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[gematriot]

Hi everyone...
I just remembered the term "Flow Psychology" from a Psychology course I took.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_%28psychology%29

Perhaps this concept helps explain why some people, those with Autotelic Personality,
can operate well under stress and duress, mitigating Startle, Flinch and Freeze?

"An autotelic person needs few material possessions and little entertainment, comfort, power, or fame because so much of what he or she does is already rewarding. Because such persons experience flow in work, in family life, when interacting with people, when eating, even when alone with nothing to do, they are less dependent on the external rewards that keep others motivated to go on with a life composed of dull and meaningless routines. They are more autonomous and independent because they cannot be as easily manipulated with threats or rewards from the outside. At the same time, they are more involved with everything around them because they are fully immersed in the current of life.

The following ten factors accompany an experience of flow:

   1. Clear goals (expectations and rules are discernible and goals are attainable and align appropriately with one's skill set and abilities). Moreover, the challenge level and skill level should both be high.
   2. Concentrating, a high degree of concentration on a limited field of attention (a person engaged in the activity will have the opportunity to focus and to delve deeply into it).
   3. A loss of the feeling of self-consciousness, the merging of action and awareness.
   4. Distorted sense of time, one's subjective experience of time is altered.
   5. Direct and immediate feedback (successes and failures in the course of the activity are apparent, so that behavior can be adjusted as needed).
   6. Balance between ability level and challenge (the activity is neither too easy nor too difficult).
   7. A sense of personal control over the situation or activity.
   8. The activity is intrinsically rewarding, so there is an effortlessness of action.
   9. A lack of awareness of bodily needs (to the extent that one can reach a point of great hunger or fatigue without realizing it)
  10. People become absorbed in their activity, and focus of awareness is narrowed down to the activity itself, action awareness merging.

Not all are needed for flow to be experienced.

Just pure speculation, brain ramblings....

[Hock]

Like Dude!
It chop wood, carry Water!
It's all Zen, man!

http://www.amazon.com/Chop-Wood-Carry-Water-Fields/dp/0874772095
"The greatest lessons and the profoundest heights of the spiritual path can be found in our everyday life. How can we apply the insights of great spiritual traditions, and our own experience, to the way we live and develop? This book is a guide - a handbook filled with information, More...advice, hints, stories, inspiration, encouragement, connections, warning, and cautions, for the inner journey as we live throughout our lives.
Chop Wood, Carry Water contains much ancient wisdom, but the emphasis is on contemporary perceptions. Some of the guides are the world's great spiritual teachers- Christ, the Buddha, Lao Tse, Confucius. Others are contemporary teacher and healers, widely recognized and respected. All offer ways to integrate the events, our focus on relationships and family, our struggle with technology, money, politics and more- into the quest for spiritual fulfillment..."


Hock
(but seriously, I've read it several times over. It is about zoning in and then zoning out on whatever you are doing. After much "zone in" comes the "zone out" and well...its complicated. SIMPLE! But complicated and...well... it is Zen.)