Have you ever been in a state of engaging in an activity, totally engrossed, performing your best without the sense of time and everything else around you ? You may call this as being in groove or whatever. Have you wondered what factors put you right into this groove ? Can you put yourself into groove at your will ?
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, hungarian psychology proffessor, call this state as flow. Very interesting. You can follow the links to know more about the author and his books on this work. I am going to highlight the essence of his works with some commentary of my own.
Here are the highlights of the book:
- when one is in the flow state, he or she is completely engrossed with the task; loses awareness of all other things; time seems to stop for them; They may even tend to ignore other triggers such as hunger. Examples: Composing music, playing your favourite game, solving a puzzle, reading your favourite book, writing story, having sex, etc.
- The author noticed that the artists who spend significant time painting, totally absorbed into the activity, enjoying it immensely, once finished showed little interest in it. The artist was not driven by the external factors such as money or fame. Then what drives this ? What gives that immense happiness ? What factors put him/her into such a state ?
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There seems to be many factors which contribute to be in "Flow" state:
- The activity may be a form of socially acceptable expression of one's repressed instinctual cravings;
- The desire for “self-actualization” - To find and express all the capacities and potentials of the self.
- The curiosity - The desire to know the truth.
- The author underlines that-- to be in flow, usually the task should be challenging enough -- otherwise there may be anxiety (if it is too hard) or boredom (too easy). I would like to point out that this is not applicable for all tasks, for example listening to your favourite music and losing yourself.
- If one enjoys the state of 'flow' in work then he/she does not need different play activity for leisure -- because they enjoy more pleasure from work than play.
- The person who can enter flow state easily, is said to be autotelic personality. An autotelic person is usually more internally driven as opposed to external factors such as money, fame and material comforts.
- If enjoyment (of flow state) is not linked to an overall meaning or purpose in life, one is still subject to psychic entropy or chaos.
- The author notes that the optimal experience of flow state occurs when these isolated flow experiences fall in line with the over all purpose in life (i.e. whatever the person believes the purpose is).
I think, once we are aware of the factors-- what helps to go into 'Flow' and what does not, we can create appropriate situations. Or even deliberately make an activity bit more challenging to keep ourselves engaged. Not only that, by making sure the activities we choose fit well into our over all purpose of life, we can jump into Flow, deliver the best that we can -- won't that be an optimal life ?
I believe I am autotelic. I can easily relate to this.
What about you ?
See also:
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