Flow

Have you ever experienced time-loss while painting a woodshed (I am not talking about alien abductions here)? Ever thought much about it? No? Well, someone has.

Professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, of the Department of Psychology at the University of Chicago, has devoted his life’s work to investigating what really makes people happy, satisfied and ffilled. When he at one time interviewed a number of art students he found an important clue. When some of these students were working on a picture, or painting, they completely lost all consciousness of time, became immensely focused and had a strong sensation of euphoria. When the picture was completed, the artist simply threw it away. It was the working process, not the picture itself, that was important. This gave professor Csikszentmihalyi an important clue to what was to become the theory of flow.

In “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience” Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi elaborates his hypothesis of "optimal experience", i.e. those times when people report feelings of concentration and deep enjoyment. Flow is a state of mind in which your concentration is so completely focused that it amounts to absolute absorption in an activity. During the flow experience your whole body, mind and consciousness become ordered and harmoniously directed. Everyday experiences become a moment by moment opportunity for joy and self-ffilment. Feelings of chaos, indecision and anxiety disappear. Self-consciousness and worries recede. In these exceptional moments whatever you do becomes worth doing for its own sake; living becomes its own justification.

This phenomenon is not a new one, however. Zen Buddhists have practised zazen (lit. sitting meditation) for hundreds of years in order to invoke a higher state of consciousness. Surgeons can operate for eight ours straight, while operating teams are replaced around them. Athletes focused on their activity can make hours fly by in a second. Although the methods of achieving these states of mind differ, the underlying principle remains the same. In “The Evolving Self” professor Csikszentmihalyi underlines the following characteristic dimensions of the flow experience:

• Clear goals: an objective is distinctly defined and you get immediate feedback. You instantly know how well you are doing.
• The opportunities for acting decisively are relatively high, and they are matched by your perceived ability to act. In other words, personal skills are well suited to given challenges.
• Action and awareness merge; you have a one-pointedness of mind.
• Concentration on the task at hand; irrelevant stimi disappear from your consciousness and worries are temporarily suspended.
• A sense of potential control.
• Loss of self-consciousness and a transcendence of ego boundaries; you get a sense of growth and of being part of some greater entity.
• Altered sense of time, which usually seems to pass faster.
• Experience becomes autotelic (worth doing for its own sake)

In short, the key to experiencing flow is to challenge yourself with tasks that require a high degree of skill and commitment, but still are possible for us to manage. Do not do things on routine. Find different approaches to doing your laundry or term papers. This will perhaps enable you to feel the joy of absolute commitment. Spice up your life.