Positive Psychology at Work:

Flow

Flow is a term used by Csikszentmihalyi (2002) to describe the state experienced by people when they are so fully engaged and absorbed in what they are doing that time ceases to matter, any sense of self-consciousness or ego disappears and the person and the activity become as one. It is a highly rewarding state, although emotionally neutral, for which some people will risk life, health and career to achieve and repeat. Consider, for example, mountain climbers who can only account for their obsession with the explanation ‘because it's there’ or artists who neglect to eat or sleep, caught up in the challenge of their creation. While most of us may not be caught up in these extremes, we will have some activities that give us the chance of experiencing flow.

Supplement 3.6 The Flow State

The flow state is characterized by a number of things:

• There is high concentration, a complete immersion in what we are doing. The concentration becomes like breathing; attention is focused on a very limited area.
• There is a temporary cessation of the concerns and anxieties of daily life.
• There is a sense of control; a freedom from worry about failure.
• We are likely to forget about ourselves; being lost in the moment, unselfconscious of what others may think. We might lose awareness of hunger or aching muscles.
• There is a sense of transcendence, of having moved beyond our limitations.
• There is a distortion of time: a minute lasts forever, an hour passes in a flash; we exist in an extended present. ...