That Zone Feeling

Have you ever been in the zone? More importantly -- do you know how to get in the zone on command?

Cosmic Feeling

Being “in the zone” means you'll experience a high, fully immersive in-the-moment, and...sort of cosmic feeling. Time disappears. You disappear. Sounds fade. Your third eye opens and you feel connected to everything. Suddenly, the  game is over and you won't know where the time went. Or you arrive at home and can't believe you made it safely? Were you really driving?

This sort of tunnel-vision phenomenon is exactly what every elite athlete, dancer, trader, gamer or other performer hopes to experience for the big game. Or for every game or performance for that matter.

Magical State

When you ask athletes or others who have experienced the zone, they often describe it as an uber-focused, magical state somewhere between the spiritual and the mental. Here in the zone, anything is possible.

How do You Get There

When we reach flow state, we are highly productive, creative, and extraordinary selves. So, how can you get there?

Ask a world champion how he or she knows he or she was in the zone and they might shrug their shoulders and say: "I just know.”

But how does that help the rest of us! Don't you want to know what the zone actually feels like —and how to get there on command?

The Zone experience is subjective, and often too elusive to articulate. But the recurring theme is clear; from runner’s high to third eye, we feel powerful and purposeful. These athletes and scientists try to translate the feeling:

 

Slow Motion

In his autobiography, Second Wind

Bill Russell of the Boston Celtics wrote:

“It was almost as if we were playing in slow motion. During those spells I could almost sense how the next play would develop and where the next shot would be taken.”

The Zone is Your Superpower

Christopher Bergland, world-class endurance triathlete said:

“I would visualize the jolt of pain entering my body through the soles of my feet was energy coming from the core of the earth. My feet became a conduit that allowed my body to tap into an infinite energy source that propelled me forward like I was plugged into a nuclear reactor.”

Bergland was in the zone when he broke a Guinness World Record running 153.76 miles on a treadmill in 24 hours.

Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls “the zone” or “flow” — as  a state of heightened focus and blissful immersion. 

“There’s this focus that, once it becomes intense, leads to a sense of ecstasy, a sense of clarity: you know exactly what you want to do from one moment to the other... Sense of time disappears. You forget yourself. You feel part of something larger.”

 

Christopher Bergman also says: “It is a state of performing with zero friction, zero viscosity, and superconductivity — it is a state of absolute harmony and endless energy. Superfluidity is to fluid performance as orgasm is to coitus — it is an episodic and ecstatic climax that strikes you like a lightning bolt when you are in a state of Flow.”

 

Getting in the zone or flow state isn't impossible at all. It need not be elusive. With proper training and practice - it can be just like any other skill. It's a touchdown catch or a free throw!

 

by Laura M. Wilde