model applies on all scales and all levels, from knitting a sweater to raising a family to seeking “enlightenment”.

I’ve researched the value of flow-based interaction in the context of computer-based music composition for my graduate studies and experienced its value first hand. I believe this stuff should be taught in school. It seems to be a great meme for self-reliant self-mastery in a world desperately in need of meaning. Mihalyi’s speaks of the need for an “autotelic self”, which is a self that creates its own meaning through process rather than result, synchronicity rather than competition, acceptance rather than judgement, and action rather than reaction. Warrior bard!

Seems *ALMOST* as if…

It’s a map of flow, not of infrastructure.

Seems as if they could be talking about the iChing there…

http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/200...2/26/mapping-infrastructure-and-flow/

It’s a map of flow, not of infrastructure. It reveals infrastructure - the location of airports, the preferred air routes followed - because they appear as bright spots, places where lots of flow originates. A map of infrastructure - a map of potentials - shows every airport as co-equal; a map of flow shows you which airports are heavily used, which are pivotal nodes in a network. If you’re an executive at a fast food company, an infrastructure map of highways is moderately helpful - it’s obviously wise to place your stores in places where drivers could theoretically reach them, rather than in the middle of a desert. (No one told Pacific Bell this, obviously, before they erected the legendary Mojave Phone Booth.) But a map of flow is what you really need, showing where drivers are likely to go, and where they’re likely to come purchase your grease-laden wares.

Yeah, I really like this subject. I’m not sure how to continually maintain these states though, but I’m experimenting with techniques to do so lately. Diet and input/output I think has a lot to do with it, for starters.

Ideally, I would just like to stop not being in the zone, you know?