Exploring the zone: unlocking creativity and optimal experience through mindfulness

California desertPhoto byTracy Carbone

Yesterday I took an unintentional four-mile hike in the desert. While I walked, I became caught up the feelings of the hot sun beating down on my head, and the rough, rocky ground beneath my feet. Seeing the beauty of a desert landscape: birds, dirt, rocks, and plants as a hundred shades of brown on a giant earth pallet mesmerized me. The vision of the mountains in the distance with their snowcapped peaks entranced me. It was silent except for the occasional skitter of a lizard, the flutter of partridge wings, and the crunch of gravel from my sneakers.

Snowy peaks in desertPhoto byTracy Carbone

I was about two miles in, per my smart watch, when I realized where I was. I turned around and headed back. In this tranquil zone, removed from everything, creative ideas flowed into me. I was in the zone, also known as the flow.

Per Sports Psychology Today, American-Hungarian psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi first coined the term flow (synonymous with zone) in his book, “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience” in 1975. Though his focus was initially on how artists “often become so involved in what they are doing, so focused on the present moment, that they forget to eat, drink or sleep,” he later extended this to include many activities including sports. For me, this was an immersive walk in the desert.

In his Ted Talk, Csikszentmihalyi describes the zone as, "There's this focus that, once it becomes intense, leads to a sense of ecstasy, a sense of clarity... Sense of time disappears. You forget yourself. You feel part of something larger."

The 2020 Disney movie, Soul centered around this feeling. The characters describe it as the place between the physical and spiritual. The related featurette In the Zone highlights these feelings, stating that “getting lost in the process…is where the real creativity starts.” This is a wonderful message for adults but especially for children, as in our culture the stress is placed on productivity and success and less so on mindfulness and creativity.

Per Cesar Torres in a University of Texas at Arlington article, “A person enters a state of flow when highly engaged with a task, often losing track of time and enjoying a high level of success.” Often when writing or painting, I’ve experienced this. I pick up paintbrush, dip it in the oils, gaze at the canvas, and next thing I know three hours have passed.

First StepsPhoto byTracy Carbone

Wikipedia defines the zone as, “a mental state in which a person performing some activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity…a complete absorption…resulting transformation in one's sense of time.”

If you’re stressed and want an escape from reality, delve wholeheartedly into something you love: walk in nature, work out, pick up a coloring book, write, paint, dance, play music, work on your car. If you let yourself get carried away with anything, you will be carried away, to the zone.