Finding Flow in your running and your 10,000 hours
We hear a lot of new-agey talk about getting into flow states these days. A flow state is when you’re ‘in the zone’ when everything just flows effortlessly and perfectly from you without thought or direction. In sports it is when all the shots find the net almost as if by magic. In work situations it is when the answers come to you without thought and the puzzle pieces fall into place of their own accord.
In a flow state people report a feeling of confidence and well-being and peaceful bliss. They report that time either slows down or that it speeds up to facilitate the flow state. They know what to do without thinking about it, like an inner voice is making the decisions, the right decisions, seamlessly, every step of the way.
The flow state doesn’t happen magically. It can only be accessed through hours of practice. Not practice of the flow state directly, but practice of your craft or your sport. The day-in-day-out observance of and mastery of the actions builds the foundation for flow.
Malcom Gladwell famously proposed that to be great at anything you need to be born with some underlying talent, but then you need to put in 10,000 hours of practice to become great at the craft. These are the outliers.
It is a classic tale attributed to many successful people. Someone is referred to an ‘overnight success’ but we don’t see the hours, and days and years of struggle that put that actor, that businessman or that scholar in the position to be an overnight success.
When you have done the work, when you have mastered the actions of your craft then you have enabled your system to drop into a flow state. This is the physical preparation for flow. You have trained and practiced to the point where your body knows what to do.
I propose that the Zone 2 and long easy form runs are the physical practices that enables flow. This repetition creates a physical memory that you draw from without thought. These training runs are your 10,000 hours of practice.
The mental aspect of flow is a point where during the action the chemistry and physical state of your brain changes to embrace the flow. This is experienced as disassociation or a loss of self in the action. Those who have been in a flow state will often say “I was lost in the moment”.
The ‘I’ is your big brain, your decision making brain. The big brain is like a parent who checks your homework. Your body-mind connection cannot drop into flow when you have a parent checking decisions over your shoulder. The intellect steps back in a flow state.
This can be practiced as well. There is a practice of the mind that cultivates the releasing of control. It is called meditation. Meditation practice will put your brain in the habit of letting go of self.
As runners we talk about the ‘runner’s high’. I propose that the runner’s high is a flow state. It is a state where the continuous practice of the craft of running intersects with the loss of self in meditation. It becomes mindless, effortless and perfect. A wave of self satisfaction and physical bliss washes through you.
You’ll notice that these moments of runner’s high happen to you in the peaceful moments. On the trails in the warm sun. By the ocean with the wave lapping the beach easily. It is a meditative state of flow.
The beauty of flow is that it can be cultivated through mental and physical practice. You can learn to find flow in your craft.
As you cultivate the practices of flow states it becomes easier to access that power. You can turn them on when you need them and carry them forward throughout your day and your life.
You become a mystic being – a flow warrior.