Now, not all of these factors need to be present in order to achieve flow state, but they are the emotions and responses most often associated with this mental state. Feeling control over the situation and the outcome.Knowing that your skills align with the goals of the task.Being able to immediately judge your own progress instant feedback on your performance.Timelessness losing track of time passing.Participating in an intrinsically rewarding activity.Having clear goals about what you want to achieve.Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.” The ten factors that can accompany this state of flow are: Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Before you know it, time has flown past, the race is over, and though your chest is heaving, you barely notice that you are tired.Īccording to positive psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, what you experience in that moment is known as flow state, defined as an “optimal state of consciousness where we feel our best and perform our best.” Csíkszentmihályi, who popularized the term in his 1990 book, the mental state of flow involves “being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. You are focused and sure, challenging yourself to achieve something you know is right within your reach. Deep breaths behind the starting line keep your pounding heart at bay, and every second seems to be an eternity yet, as soon as the starting gun sounds and your feet hit the track, every thought slides from your mind. Three hours will feel like 30 seconds in a state of flow.Imagine the moment before running a race. A change in your perception of time. Experiencing this state gives you the feeling that time has compressed.What this does is create a kind of “freedom” effect inside you. You lose your sense of self-awareness. In these kinds of states, it’s almost like your sense of self has completely disappeared.It’s like a compass for your self-knowledge. A feeling of control. When you’re flowing, you feel very in control of what’s happening.Exclusion of other information. In a state of flow, there’s no room for information unrelated to the activity at hand.Feeling like you’re on the right track adds intensity to your experience. Direct, immediate feedback. People need to get short-term feedback to reinforce their behavior. If they’re vague or unclear, your attention will fade. Csikszentmihalyi found that we get more enjoyment out of things when we have clear goals. Your whole being focuses on one thing, and you enter an extreme state of concentration. Focus and concentration. In a flow state, your focus is so centered that the world and your ego completely disappear.A challenge that makes you use all your skills. If the challenge demands the highest level of your skills, it’s very likely you’ll start to flow. That helped him reach a definition of some of the things that come up when you enter a state of flow. Here they are: The state of flow also goes by another name: “optimal experience”.Ĭsikszentmihalyi did a 12-year study with people all over the world. He discovered that, regardless of age, nationality, or conditions of life, almost everyone described optimal experience in a very similar way. The outcome of all this is harmony, balance, and most importantly, happiness. Basically, you want to be there doing what you’re doing. What it is, then, is a state where you focus all your attention on the task or activity at hand. You also have a deep motivation to go along with that attention. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.” Here’s how Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi described the state of flow: “ being completely involved in an acitivty for its own sake. A lot of people would call this “being in the zone,” in other words: full absorption in something and complete happiness while you’re doing it. The idea behind Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s theory is that people are much happier when they enter a state of “flow”. This happens when you do something that completely captures your attention. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and the concept of “flowing”
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