Capoeira and Flow
Capoeira is an activity that inspires flow. we have complete psychic commitment, challenge at many levels, from the beginner on the first day wrestling with the movements to a student teacher after 10 years playing the game beginning to wrestle with the hidden parts, trickster, how it can be used for social change, to Mestres with 20-50 years experience, truly mastering the mandinga, yet being constantly pushed as new players come and develop new aspects, going to deeper and deeper levels of the game. Capoeira and its many elements physical training, game play, trickery, music, history, philosophy and (for those outside of Brazil) language, there are many opportunities for the deep immersion and mental focus necessary for flow to come into play.
What happens when you leave the flow experience, when you let self consciousness pull you out? In capoeira, I noticed many times that when I am thinking about it too much, when I become self conscious or I'm worried about how tired I am, how one thing or another on me hurts, I can't play well. It is halting. It is uneven. It is a series of thought out movements, not a moment of flow.
On the contrary, when I don't know what I'm going to do, when I am completely present in the moment, flow takes over and completely inhabits my being. I can surprise myself. The trickster has the opportunity to take over, to play, to express, to find those pathways hidden by logic. This is the ideal. From here, new possibilities are able to burst out of my, surprising myself and my opponent. If I don't know what I'm going to do, how can they? This is what I strive for in capoeira, in art making, in community work. Csikszentmihalyi states, "As a result, one of the most universal and distinctive features of optimal experience takes place: people become so involved in what they are doing that the activity becomes spontaneous, almost automatic; they stop being aware of themselves as separate from the actions they are performing" (53). In creating community work that it always very consciously pushing towards a goal, I fear that we don't allow this space for flow, but in art making that is for its own purpose, flow has a greater ability to show up.
What happens when you leave the flow experience, when you let self consciousness pull you out? In capoeira, I noticed many times that when I am thinking about it too much, when I become self conscious or I'm worried about how tired I am, how one thing or another on me hurts, I can't play well. It is halting. It is uneven. It is a series of thought out movements, not a moment of flow.
On the contrary, when I don't know what I'm going to do, when I am completely present in the moment, flow takes over and completely inhabits my being. I can surprise myself. The trickster has the opportunity to take over, to play, to express, to find those pathways hidden by logic. This is the ideal. From here, new possibilities are able to burst out of my, surprising myself and my opponent. If I don't know what I'm going to do, how can they? This is what I strive for in capoeira, in art making, in community work. Csikszentmihalyi states, "As a result, one of the most universal and distinctive features of optimal experience takes place: people become so involved in what they are doing that the activity becomes spontaneous, almost automatic; they stop being aware of themselves as separate from the actions they are performing" (53). In creating community work that it always very consciously pushing towards a goal, I fear that we don't allow this space for flow, but in art making that is for its own purpose, flow has a greater ability to show up.
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