Flow States

10 Key excerpts on "Flow States"

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  eBook - ePub

  How Creativity Happens in the Brain

  • Arne Dietrich(Author)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  Ask any athlete or artist about flow experiences, and you will be treated to sound bites about time flying by, ecstatic experiences, being lost in the moment, and spontaneous joy, never mind the best job they have ever done. Flow is a common experience and the concept is intuitively appealing. For those who haven’t come under its spell, here is a short description. Flow is a highly attentive state of consciousness characterized by effortless, fluid, and graceful action. A flow experience ensues when one becomes so deeply focused on a task and pursues it with such passion that all else disappears, including the passage of time, worry of failure, or the sense of authorship. The person enters a tunnel, an almost euphoric state of bliss, in which the task at hand is performed, without strain or effort, to the best of the person’s ability (Dietrich, 2007a). According to the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1996), the high priest of the flow state, any activity can produce flow as long as it is a challenging task that demands intense concentration and commitment, contains clear goals, provides immediate feedback, and is perfectly matched to the person’s skill level.

  The topic of optimal human functioning has a long history in humanistic and health psychology. In the 1940s, the psychologist Abraham Maslow called such memorable moments of self-actualization peak experiences and described them as being filled with happiness, fulfillment, and achievement that create a feeling of realizing one’s human potential. Some say that flow – if not an altered state – is at the very least a special state of consciousness. To be sure, a shortlist of key phenomenological features includes the usual suspects. People invariably report the typical one-pointedness of mind, the mental singularity that occurs when the muscle of attention is flexed and a single event becomes the exclusive content of consciousness. Activities in flow are done for their own sake, the ego takes a leave of absence, and distractions are eliminated from awareness, especially complex, meta-analytical processes such as self-reflection, worry of failure, or fantasies of success. Time loses its meaning, and one becomes so immersed in the task that the here and now is the only realm of existence. The flow experience, you understand, is not limited to musicians, painters, or freestyle skiers. It can also occur, and regularly does, in unsung activities like house cleaning, garbage collecting, or on-the-fly lying about your whereabouts. Total immersion by itself alone isn’t enough. Being absorbed in watching a movie or reading a gripping novel doesn’t count. The essence of flow is the merging of perception and action, the smooth, rapid-fire integration of sensory input and motor output that cleanly bypasses the centers of higher thought and consciousness. That’s why meditation, for instance, isn’t a flow state. It doesn’t include a skilled movement sequence.

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  Holistic Leadership

  A New Paradigm for Today's Leaders

  • Satinder Dhiman(Author)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  38 The discoveries from these studies profoundly changed the way we look at peak performance and workplace engagement and fulfillment. According to Csikszentmihalyi, flow refers to a state of total immersion, effortless concentration, and rapt enjoyment in an activity in which one loses any sense of space, time, and self. First proposed by Csikszentmihalyi, flow is the mental state of operation in which the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing, characterized by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity. It is marked by a certain delightful effortlessness borne of complete identification with the task at hand. FLOW & HAPPINESS: IMPLICATIONS FOR LEADERS Why do leaders need to study the art and science of flow and happiness? What is the link between flow and creativity? What is the link between hap- piness at work and workplace success and well-being? We believe knowing answers to these questions is vital for leaders today, given the fact that majority of US workers are not engaged at work, as indicated by a series of recent Gallup polls. 39 As Steven Kotler put it: “Flow directly correlates to happiness at work and happiness at work directly correlates to success.” 40 Creativity triggers flow and flow strengthens creativity. Studies show that there is direct link between happiness and business outcomes. According to Shawn Achor, who has researched extensively in 38 See “Flow States: Answers To The Three Most Common Questions About Optimal Performance,” Retrieved February 18, 2016: http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenkot- ler/2014/02/09/flow-states-answers-to-the-three-most-common-questions-about-opti- mal-performance/#5a396e953d1533fc83393d15. 39 Recent Gallup polls have indicated that 71 percent of US workers were “not engaged”, or “actively disengaged” from their jobs. See Gallup Report: “70 % of US workers not engaged at work.” State of the American Workplace.

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  Interdisciplinarity for the 21st Century

  • Bharath Sriraman, Viktor Freiman(Authors)
  • 2010(Publication Date)
  • Information Age Publishing

    (Publisher)

  Teachers might then direct students to deal efficiently with their emotional experiences, to use these in guiding students’ thoughts and behaviors, and moreover in steer-ing students toward favorable conditions leading to positive emotional experiences. One such positive experience is the flow experience. Csikszentmihalyi (1975) developed flow theory, a theoretical account of the experiences of intrinsically motivated individuals who choose to engage in an activity for its own sake. Flow is “defined as a psychological state in which the person feels simultaneously cognitive efficient, motivated, and happy” (Moneta & Csikszentmihalyi, 1996, p. 277). According to Csikszentmihalyi (1975, 1990) the following dimensions characterize the flow experience: chal-lenge-skill balance, clear goals, immediate feedback, intense and focused concentration, merging of action and awareness, perception of control, altered perception of time, intrinsic reward, loss of self-consciousness. Central to the state of flow is the fragile balance between the personal capabilities and the perceived challenges of a task. If challenges exceed personal skills, the individual could experience anxiety; respectively, if personal skills exceed challenges, then the individual might become bored. Experiencing either anxiety or boredom pushes the individual to regulate his or her level of challenge or skill in order to escape the two unpleasant states and re-enter a state of flow. Experiencing flow could encourage the individual to persevere in an activity because of the rewards it possesses. In a state of flow, the individual’s feelings, thoughts, wishes, and actions are well balanced. This state induces in the individual the desire to replicate the flow experience. But deeper than the wish to repeat the flow experience is the enjoyment, the satisfaction, and accom-plishment the flow experience brings (Seifert & Hedderson, 2009).

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  Enabling Positive Change

  Flow and Complexity in Daily Experience

  • Paolo Inghilleri, Giuseppe Riva, Eleonora Riva(Authors)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • De Gruyter Open Poland

    (Publisher)

  It has been validated in Italian by Muzio and col-leagues (2012)), and shows how the experience of a flow state can be explained by nine dimensions as described by Csikszentmihalyi (1990): – D1. Balance between challenge and skills. Every action involves different oppor-tunities to act, that require specific abilities. During flow state, people perceive the situation as stimulating and challenging, while individual resources are bal-anced and adequate to the situation. – D2. Union between action and conscience. This dimension refers to total involve-ment in the action, so that automatisms allow the person experiencing a flow state to give a more fluid performance, avoiding perception of exertion or intru-sive thoughts. – D3. Clear objectives. To live an optimal experience, coherent and non-contradic-tive information is necessary. Having clear, defined and measurable objectives is important to increase motivation and give a meaning to the experience. From Nine Dimensions to Mental Preparation 143 – D4. Immediate and direct feedback. During performance, it is necessary that people receive clear and timed feedback from the situation, so that they can con-stantly monitor how they’re doing with their task and reach their expected goals. – D5. Focus on task. Attention is focused uniquely on the ongoing task and there’s no space for unnecessary information. – D6. Sense of control. This dimension refers to the perception that people have, in a flow state, of an automatic and spontaneous control. – D7. Loss of self-consciousness. People perceive themselves as part of the task they’re carrying out. Psychological energy is completely focused on the action and they feel free and careless of other people’s judgment. The feeling that one’s limits can be overcome increases the feeling of perceived self-efficacy. – D8. Distortion of time. The sense of time is altered: in some cases it is perceived as slowed down, in others it feels sped up.

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  10 Simple Solutions to Stress

  • Wheeler, Claire Michaels(Authors)
  • 2007(Publication Date)
  • New Harbinger Publications

    (Publisher)

  Flow can happen during many different activities. Have you ever been so involved in doing something that you lost track of time? One moment flows into the next, and you’re thinking, but only about what you’re doing. You’re not dis- tracted by worries about the future or regrets from the past. This is truly blissful, being in the here and now, fully focused. In my life, I have experienced flow while nursing my babies, skiing down big mountains, rock climbing, and playing the piano. Dancing is another way that I access flow. Take a moment and ask yourself what things you have done that engaged your full attention in a pleasurable, rhyth- mic way, without being stressful. In your journal, write down a few of the best moments of your life. Pick the top three, and see if you can describe what made them so good, besides the objective circumstances. How did you experience your body during those times? What was your perception of time? Did it seem to slow down or speed up? What was your emotional state? How did things register to your senses—visually, auditorily, by touch, taste, and smell? In a moment, we’ll look at Csikszentmihalyi’s explanation of the flow state, and you can check back and see what aspects of your personal peak experiences correspond to his thinking about flow. Flow state has several characteristic qualities. They refer to the task that a person is engaged in and to the state the per- son enters while performing the task. Let’s consider each of these characteristics. 74 10 Simple Solutions to Stress Clear Goals In flow, you always know what needs to be done; for example, the musician knows what notes to play next. There is a great deal of evidence in the social and health psychology literature that having goals promotes health. This is, in part, because long- and short-term goals lead to immediate inten- tions, and, according to some theorists, intention is the most important determinant of behavior.

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  Positive Psychology

  A Critical Introduction

  • Giovanni Moneta(Author)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Bloomsbury Academic

    (Publisher)

  flow the simultaneous enactment of these six themes, and set out to search for its origins and consequences.

  Flow is a state of profound task-absorption, enhanced cognitive efficiency, and deep intrinsic enjoyment that makes a person feel one with the activity. To put it simply, flow is fun, as any everyday life activity – whether it is socially defined as ‘work’ or ‘leisure’ – can lead to flow; so that, if we find flow recurrently in daily activities we will live a more enjoyable and fulfilling life.

  Yet, is flow any good other than for providing enjoyment and inner fulfilment? Thirty years after introducing the concept of flow, Csikszentmihalyi (1996) interviewed 91 outstanding individuals in the fields of science, business, and the arts, and asked them to report their experience prior to conceiving novel ideas and seeing them recognized by peers as major innovations. Intense and recurrent flow in work emerged as the main theme underlying each innovation.

  Flow Theory states that flow has a direct impact on subjective well-being by promoting the experience of happiness in the here and now (Csikszentmihalyi, 1982). Moreover, the theory states that flow has a long-lasting indirect effect on subjective well-being in that it motivates a person to face and master increasingly difficult tasks, thus promoting lifelong organismic growth (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). Therefore, Flow Theory constitutes a synthesis of hedonic and eudaimonic approaches to subjective well-being, and has the potential to allow for the quadrature of the circle, that is, for enabling to construct a life that combines enjoyment, fulfilment, and achievement with happiness.

  In terms of its relationships with other constructs in the field of positive psychology, flow is everywhere and nowhere, so to speak. The concept of flow is related to the concept of intrinsic motivation, which we reviewed in Chapter 3 (

  section Intrinsic Motivation, Extrinsic Motivation, and Self-Determination

  ) and Chapter 4 (

  section Trait Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation

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  Threshold Concepts in Physical Education

  A Design Thinking Approach

  • Fiona C. Chambers, David Aldous, Anna Bryant, Fiona C. Chambers, David Aldous, Anna Bryant(Authors)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Roumpou (2018) asserts that athletes (and all humans) strive for eudaimonia. Athletes have described moments of this in their career, that is, wherein they experienced a telic, uplifting feeling of skill mastery, mental happiness, enhanced self-esteem, a sense of intellectual enjoyment, transcendence, an ecstasy or euphoria state (Cooper, 1998). Murphy (1996) describes this as:

  a mystical and … unique place wherein execution is outstanding and continuous, automated and flowing. An athlete is able to disregard every all the challenges and demands and enable his or her body deliver the execution that has been learned so well (p. 4).

  This is a phenomenon of being in flow, or the zone. Roumpou (2018) connects self-actualisation and eudaimonia as they appear to have the characteristics of cognitive states such as peak experience, mindfulness, flow and the zone (Csíkszentmihályi & LeFevre, 1989). Flow is highly correlated with eudaimonia (Csíkszentmihályi, 1997; 2000). When an individual proficiently engages in a stimulating activity, he/she is in flow and is at his/her most fulfilled. It must be a demanding activity which tests competences. Time and ego do not exist and if the individual loves the activity, he/she may experience a form of transcendence during it (Csíkszentmihályi, Abuhamdeh & Nakamura, 2005). Huta & Ryan (2010) describe how self-actualisation and eudaimonia are the catalysts for human endeavour. Eudaimonia involves an uplifted state which embodies wonderment, transcendence and motivation and a feeling of excellence. Chatfield (2012) describes it as human thriving and flourishing. Every child should attain this eudaimonic state in PE. In terms of human movement (and PE), performance flow is correlated with eudaimonia and self-actualisation –we will look at this phenomenon in the next section.

  Performance flow

  A flow state also commonly referred to as being ‘in the zone,’ is an optimal psychological state that people experience when there is a perceived balance between the demands/challenges of an activity and the skills/competencies they possess to perform that activity (Csíkszentmihályi, 1990). This perceived balance allows individuals to let go of concerns regarding performance outcomes because they believe that they possess the necessary skills to meet the challenges of the activity. A critical aspect of flow is therefore not the objective level of difficulty of the activity or the actual skill level of the individuals, but rather their perception of the activity's challenges and the skills they possess (Csikszentmihalyi, 1975). Allison and Duncan (1995) found that flow is described similarly among the sexes, people from different socioeconomic status, education levels and from cultural backgrounds. When the individuals have a perceived balance between challenges and skills, they will experience a state of heightened concentration and energised focus that enables them to become fully absorbed in the activity, which is conducive to productivity (Carter & Graef, 2016; Jackson & Roberts, 1992; Swan et al., 2018). However, there is no activity that inevitably elicits flow, since various variables, such as personality traits, play a role in the generation of flow. The term ‘flow experience’ was first used by psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi in 1975 and in his seminal work on flow and the state of ‘optimal being.’ Csíkszentmihályi's work on flow stemmed from his early work on happiness and theorised that people are most happy when they are in a state of flow. Through extensive research on the subject, Csíkszentmihály identified nine defining characteristics of flow experience. The first is the perceived challenge/skill balance previously discussed. The second is the margining of action and awareness leading to automaticity. Third, is clear goals that provide a strong sense of what the individual is doing. Fourth, is unambiguous feedback, meaning there is immediate and clear feedback regarding the success of goals. Fifth, is total concentration on the activity being performed. The sixth characteristic is the paradox of control, which involves a sense of having control without actively trying to be in control. Seventh, is a loss of self-consciousness, where concerns for the self-dissipate and the individual becomes one with the activity being performed. Eighth, is the transformation of time resulting in a loss of time awareness. And finally, the ninth characteristic is an intrinsically rewarding experience (Jackson, 1996).

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  Flow at Work

  Measurement and Implications

  • Clive Fullagar, Antonella Delle Fave(Authors)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Flow in the Context of Industrial and Organizational Psychology The case of work motivation

  Patrick Knight and Christopher Waples

  Flow is a subjective state experienced when individuals are completely absorbed in an enjoyable activity. It comprises an exclusive, intense concentration on the task at hand, and subsequent enhancement of subjective experience (Csikszentmihalyi, 1975). Although limited, there is evidence that flow may be associated with positive organizational outcomes (Eisenberger, Jones, Stinglhamber, Shanock, & Randall, 2005) and work performance (Demerouti, 2006). As evidenced by the current volume, we are witnessing the emergence of interest in incorporating flow into the work psychology literature.

  However, it can be argued that, to date, the concept of flow has not garnered significant attention in industrial and organizational psychology (I/O) research and theory, at least in the United States. The term “flow” does not appear in the subject indices of three separate handbooks of I/O psychology published since 2003 (Weiner, Borman, Ilgen, & Klimoski, 2003; Weiner, Schmitt, & Highhouse, 2013; Zedeck, 2011). A search for “flow” in the titles and abstracts of all programs and presentations at the annual conferences of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology from 2003 to 2014 reveals only twelve poster presentations (Culbertson, Fullagar, Simmons, & Zhu, 2014; Eisenberger, Jones, Shanock, & Teglund, 2004; Freeman, Waples, Fullagar, & Knight, 2011; Fullagar, 2006; Fullagar & Kelloway, 2008; Fullagar, Knight, & Sovern, 2009; Ross, Wood, & Keiser, 2014; Rupayana, 2009; Sackett, Schmidt, & Shanock, 2007; Waples, Knight, & Fullagar, 2013; Waples, Stetzer, & Knight, 2014, Waples, Stetzer, Knight, Sackett, & Fullagar, 2012), nine of which, incidentally, had authors associated with a single academic department. A PsychINFO search for the terms “flow” or “optimal experience” in the titles of articles published in the leading academic journal in I/O, the Journal of Applied Psychology , found no hits as of June 2014. The same was true for Academy of Management Journal , Academy of Management Review , Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes , and Personnel Psychology. Three articles meeting these search criteria were found in the Journal of Organizational Behavior (Ceja & Navarro, 2011; Demerouti, Bakker, Sonnentag, & Fullagar, 2012; Eisenberger et al., 2005), two in the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology (Fullagar & Kelloway, 2009; Mäkikangas, Bakker, Aunola, & Demerouti, 2010), and two in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology

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  The Routledge Handbook of Media Use and Well-Being

  International Perspectives on Theory and Research on Positive Media Effects

  • Leonard Reinecke, Mary Beth Oliver, Leonard Reinecke, Mary Beth Oliver(Authors)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  First and most important is the notion of balance; that is, the sense that one’s skills are an adequate fit for the task challenge presented. Second, flow requires intense focused attention (absorption) such that few resources remain for attending to self-consciousness or monitoring the passing of time. Finally, balance and focus yield a pleasant experience that is both inherently rewarding (autotelic) and not perceived as taxing, even when the task challenge is high. Importantly, flow is not a continuous construct – it is a state. There is no smooth transition between a no-flow state and a flow state – transitions are sudden and likely due to high levels of absorption associated with the flow-inducing task. More colloquially, the flow experience is often referred to as being “in the zone.” Task challenge and individual skill are conceptualized as causal antecedents to flow experiences (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). No-flow experiences, for instance the experience of boredom, occur when an individual’s skills exceed the challenges presented. Likewise, excessive challenge paired with too little skill yields a frustrating experience. The view that flow experiences represent a “middle ground” between boredom and frustration is commonly referred to as the “channel model” of flow. While valid, this three-state model ignores other affective states that are particularly relevant to media psychologists (Westcott-Baker & Weber, 2012). Accordingly, modern conceptualizations of the model include eight different affective states that result from various combinations of challenge and skill (Nakamura & Csikszentmihalyi, 2005)

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  Up to the Challenge

  Teaching Resilience and Responsibility in the Classroom (An impactful resources that demonstrates how to build resilience in the classroom)

  • Jay Jackson(Author)
  • 2023(Publication Date)
  • Solution Tree Press

    (Publisher)

  I’m not going to say that the experience was divine, but it did make me feel godlike: wrestling at the time felt effortless, and everything seemed to move in slow motion. Additionally, I didn’t care at all about the score. I recall saying, “Wow, that was a great move!” both when I scored on my competitor and he scored on me. I even said out loud, “This is awesome!”

  The outcome didn’t matter, just the moment; I had become the moment. I felt immense happiness and enthusiasm. There are several names for what I was experiencing—in the zone, optimal performance level, flow state. All I know is this: if I could replicate this feeling repeatedly, I would. It felt that good. And if I could feel like this while achieving something, I want to make sure students can get to this state, too. This chapter will share research on how to help foster flow by understanding how to decide the level of challenge necessary to achieve flow, reviewing the concept of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and provide two tools that can help you and your students to think about and, hopefully, practice flow in your classroom.

  The Definition of Flow

  During World War II, when he was around the age of ten, world-renowned psychologist and the man responsible for recognizing and coining the term flow Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Oppland, 2016) spent time in an Italian prison camp. During this period, he lost many friends and relatives, including one brother who was killed in action and another who was captured and sent to a Siberian labor camp. He discovered the game chess at this difficult time, calling it “a miraculous way of entering into a different world where all those things didn’t matter. For hours I’d just focus within a reality that had clear rules and goals” (as cited in Encyclopedia.com , n.d.). Csikszentmihalyi found that, by putting his full attention toward something challenging, he could find a way to be happy—taking his mind away from life’s tragedies and hardships.

  This idea of finding happiness even among chaos stuck with Csikszentmihalyi and eventually made it into his life’s work. He earned his doctorate in psychology and ran studies to learn more about experiences like his with chess during wartime. In 1990, he wrote Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience to outline his theory that the amount of time that a person spends focused on and committed to a task outside their comfort zone determines happiness. In other words, Csikszentmihalyi believes that individuals are at their most creative, productive, and joyful when they are in their flow state, where they must dedicate all their attention toward taking on a challenge. He defines flow

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