Friday, September 7, 2018

Timeless Flow and Insights for Tango

Timeless flow is the state of mind that makes tango magical.

"Timeless Flow" is a way to describe the wonderful state of mind that everyone has experienced while in a dream state or in the joy of a magical moment.

As much as I enjoy being "scientific" in my understanding of the universe and life, I am becoming more interested in the Science of Experience.  I want to expand my experience of paying attention to the things that really matter in life. As we increase our awareness of the here and now, time stops in this euphoric space.  This is the best that tango gives to us--a sense of flow.  Musicians, artists, dancers have been describing flow for eons.

I discovered timeless flow in tango while dancing with a yoga teacher and mindfulness coach for businesses.  She said, "That tanda when by so fast." I challenged her with, "Let's dance another, but imagine that time slows or stops or expands."  We did just that, and it forever changed the way I dance. I physically slowed down some for that tanda (and every tanda since that one).  My change of mind created this change of experience. I now avoid saying "time goes fast when you are having fun," or "our vacation went so fast." Did it really? When I am mindful of all that happened, it becomes amazing to consider all of what I had experienced.  I shared that observation with my wife in our recent 30 days in France, and she added to the list of magical experiences.  So we are learning to say instead: "It is as though we had a century of wonderful experiences."  Or we say:  "Time stopped.  That was wonderful"; "it's as if we have known each other for a century."  It helps that have been practicing being careful with notions of time since I was 20 years old.  I saw that as people get older, they'd say time goes faster.  Is it because we have left the mindfulness that we possessed as a child?

I celebrate mindful moments and pay careful attention to them. Join me in the science of time perception, and be as attentive as if you were observing the collision of atoms at a billion-dollar particle accelerator.  The microseconds of evidence in a particle accelerator has led scientists to discover the inner workings of the universe.  A particle accelerator is similar to our moments of timeless flow:  Keep collecting the evidence!  Tango is the best particle accelerator for experiential scientists and much less expensive.

The moments of timelessness that you perceive have a far more practical application than what happens particle accelerator, however.

The practical application of the science
of stopping time is that you can expand 
your experience of timeless flow from
a mere fraction of your experience to
the majority of your experience.

The tango-experience of flow is so powerful, that people keep returning to experience it some more.  Sometimes "flow" is elusive only when we discount the moments of timelessness we experience.

In my next post, I will add some practical ways to expand timelessness in your life and in your tango. I would love to hear from you about your experiences.  You can message me on Facebook or email me at mark.word1@gmail.com.

I plan to post the next step to timelessness as soon as time stops.  Just give me a moment.  :-)


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Photo Credit:  Photo Credit:  Kasia Derwinska.  See/buy her art at Saatchi Art.


Regarding flow.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)  Notice the section on spirituality--fascinating and the definition of "autotelic"


3 comments:

  1. Hello, Mark. This is a really, very interesting post. I'm very happy (and thankful!) I had the fortune of coming across your blog. This page is now in my favourites! For your records fb's Tango Time Machine and, subsequently, Dmitry Pruss' blog's list of friend blogs brought me here. Looking very much forward to reading more about your insights into the connection btw tango & soul & mind. But now, I need my tango fix! See you round soon. Happy tandas to you!

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  2. Thanks for writing this article. Indeed, dancing tango is a fun experience. I just realized that I've been doing tango for almost a year now, it feels like yesterday. Happy dancing!

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  3. I have yet to experience Tango as timeless flow. Most of the time I'm so focused on so many things, leading, trying to dance *with* the music instead of simply executing steps, while ignoring what the music is calling out. However, when traveling, this is a different experience. I can go away for a weekend trip and feel like I've been away for weeks. Every moment is so full of awareness on so many levels.

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