The Origins and Practice of Still Flow
In a world that constantly demands speed, achievement, and display, slowing down can feel like a radical act. The practice of Still Flow emerged as a response to this fast-paced environment, where movement and expression are often geared toward impressing or achieving.
Initially, Still Flow was born from a deep dissatisfaction with conventional approaches to dance. After attending numerous workshops, I realized that dance seemed to serve only as a performance tool—something flashy and impressive. But amidst the choreography and structured movement, a fundamental question kept arising: Why? Why all of these movements? What is the underlying thought. If not thought, what is the emotion? If not emotion, what is the aesthetic striving? I hungered for clarity on any level.
I felt the need for a radical shift in my approach, or I knew I would walk away from dance altogether. Then, one day, in a moment of inspiration, I went to a park with a single resolve: to only move when the movement made complete sense to me, to not force anything upon my body. For three hours, I walked slowly, covering just 100 meters, moving back and forth. During this time, I wasn’t driven by external ideas or goals, but by allowing the deeper layers of myself to speak—by quieting down conscious intentions.
By the end of those three hours, I had created a sequence of four movements. Though few, they felt perfect—authentic and deeply connected. Yet something even more profound had occurred. My psyche had shifted. I had entered a state of immense patience, where everything around me appeared fresh, and time itself seemed to slow down. Every moment felt new, and time flowed differently, as if it had expanded.
The Experience of Still Flow
Since then, Still Flow has been an ongoing exploration that am undertaking with my dance and art partner Paula Martinell. The practice rests on two key pillars:
Very slow movement
Letting go of conscious motivations for movement
But these pillars rest on something deeper—a sea of patience. When we remove the need to impress, to explain, to reach goals, or to present ourselves in a certain way, we allow movement to arise from different sources, ones that are not bound by conscious thought. Even when conscious intentions are stripped away, movement continues—arising from a place of instinct and deeper awareness.
One of the most remarkable effects of Still Flow is the dilation of time. A single hour of practice often feels like just ten minutes, yet so much happens within that hour in terms of sensations, emotions, and thoughts. The body becomes more attuned to what could be called "primitive sensory data." In this state, the brain is not occupied with understanding or labeling what is being experienced. Instead, there’s a sense of raw amazement: "Oh God, I am seeing!" It’s as if even the simplest things are new and wondrous.
This shift in sensory perception is often accompanied by emotional changes. Emotions seem to come from nowhere—intense, but passing quickly, leaving little lingering effect. The emotional waves are powerful, but they wash over you without gripping hold for too long.
The Connection Between Movement, Time, and Perception
We’ve often reflected on the relationship between changes in sensory and emotional perception and the dilation of time. When you slow down movement, do you also slow down your internal perception of time? Do you gain access to a different way of sensing the world around you? And similarly, when sensory input is reduced—like in sensory deprivation tanks—does time feel different because the brain has fewer external cues to process?
These questions are at the heart of Still Flow. The practice invites you to release the conscious effort and explore what happens when movement flows naturally, unbound by goals or expectations. By entering this state, time, perception, and emotion all shift—allowing for a deeper connection to both the body and the mind.
We have presented the underpinnings of Still Flow and have offered a guided session in the INSIGHT Forum of the MIND Foundation on the 10th of September 2024. We had the pleasure to talk to Marc Wittmann, who does research on the subjective perception of time. With this, we have started our conversation about the topic with interested and like-minded people, and are excited to continue developing it.
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