WTF is a Flow State?

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Nathan reviews and discusses the book "Flow" by Mihaly Csikszentmihlayi.

"Mihaly was a Hungarian-American psychologist. He recognized and named the psychological concept of "flow", a highly focused mental state conducive to productivity.[1][2] He was the Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Management at Claremont Graduate University. He was also the former head of the department of psychology at the University of Chicago and of the department of sociology and anthropology at Lake Forest College.[3]" - Wikipedia

What’s it all about?:

Flow states and how to use them in work and mental health management.

A flow state is what is happening inside the brain during peak experiences, like all your worries and comprehension of time disappear and you “lose yourself in the moment”.

Flow is kind of like absolute mindfulness, living in the present moment, engaged by what’s in front of you that you couldn’t worry about anything else if you tried.

The author's interest in psychology stems from his experiences pre and post-WW2 when the soviets took over hungry and people seem to lose much of their visor and zest for life. He wondered how some people can stay hopeful while others are entirely destroyed by external events.

He had some early interactions with Carl Jung which solidified his love of psychology. His main area of study is creativity.

His study on flow came about through a study on how to make everyday life more enjoyable, which he conducted by giving a random sample of people a book and a timer, the timer would go off at random intervals and the experimentee would write down what they are doing, who they are with and how they felt. They would do this 8-10 times per day. After a couple of weeks, you get a really good sample size for the study.

He found that clarity of goals is one of the main features of the flow state. Knowing what you want or have to do. So deeply that it becomes almost automatic.

We spend about 1/3rd of our lives working and most people find their jobs to be drudgery but if you can find ways to enjoy the repetitive tasks at work and in the less fun parts of home life overall a person's mental health and outlook will improve. In modern terms, this process is referred to as “gamification”.

Children in play, musicians playing a song or an athlete trying to beat their last record are good examples of flow states.

Common traits of activities that can consistently generate flow states are;
• Clear Goals.
• Clear, Constant and immediate feedback.
• The challenge is at or just above the skill level of the person.
• Attention is very focused.
• Everyday frustrations dissolve entirely
• Feeling of control.
• Ego collapse. Loss of sense of self. Can’t be self-conscious.
• The experience of time becomes distorted.