As you have experienced a lot through mental practice, our normal condition is not one of the flow, but is wandering in the mind. It is a state in which our focus increases between ideas about the present moment and the past and the future. When we follow the presence, we regularly begin to change our attention to the present moment, whenever our brain rotates.
This is the same as paying attention to engagement. Think of it as “the presence of guidance” or as the presence of the activities in which we are engaged, whether it is brainstorming with colleagues, exercising, meeting your partner, or putting your children on the bed. Psychologists have the name of a state of full engagement. They call it “flow”.
One of the first psychologists to research this experiment, Mehli Ceszantamiyli, talks about it in his book Flow: Maximum experience psychology. He describes the flow as “a state in which people involve so much activity that nothing else does not matter. This experience itself enjoys that people will do it at a cost, even at a great price.”
The condition of the flow and the mind -making
According to the definition, you can experience presence at any time, anywhere: lying on the beach, walking on your car, or sitting in traffic. It can be either inactive or active. On the other hand, the flow is a fully active state that feels almost ease. According to the Casseinmheli, the ideal conditions for flow arise when “challenges and skills are equal and equal to each other.”
Many top players, artists and intellectuals describe this experience. Greek tennis champion Stephanos Stsipas recently described the dramatic change between him when he was playing usually, while he was playing in a state of flow: “It felt like I was in a cage and someone decided to open it. I felt suddenly free. I felt every decision.” “It brings you to another level. You are not playing more with your skills, you are playing with your soul.”
The flow does not always come natural. We often have to fight the temptation of short -term happiness to get there.
Legendary Jazz Bustest Buster Williams remembers his experience of playing with Mel Davis, which has encouraged him. “With miles, it will reach the place where we followed music instead of music. We follow the music wherever we wanted to go.”
These specifications can make the flow of mystical mystical, but you do not need to become a star tennis player or a legendary jazist boss to experience the state of full engagement. Whether it is in the morning’s difficult race during an important PTA meeting, or by presenting a presentation at work, the flow is something that everyone can access. For example, research by Sisxinatomy has shown that full -time careers are as likely to experience this state as players and musicians. One mother described her engagement condition when she worked with her daughter when she was discovering something new. “It is one thing that she is really, and we read together. She reads to me, and I read it, and this is the time when I lose contact with the whole world. I am completely absorbed in what I am doing.”
FOMO – the flow of missing?
Csikszentmihalyi and fellow researcher Martin Seligman’s research illuminates the relationship between flow and well -being. In one study, his team has 250 “height” and 250 “low -flowing” teenage young people at certain times throughout the day. When the team reviewed the reaction, low -flowing teenagers spent most of their time expired, and it is said that they were either roaming the goods or watching television. On the contrary, high -rise teenagers were more likely to spend their time in developing hobbies, educational interests and athletic abilities.
How did these two groups scored on happiness measures? It was found that the high -flowing group overtook the low -flowing group on every step of psychological well -being, except one. Selgman writes, “The exception is important: high -flowing children think that their low flowers are having more fun, and they say they are performing all these ‘entertainment’ things in the goods or watching television.”
The only disadvantage of experiencing the flow was the feeling of losing short -term pleasures. Happiness that fails to create long -term happiness. This research can draw two helpful conclusions.
First of all, engagement is associated with the increase in happiness and welfare. The more we live in a state of flow, the more we grow and experience meaningful success. However, facing mental health challenges, such as depression and anxiety, can be compatible with less ability to access flow. In a 2022 study published in PLOS One, researchers inspected 664 musicians (a population of anxiety rate) and the factors that make them perform and make it viable in a state of flow. Researchers found that the more the musician reported the problem, the less likely to experience the flow.
Secondly, the flow does not always come natural. We often have to fight the temptation of short -term happiness to get there. When we do, we set a phase of this wonderful experience of complete absorption at work.
3 accessories for the state of flow
As csikszentmihalyi and subsequent flow researchers have identified, three key conditions are required to experience the flow:
1. A combination of a clear and meaningful targets for your activity, which helps change your attention.
2. The challenging nature of the activity and a sense of balance between the level of your skill to navigate it, which makes it feel absorbed in activity.
3. Clear, quick opinions tell you how far you are developing and where you can improve.
Flow This to create these ideal conditions, keep busy and meaningful work for 10 minutes (or more) every day (or more) every day. Close or silence your phone, turn off your browser and email, and close the TV to eliminate digital disturbances. Now, use these 10 minutes to focus on a project, work, or hobby you are difficult and difficult to enjoy. If you make a mistake or no result is your intention, instead of criticizing yourself, look at it as an opinion and adjust what you are doing accordingly.
You can also try to change the duration of engagement and relaxation and recovery periods. Note that when your thinking starts to decrease or when you are no longer working at the highest level of focus. Then take the time to allow your brain to recharge, change your behavior: walking, pulling, or taking some deep breaths. Finally, regenerate your brain by saving your mind and body to save a well -earned break. Neuro scientist Judson Brever says that when we start to see it, it’s powerful: “What happens when I get stuck in thinking, compared to what I see when I see the physical feelings that are trying to tell us to work, and just have to stay with them?
How to enter in a state of flow
For some people, the flow comes almost naturally. Mozart started playing concerts at the age of six. Picasso painted his first masterpiece in eight. People like Mozart and Picasso do not need to consciously train engagement skills. This experience of complete absorption in work initially becomes a way of life.
However, for most of us, a little more exercise and reflection is needed to discover how to go into a state of flow.
The first step is to identify activities that offer flow capacity. There are three points that are at work or at home to help you identify it, may be conducive to the flow condition for you.
- Challenge: Remember that when things are easy, there is no flow. This is actually the opposite. The flow arises when we bring our abilities and abilities to their limit. What are the activities that challenge you?
- Excitement: The lack of flow and interest does not run together. You don’t have to love the activity you are doing, but it helps if you choose something that you can at least enjoy to some extent. What do you enjoy doing?
- Skills: Flow requires a certain level of skill. Learning your first song on the piano is less likely to flow than a twenty -year experience concert pianardic. You do not need to have full skills, but it is important to achieve high level skills. What is your highly developed or natural skills?
Write your answers to these three questions on a paper sheet. Then take some time to consider the activities of your life that allow you to experience these three features.
Adapted from Start here: Master the lifetime habit of fitness Eric Langshore and Net Clamps, PhD.
