Enjoying Reading as a Flow State

From foter

This semester in my College Success courses one assignment I gave students related to Dr. Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow Theory. Flow is the experience in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. In essence, flow is characterized by complete absorption in what one does. I had the students consider their outside of class activities they enjoy and think through various elements that make up flow. They were to write a reflection of whether they actually experience flow in their favorite activities.
The elements of flow that I had them reflect over came from Dr. Csikszmentmihalyi’s book, Creativity: The Psychology of Discovery and Invention. The elements are as follows:

1. There are clear goals – In flow the individual knows what needs to be done. The musician knows what note to play next. The rock climber knows what move to take next up the mountain.
2. Immediate feedback to ones actions – In a flow experience we know how well we are doing. The musician knows if he is playing the right note. The rock climber knows if the next move is a correct one.
3. There is a balance between challenge and skill – A person in flow feels their abilities are well matched to the opportunities for action. If the challenge is too high to the skill level frustration sets in. If the challenge is too low boredom sets in. There is a continual growth in skill.
4. Action and awareness are merged – In flow our concentration is focused on the activity being done. One-pointedness of mind is required by the close match between challenge and skills, and it is made possible by the clarity of goals and constant availability of feedback.
5. Distractions are excluded from consciousness – In flow there is an awareness of what is relevant for the here and now. Flow is the result of intense concentration on the present, which relieves from fear.
6. There is no worry of failure – In flow the participant is too involved to worry about failure. There is a confident sense of control.
7. Self-consciousness disappears – There is a lack of sense of the self instead there is a oneness with the activity. The pianist is one with their piano. The skater is one with the ice A paradox occurs in that the self expands through this act of selflessness and oneness in their flow activity.
8. Sense of time is distorted – In flow hours may feel like minutes so there is a sense of time distortion.
9. The activity becomes autotelic -- The flow activity becomes more enjoyable for its sake. The activity is an end in itself. (pages 111-113)

I was amazed at their responses as none of them had ever heard of flow. A few had coaches who taught them about being “in the zone” which is a similar concept. Through a myriad of favorite activities such as various sports, writing poetry, drawing, video games, dancing and many others, most of them could see the elements of flow in their lives as they did their favorite activities.

With the coming National Library Week still on my mind, my favorite flow activity came to mind. That flow activity is reading. I was glad to see a number of my current students listed reading as one of their flow activities. I should have given those students extra points for enjoying reading. How does flow relate to the habit and enjoyment of reading? Allow me to walk through my personal thoughts on how I see flow in my reading. With each book I read there is the goal to understand the story or glean helpful information for my personal or professional growth. The feedback I receive in reading is that relaxed enjoyment of the story that grows my creativity or the information I glean to improve myself. Depending on the book the level of challenge to my skill of reading varies. In reading for me the challenge relates more to the more academic texts I study. Increased ability to concentrate I have seen in my reading. When I read on a plane or in my home office being in the flow of reading, I focus in on the story or the information I am reading. Time seems like it flies by when I read so I often need to keep track of time if I only have a set time to read between appointments. Reading is definitely autotelic for me in that I enjoy reading whether it is for my Ph.D. assignments or leisure reading.

from foter

In living a Living More Than OK life, engaging in flow activities adds to the overall fulfillment of our daily lives. Flow activities in our free time helps in overcoming burnout or the angst of boredom. Of course I highly recommend that all people add the flow activity of reading into a portion of their free time. Reading builds up the creativity and the critical thinking aspects of our minds. As I stated near the beginning there are a wide variety of flow activities. Active is the key part. What are you active in? Just living ok keeps us stuck in the mundane mode of okness and passivity. It leads to flat lining in our life journey. Take some time to think through ways you can add to your life through flow activities you may enjoy.

Reflection: When you read do you feel any of the elements of being in flow? What are some of your favorite free time activities? Do you see the elements of flow in your activities?

Conquering Stress With Flow

After finishing a term paper for my Social Psychology course in my PhD program I reflected over one article I had read about showing the importance of leisure activities. The article looked at how our leisure activities can act as a stress reliever in our lives. The researchers mentioned in the article how participants shared their activities moved them into a flow state of mind. As I have mentioned in the past, Flow is based on the research and observations of Dr. Mihalyi Csikszentmihali. It is that state of mind and emotion where the person is totally absorbed in an activity they enjoy and have a high skill level to match the activity. There is a sense of timelessness and ownership in doing the activity. Dr. Csikszentmihalyi’s research came from observing people involved in sports activities and the arts. So he was observing people doing their leisure activities and hobbies. He found that nine primary elements made up flow: having clear goals, immediate feedback, skills met the challenge at hand, focus of action and awareness, ability to overcome distractions, lack of worry, lack of self-consciousness, a sense of timelessness, and activity becomes intrinsically enjoyable.

From looking at the elements of flow described it is clear how Flow activities can aid in stress reduction. By being absorbed is something you enjoy doing, there is less worry, the mind is more focused and there in more internal joy in your life, These elements of Flow can counter act against stress. With stress having such negative effects in our health and overall life experience it is helpful to know by building time into our lives to do special activities we enjoy can help relieve stress.

Flow acts as a change agent that helps move the internal state of our mind and emotions to being more calm and joy filled. As stated at the beginning, flow is based on the observational research work of Dr. Csikszentmihalyi. He spent time observing rock climbers, chess players, dancers and other such activities for many years. Then with a questioning mind thought why did they spend so much personal time in those activities? He found they had a deep sense of enjoyment in the activities. There was also a skill enhancing aspect they held to internally. If you think about it the dancer wants to improve her skills and learn new dances. The rock climber wants to climb new areas. And artists wants to continue to improve in their paining style. He created the term flow to stand for the sense of optimal experience the participants felt inside with their absorption and enjoyment into the activity.

The article I mentioned that especially caught my mind is based on a research study to consider how leisure activities can counter stress and build resilience in individuals. Their participants were a varied group of adults from Canada. They made use of focus groups and grouped the people in related categories. The topics of the groups revolved around discussing stress in their lives and then discussing what did they do in their leisure that helped relieve the stress thus making them more resilient to stress. Some of the activities mentioned by the participants were doing puzzles, exercise, playing musical instruments, knitting, dancing and reading. My favorite is in the list is reading. Some of the resulting effects in the participants were feeling a sense of balance, renewed, and recharged. For many, the activities allowed them to put the stressors of life in perspective by taking their minds off the stress and being absorbed in the activities they found enjoyable. This sounds very much like the effects of flow in a person’s life. Many of the activities mentioned were activities that required a level of skill enhancement and they were activities the people deeply enjoyed. This is an important aspect to flow activities so that people do not tire of them as there is always room to grow in the activity with new understanding and new skill. What the researchers were describing was very similar to Dr. Csikszentmihaliyi’s observations of people who were involved with flow activates. This shows that flow has a positive effect in relation to stress.

From reflecting over the preceding literature on flow there can be seen positive connections to how flow can help people overcome stress by doing activities they enjoy. The mentioned connections between flow and increased inner motivation can aid in the strengthening of the building blocks of resilience which help conquer stress. The important question do we take the time to involve ourselves in such activities?

Reflection – What are your favorite activities and hobbies? Do these activities help in lowering stress in your life?

Iwasaki, Y., Mactavish, J., Mackay, K. (2005). Building on strengths and resilience: Leisure as a stress survival strategy. British Journal of Guidance & Counseling, 33. 81-100. Doi: 10.1080/03069880412331335894.