Finding Flow to Expand Happiness
The benefits of finding flow

Have you ever been so absorbed in an activity or project that time seemed to stop? Where you felt so happily lost in something that you worked, played, or created for hours on end? That experience is something experts call “flow,” and finding flow can help you tap into a greater sense of meaning, purpose, and even happiness.

What Is Flow?

Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi first described this phenomenon as “flow” after completing hundreds of interviews with people in various walks of life.

He sought to understand why scientists, musicians, artists, athletes, and others felt a higher level of contentment or happiness, and each interview revealed a little more about the powerful impact of flow.

He said, in this 2004 TED Talk:

“I tried to understand: where – in everyday life, in our normal experience – do we feel really happy? And to start those studies about 40 years ago, I began to look at creative people – first artists and scientists, and so forth – trying to understand what made them feel that it was worth essentially spending their life doing things for which many of them didn’t expect either fame or fortune, but which made their life meaningful and worth doing.”

He describes one composer’s experience with flow as a “completely engaging process” in which he doesn’t “even feel that he’s hungry or tired; his body disappears, his identity disappears from his consciousness.”

Later, he adds to that description and calls flow an:

“…effortless, spontaneous feeling that you get when you enter into this ecstatic state.”

Effortless, spontaneous, engaging. These words describe a feeling so many people in individual therapy long to experience. They want to feel passion in their work and in their life, and so many people want to find something that gives their life purpose and meaning.

So, is flow available to the average person, or is it reserved for a select few, exceptional people in certain fields?

Flow For Average People

Csikszentmihalyi’s research shows that this experience of flow is, in fact, available to anyone in almost any walk of life. He explains:

“We have…done over 8,000 interviews of people – from Dominican monks, to blind nuns, to Himalayan climbers, to Navajo shepherds – who enjoy their work. And regardless of the culture, regardless of education or whatever, there are these seven conditions that seem to be there when a person is in flow.”

While in flow, he says people experience these seven conditions:

• Intense focus and involvement in the moment
• Feeling of ecstasy
• Clarity and easy decision-making from moment to moment
• Belief that the end goal is possible, even if difficult
• Serenity and lack of self-doubt
• Time seems suspended
• Feeling motivated by whatever gives you flow and feeling a part of something bigger

Do the people who experience this flow state have some secret awareness about life? Probably not, in most cases. What they do have is a past experience with flow, which then motivates them to experience it again. If you have never personally experienced flow, then, how do you find it?

Finding Flow

Flow, unfortunately, doesn’t come with a neon sign advertising its location. Nor does it have an on or off switch. You have to find your flow for yourself.

So, how do you do that? Here are a few thoughts to help you get there:

1. Consider what brings you joy or a sense of peace. When do you feel the most relaxed and at ease? Which topics or activities come most easily for you? These areas of your life are most likely to lead to a flow experience.
2. Try something new or revive an old hobby. If nothing comes to mind, perhaps it’s time to take a class and learn something new or revive an old hobby that you haven’t enjoyed for awhile. Breaking out of your routine challenges your brain, and it can lead you to new passions and interests.
3. Give yourself time and space to experience flow. Too many people fall into a busyness trap, thinking that checking tasks off a list equals productivity. Mindless busy work will not lead to flow. You need to allow yourself long stretches of distraction-free time and space to find flow. (Turn off your phone and the TV, ignore email, and remove any other distractions.)
4. Take it slowly and keep trying. Even for the people who are most passionate about their work, flow doesn’t come every day or with ease. If you don’t tap into that flow experience on your first few tries, keep trying.

Flow won’t become a constant state of being, but it’s something you can experience more often once you know how to find it.

Do the Deep Work

Author and professor Cal Newport talks about flow in the context of “deep work” vs. “shallow work.” In short, deep work leads to new ideas, positive changes and value.

In an interview with Trello, Newport said:

“Once you become a disciplined practitioner of depth you begin to realize that shallow activities – small tasks, emails, meetings – do not move the needle. They are easily replicable and do not improve or apply hard won skills, therefore, by definition, are not producing much new value in the world. Once you have this mindset, you stop seeing all this frantic rushing as some sort of good ‘productivity,’ and instead become antsy about when you can next think hard and produce valuable things.”

He reiterates the idea that moving into a deep work mindset takes practice and intention. If you don’t tap into your version of deep work right away, it doesn’t mean you’re not capable of it:

“Many think that focusing without distraction is a habit, like flossing their teeth – something they know how to do but simply need to make time to do more often. The reality, however, is that deep work is a skill, like playing the guitar – something that you shouldn’t expect to be good at if you haven’t been practicing.”

As with most worthwhile activities in life, practice goes a long way. So, as you move on with your day, start your flow practice (or deep work practice) by taking note of when you feel most in tune with your activities. Then give yourself more dedicated, distraction-free time to fully explore and experience those activities. When you begin to feel a sense of flow, stick with it to see where it leads you!

To learn more about how individual therapy can help you develop new, positive habits, such as finding flow, contact me to set up an appointment. My practice serves individuals, couples, and families in the central Denver area.

Sincerely,