In the art of manipulation / flow arts community, we talk a lot about the state of flow. Below is a quote from the book flow.

“The mystique of rock climbing is climbing; you get to the top of a rock glad it’s over but really wish it would go on forever. The justification of climbing is climbing, like the justification of poetry is writing; you don’t conquer anything except things in yourself…. The act of writing justifies poetry. Climbing is the same: recognizing that you are a flow. The purpose of the flow is to keep on flowing, not looking for a peak or utopia but staying in the flow. It is not a moving up but a continuous flowing; you move up to keep the flow going. There is no possible reason for climbing except the climbing itself; it is a self-communication.”

― Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow

In my mind the state of practice is different to the state of flow. Spending hours drilling a trick / move in a very conscious way; working ones techniques this is the state of practice. There is of course an overlap between flow and practice. For me though I would choose spending my afternoons in the state of practice than the state of flow every time. We are all in these arts for different reasons. But the feeling I get when I finally have a move clean which I have been working on for days, months, years is the best feeling in the world. The moment of break through that makes you want to shout from the roof “I final got it” is like nothing else!

The state of practice, honing ones technique, pushing the boundaries of ones art , drilling moves and tricks. That’s the number one reason I love to spin my poi and throw things into the air.