Ever felt that you’re totally absorbed into an activity? You’re not thinking of anything else. Your mind isn’t wandering. Your body feels great. You don’t seem to be phased by noises nor things moving around. The world is cut away from you. You are unaware of yourself & your issues…..No, you are not dreaming. You may have entered your flow state.
What is “flow” & How did it come about?
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi & Jacob Getzels, two positive psychologists were studying creative processes amongst artists in the 60s. They developed a deep interest in this behavior as the artists were described as having “unique focus, single-minded & strong-willed with their activity of painting despite any discomfort such as fatigue & hunger”. However, upon completion of painting, Csikzentmihalyi & Getzels described the artists’ behavior as “barely interested in painting”. Confusing hey?
Csikzentmihalyi took his research further; particularly in 1975, he dived into other fields of positive psychology. Intrigued by the subjectivity of this phenomenon not only in artists, but also in athletes, dancers & even chess players…. the flow state was introduced & they were a number of factors that contributed to this.
Factors contributing to achieving optimal flow state
When we do a task that we are familiar/skilled/learnt (i.e getting someone who have been cooking at an Italian restaurant for over 10 years to bake a pizza) isn’t going to be much of a challenge. High efficacy; low levels of stress = lower levels of arousal/anxiety.
However, when we do a task that we are NOT familiar or skilled at. It is unknown (i.e getting someone who hasn’t cooked before, to bake a pizza.) Chances are, this will likely be a hella challenge. Sometimes, too difficult to be even considered a challenge. Low efficacy; higher levels of stress = higher levels of arousal/anxiety.
Right now, you would likely see the trends.
1. Too easy a task/goal will likely lead to higher levels of boredom & apathy.
2. Too hard a task/goal will likely lead to higher levels of worry & anxiety.
Going back to the artists which Csikzentmihalyi observed, the artists shown “unique focus, single-minded & strong-willed with their activity of painting despite any discomfort such as fatigue & hunger” which could likely due to having the task to be of a challenge of certain difficulty. But not too high, as they have prior pre-requisite skills to be able to rise up to the meet the goal. Also, if it was too easy (i.e they done it before), they would likely show more empathy; such as how they shown a lack of interest upon completing a task.
Enter flow state
Csikzentmihalyi introduced the flow state chart (figure 1.1) in 1998. The optimal balance between task/goals that are relatively challenging enough to trigger the optimal (individual) levels of: anxiety, arousal, control, relaxation, boredom, apathy & worry.
Looks simple: finding a goal/task that is challenging enough, not too hard nor easy. Likewise for your personal abilities/capabilities.
As we are all individuals, we would most likely achieve optimal flow state when these 7 conditions are constantly prominent during the process on achieving goal/performing the task.
1. Sense of control over task/goal
2. Lack of self-consciousness
3. Total focus
4. Balance between task & skill
5. Immediate feedback
6. Intrinsically rewarding task/goal
7. Time passes more quickly than usual
Closing thoughts
Pierrsonally, I found that when I am in flow, it unconsciously made me a positive, happier pierrson. Of course, I still had outcomes in mind but I was so deeply in “flow” that I was enjoying the process to the extent whereby the outcome usually slipped off the back of my head. Time passed by so quickly & my focus during the process was truly intrinsically rewarding & motivating. Being in flow unconsciously makes us….happy.
When someone is generally a happier, positive person (or Pierrson), even with studies such as one from Adam et al., 2014 showing significant that emotions can be contagious without direct interaction between humans i.e exposure of a smile (expression of a positive emotion) would likely lead to positive emotions to the other party. On the other hand, a negative expression such as a frown would likely lead to negative emotions.
The school of thought in psychological aspects comes in very broad spectrum with different theories. These are my current thoughts/understandings of this topic, as well as personal experiences. Which will be bound to change as I learn & experience more things in the future. As with everything, take things with a grain of salt. Never stop learning. Indirectly, you could just be in flow with something you may realize further down your life.
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