[Tharkun]

I don't think so. Flow makes you blind to everything that is arround you. It's pretty much hyper-focused tunnel vision. "Mindfulness" meditation, on the other hand, gives you a very wide awareness. Of yourself and of your environment. Not just on the task at hand. At least that's how I see it.

[j45]

There's many types of focus and meditation. Meditation is like swimming. People can study, discuss, and pontificate about swimming, it's all academic until we're in the water sloshing around ourselves.

In the case of mindfulness that is triggering some dismissiveness on your part, there is also abstract, settled, or awareness typed meditation. The latter, focusing on abstract, awareness of awareness (being a witness to your thoughts) without directing them can be just as useful to unlock creativity in day to day life.

Some meditative experiences are very similar to flow and allows the ability to slip into flow that much easier. Some folks can slip into meditation just sitting at their desk by closing their eyes and come out a few minutes later settled and focus in hand for something.

[epalmer]

How is meditation like or different than flow? This is an interesting question. I see it as a paradox. When I meditate in the early phases there is wide awareness but when I quiet the mind, for me, there is no awareness and time disappears. Some days I can quiet the mind quickly and go into what you might describe as a trance. But in that trance I can hear / sense what is around me if I chose to.

I don't think the quiet mind phase is flow however. It is just that time disappears.

Meditation makes me peaceful and can provide me with more energy reserves for the rest of the day. Flow makes me satisfied but usually tired and at the same time wanting more flow.

So how do you HN participants see these different states?

[mbrock]

Meditation is not a unitary practice. There are important forms of meditation that involve extreme concentration on a single object, inducing unimaginably strong "tunnel vision."

For an obvious example, consider the kasina practice of old-school Theravada Buddhism.

http://web.archive.org/web/20031230220324/http://www.birken....

Breath concentration is done in a similar way, but with the sensation of the breath as the object of fixation rather than a colored disc.

[amelius]

Yes, I think mindfulness is the opposite of flow. Because otherwise, why would I need meditation after a full day of work (flow)?