Gracie Kay Close - What is Flow?

In my reading of Chapter 6 of the American Camino: Walking as a Spiritual Practice on the Appalachian Trail, flow was best summarized as a religious experience of total solitude. As I was reading, I was trying to think of what flow would look like in my experience and every example honestly made me more confused. That was until the example of  the students in Scotland that had the MP3 players. These students had a small connection to the biggest disrtupter of peace, social media, and it disrupted a lot of the experience on the trip. Music has always been an escape for me, as it is for most, but it triggers parts of experience that take me out of the moment with that of my surroundings. This helped me understand that flow was not just about connection, but a more out of body experience that can truly only be experienced with that of the natural world. A quote from the text that best describes this, “...the happening of flow is an action of no-mindness.”. It is not meant to be a conscious experience. In my time so far, there is only one place that I have felt this and that is on the water. I am no swimmer but something about being near a body of water whether that is on the beach, sitting near a pond, or paddle boarding on a lake, I always feel I reach a level of flow that was discussed in the text.

I am not prone to going out in nature. I do not like bugs, I sunburn extremely easily, and I have never been prone to going out in it. That being said, for some reason being near water takes this feeling away from me. To give a more particular example, I have lived near the beach my entire life so it is easy for me to drive out and sit on the sand whenever I want. One of my favorite things to do is watch the sunrise or sunset. In doing this I do not listen to music, I make sure my phone is away and I just watch. From there my thoughts start going. I first think about how amazing it is that I am alive watching this, and I can come do this whenever I want. Then my mind wanders away from the beach and I will start to think about my family or any stress I have going on. Usually around then I decide I should pray. God has always been present in my life, and in certain situations I feel closer to god. Being out on the sand with nobody else, being on literally the edge of a vast expanse of territory that is so unknown, is the only time my mind really is not having thoughts. Flow was described in a sense of unconscious consciousness. Where the mind has an ability to truly connect to the surroundings it is in. I have always admired God’s creation, and nature is a great way for me to connect with him when I feel strayed. Being in flow, is also described as a religious experience. Being in nature, especially by the water, is when I feel the most connected and I enter the state of flow where I feel as if God is right beside me. 

In the book as I had mentioned earlier, the highland story was very intriguing to me in reference to flow. With the presence of social media or just devices in general one cannot enter that state of flow. Typically when I am on the beach, music is present in the scene. I never thought of it interrupting that state of flow, but it redirects the mind to a more civilized, modern way of thinking. Listening to music can be its own state of flow but as I read in the text, this is a disruption to the true flow that could be achieved. Being immersed in an environment such as the Appalachian trail, or simply sitting out on the water there is a niche beauty to the sounds that make up the environment. Sometimes there is human interference, but when truly listening to those sounds, it truly is a religious experience. When trying to understand this concept of flow, self-emptying was brought up as well. I best understood the idea of leaving yourself behind, almost like the village metaphor described throughout the chapter. The state of flow is not meant for your current consciousness but the one you are meant to find.



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