This morning, my son popped into my bedroom shortly after he woke up for a morning snuggle. Typically, he will spend these morning cuddles talking incessantly about what level he’s on in his video game or what happened to a character he’s reading about or how his yet-to-be invented deep dive submarine will be superior to James Cameron’s.
But today, he was especially bubbly, and told me how much he couldn’t wait to get to Seattle Art Museum camp, where he and a bunch of kids are getting to create sculptures, comic books, relief prints and pictographs over the course of a week. To use his words, Seattle Art Museum camp is “the best camp in the whole world.”
“Do you know how sometimes you can be doing something and it seems like only twenty minutes has gone by but then it turns out it’s been a whole day?” he asked me.
Yes, I did, I told him.
He was talking about flow — that state of being so immersed in doing something so in alignment with who you are at your very core that you lose track of time. It’s one of my favorite states of being because I know when I’m in flow I’m on the right path.
I used to think that when I experienced this state of flow — for me sometimes it can be when I’m writing a book or developing a new project — it meant that the work I was creating was going to be hugely successful or have some tangible value assigned to it. Like that book would be a bestseller or the project would be the thing that takes my business to the next level. I was equating “inspired action and creation” with real-world achievement.
But that’s not it at all.
Flow isn’t about about the outcome — it’s about a state of being.
It’s letting who you are on a deep-down soul level — with my coaching clients I use the term “essential self” — express itself and come out to play.
Today I experience flow as a gift. Today, when flow happens in my work or in my life, I focus on recognizing it, appreciating it, and experiencing it. After all…isn’t that what living in the moment is all about?
How do you experience flow in your life?