For this Saturday morning, sharing with you some thoughts on Flow and Mindfulness, also suggestions for a board game, an audiobook and a novel, each of which I love and I hope some of you may too.
I love to play board games, and one of my favourite moments from my trip back to Cayman last September was when my boys and some of their best friends re-introduced me to the board game Catan and six of us played. Since then I’ve introduced it to family in the UK and we have played many times.
When we get immersed in a board game, we enter a mental space where the outside world disappears, but, more than that, it is a shared experience rather than a solitary one.
One of my favourite writers and podcasters is Tim Harford, who recently wrote a post: “The life-saving magic of playing games” which included this quote:
“Flow is a state in which people become absorbed in an enjoyable activity, such that they become blind to their external environment,” explained the researchers. In contrast, “mindfulness is a state of being aware of and attentive to one’s current internal and external experience.”
from a study (Kate Sweeny, Renlai Zhou and others) which asked how people had best coped during strict lockdowns in China early in 2020.
Tim makes the argument (which I fully agree with) that playing board games is a way to both enter a Flow state and one of Mindfulness.
In addition, I simply love those definitions of Flow and Mindfulness and in thinking about combining the two, to some level I feel the same either when cycling or when walking while listening to an audiobook or podcast. On that note, one each of the last two days I took a long walk during the middle of the day. One was a client “virtual walk and talk”, the other a long walk while starting the audiobook of “The Midnight Library” by Matt Haig, wonderfully narrated by Carey Mulligan. It was a cold, crisp, sunny day, so at the same time as I was immersed in the story, I was also very aware of the weather, the cold air on my face at the same time as the sun looked to compete by warming me.
One more musing leads me to a story for a Saturday morning stimulated by the idea of playing games. In the late 80s, along with many in Scotland, I loved the writing of the late Iain Banks, famous for novels like The Wasp Factory, The Crow Road and others. I then discovered that under the name Iain M. Banks, he had started writing sci-fi novels, creating his own “universe” for is stories simply called “The Culture”. I had read a few sci-fi novels as a teen, but not really been a fan, other than the amazing Dune, one of my favourite books of all time, but having enjoyed the Iain Banks books, I picked up “The Player of Games” which does have in it, yes, the idea of board games, but of course so much more.
Fast forward from the late 80s to a few months ago when, after the release of the movie “Dune – Part one”, I attended a virtual Think In from Tortoise where one of their editors was in discussion with a fellow sci-fi aficionado, with that guest also happening to be a Nobel prize-winning Economist, Paul Krugman. As an Economics geek and a huge fan of Dune, I made sure to attend this, then found myself (as often happens on Tortoise Thinkins, which are highly interactive) asked to come to the mic by the editor. I made my point, then felt, based on Paul’s response, to ask him if he had heard of the sci-fi novels of Iain M. Banks. His face and eyes lit up with excitement as he exclaimed how much he loved those books, and, in particular, “The Player of Games”.
So, for your weekend, first please read Tim’s blog and consider where you can find both Flow and Mindfulness for yourself, then, if that includes board games, take a look at Catan, then perhaps you may like to listen to The Midnight Library, or maybe read The Player of Games.
Until tomorrow, enjoy your Saturday!