Kayla Delaguila: Image and Pilgrimage and Wilderness as Axis Mundi

In Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture Turner brings up the concept of flow. Flow is the merging of action and awareness, to become totally involved. Flow also involves action following action without any apparent need for internal logic. This is an interesting concept to me. In Wilderness as Axis Mundi, flow is exemplified with repetitive steps and the forest landscape creating a frame for flow. When I read the repetitive steps example it made me realize that I too had experienced flow. When you run long distances, at a certain mileage, your brain stops telling you to move and your body just takes over. This happened to me on my first 10mile run. Around mile six, my body went into ‘auto-pilot,’ it is a totally weird feeling. I was running, but my mind almost didn’t comprehend that I was still running. I no longer felt the pain nagging at my legs, and I for sure wasn’t thinking about putting one foot in front of the other. I just went. I imagine this is what it’s like on the Appalachian Trail, after walking for so many miles this ‘auto pilot’ starts up and you just go-flow. I am a very analytical person who often gets stuck in her own head, so for my mind to not be focused entirely on what it was doing was really amazing. Maybe next time I will try it walking instead of running. It makes me wonder if this is a feeling I could induced. Going to physical auto-pilot sure would help me out in some situations.