MOUNTAIN LIFE - Coast Mountains | Fall Winter 2019

128 After a firsthand avalanche experience, Peter Aschauer acquired the patent for avalanche airbags in 1980 and developed a system allowing victims to gain a sufficient increase in volume within seconds, without obstructing their ability to move. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience . Flow describes the highly productive mental state in which a person becomes so focused and absorbed that nothing else seems to matter. Whether you call it being in “the zone” or in “a groove”—we have all, at some time, experienced the clarity of total engagement, fulfillment, and skill, whether while cooking, doing a puzzle, or paddleboarding. Csikszentmihalyi saw flow as complete involvement in an activity for its own sake, but in which “The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.” He conducted prodigious research into the components necessary to achieve a flow state, and a key finding was expressed in his idea of a challenge-skill matrix. This holds that a balance must be struck between the challenge of the task and the skill of the performer. When both are low and matched, flow can’t happen and apathy results; when both are high and matched, however, flow occurs. It’s easy to extend this to learning curves for outdoor activities and life goals—upward-leveraging skill and challenge are required to progress, yet it’s a step-wise process that must be appropriately managed and nurtured over time. The product of such patient achievement is embodied in Olympic athletes and others performing at the highest possible levels. Like many emerging fields, flow is so new it’s caught between cult status and scientific discipline. It has its own pop-culture gurus in authors Jamie Wheal and Steven Kotler (e.g., Stealing Fire: How Silicon Valley, the Navy SEALs, and Maverick Scientists Are Revolutionizing the Way We Live and Work ), and has been covered by the New York Times —“How to Hack Your Brain (for $5,000).” But flow has also entered the learning streams at universities, where myriad research is being conducted and surprising findings made. As Dr. Venter pointed out in an evening presentation at Journeyman, the underground “Altered State Economy” sees us spend $4 trillion each year to alter our consciousness through personal growth modalities, recreational pursuits, various media, and drugs both legal and not. Flow, done right, it is claimed, can provide a hack to any of this. If this sounds as flaky as a lot of other New Age claptrap, the brain-science results unequivocally show there’s something to it. Among brain changes measured during flow state is the expected elevated focus, but also faster processing of information from a wider array of sources; increased neural connections, neuroplasticity, lateral thinking, and pattern recognition; a reciprocal relationship between flow and creativity; higher risk-taking; and the triggering of powerful intrinsic motivation by a flood of addictive neurochemicals. This suggests that the hackneyed expression “adrenaline junkie” might better refer to a flow junkie—the enjoyment of high performance and being as good as you can be. Flow can cut the path to mastery (aka, Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hours) 50 per cent by accelerating problem solving and learning (up to 230 per cent), performance (500 per cent), and spiking creativity (700 per cent). These are huge numbers. And right behind them is the finding that people with the most flow in their lives (looking your way Sea-to-Sky outdoor enthusiasts) are the happiest people on earth. Back at the Journeyman, things were indeed happy. Meals were awesome, carefully curated productions, and while we ate, talk about the empirically studied benefits of various food items was a reminder of how important nutrition is for us to function optimally—and hence central to the idea of flow. We’d started our first full day the way we would each—with a 15-minute meditation led by Martin before segueing into a movement clinic with Dr. Cupido that included breathwork, strength, stretch, and balance training, all aimed at getting to your best faster and more often. With that in mind, we set out ski-touring into what was now 20 centimetres overnight and would eventually add up to a metre. I had a great run—despite my focus on not breaking through the solar-affected crust under the new snow. Afterward I realized that my familiarity with this activity had me in a flow state throughout. Could I apply this to other areas of my life? At various points, Watson conducted somatic investigations into sympathetic versus parasympathetic nervous responses, Banks held life- mission-analysis sessions, Dr. Venter stimulated brains, Martin collected more data at the sauna, and Gjerdalen led another round of forest bathing, this time on skis. Did I see anything new out there? Absolutely. Could I do even better? You bet. X Camps have also been held in the Chilcotins and on Gambier island. The next X Camp at Journeyman Lodge is scheduled for April 2020. xcamp.ca LEFT Brain waves in the backcountry. Hooked up to a brain stimulation device in Journeyman Lodge. RIGHT Dr. Jan Venter and Ian "Cheddar" Watson in deep flow discussion. ERIC BERGER