Flow

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Did you know that your thoughts affect us physically? If you mind tells your body that you’re tired, your body accepts the fact. However if your mind is intensely engaged in an activity, your body will continue indefinitely. This is what Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (chick-SENT-me-high-ee) calls flow.

In his work, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Csíkszentmihályi writes that people are most happy when they are in a state of flow— a state of concentration or complete absorption with the activity they are involved in. It’s often called being in the zone or in the groove. In the flow state a person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing. We all have the feeling at times when we are fully absorbed and can ignore concerns such as time and food. In an interview with Wired magazine, Csíkszentmihályi described flow as "being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one.”

Flow happens when one has an optimal experience. Flow and religion have been connected from earliest times. When we have a profound spiritual experience of fullness, we experience flow. Our religious activities are designed to connect us with God. When we worship God with all our heart with all our soul and with all our mind, we are connected to God. When we connect to God, we experience spiritual flow.

Let’s experience flow with God this week as we meditate on his Word and fellowship with him in prayer.

"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. Matthew 22:36-38