No Blaming, No Wishing, No Hoping

How to plug the power drains that hinder flow

The author climbing in Joshua Tree. February 2024.

Flow

If you are devoted to activities that require creativity and self-improvement, you may have heard about flow and want to achieve it.

Flow was defined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi as “an optimal state of consciousness where we feel our best and perform our best” (Kotler et al., 2022).

Perhaps a better definition of flow is as a mental state of focused attention on a task — which can be an art, a mental activity or a sport — without apparent effort (“effortless effort”).

Csikszentmihalyi gave flow these six characteristics:

1. Focused attention on a task.
2. Merging of action and awareness.
3. Decreased self-awareness.
4. Altered perception of time, which either speeds up or slows down.
5. Feeling of complete control.
6. Positive emotions like joy, pleasure, euphoria, meaning and purpose.

In another article, I explored the neuronal circuits in the brain activated during flow.