Seeking Flow

Our screens have largely fragmented our time, or worse, usurped it.  Amid that sink that diverts us from doing what we should be doing, people still manage to get absorbed in worthwhile activities.  Books get written, science insights accumulate, art gets painted, and movies made.  Some things we do because we get satisfaction from doing them.

I have a few of these too.  To my surprise, as I benefit from better dedication to the treadmill, my sessions become more of a challenge and less of a burden.  I express myself because it gives me satisfaction to do it irrespective of how any recipient reacts.  Once the barrier of activation energy gets overcome, I write my Medscape articles each month for the challenge of writing them. For some things, the activity is its own reward.  Whether I ever really achieve FLOW is open to question, but for all the programmed allure of social media, it is never really at the top of the list of things I want to do.

What the flow activities seem to require, though, are specified times to set aside other distractions to enter the world of exercise, thinking, writing, or even driving.  Then the activity, along with the desire to do it at that time, feeds on itself.  

As much as the dot.com enterprises research and implement the optimal ways to draw our undivided attention, the best they can come out is second.