“In his seminal work, ‘Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience’, Csíkszentmihályi outlines his theory that people are most happy when they are in a state of flow— a state of concentration or complete absorption with the activity at hand and the situation. The idea of flow is identical to the feeling of being in the zone or in the groove. The flow state is an optimal state of intrinsic motivation, where the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing. This is a feeling everyone has at times, characterized by a feeling of great freedom, enjoyment, fulfillment, and skill—and during which temporal concerns (time, food, ego-self, etc.) are typically ignored.[citation needed]
In an interview with Wired magazine, Csíkszentmihályi described flow as “being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.”[3]
To achieve a flow state, a balance must be struck between the challenge of the task and the skill of the performer. If the task is too easy or too difficult, flow cannot occur.
The flow state also implies a kind of focused attention, and indeed, it has been noted that mindfulness meditation, yoga, and martial arts seem to improve a person’s capacity for flow. Among other benefits, all of these activities train and improve attention.
In short; flow could be described as a state where attention, motivation, and the situation meet, resulting in a kind of productive harmony or feedback.”
[Source] via fujacko
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10 Comments
Check it out. Was just musing on this myself yesterday.
Ideally, I would just like to stop not being in the zone, you know?
“Parkour teachers the practitioner how to stay in control, even when they make a mistake.”
Yeah, I really like this subject. I’m not sure how to continually maintain these states though, but I’m experimenting with techniques to do so lately. Diet and input/output I think has a lot to do with it, for starters.
Tangentially related, via @brainsturbator:
http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/200...2/26/mapping-infrastructure-and-flow/
Seems as if they could be talking about the iChing there…
Oops.
Seems *ALMOST* as if…
The article talking about flow in airports as well as the one about parkour are really talking about another kind of flow: the ability to move forwards without obstacles. This is not really related to Mihalyi C’s flow, which is about identifying the conditions that allow us to enter a particular state of consciousness.
Key elements include recognizing challenges in a process and matching them with current skill levels; projecting future goals and obtaining feedback on the development towards that goal; creating a set and setting conducive to concentration and creativity; minimizing boredom and anxiety.
The great thing about Mihalyi’s theory is that it addresses the human capacity for happiness from a supremely practical standpoint. This way it remains compatible with any system, scientific or not. It is scientifically derived (rigorously so) yet it just so happens to mesh elegantly with Eastern scientific thought and even magick. Flow is all about body-mind-environment harmony/transcendence, zen awareness, and metaprogramming!
What’s more, the model applies on all scales and all levels, from knitting a sweater to raising a family to seeking “enlightenment”.
I’ve researched the value of flow-based interaction in the context of computer-based music composition for my graduate studies and experienced its value first hand. I believe this stuff should be taught in school. It seems to be a great meme for self-reliant self-mastery in a world desperately in need of meaning. Mihalyi’s speaks of the need for an “autotelic self”, which is a self that creates its own meaning through process rather than result, synchronicity rather than competition, acceptance rather than judgement, and action rather than reaction. Warrior bard!
This sounds exactly like moving forward without obstacles to me, just on a purely mental level. My Parkour piece is a metaphoric way of exploring the same thing as Mihalyi’s “flow”. Training in a discipline like Parkour can help to create the mental conditions necessary for realizing the experience of “flow” that Mihalyi discusses, at least in the way that you describe it here:
This is exactly what I’m getting at with my Parkour article. Mastery of the mind by way of mastery of the body. I’m not a practitioner of Parkour, I’m just using it metaphorically to paint a picture of this exact same state of mind. I don’t see how this quote from my piece could describe anything other than Mihalyi’s idea of “flow”:
It’s “acceptance rather than judgement, and action rather than reaction”, and it’s the continuance of forward momentum in the face of obstacles. Moving without obstacles not because there are no obstacles, but because one’s manner of movement allows for all obstacles. It’s our natural, genuine state of being, if only we can stop ourselves from shying away from it.
Yeah, I may have been too quick in judging… I should have said that moving forward without obstacles is just a component of flow theory. There is much to gain from it.
Here is a summary/review of the theory in M.C.’s book. For the details on practical aspects you’ll need the book itself.
That’s the one thing books can’t do for us
Awesome, thanks fujako, will check out that link and will probably end up adding that book to my already towering “To Read” pile!
And @tmbchr: Check out the animated gif from the page fujako links to. Pretty awesome.
yeah that gif tripped me out!