Flow.

Had a serene and beautiful morning run today. It was magical: the stillness of the air, the emerald green surface of the creek reflecting the flora growing upon its banks. In the clearness of the water, I saw the manifestation of a pure and simple truth.

The sounds of nature, the wind on my skin, the pattering of my feet, the morphology of my shadow.

Running almost always allows me to enter the flow state: an experiential phenomenon characterised by a complete and total immersion in the act (of creation or experience), that requires almost no conscious or effortful thought – it is a deep state of natural being. It is an act of doing but equally an act of observation – of the self and what it is capable of in its most uninterrupted, disinhibited form. It is entering a domain of the psyche where one is free to simply be, to roam, and to explore. It necessitates a deep concentration, and yet does not feel difficult or laboured. The rest of the perceived world seems to fall away, and one enters a certain altered sense of existence.

There is something so organic about the movement and the sense of entering oneself that running delivers. It is as if I am moving through an inner landscape commensurate with my body that moves through the external world.