Christian Callaghan - The Flow in my Life

 Christian Callaghan - The Flow in my Life

The question I decided to expand upon within this blog was “How does flow facilitate an exegesis and rescripting of your life?” When I first read over the chapter regarding flow in the American Camino, I was astounded to find that there was an actual term for the emotions that I had been feeling when I was feeling both connected to the earth and myself in an almost paracausal way. The concept of flow as described in the chapter through Buber is characterized by “the encounter as “never accomplished by me” but “never accomplished without me” (Chapter 6, p.260). The reason I bring up this definition so early in the blog is because it ties in extremely well with the question that I have decided to answer in terms of how flow intertwines with my life. In further preparation I have also decided to split the question into two parts one of which being how does flow facilitate an advance interpretation to how I have lived my life until now/how has it influenced the decision I have made and how has flow rescripted my life? Through these questions I will show how flow has played a critical role in my life and how it will continue to play a role going into the future. 

The first question is how does flow facilitate an advance interpretation to how I have lived my life until now/how has it influenced the decisions I have made? Flow, as I discussed earlier, cannot be achieved by me and cannot be accomplished without me (Chapter 6, p.260). What this means for me is that flow is completely randomized in terms of when it occurs. It could happen as I am writing in a blog or within a day or maybe it won’t happen for a couple days. Flow is extremely interpersonal but more often than not it is randomized for the majority of people who experience it. With that being said the concept of flow has still changed the trajectory of my life regardless of the fact that I cannot control it. One great anecdote of this exact concept is in high school when I used to wrestle. Before the match a world of thoughts would be going through my head and I was never able to focus on one thing: the match in front of me. However, as soon as I stepped on the mat everything slowed to a pace that was foreign to me in almost every other aspect of my life. I could feel the compression of the mat under my shoes, my opponent didn’t have a face but was only an avatar that needed to be beat in order for me to advance and my ears filtered out all sounds but the tranquil voice of my coach telling me to keep my head on straight. Many other athletes also experience this phenomenon and when examined by journals “athletes use the flow state to accomplish speed, strength, or reaction feats that would typically be extremely difficult to perform consistently” (Insight 2024). The best way that I can describe how I experienced the state of flow was as if someone put horse blinders on me and told me to run in the direction I was looking. No other distractions, not other objectives but to reach the desired outcome of the task at hand. Like I was mentioning in the beginning of this segment “flow rarely happened and involves [a] merging of action and awareness” (chapter 6, p.240). Its unpredictability is actually what makes the flow state so incredibly powerful in my life. If I could flip the switch on and automatically be in a sense of consciousness that allows me to complete tasks with a high level of intelligence and strength I would be Bradly Cooper from limitless. Although he’s a great actor and a good looking fella I don’t want a life where I have no regard for human connection because all I see is avatars and hear the sounds which are necessary. Life is all about the experience of not knowing what is going to happen next and that you may be good at the task coming up or you may run into something you’ve never encountered before. Regardless, that is why flow is so vital that it’s unpredictable because it still makes us humans only now we can feel a bit more like Doctor Strange. Right… so enough rambling about my favorite superheroes and movies, let's get back to how its unpredictability has altered my life. I feel that personal anecdotes are the best way to identify how flow has made an impact in my life and the next example I have is when I was on a run right by CNU close to the lion bridge. It was around 5:30 so the sun was just coming down but I could still feel the warmth on my skin, the fall breeze was whispering in my ears and rock I was sitting on was rough but I payed no regard to it as my eyes were captivated by the orange + red star that we orbit around. This is another moment I realized I was in flow. I’ll talk a bit about this later but Professor Redick discusses heavily about when he was in nature and felt connected to the earth through the environment and sounds around him. While I was sitting on the rock I was able to focus and reflect on the concepts of my past and  what I want for the future. This moment allowed me to recognize that I want to continue to take my religion in the future and continue to live my life in a state where I will always be able to take time to enjoy what is in front of me. Flow has altered my future for the better and I wouldn’t be who I am today without it. 

The second part of the question is how has flow rescripted my life? When I think of rescripted my mind goes to how has my life been directly changed by a state of flow and how will that change continue to affect me? When examining my past to see where flow has affected me the biggest results that I can find are when flow happened while I was in nature. Much like Professor Redick experienced while he was in nature “[a]nd as these thoughts coursed, I was actually aware of my muscles, heart, breath the feel of the trial beneath my feet” (chapter 6, p.239-240). This mind-body connection when it comes to nature is the most apparent when it comes to flow in my life. Simply being in nature and listening to the chirp of the birds and watching the sway of the trees allow me to reach a state of flow and reflect upon the concept that has rescripted my life to the greatest degree being God. When I have felt the most connected to God I have been in a state of flow. I was able to be purely connected to my thoughts and I was able to be more easily guided by my religion and faith. Professor Redick also had another line in the book that I feel related to this conversation well: “asceticism has its joys- the job of flow. And flow can serve to reinforce the symbols and values with which its frames are associated” (chapter. p.239-240). It took me a while to fully understand this quote but what I came to realize was that asceticism can often be about limiting external pleasure but through that process a state of flow can be found within the person with those limitations. This moment right here is related almost directly with Christianity in which the bible says “whoever loves pleasure will become poor; whoever loves wine and olive oil will never be rich” (Proverbs 21:17). The bible speaks to the fact that external pleasures are a result of our lust for sinful activities but that if we avoid these ideas we can receive eternal life in heaven. Flow is not eternal life, but much like the bible talks about once the mind focuses on letting go of the eternal pleasures it can reach that state of consciousness where the mind and body become one with the world.