Finding Flow

Recently, I have found myself very inter­ested in the con­cept of “Flow” and the works of Mihaly Csik­szent­mi­ha­lyi.  Flow is the state that one expe­ri­ences when totally immersed in the moment — much like an ath­lete or a musi­cian.  In this state time and space are altered.  Hours pass in what seems to be min­utes, and skills and focus are opti­mized.  Csik­szent­mi­ha­lyi focuses on how human beings can tap into this Flow state, and in doing so, improve the qual­ity of life.  Flow typ­i­cally occurs you are chal­lenged, have clear goals, and receive reg­u­lar feed­back as to per­for­mance.  This can come from activ­i­ties like work­ing, play­ing music, com­pe­ti­tion in games, or engag­ing in con­ver­sa­tion with friends or loved ones.  If you are lucky you have about 70 years on this Earth.  30% of that is going to be spent asleep, and another 30% at work.   That leaves a good chunk of time for you to decide how to use.  The author asserts that to find hap­pi­ness one should ide­ally align work with free time — find­ing ways to bring enjoy­ment into how you earn a liv­ing and thus blur­ring the line between work and play.  Addi­tion­ally, one should limit “pas­sive leisure” activ­i­ties like watch­ing tele­vi­sion or mind­less media con­sump­tion in favor of more mean­ing­ful activ­i­ties.  He also rec­om­mends reg­u­lar reflec­tion on life to deter­mine what activ­i­ties are pro­duc­ing Flow for you and why.  This allows you to focus on ways to con­tin­u­ally improve the qual­ity of life, and fully engage in what is important.

As I strive to align the demands of fam­ily, work, school, and per­sonal growth, the Flow con­cept really res­onate with me.  It is a strug­gle to find a bal­ance between future and present, per­sonal and pro­fes­sional, growth and sta­bil­ity.  I am now con­sid­er­ing ways in which this con­cept of Flow applies to my life — the way in which I approach work, the way I inter­act with my fam­ily, and how I choose to spend my free time.  I am work­ing at truly engag­ing in life, becom­ing thor­oughly focused on the moment and choos­ing what I will I will do to fill my days with cre­ativ­ity and true happiness.

Mihaly Csik­szent­mi­ha­lyi — Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia