The flow state is now widely understood as a state experienced by athletes particularly during moments of intense focus. With extreme sports the flow state is experienced as an altered state of consciousness. By this I mean that the very nature of regular perception of time and space is altered. 

The flow state facilitates the necessary adjustments in performance without the delay experienced in ordinary waking states. The regular day to day thinking analytical mind would not be able to perform the necessary movements in the time required. Steven Kotler is well known for breaking down and reporting on the flow state experienced by extreme athletes and has written several best sellers including, “The Rise of Superman”.

One of the key ingredients of the flow state is that one finds oneself in exactly the right position in time and space that they need to be in, exactly when they need to be in it.

In other words, they are constantly exactly where they need to be. The body knows what it needs to do when it needs to do it. A bit like how the fingers know where to be when you are touch typing or when you are playing the piano or the guitar.

How do the principles of yoga relate to the flow state?

Anyone from an atheist or a pure materialist or a religious fundamentalist can all experience the flow state. It does not require any specific rituals, spiritual or religious practices or beliefs to achieve.   What is does require, for most humans is a transformation of the physiology, neural pathways, neurotransmitter production, nervous system, and breath patterns.

For extreme athletes this normally involves a minimum of 10000 hours of rigorous training. Through this dedicated and disciplined training process the athlete modifies any irregular unsupportive nervous system reactions and breath patterns as  the mind and body becomes more comfortable with higher levels of  physical stress. In time the nervous system learns to collaborate with the action taking place. The mind/body and physiology are all now in entrainment. An overall coherence or unity of mind and body and nervous system results so that just the right amounts of cortisol and dopamine are produced.

Through many hours of repetition, dedication, visualization and practice the physical anatomy including muscle tissues and fibers and strength, heart rate , breath patterns etc  all adjust and the required levels of stress hormones are released exactly in proportion the requirements of the particular physical endeavor.

The eight limbs of the yoga sutras provide a blueprint for the flow state. In yoga the physical effort is described as asana. The modification of the breath patterns is known as pranayama. The withdrawl from unnecessary distractions is known as pratayahara whilst the focus on the object is known as dharana. When our consciousness is entrained into a constant flow towards the experience this is known as dhyana and finally when we are totally absorbed in the flow this is known as samadhi. 

The yoga sutras describe the state of yoga as citta vritti nirodaha otherwise known as the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind. Every athlete experience this quieting of the mind chatter stage of the process.

Classical yoga teaches that this state of being known as citta vritti nirodaha is none other than our essence and or our natural state of being.  It is not a state of being that is conditional upon any outside forces or efforts. It is also referred to as moksha.

To arrive at the natural state described in yoga literature as the “liberated state” usually requires the clearing of the debris of limited, conditioned, programmed, habitual, automatic default state of being.

When you get triggered does your heart rate go up and your breath shorten. Or do you freeze up, get angry or melt down? If so, does your nervous system seem to be reacting in ways that feel programmed or pre-determined?

My brother gets triggered by rhubarb.  His body physically shudders at the sight of rhubarb. Many years at a private boarding school with rhubarb for desert night after night had a lasting effect on him.  The roots of our habitual mind travel deep into the psyche and our past experiences permeate and leave lasting imprints on the nervous system, breath patterns and our energetic body. Shallow chest breathing is not as soothing to the nervous system as belly breathing.

Moving into the flow state when the mind is scattered or our nervous system is on guard, scattered, agitated, restless or triggered in any way maybe out of reach or at the very least, will be problematic.   The key to the flow state is to settle the breath/ body and nervous system and then the mind can become intensely present and centered.  The key word here is “presence”.  

Presence is not a construct of the thinking mind. It Is not a thought. At its pure core It isn’t even something that can be observed by the thinking mind.  This is because the mind has merged into the experience of presence.  Awareness is presence. It can never not be present. Attention is withdrawn into the beingness. The narrative and chatter slows down and drifts into the background.

When we stop and pay attention to the mind, we will quickly realise that one of the main roles of the waking state of the mind seems to be to constantly assess, judge, categorize, name, and construct more thoughts, ideas and fantasies about the information flowing from the senses. Some of this mind activity may result in the sending of signals to the nervous system that amount to a pseudo mantra of,

“Something isn’t right about the environment I’m in”.

The conscious mind may not even be actively involved in this process.

 It may default to long held habits and past practices of identifying the adverse circumstances thus unconsciously validating the … “something not being right feeling” or even blame a specific event, circumstance of person.  Alternatively reach out to a habitual experience to ease or sooth this sense.

To be fully present is to be fully conscious. When we are fully present, consciousness shifts from a background contracted/hidden state of being to the foreground as an aware state of being. The state of being itself now shines through the power of awareness itself without attaching to an object of the senses for its reason to arise.

This can initially be experienced as a kind of witness state of mediation. In time the witness state of awareness becomes aware of the sense or feeling of agitation that appears as an experience itself. From this state of awareness, it soon becomes apparent that there are options/choices.  One option is to fuel or add additional narrative or commentary to the agitation with more focus or thoughts.  The other option/choice is to try and stop the agitation. Finally, the choice of allowing the feeling or sense of agitation to arise without suppressing or judging is observed.

The importance of the awareness cultivation practices of yoga cannot be underestimated. For instance, when we are triggered or experience a panic attack the default state of reacting is usually to identify with one outcome ie here we go again its happening again just like last time etc. As mentioned in the outset of this article the whole body/mind/nervous system and physiology are all wrapped up and entangled in the process. This is particularly emphasised in cases of complex trauma.

Just like a high performance athlete will spend over 10000 hours of training and practice to rise to the elite level it is unrealistic to believe that just be sitting in the witness state of being and observing our thoughts that we will retrain the nervous system, the breath and re build the dopamine adrenal response and re calibrate the subtle energy body.

The witness state can cross over to the absorption state which in yoga terminology is known as samadhi. From samadhi experiences the ancient sage patanjali In the yoga sutras states that we experience a kind of spiritualised insight. These are insights not obtainable from the ordinary everyday mode of thinking. It’s the kind of insights that lead to breakthroughs and “ Ah ha” moments aligned to our greater awakening to our full potential. The samadhi insights provide clarity to one’s unfoldment and this is known as viveka.

To fully retrain and re calibrate the human bio physiology will require much more than the witness or absorption states of being. After many years of kundalini energy activation practices including pranayama, mantra and kriya the original template of the bio neurophysiology is re activated.

Like athletes who retrain the mind and body with many years of dedication and effort for most humans many years of discipline the samadhi states of absorption are required to begin to open the door to the intrinsic flow of shakti. The divine force of shakti then takes over the regulation of the flow state.  

The default labelling/mind narrative about the external world and the program and the habits that accompany that state of mind is permanently shut down and goes offline. Initially this will be only temporally, however as it is cultivated it becomes more accessible for longer periods.

Eventually the flow experience itself becomes full of presence. The objectifying mind narrative requiring a constant explanation and description of why everything is separate and why it is normal not to experience anything other than a separate sense of self no longer exists for you. What remains is a constant sense of an underlying unifying force.

Dharana is the term to describe the focusing of our attention to an object of the senses. When we maintain the focus of our attention on the object eventually the act of perceiving flows towards the object in an uninterrupted stream. This stage is known as dhyana. Attention become a constant flow. At this stage the whole experience is absorbed into awareness and vice versa.  

In classical tantric teachings of the trika lineage awareness is described metaphorically as the ground of being. It’s an elusive concept a bit like trying to stand on our own shoulders or stand on our shadow. It’s not possible to grasp it or observe it.

Who we traditionally think of as the observer or reality is itself a fluid changing construct like our personality and our beliefs and habits etc. When we stop and check in, we find that we traditionally define ourselves by our personality and beliefs which all change and evolve throughout our lifetime so they cannot be regarded as the ground of our being or our essence nature. 

What is it about us that doesn’t change? What is it about us that is permanent? What is our source? In some traditions this answer could include terms such as soul or spirit or the god within.

Some will accept the inner soul or spirit as an act of faith or belief. But for others the answer needs to be verified by personal experience?   There are many names for what the moment of true recognition of this experience is including, sat nam, sat chit ananda, camaktara, bliss and the descent of grace.

When this recognition takes place, we realise that what we describe as our personality, beliefs, and body types etc is a story. It doesn’t define us, and it doesn’t limit us. It’s like a movie on the screen. The screen itself isn’t affected by the moving images on it. If we then imagine that the screen has no boundaries and no beginning or end, then we are on the path to realising the nature or reality and awareness.  

 This is not to deny the body and the mind. The body mind is the sacred temple for these realisations to be achieved and experienced. It is through the body/mind and its layers from the gross to the finest most subtle layers that we penetrate the nature of reality. It cannot be any other way. Disembodied consciousness is known today as AI.

The sacred and the divine are none other than the ground of our being. The ground of our being is the innate, unbound, and untapped reservoir of fully embodied consciousness.  To be fully embodied is to be immersed in the power of the goddess shakti. This state is beyond the samadhi/absorption and is known as samavesha

Another word for this is love.

Initially this is a very elusive concept for anyone on the path of awakening/ realisation. At some stage what was once elusive becomes the most obvious and realistic form of personal experience. In many traditions arriving at this recognition is regarded as the most important turning point in the path of realising the nature of consciousness.

The perceiver (consciousness) can never be the perceived. The knower can never be the known. It can never actually be studied or objectified. It can never be put under the microscope and measured or tested. It can never be acted upon or shifted as a physical object. Science fiction often suggests that one day we will be able to download our consciousness etc. This to me is a complete fallacy and is equivalent to saying that somehow man can download God or the creator and shift it about as an object of our will. These science fiction theories treat consciousness as some sort of a byproduct of the thinking mind that can be isolated and manipulated.

Consciousness is not static or empty nothingness.  It includes certain qualities/properties including the ability to contract or expand and to conceal itself or absorb itself. For instance, if you were to kick your big toe, your awareness and attention would be focused on your big toe for a few moments.

During these moments  awareness of other things going on in your body is temporally concealed or contracted from the field of awareness.

On this basis the flow state is none other than the expanded state of consciousness. It is not a new or altered state of consciousness.  Consciousness was always there it was just contracted or concealed.

Awareness is always the subject and can never be an object.  Thoughts, emotions, and feelings are treated like any other objects of attention that arise in awareness are maintained for a while and then dissolve back into awareness. 

Expanded awareness is the nature of the flow state and its basis is simply the totality of the experience. It occurs when the mind has withdrawn from the focus on the objects of awareness whether it is a thought or a specific object and is resting in the pure experience free of the accompanying narrative.

The regular default state of being involves giving our attention to the story that arises ie the narrative about what the objects of our attention(awareness) are doing. That’s why sporting activities are so captivating and alluring.  They totally absorb our attention into an externalized event, object, or thing.  How do we turn our attention from the objects of attention to what it is that is aware of anything but itself isn’t an object?

We could say that this awareness/ experience is not our personality. In fact, it isn’t even our story or our ego. It isn’t subject to the past and not limited by projections into the future. In modern terms its closer to the concept of the “Field”.  Fractal geometry and mandala patterns also provide an insight into this concept. Initially these concepts may seem unfathomable. How can the real essence of who I am not be something I can observe touch and feel? We are conditioned from a very young age to identify with our minds and bodies. This conditioning programming is so pervasive that it imprints itself onto our breath our thoughts and our movements. 

This is why there are 2 key starting points from a yogic perspective to start the journey of relaxing the grip of the mind body identification. The first is breathwork (pranayama) and the second is what I term as prana awareness practices. Prana (life force) activation and prana awareness require an inward gaze.  Sensing, feeling, and experiencing prana within the body provides a focus of our attention from the outer world.

When these practices are combined with mantra and chanting the combined effect becomes a very powerful tool for diving deeper into the state of experience free from the habitual mind narrative/chatter. The accompanying experience will be your truth.

In Kundalini yoga the term Sat naam is used as a greeting and a blessing as well as a mantra. “Sat” means pure existence and the term Sat Naam is often quoted as representing the term for “Truth is my name”.  Existence is your truth.

It is not technically correct in a yoga sense to call these spiritual practices. When one temporally drops out of the default state of identifying with the mind/body into a moment of pure experience this could have the quality of a spiritual experience for some. However, this is not the goal of the practice and is regarded as a byproduct. The nervous system will be the main beneficiary.   Namaste, Sat Nam, from Inji Dave