Flow sources

[mangosteen]

A somewhat random thought on a somewhat random day.

Driving back from errands earlier today, I really noticed that
I was in "flow state." That is, that pleasant feeling of engagement
with a task that is not too easy and not too hard. So I wonder, is
part of the US love affair with the car because it's a predictably
accessible source of flow state?

If one is an experienced driver, is the feeling of driving a source of
perfect contingency -- predictable outcomes from actions -- in a way
that's rarely experienced by adults, just due to reality of the
(first) world around us? Similarly, that first cup of coffee in the
morning... something (outwardly) simple, with a known effect coming
from a known cause.

To be clear, driving is only the illusion of perfect contingency...
things can go from pleasant to Very Bad in milliseconds... but most of
the time they don't.

Movement as an anchor in a complex world. Hm. More on that later.

Comments

[siderea]

!!! I like this hypothesis!

[flexagon]

The book Flow does call out driving as a pretty common and accessible source of the feeling.

(I wanted to look this up and back up my assertion for reals, but can't find our copy right now...)

[siderea]

It may, but that wasn't the interesting part of the OP. The intereting bit of mangosteen's observation was driving's interesting status as singularly available to most people. That hadn't dawned on me and I think it's a great catch.

[elusiveat]

Dunno. I've often had the impression that most drivers hate driving. But maybe it's more that very many drivers hate driving very much of the time and that this is an intermittent reenforcer situation.

My own experience bicycling doesn't tend so much toward flow as a kind of dissociation (or disassociation, maybe?); I tend toward the same kind of trance state that I go into in the shower, my mind wanders, and I tend not to be "present" in the way that I think of being in a genuine flow state (nor in the way that I really ought to be, given the stakes!).

[vatine]

I'd say that it (probably) counts as a flow state. It's certainly the case that the "no mind" in (various) martial arts has been called out as being one kind of flow state, and my recollection of the moments of when I've achieved that is, essentially, a black void, where I know what happened and I can describe it, but there's no actual memories of it happening, only of it having happened, if that makes any sense. Essentially a discontinuity in memory, with the events later back-filled, as it were.

[drwex]

I used to love driving; now I hate it. I'd rather passenger or teleport (still waiting on that one). Fortunately, Pygment likes to drive and can't read in a moving vehicle the way I can.

As to the original notion - this more or less encapsulates why I seem to do very poorly with stationary meditation but do very well with moving meditation practices. YMMV, as always.

[jducoeur]

I've often had the impression that most drivers hate driving.

I *suspect* you're incorrect. I doubt anyone's studied it formally, but my anecdotal impression is that more people enjoy driving than hate it.

But that's for the overall population. You're city-focused, IIRC, and the experience is *very* different when you get further away from city traffic. (I used to adore driving; now that I'm in town, I merely enjoy it.)

[mizarchivist]

I've ever felt that way driving. Motorcycling intensifies that when I was doing that on the regular.
There's nothing quite like being able to hit that steepening curve, staying in your lane, knowing when to change lanes to avoid slowing down, catching multiple green lights in a row, or gauging when the light will turn back to green so you don't have to stop all the way. I used to be able to do this last back in Ohio and the light patterns were a little less slap-dash.
Accelerating on the curves, though.... yas.

[crazybone]

This sounds like a state similar to what I've heard artists describe, and I've experienced myself on occasion. "In the zone" is another euphemism for it. It's a sort of doing without completely consciously focusing but still being in control. After such a state ends, often one goes back to look at the thing they made and are a bit surprised at it. Like a film you're only half-watching and you're brought up short when the credits start rolling. You're aware you've made the thing on some level but when you back and look at it closer, or re-read it there are things in there you don't remember putting in there. It's cool and freaky in a good way quite frankly.