The Flow Theory: Personal Account

The Flow Theory: Personal Account

Are you another person wondering about this charming theory? If yes, then, welcome to this short article of mine. I am sharing my account, a bit personal, of a human condition called 'flow'. I like this metaphor, by the way.

To start with, shall we look at what the flow theory is all about?  Flow as a state of mind and a theory at the same time. Some people have reified it using the metaphor 'the flowing of water.' Let's start with psychology as I am myself an I.O. psychology graduated scholar, as well.

In psychology, a flow state would occur to you when you are in the zone of proximal development (Vygotsky). It is that state of mind --  the mental state 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. This happens to me many many times when I write articles, read books, and do some creative writing works.

Have you ever experienced this? I bet most if not all of you have. This state of mind is so common among humans - that why I call it is a common human condition. In short, the flow is characterized by the complete absorption in what we do - the closest concept is concentration.

In Buddhism, there is a state of mind called 'Smadhi' , roughly translated as 'deep concentration'.
Concentrating on a task is one aspect of flow.

We often give credit to a Hungarian scholar by the name of  Mihály Csíkszentmihályi who proposed the theory of flow in 1975. But many noted that the concept of the flow state of mind has been a concept and practice in many Eastern religions, including Hinduism and Buddhism.

Jeanne Nakamura and Csíkszentmihályi identify the following six factors as encompassing an experience of flow:

1. Intense and focused concentration on the present moment
2. Merging of action and awareness
3. A loss of reflective self-consciousness
4. A sense of personal control or agency over the situation or activity

5. A distortion of temporal experience, one's subjective experience of time is altered (you may become an absent-minded person - for awhile)

6. Experience of the activity as intrinsically rewarding (motivated internally -- known as the 'autotelic experience'.


Those aspects can appear independently of each other, but only in combination do they constitute a so-called flow experience. Additionally, psychology writer Kendra Cherry has mentioned three other components that Csíkszentmihályi lists as being a part of the flow experience:

- Immediate feedback
- Feeling the potential to succeed
- Feeling so engrossed in the experience, that other needs become negligible (an artist)
- Just as with the conditions listed above, these conditions can be independent of one another.

Flow experiences can occur in different ways for different people. Some might experience flow while engaging in a sport such as skiing, tennis, soccer, dancing, or running. Others might have such an experience while engaged in an activity such as painting, drawing, or writing. These moments of flow often occur when you are engaged in an activity that you enjoy and in which you are quite skilled.

If you are trying to achieve a state of flow, you should have a specific goal and plan of action. The activity that you are about to do should be an activity that you enjoy or are passionate about. There should exist an element of challenge allowing you to stretch your current skill level (i+1 in Krashen's input hypothesis).

Source" https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-flow-2794768

My Story of Flow 

In creative writing, I heard about the concept of flow (for the first time) from Prof Alan Maley. Since then (about 10 years ago), I have been pondering upon it. Years after years, the concept sticks in my head like a parasite ion a mango tree. I need to enlighten myself to get on with it. This is what we call 'the meddling of education in people's heads, heard first from Prof Andrew Lian in Australia. 

Education is about selling of ideas and hence it is also about doing something to people's cognitive process - the simple concept is called the meddling in people head.

Fascinating as it may seem, the flow needs to be left in idle too.

Hibernating of Ideas and Thoughts

Often time, we let ideas or thoughts and feelings hibernate.

We need to be able to LIVE and enjoy our lives. To be in a state of flow all the time is not possible and often counter-productive. To hibernate is to remain inactive or indoors for an extended period.

Sources:

Most of the writing has been taken from what is available on Wikipedia:
Flow Theory from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)

Nakamura, J.; Csikszentmihályi, M. (20 December 2001). "Flow Theory and Research". In C. R. Snyder Erik Wright, and Shane J. Lopez (ed.). Handbook of Positive Psychology. Oxford University Press. pp. 195–206. ISBN 978-0-19-803094-2. Retrieved 20 November 2013.

 Cherry, Kendra. "What is Flow?". About Education. Retrieved 30 March 2015.