In The Zone

Making the most of Ramadan by unlocking khushoo.

As much as I want to push my limits to outdo myself this Ramadan, the clutter in my mind doesn’t seem to fade away for me to focus enough and make progress towards my goals.

But earlier this week, I had a moment of clarity. I was brimming with emotions and needed to channel them somehow. The words spilled out me faster than I could think them, leaving me racing to pour out my feelings. I was entranced by the chase, every word and every sentence was a step closer to reaching something I couldn’t quite name. Before I knew it, I banged out three. solid. pages.

I leaned back in my chair, grinning ear to ear, as I re-read the pages for the fifth time. My fingers we itching and my mind was racing with possibilities of diving back into that creative spirit. I yearned to lose track of time and burry myself in the words I pour out. To be so focused on a mission to string together sentences, the world around me disappeared. But now I had a new mission: to recapture that moment of undivided attention.

I was listening to an audiobook¹ about, focus and gained some insight on this experience. I was introduced to a concept called flow states: the sensation of being lost in the rhythm of an activity, effortlessly and intensely focused. It creates feelings of deep enjoyment and accomplishment. I realized the enthusiasm I felt in that writing session got me into a flow state that made me passionately driven to write.

The brain reconfigures in a few ways which unlocks the ecstasy that follows a flow state. The pre-frontal cortex temporarily turns off. This part of the brain is involved in self-consciousness, stores some memory, and is where multiple stimuli are processed. Turning off this part of the brain means I’m not ruminating or distracted by my surroundings. It also allows other parts of the brain to communicate with each other and form new connections. This means I’ll experience more creativity during and after a flow state.

Now the question remains, how can I harness this power to laser focus? Well, there are three characteristics for activities that can induce a flow state. Understanding these criterion should help me set the mood to get in the zone (again).

Firstly, the task at hand, needs to be a single task with a single mission. Like just writing, not writing and researching and editing. Next, it needs be something meaningful to us, ideally attached to a larger, positive goal. And finally, the task needs to push our limits, not easy enough to bore us into distractions, but not too trying to leave us discouraged and stressed. This goldilocks ratio will unlock the most focus and satisfaction.

A diagram comparing the challenge of an activity to our skill level and how challenge vs skill ratios make us feel. source

Flow states are born out of intrinsic motivation, from activities that are inherently interesting to us and bring us joy. There is no self-judgement or performance for others, so we forget ourselves in the moment. They reflect a step within the bigger picture of our purpose which lets us to be fully present in the moment and creates a sense of timelessness while being in the zone.

I was reflecting on the concept of khuhsoo in prayer and realized that it is an experience of flow. Khushoo literally means tranquility or to sink into humility and mirrors flow states in many ways. It’s like losing our self-consciousness by becoming so deeply focused on our prayer that we leave the worries of the world behind. The spiritual essence of khushoo comes from being awestruck by Allah’s grandeur which creates intense focus, leaving no room for wandering beyond His remembrance. This singular devotion, without distractions, and with a sense of timelessness, illustrates both flow and khushoo.

But khushoo is fleeting and difficult to acquire. When we’ve prayed the fard prayers so routinely, the routine itself becomes a blur of motions and phrases we can say in our sleep. When the challenge of the prayer is so below our skill level, it’s easy for us to become distracted and bored. To regain the spark to help us focus would mean to make our prayers slightly more challenging. This can be through learning new surahs, trying a different recitation style, reflecting on the meanings of our recitations, or reciting the night prayers out loud.

Taraweeh is unique opportunity that can help us reach khushoo. It’s more challenging than the fard prayers by exceeding the number of rakats and is often accompanied by longer Quranic recitations. The flexibility to choose how many rakats we want to pray makes it approachable enough to pursue. And most importantly, it affirms our purpose and desire to seek His closeness, making Taraweeh profoundly meaningful to us.

I know Ramadan can feel packed with pressure to push the boundaries of our Ibadah, but this discomfort is necessary for us to regain khuhsoo and build new habits that we can carry with us beyond Ramadan to maintain our closeness to Allah.

I'd love to know, what's your favourite part about Ramadan? Lately I’ve been enjoying the routine of setting up table for Iftar.

1. Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Focus and How to Think Deeply Again by Johann Hari.