Living in the Flow

The Flow

What does living in “The Flow” mean? I suppose there are as many answers to this as there are stars in the sky, but for the sake of this post I will do my best to define it with a few relevant matches. I tend to follow the work of Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi who has done a tremendous amount of research on being in the flow (or zone). He identifies nine factors or charactreristics of being in the flow:

  1.  Clear goals (expectations and rules are discernible and goals are attainable and align appropriately with one’s skill set and abilities). Moreover, the challenge level and skill level should both be high.

    I think often people forget the challenge level and skill level should be high -  Tom

  2. Concentrating and focusing, a high degree of concentration on a limited field of attention (a person engaged in the activity will have the opportunity to focus and to delve deeply into it).

    Can Concentrating and focusing be learned? I’ll talk about this more in upcoming posts. – Tom

  3. A loss of the feeling of self-consciousness, the merging of action and awareness.

    To me, this is one of the most fascinating aspects. It seems like when we are in the flow that we don’t even have to try. -Tom

  4. Distorted sense of time, one’s subjective experience of time is altered.
  5. Direct and immediate feedback (successes and failures in the course of the activity are apparent, so that behavior can be adjusted as needed).
  6.  Balance between ability level and challenge (the activity is neither too easy nor too difficult).

    I find this very true for myself. Too difficult is frustrating; to easy is boring. – Tom

  7. A sense of personal control over the situation or activity.
  8. The activity is intrinsically rewarding, so there is an effortlessness of action.

    The reward factor is something that gives that feeling of internal gratification, hence “The Flow.” -Tom

  9. People become absorbed in their activity, and focus of awareness is narrowed down to the activity itself, action awareness merging.

    When we become one with the activity, it is the most awesome aspect of flow as far as I’m concerned. Totally effortless, totally free. -Tom

Not all of the nine factors are needed for flow to be experienced.

I’ll be doing several upcoming post delving further into each of the nine factors of the flow.

Tom Troughton
Clearing Techniques – Clearing Your  Mental Roadblocks

 

June 14th, 2009 in Clearing Techniques, Goal Setting, Happiness | tags: , , , , , , ,