I have thoroughly enjoyed taking time out this week and reading Roy Palmer’s book, Zone Mind, Zone Body — How to break through to new levels of fitness and performance. Sports coach and Alexander technique teacher, Palmer noted the seven characteristics described by athletes who experience being in the Zone:
1. They are totally absorbed and focused on the activity.
2. They experience an inner clarity and understand exactly what is required of them, knowing their skills are perfectly matched to the task.
3. They have a sense of ecstasy, being outside everyday reality.
4. They describe “being in the moment” focusing completely on the present; unaware of time passing but conversely, they have a sense of slowing down time.
5. They feel a deep passion for the activity, driving them on to higher levels of performance. This experience provides further inspiration; it becomes self-perpetuating.
6. They have a sense of serenity, no anxiety, no ego, consequently no fear about performance.
7. They experience no sense of effort. The activity becomes almost easy and feels like they are “getting out of the way” of their own performance.
This state isn’t just relevant to sports competitors; it is also practised across the world in the creative and performing arts and increasingly taught to anyone interested in improving their performance through self-hypnosis, NLP and creative visualisation programs.
The benefit of being in the zone is that stress and the anxiety of performing vanishes, leaving us free to function without fear of failure and being judged. Palmer demonstrates in his book that it is not about working and training harder that determines our success, it is about working and training smarter to reach the zone. Our performance then takes care of itself.
Being in the zone is about changing our comfort habits, to venture into the unknown, and to find out more about ourselves.
Cast your mind back to an activity when you were in the flow zone, perhaps the activity was at first difficult or challenging.
Some examples are:
- Playing an instrument, totally absorbed in the rhythm and music
- In a creative state, painting, sculpting, sewing
- Writing a report, when the words flow easily onto the page
- Tackling an overgrown garden, mowing the lawn up and down, strimming and weeding
The elements present to get into the flow zone are when we are faced with an interesting challenge, and we are target focused and can let go of the outcome. The ego quietens down and we then give up on effort. When we give up on effort, we can remove ourselves from our daily stress. As a result we become more productive, enjoying greater clarity resulting ultimately in achieving our set target.
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