In the Zone

‘It’s a very strange feeling. It’s as if time slows down and you see everything so clearly. You just know that everything about your technique is spot on. It just feels so effortless; it’s almost as if you’re floating across the track. Every muscle, every fibre, every sinew is working in complete harmony and the end product is that you run fantastically well.’ 

- Extract from ‘Mind Games,’ Grout and Perrin, 2006.

Being in the zone, also considered flow. Is a mental state in which you are fully immersed in a state of complete absorption in what one does.

This is how I felt tonight in yoga. I have had this feeling before in weightlifting where I was completely focused and in the moment. A state where all thoughts stop. Where movement flows. A state of complete peace. 

Tonight I started moving very slowly and carefully expecting the usual discomfort I have felt in most of my yoga classes recently. But it wasn't there. I was so focused on feeling every movement and making sure I did it right when finally realizing I didn't feel anything at all. I tried not to get to excited or push too far. When I wanted to go further I sat with it. Then I tested it. Inch by inch and moving slower then slow. At other moments I sat with the wanting to go further and gathered acceptance in staying just where I was. 

We get there by not trying to get there.

Today I know that I cannot control the ocean tides.  I can only go with the flow. . . . When I struggle and try to organize the Atlantic to my specifications, I sink.  If I flail and thrash and growl and grumble, I go under.  But, if I let go and float, I am borne aloft."

-  Marie Stilkind