Qigong and the Flow State

Have you ever experienced "the flow state" or what some like to refer to as "being in the zone"? It's as if you are one with whatever you are doing at that moment. You're 100% present. Your senses may be heightened, and you may experience a sense of fluidity between your body-mind-spirit. Time seems to be irrelevant and you are flowing in effortless effort. The following research suggests that Qigong evokes positive emotions and that Qigong practice can result in a flow state.

Effect of Meditative Movement on Affect and Flow in Qigong Practitioners

Pasi Pölönen 1, Otto Lappi 1 2, Mari Tervaniemi 3 4
Front. Psychol., 22 October 2019 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02375

Abstract

Qigong is a Meditative Movement exercise that consists of mindful movements, regulation of breathing and attentional control. In this study we investigated whether Qigong practice might be associated with the affect and flow of its practitioners during the exercise. Although practitioners of Meditative Movement anecdotally describe flow-like experiences and strong effects on affect there are only a few empirical studies that focus on acute effects of Qigong practice on affect, and to our knowledge none on flow. Understanding these phenomena could shed new light on the interrelationship between body movement and the embodied mind. Self-reported affect and flow of qigong practitioners (N = 19) was probed in four qigong sessions, 1 week apart, each lasting about an hour. We used the PANAS (Positive And Negative Affect Schedule) to measure self-reported affect pre- and post-session. Additionally, open-ended questions were used to further inquire the specific quality of the post-session affect. Flow was measured using the Flow Short Scale, twice during each Qigong session and once after it. Our results confirm previous studies that Qigong practice shifts affect toward positive valence. Content analysis of the open-ended questions further revealed that the resulting experience can be described as restful, relaxed, happy, balanced, and clear. Although the lack of a control group/condition preclude drawing firm causal conclusions, our results indicate that Qigong practice produced flow already 20 min into the session, and that flow state intensified at 40 and 60 min. Future directions for studying affect and flow in meditative exercise are discussed.

Keywords: Qigong; affect; exercise; flow experience; meditative movement.