Flow State is something that I have experienced only a handful of times in my life so far.
But damn is it an amazing feeling!
It's a hard thing to put in to words and explain to be honest, but I'll do my best...
For me flow state is a kind of meditative out of body experience.
Where you find a zone of pure presence, pure focus and perfect physical and mental connection.
It's honestly an incredible feeling, where you feel like you're the ultimate version of yourself or delivering the maximum performance that you possibly can in that moment.
The times when I have entered this flow state is in performing karate katas, during ashtanga yoga practice, acroyoga performances and sometimes whilst playing football as well.
As you can see in my case it is all movement and sports where this occurs.
I believe subconscious competence is the foundation for flow state.
In all of the above examples I have/had achieved a high level of subconscious competence in the specific katas, movements, flows or sport mentioned.
I believe this competence is necessary because if you have to consciously think about the movements you won't find the mental focus and meditative state to achieve flow.
The other thing that is necessary for me is memorisation, having a set sequence to memorise and repeat
That's why I find it through ashtanga yoga, or karate katas, and specifically acro performances, not general acroyoga.
Something about having to memorise and repeat a sequence or movement, allows my brain to more easily enter that state.
That's not to say it isn't possible in other situations too, such as football, it's just in my experience easier with memorisations.
So how is this relevant to acroyoga?
Well, I think achieving flow state is really the pinnacle of any physical practice.
When you're so in sync and in tune with your body and mind and what you're doing it's a beautiful resulting harmony to find that flow.
The special thing about acroyoga and flow state is it's dependant on not 1, but 2 people performing at the highest level together to achieve that state.
I think this adds an extra dimension of difficulty and challenge for achieving flow state in acroyoga.
But that makes it all the more sweeter!
The more elusive that prize the more worthy a goal and chase it is.
Of course not everyone wants to put in the time and work to achieve that goal, and that's okay.
But for those of you who do, I encourage you to start by understanding whether you have achieved that subconscious competence in the simple basic and foundational movements and washing machines.
You can check where you're focus or thinking is at whilst performing these moves, or try talking at the same time.
This is a good start to assess if you have that down, then if you want to know more or go further than that.
Cheers,
Cas
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