In the Flow
I’m not in the habit of recommending animated Disney movies to adults, but I find myself in the awkward position of feeling like it’s the right thing to do. And if that wasn’t enough, William Shakespeare agrees, because as I was re-reading The Tempest this morning, I got my confirmation.
The Disney movie that I can’t stop thinking about is Soul, featuring the voices of Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, and Graham Norton, among others. The main character, voiced by Foxx, is Joe Gardner, a high school band teacher who dreams of being a professional jazz pianist.
Sounds like a typical Disney story setup, right?
It is, but it is so much more. Joe Gardner, after a day listening to apathetic students butchering his beloved music and a disappointing encounter with his mother (who spurns his dream), is offered the chance to play at a jazz club with one of his musical heroes, Dorothea Williams (delightfully voiced by Angela Bassett).
Unfortunately, Joe falls in an open manhole in his excitement following the audition with Dorothea. In a hospital bed hooked up to wires and monitors, Joe’s life hangs in the balance and his soul goes on a journey of discovery.
One of the most interesting parts of the film is that Joe learns what it means to be “in the flow,” that place where time stands still when you’re doing something you love, and you lose yourself in the creative experience.
Joe gets “in the flow” when he plays jazz. It’s beautifully depicted in the film as a mystical purply place where each soul experiences the joy of what puts them in the flow. The souls twirl together in a fluid dance, each one’s singular rhythm mixing with the others to create a gorgeous tapestry of movement and inspiration.
The movie Soul reminded me of a book I read several years ago called Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. The author is a Hungarian-American psychologist who has spent his life studying the pursuit of happiness.
Csikszentmihalyi describes flow as “being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you're using your skills to the utmost.” In the book, he says:
“The loss of the sense of a self separate from the world around it is sometimes accompanied by a feeling of union with the environment, whether it is the mountain [or] a team. . . .”
For me, writing is the activity that creates that joy of “flow.” Sometimes I sit down to write and get so engrossed in the process that when I happen to glance at the clock, I am shocked to see that several hours have passed without my notice.
It’s a blissful feeling.
My husband is a chainsaw artist, carving trees and large trunks of wood into amazing pieces of art. I’ve seen firsthand his being in the “flow,” and I know exactly how he feels. Although I physically see him standing before me, chainsaw screaming and wood chips flying in every direction, I also know that he is unaware of anything other than what he’s focused on. It’s like being in two places at once.
The flow is not a new concept. Even William Shakespeare knew about the flow, as evidenced by this line from The Tempest:
“I’ll teach you how to flow.”
Leave it to Shakespeare to write a line that becomes a mainstream rap phrase 350 years before rap was invented. In fact, there is a funny quiz on the internet where you can guess whether various quotes were penned by Shakespeare or Tupac. Click here to take the quiz - you may be surprised at some of the answers!
Tupac or Shakespeare?
What I love about the movie Soul is that it doesn’t idealize the “flow” to the exclusion of every little spark and meaningful moment of life, such as leaves falling in autumn, a hug from your mom, sunlight on a warm day, chatting with a friend, inspiring a child, or holding a loved one’s hand. The message of Soul is that being “in the flow” is just one part of loving the time we have together on the planet, and I have to agree.
Have you ever been in the flow? What activities represent the feeling of flow for you? Are there more than one? Have they changed over time?
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