Time spent at work, school and with family and friends puts us at risk for falling into routine. Our daily schedule becomes an endless cycle of the same activities. The only peace we find is at the completion of our routine and then we are back to worrying about what’s next.
Sitting at a desk or running errands all day teaches us to turn on autopilot while our consciousness goes elsewhere, attempting to preserve itself for the next task at hand. When we live our everyday lives like this, we let our minds linger in the future and participate in life thoughtlessly.
Genuine satisfaction happens when we are so immersed in a moment that our consciousness does not have a chance to drift. These experiences usually require us to think creatively to problem solve or learn. This state is coined “flow” by Hungarian psychologist, Mihály Csíkszentmihályi.
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Flow is a dynamic state of consciousness achieved prominently through creativity. Being in the “flow zone” quiets your restless internal critic and focuses unused psychic energy in the present. The point of merging creative challenges with awareness is to bring genuine happiness into your daily life.
Here are five key components of flow.
Our consciousness is comprised of conflicting instructions. We tend to fixate on the instructions that help us move forward in work, maintain relationships and make selfish decisions to self-preserve.
The opposite instructions, those associated with flow, are expansive and urge us to explore, create and take risks. It is easy to find yourself caught up in self-preservation because it is a successful survival instinct. However, it is just as important to develop our expansive tendencies, to be fully immersed in the present, in order to increase satisfaction in your everyday life.
Entering flow does not just mean “living in the present.” It involves setting individual goals that are on par with your abilities but also challenge you. If an action seems easy and automatic – for example, driving to work – self-preservation dialogue overpowers our potential creativity in that situation.
We trust our driving skill to get us to work, and therefore spend the drive planning our day and worrying about unfinished tasks. A new driver would be presently aware in the situation because there is a balance of ability and challenge. Utilizing mindfulness while driving to work, such as noticing body sensations and physical details along the way, can slow our conscious tendency to self-preserve.
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Being “in the zone” involves having clear steps, direct feedback from your output and fusing action and non-judgmental awareness of the present.
When all our energy is focused on an action and awareness of it at the same time, time becomes distorted and we lose self-consciousness and fear of failure. On the other hand, when we are removed from creative outputs, our mind behaves to preserve itself in reaction to possible threats, bringing on self-judgements and distracting us from the beauty of the present.
Mihály Csíkszentmihályi uses the concept of autotelic personalities to describe those who seem to naturally possess a drive for flow activities. He describes these people as those who “have a greater ability to manage the intricate balance between the play of challenge finding and the work of skill building.”
Autotelic personalities are unique because of the coexistence of challenge finding and skill building are opposing trait processes.
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Creatively-inclined people, similar to autotelic personalities, are extraordinarily curious and have a passion for persistence. This combination sets them up for activities using flow.
A desire to learn and a desire to act on curiosities leads to creative output and quiets the constant need to self-preserve. Everyone has the ability to produce creatively. If we pay attention to developing our interests and acting on them, it is easier to enter the zone.
