What creates this feeling is a two-part contradiction. Part one: Flow is exceptionally pleasurable, but mostly in retrospect. “It is this absence of…emotion, of almost any kind of conscious awareness of one’s state, that is at the heart of flow,” writes University of Pennsylvania psychologist Martin Seligman. “Consciousness and emotion are there to correct your trajectory; when what you are doing is seamlessly perfect, you don’t need them.” Part two: You may be unemotional, but you’re not asleep. In the throes of the paradox, you’re fully aware of the ass you’re kicking—just not entirely
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