Good Exhaustion and Flow

I came back yesterday from Chicago where I attended a PhD Colloquial with Capella University. Since the lion share of the course work for my psychology program is online I had been looking forward to meeting face to face with some of my fellow students. The experience was very intense study in formulating and narrowing down a topic for my future dissertation. I came back to Texas very tired and exhausted. As I thought about my exhaustion I felt it was a good exhaustion.

I call it a good exhaustion as it came out of a time of creatively thinking through a dissertation topic that had meaning to me. It was good as well from critically listening to the sharing by those in my general psychology cohort. I loved hearing my fellow classmates’ passion for their topics. The topics were varied touching on topics such as helps for public school students, drug abuse issues and chronic pain, fire fighter families, problems with social media and new tools for psychotherapists to use in treating clients. I could see how each person’s passion for their topic tied into their life story. That is one tip I encourage college students with. When they do a project try to find an angle to the project that taps into their interests and passion. It allows the student to have more motivation for the project and become personally absorbed into the project.

My dissertation topic will be focusing in on a topic I have mentioned in the past that of Flow which was first researched and termed by Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Since I have been emphasizing reading this Summer I will mention one book of his that I re-read this Summer, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. I like the thought of Optimal Experience Dr. Csikszentmihalyi emphasizes in the book. It is living our lives to the full level of happiness which is what I am trying to get at with Living More Than OK. We are meant to live for more than just existing.

As I have mentioned before Flow is the deep concentration and pleasure one experiences when absorbed in an activity they enjoy where they have a competent level of skill. The examples that always come into my mind is seeing a painter absorbed in painting. They may have people walking by them on the beach as they paint the ocean view but they are not distracted as their focus is on the subject of the painting. My flow activities are reading, music, prayer and exercise. The whole concept I feel relates to natural highs that I promote from the website naturalhigh.org.

Dr. Csikszentmihalyi’s in his researching of Flow reveals in the book eight aspects of Flow that are important in reminding us the importance to incorporate Flow activities in our person lives. One is where we do activities that we have an inner confidence we can do them. Second is that we can focus in and concentrate on the activity. Three is where we mentally establish clear goals for the activity. Fourth is where we can gain immediate feedback from self or others. Fifth is that it is an activity that we absorb ourselves in and not worry about what is going on around us. Sixth is when we do enjoyable activities we use personal control in doing the activity. Seventh is a paradox of losing the sense of self while doing the activity yet we feel more positive about ourselves after doing the activity. Then the eighth and last aspect is that our perception of the sense of time is altered. The activity is not boring so we lose track of time. Think of when you have done something where you say, “I could do this for hours!” (page 48).

If you think of the eight aspects of Flow you can see how they add to living life abundantly and to the full. Having read through the writings of Dr. Csikszentmihalyi it reminds me of a former Professor I had who spoke of the “Power of One”. Meaning that one person can have a large impact on the world. Dr. Csikszentmihalyi’s years of work and research on Flow have added so much to humanity in reminding us of the need to break away from passive existence. Examples of passive existence is wasting too much of our time on passively watching television or mindless videos on the internet. His work is an encouragement to actively seek out Flow activities that add meaning to our living and expand our minds and skills.

Reflection: What are your Flow activities? Do you take time to make time in your schedule during the week for activities you enjoy?

Going With Flow In the Workplace

With my last posting I introduced incorporating awareness of flow in our interest activities we enjoy doing, as a way of growing in Living More Than OK. In this I mean activities with the emphasis on active, something where you are an active participant – painting, sewing, fishing, or gardening. Television is not a flow activity as we just sit there passively absorbed into the screen.

I would like to continue thinking of Dr. Csikzenmihalyi’s thoughts on flow in the context of flow and work. With flow the focus is often in doing activities we have a passion and interest in doing. Work often has a negative connotation -- something we have to do. I remember one warehouse where I worked in shipping, one worker had a saying, “I owe, I owe, It’s off to work we go”. That is so true of many people in their work lives. It is a duty they do not enjoy and often go home full of frustration which affects their personal life. So is it possible to make work a flow experience? And why is flow important in the work setting? In his research on flow, Dr. Csikzenmihalyi reveals how it helps improve our creativity and helps people be more engaged in what they are doing. SO there is a better chance of having a more satisfying work experience. Since we spend about 85,000 hours of our life in the workplace it makes sense to utilize techniques that will help us enjoy our work time.

In Dr. Csikzenmihalyi’s Beyond Boredom and Anxiety he studies the issue of work and flow. He used Surgeons as his main example. Many would think the main reason to be a surgeon is the money . Interviewing surgeons he found that the primary reasons were intrinsic as to the challenge in defeating a disease and helping patients be cured. These are intrinsic factors that can bring flow into their work. Also increasing competence keeps them growing to meet the challenges they face in their work. So elements of flow can be brought into the workplace to enhance our work experience.

Here are some ideas. Part of the flow process is having a goal orientation. In your work do you have set clear specific goals you are aiming for.? These give you a sense of direction to focus on in guiding your work energy. Being in flow relates to being absorbed and focused so the goals give you a basis for your focus which builds your concentration powers.

A balance of challenge and ability helps with flow in your work. If you are not challenging yourself in your work and settled for just doing enough to get by you get in to a rut of routine which creates boredom and not flow. So within the goal creations in your work set the level high enough to make your work challenging. Place time in your schedule to grow in your knowledge and ability for your work. This is the importance of lifelong learning. If you are not growing in knowledge for your work and work is getting more challenging then frustration and stress occurs instead of flow.

As to increasing your abilities and opening up opportunities for flow in your work ask yourself these questions and reflect over ideas to improve your work.:

In looking at your work activities can they be done better, more efficiently?
What steps will make my work contribution more valuable?
How can I make my work personally meaningful?
Are there tasks where I feel incompetent?
How can I learn and improve the needed skills?

Here are some examples of flow in the workplace. Consider a Supermarket clerk who makes it his purpose to instead of just bagging the groceries to pay special attention to the customers in giving a cheery hello and offering to be of help in taking groceries to the cars if need be. A physician who cares about his patients in a holistic manner. Being concerned about their total well being is more important then rushing through as many patients as possible. Or a reporter who is interested in reporting from the standpoint of truth and not just sensationalism to make a name for himself.

Take some quiet time to reflect over the previous questions and see what areas of your work you can turn into flow time. Brainstorm ideas and possible new ideas to use in your work.