Flow & Meditation

While working in deep concentration on your pixel art, you may experience a so-called flow or optimal experience.
Flow is a mental state in which a person is fully immersed in, and focused on, his activity.
If the task you perform is a challenge to your skills, and you are keen to conquer that challenge, you may experience flow.

Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi was the one who put forward the idea of flow. Flow is a metaphor for a current carrying someone along.

Flow is a dissociation; a natural phenomenon in which some parts of the brain start to live their own lives. A dissociation happens, for example, when you are daydreaming or working in deep concentration on an illustration - and suddenly it's three hours later.

During flow, one of the following phenomena can be experienced:

• Distortions in the experience of time; time seems to fly.
• Euphoria.
• A feeling of calm competence or enhanced creativity.
• A sense of wholeness or spiritual unity.
• A loss of the feeling of self-consciousness.
• Effortlessness of action; the activity is intrinsically rewarding.

Zen Buddhism is based on the concept of flow (or is flow based on Zen Buddhism?).
Flow is experienced in all kinds of fields, such as sports, music, and so forth.