Oncewing

The good ol’ flow state,

Where time, thought, and self awareness yield to the powerful spirit of the moment where creativity, divinity, beauty and effortless improvement is found.

In the flow state, something subverts time.

That something is often mistaken for an untapped reserve deep within us, but its not something within. Its more appropriately something that swoops down and carries us seemingly out of no where until suddenly, or slowly we are dropped back off into our usual self.

We all experience glimpses of it through life, when we are wholly captivated by something and an hour can pass by faster than a minute counting the seconds in a boring classroom.

So how do we enter it an what leads to it departing from us?

Entering it is easier than most would believe, you just need to let yourself become one with the task at hand, ignoring expectations, judgements, and thoughts that take you away from the moment. An easy way to do that is to consciously listen to the sound of the bird hitting the racquet, feel each micro movement in your fingers, toes, core, feel the ground and how you are gliding around the court, watch the feathers on the bird and not passively. During this if you see your thoughts drawing up outcomes, expectations, ideas etc you practice disregarding the thoughts and returning to the supreme moment - where everything happens. Mastering this will also prevent injury because you will be able to listen to your body instead of your mind and move presently and properly.

So everything is going well, you are performing effortlessly- you are in the flow state. A thought appears that says, this feels amazing, I am playing so well and effortless and right there you suddenly you miss an easy shot. A whole shift in consciousness happened and you are all of a sudden fighting to just get back in the rallies. So what happened?

Well, first your ego took credit in the form of a thought and second you believed that thought. By believing the thought you let it turn to emotion and felt gratified- that excitement took you out of the present. Continued at Oncewing.ca/blog