Have you ever been so caught up in something that you looked up and hours had gone by without you noticing? No clock, no worry, no chatter in your head. Just you and the thing you were doing, and a quiet sort of joy running underneath it.
That state has a name. It is called the Flow, and some people call it being in the Zone. It is one of the most natural doorways to spirit we have, and almost everyone has walked through it without realising what it was.
The Flow is that state where you are so involved in what you are doing that nothing else seems to matter. Your mind is so focused that there is no room left for the monkey mind to interrupt you.
Monkey mind is my name for all that random mental noise, the doubts, the second guessing, the endless commentary that runs in the background of most of our waking lives. In the Flow, it goes quiet. The worries fade. The problems that felt so heavy an hour ago are still there, but they have stopped shouting.
It is a state of real productivity and creativity, and it feels timeless, selfless and effortless.
Timeless, because the clock disappears and hours pass like minutes. Selfless, because you stop watching yourself, you stop managing how you look and what you should be doing next. Effortless, because you are no longer pushing, you are being carried.
This is one of the states where we touch the highest kind of bliss a human being can feel.
And here is the part most people miss.
You have already been there.
Maybe it was painting, or playing music, or gardening with your hands in the soil. Maybe it was deep in a piece of work, or surfing, or cooking, or lost in a good conversation that went somewhere real. Maybe it was holding a sleeping child and forgetting there was anywhere else to be.
Whatever it was, your soul knows that feeling, and your body remembers it.
So let me give you something to practise this week.
Think back to a time you were truly in the Zone. Sit with it for a moment and let yourself remember not just what you were doing, but how it felt in your body. Write it down if that helps. Then close your eyes and relive it, until you can feel that timeless, effortless quality again in the present moment.
That feeling is the doorway.
Now take it with you. Bring that same quality of attention into whatever is in front of you today, however ordinary.
The washing up.
The drive to work.
The email you have been putting off.
When you bring that settled, heightened awareness into your now, the now becomes the Zone. The more you practise this, the more it becomes your normal way of moving through a day, rather than a rare accident that happens to you now and then.
Chop wood, carry water. The ordinary task, done with your whole presence, is the practice.
And the quieter the monkey mind gets, the more you will notice something else slipping in alongside the Flow. Your intuition. Your guidance. The gentle nudges that only ever reach you when the noise dies down.
The Flow is more than a pleasant feeling. It is you, fully here, with the channel open.
So this week, catch yourself in the Zone, and then practise bringing it everywhere else.
When was the last time you completely lost track of time doing something you loved?
Come and tell me in the Perth Spiritual Learning group on Facebook, I would love to know what puts you there.