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April 29, 2022 Post a Comment

Desire to increase your well-being, inventiveness, and productivity?

If and so, yous might want to cultivateflow, a concept describingthose moments when you're completely captivated in a challenging but doable job.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, considered one of the co-founders of positive psychology, was the commencement to identify and research flow. (If you're not sure how to pronounce his name, here's a phonetic guide: "Me loftier? Cheeks send me high!")

"The all-time moments in our lives are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times . . . The best moments usually occur if a person's body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile"

(Csikszentmihalyi, 1990).

The experience of flow is universal and has been reported to occur across all classes, genders, ages, and cultures, and it tin can be experienced during many types of activities.

If you've ever heard someone describe a fourth dimension when their functioning excelled and they were "in the zone," they were likely describing an experience of flow. Flow occurs when your skill level and the challenge at hand are equal.

Read on to larn more about what flow is and how to cultivate it.

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Who is Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi?

Csikszentmihalyi became a happiness researcher considering of the arduousness he faced growing up. He was a prisoner during World War II, and he witnessed the pain and suffering of the people around him during this time. Every bit a result, he developed a curiosity about happiness and contentment.

Csikszentmihalyi observed that many people were unable to live a life of contentment later their jobs, homes, and security were lost during the war. After the war, he took an interest in art, philosophy, and religion as a mode to answer the question, What creates a life worth living?

Eventually, he stumbled upon psychology while at a ski resort in Switzerland. He attended a lecture by Swiss psychologist Carl Jung, who spoke of the traumatized psyches of the European people after Globe War Ii.

Csikszentmihalyi was so intrigued that he started to read Jung's piece of work, which in turn led him to the United states of america to pursue an education in psychology. He wanted to study the causes of happiness.

Finding Out What Happiness Really Is

Csikszentmihalyi's studies led him to conclude that happiness is an internal state of being, not an external one. His popular 1990 bookFlow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience is based on the premise that happiness levels tin be shifted by introducing flow.

Happiness is not a rigid, unchanging state, Csikszentmihalyi has argued. On the opposite, the manifestation of happiness takes a committed effort.

Beyond each person'due south set bespeak of happiness, there is a level of happiness over which each individual has some caste of control. Through research, Csikszentmihalyi began to understand that people were their most creative, productive, and happy when they are in a state of menstruum.

Csikszentmihalyi interviewed athletes, musicians, and artists because he wanted to know when they experienced optimal functioning levels. He was also interested in finding out how they felt during these experiences.

Csikszentmihalyi adult the term "flow land" considering many of the people he interviewed described their optimal states of performance as instances when their work simply flowed out of them without much attempt.

He aimed to discover what piques creativity, particularly in the workplace, and how creativity can lead to productivity. He determined that flow is not only essential to a productive employee, but information technology is imperative for a contented one equally well.

In Csikszentmihalyi's words, flow is "a state in which people are and so involved in an action that nothing else seems to thing; the experience is so enjoyable that people will continue to practice it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing information technology" (1990).

Here'southward a brusk video with a dandy explanation of menstruation:

Have you ever experienced menstruum? There are eight characteristics that this commodity delves into next.

The 8 Characteristics of Flow

Csikszentmihalyi describes 8 characteristics of flow:

Complete concentration on the task;
Clarity of goals and reward in mind and immediate feedback;
Transformation of time (speeding upward/slowing down);
The experience is intrinsically rewarding;
Effortlessness and ease;
There is a rest between challenge and skills;
Deportment and awareness are merged, losing cocky-conscious rumination;
There is a feeling of command over the task.

Who Experiences Flow?

Interestingly, the capacity to feel flow can differ from person to person. Studies advise that those with autotelic personalities tend to experience more than menstruation. Such people tend to practice things for their own sake rather than chasing some afar external goal. This type of personality is distinguished by certain meta-skills such every bit high interest in life, persistence, and low self-centeredness.

In a recent report investigating associations between flow and the five personality traits, researchers institute a negative correlation between flow and neuroticism and a positive correlation between menstruation and conscientiousness (Ullén et al., 2012).

It can be speculated that neurotic individuals are more prone to anxiety and self-criticism, which are conditions that tin disrupt a menses state. In contrast, conscientious individuals are more likely to spend time mastering challenging tasks–an important piece of the flow experience, specially in the workplace.

What Happens in the Brain During Flow?

The state of menstruation has rarely been investigated from a neuropsychological perspective, but information technology's becoming a focus of some researchers. According to Arne Dietrich, it has been associated with decreased activity in the prefrontal cortex (2003).

The prefrontal cortex is an surface area of the brain responsible for college cognitive functions such equally self-reflective consciousness, retentiveness, temporal integration, and working memory. It'due south an surface area that'south responsible for our conscious and explicit state of mind.

However, in a state of flow, this area is believed to temporarily downwardly-regulate in a process called transient hypofrontality. This temporary inactivation of the prefrontal area may trigger the feelings of distortion of time, loss of self-consciousness, and loss of inner critic.

Moreover, the inhibition of the prefrontal lobe may enable the implicit mind to take over, allowing more encephalon areas to communicate freely and engage in a creative process (Dietrich, 2004). In other enquiry, information technology'due south been hypothesized that the flow state is related to the brain's dopamine reward circuitry since curiosity is highly amplified during period (Gruber, Gelman, & Ranganath, 2014).

How to Achieve Flow

It'southward important to note that 1 can't feel flow if distractions disrupt the feel (Nakamura et al., 2009). Thus, to experience this state, ane has to stay away from the attending-robbers common in a modern fast-paced life. A first step would be to turn off your smartphone when seeking menstruum.

Also, the balance of perceived challenges and skills are important factors in flow (Nakamura et al., 2009). On the one manus, when a challenge is bigger than one's level of skills, one becomes anxious and stressed. On the other manus, when the level of skill exceeds the size of the claiming, one becomes bored and distracted.

Since the experience of this state is only in the middle, the balance is essential.

"Inducing flow is most the residue between the level of skill and the size of the challenge at paw"

(Nakamura et al., 2009).

The experience of period in everyday life is an important component of inventiveness and well-existence. Indeed, it can be described as a key aspect of eudaimonia, or self-actualization, in an individual. Since it is intrinsically rewarding, the more you practice information technology, the more y'all seek to replicate these experiences, which help lead to a fully engaged and happy life.

Don't Flow Lone

In one study, researchers from St. Bonaventure University asked students to participate in activities that would induce catamenia either in a team or by themselves (Walker, 2008).

Students rated menstruation to be more than enjoyable when in a team rather than when they were solitary. Students also found it more joyful if the team members were able to talk to i some other. This finding was replicated even when skill level and claiming were equal (Walker, 2008).

A final study found that being in an interdependent grouping while experiencing period is more than enjoyable than one that is not (Walker, 2008). So, if you desire to go more enjoyment out of flow, try engaging in activities together.

This echoes psychologist Christopher Peterson's conclusion that positive psychology tin exist summed up in three words: "Other people matter."

What is The Motivation Behind Your Flow Land?

Near conscious deportment require motivation, and in that location are 2 basic motivation types: intrinsic and extrinsic.

Intrinsic motivation is when you lot do something because you lot love it. Csikszentmihalyi said the highest intrinsic motivation is a flow land where self-consciousness is lost, one surrenders completely to the moment, and fourth dimension means nothing (2013). Think of a competent musician playing without thinking, or a surfer communicable a great moving ridge and riding it with joy.

Extrinsic motivation is when your motivation to succeed is controlled externally. That includes doing something to avoid getting into trouble or working hard to earn more money. That type of motivation is curt-lived. A expert kind of extrinsic motivation is when you are practicing to get better but you still need a tutor or teacher to validate your efforts.

Using Images To Boost Confidence And Flow

Psychologists Koehn et al. (2013) conducted research into unlike functioning contexts and the production of the menses state, looking specifically at the fashion imagery and confidence levels interact to create flow.

Participants completed imagery and confidence measures before undertaking a field test. Measuring the performance of a tennis groundstroke, the researchers constitute a significant interaction between imagery and conviction (Koehn et al., 2013).

Koehn and colleagues were able to demonstrate positive associations between imagery, confidence and the inducement of a flow country, which in turn predicts increased performance (2013). In essence, the conduction of a period state is seen to significantly increase operation levels in a given external task (Koehn et al., 2013).

TED Talk On Flow: The Secret To Happiness

We leave you with Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's 2004 TED Talk, which has more than 5 million views (and counting).

We'd love to hear from you. How ofttimes exercise yous experience flow, and what type of activities atomic number 82 to this feel?

Drop us a comment below or keep reading about the kind of activities that induce catamenia here.

We hope y'all enjoyed reading this article. Don't forget to download our iii Positive Psychology Exercises for free.

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Source: https://positivepsychology.com/mihaly-csikszentmihalyi-father-of-flow/

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