The Psychology of Flow

If you have ever felt completely absorbed in something, you might have been experiencing a mental state that psychologists refer to as flow. Achieving his state can help people feel greater enjoyment, energy, and involvement.

Imagine for a moment that you are running a race. Your attention is focused on the movements of your body, the power of your muscles, the force of your lungs, and the feel of the street beneath your feet. You are living in the moment, utterly absorbed in the present activity. Time seems to fall away. You are tired, but you barely notice. This is an example of state of flow.

What Is Flow?

Flow is a state of mind in which a person becomes fully immersed in an activity. Positive psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi describes flow as a state of complete immersion in an activity.

While in this mental state, people are completely involved and focused on what they are doing.

“The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost,” Csíkszentmihályi said in an interview with Wired magazine.1

Flow experiences can occur in different ways for different people. It often occurs when you are doing something that you enjoy and in which you are quite skilled.

This state is often associated with the creative arts such as painting, drawing, or writing. However, it can also occur while engaging in a sport such as skiing, tennis, soccer, dancing, or running.

The Benefits of Flow

In addition to making activities more enjoyable, flow also has a number of other advantages such as:

Better emotional regulation:

With increased flow, people also experience more growth toward emotional complexity. This can help people develop skills that allow them to regulate their emotions more effectively.

Greater enjoyment and fulfillment:

People in a flow state enjoy what they are doing more. Because the task becomes more enjoyable, people are also more likely to find it rewarding and fulfilling.2

Greater happiness:

Research also suggests that flow states may be linked to increased levels of happiness, satisfaction, and self-actualization.3
Greater intrinsic motivation: Because flow is a positive mental state, it can help increase enjoyment and motivation. Intrinsic motivation involves doing things for internal rewards.

Increased engagement:

People in a flow state feel fully involved in the task at hand.

Improved performance:

Researchers have found that flow can enhance performance in a wide variety of areas including teaching, learning, athletics,4 and artistic creativity.
Learning and skill development: Because the act of achieving flow indicates a substantial mastery of a certain skill, people have to keep seeking new challenges and information in order to maintain this state.

More creativity:

Flow states often take place during creative tasks, which can help inspire greater creative and artistic pursuits.5

Characteristics of Flow

According to Csíkszentmihályi, there are ten factors that accompany the experience of flow. While many of these components may be present, it is not necessary to experience all of them for flow to occur:

The activity is intrinsically rewarding.
There are clear goals that, while challenging, are still attainable.
There is a complete focus on the activity itself.
People experience feelings of personal control over the situation and the outcome.
People have feelings of serenity and a loss of feelings of self-consciousness.
There is immediate feedback.
People know that the task is doable and there is a balance between skill level and the challenge presented.
People experience a lack of awareness of their physical needs.
There is strong concentration and focused attention.
People experience timelessness;, or a distorted sense of time, that involves feeling so focused on the present that you lose track of time passing.

The Neuroscience of Flow

What exactly happens in the brain when a person is in a flow state? Research has found that there are changes in brain activity during flow states.6 Other research suggests that there is also an increase in dopamine activity when people are experiencing flow.7

Examples
While flow experiences can happen as part of everyday life, there are also important practical applications in various areas including education, sports, and the workplace.

Flow In Creative Pursuits

Flow is perhaps most often associated with creativity. For example, a writer experiencing a state of flow may become so immersed in their work that hours fly by without them even noticing. The words flow easily and quickly. An artist might spend hours working on a painting, and emerge with a great deal of progress that seemed to fly by quickly.

Flow in Education

Csíkszentmihályi has suggested that overlearning a skill or concept can help people experience flow. Another critical concept in his theory is the idea of slightly extending oneself beyond one’s current ability level. This slight stretching of one’s current skills can help the individual experience flow.

Flow in Sports

Engaging in a challenging athletic activity that is doable but presents a slight stretching of your abilities is a good way to achieve flow. Sometimes described by being “in the zone,” reaching this state of flow allows an athlete to experience a loss of self-consciousness and a sense of complete mastery of the performance.