Flow. What does that mean? Does it make you think of surfers in Hawaii, dreaming of tackling monster waves, but only after their ancient master and mentor of the beach ensures the young pupil is ready?
All cheesiness aside, it certainly does for me, and apparently, it does for the team behind the Flow Genome Project as well (http://www.flowgenomeproject.co/).
The premise behind this concept, is that drastic, dangerous activities produce a chemical response in the brain that produces a, "flow state", within human beings. Or put another way, activities such as surfing, rock climbing, sky-diving, and other similar adrenaline sports, require such immediate and absolute focus, that heightened senses of time and creativity are produced. These experiences seem to collectively cultivate better health over the long run.
Stop and think about the last time you encountered something in your life that did this. Anything come to mind? Unless you're a regular at one of the extreme sports I mentioned above, the answer is probably, "...Hold on, give me an extra minute, I'm sure I can think of something." And for the record, my response is no different. Sad, really, and it leads me to my next thought.
If we step back in time to the Paleolithic era, and visit our ancestors and observe their way of life, I would think (and I'm not the first to say this), that explaining the concept of the Flow Genome Project to them would be entirely unnecessary. Think about it. Hiking up steep mountains, fending off huge cats with fangs then quickly butchering them before some other predator comes lurking around. All in the name of simply LIVING. Just to survive, these people most likely encountered extreme, flow-state, chemical-producing instances whether they liked it or not!
Needless to say, this is no longer a requirement for the modern day human (unless you count fending off the hoards of vegans at your local Whole Foods). And to be honest, this is truly an eye-opener for me that provides yet another aspect to the Paleo lifestyle that just makes sense. A further evolution of thought in my mind... another piece of the puzzle.
So, I implore you to think about this post. Whatever activity seems appealing to you, encourage yourself to get out of your comfort zone and get a dose of the good stuff, the stuff that scares you and yes, could possibly kill you. For me, this entails planning my first sky-diving session in a few months, and I couldn't be more excited about it!
As always, feedback is appreciated - And I would love to hear what activities you will plan to attempt this year in pursuit of optimum health and in the name of finding more "flow".
- Jay
Currently reading: Seat of the Soul, Ender's Game
Currently listening to: Leprous
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