This morning, as
I slowed down my speed on the treadmill from running to a walking pace, I
looked at the screen in front of me. One hour, eight minutes. For a moment, I
thought to myself—what was I doing that whole time?
And then I realized what I was doing. I was in a state of flow.
According to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, flow
is a state of awe and bliss, which results from a person being intensely
involved in what they are doing. Csikszentmihalyi, in his video “On Flow”,
describes a musician in the state of flow: ecstatic to a point where he felt as
if he almost didn’t exist. He claims that flow comes from something that requires
a high level of challenge but also a high level of skill. Well, running is very challenging for
me, but I also am a skilled runner. I’ve known I was a talented runner since I
was in elementary school and won the 50 yard dash during Field Day (our
school-wide “Olympic” competition), since I was a 6th grader in
middle school and the coach put me on the 8th grade track team,
since I was a member of my high school track team’s 4x200 relay team that set
the school record.
I do have a lot of skill when it comes to sprinting, but running longer distances is much more of a challenge for me, especially after breaking my leg and foot within a year of each other. Putting these different ideas together, I determined that what I had always considered to be a “runner’s high” was really a state of flow. I was doing something that was challenging, but I was qualified to take on. During my run, I had lost track of time and had no idea what I was thinking about, characteristics of someone in a state of flow. All I knew was that when I began my run, in my head I was singing along to my music but by the end my head was no where—not paying attention to my music, not paying attention to how hot I was, and not paying attention to the time. Rather, I was fully absorbed in my run. I was so focused on my run that I did not even realize just how focused I was, but as I began to cool down, I realized this run was the perfect example of flow.
Running, yes. Exhausted,
no. Sweating, yes. Thinking, no.
 |
| My teammate and I in the 4x200 race when we set the school record |
I do have a lot of skill when it comes to sprinting, but running longer distances is much more of a challenge for me, especially after breaking my leg and foot within a year of each other. Putting these different ideas together, I determined that what I had always considered to be a “runner’s high” was really a state of flow. I was doing something that was challenging, but I was qualified to take on. During my run, I had lost track of time and had no idea what I was thinking about, characteristics of someone in a state of flow. All I knew was that when I began my run, in my head I was singing along to my music but by the end my head was no where—not paying attention to my music, not paying attention to how hot I was, and not paying attention to the time. Rather, I was fully absorbed in my run. I was so focused on my run that I did not even realize just how focused I was, but as I began to cool down, I realized this run was the perfect example of flow.
