8 Ways To Create Flow According to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Last Updated on February 19, 2019

“The best moments in our lives are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times… The best moments usually occur if a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile.”

– Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
(Here’s a fun trick to remember his name: “Me high? Cheeks send me high!”)

Do you remember that moment when creativity and productivity sprung from your mind smoothly? According to positive psychology cofounder Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, this state is called flow, and it is an important contributor to creativity and well-being.

The experience of flow is universal and it has been reported to occur across different classes, genders, ages, cultures and it can be experienced in many types of activities.

If you’ve ever heard someone describe a time when their performance excelled and they used the term being “in the zone”, what they’re describing is an experience of flow. It occurs when your skill level and the challenge at hand are equal.

Here’s a short video with a great explanation of Flow:

Who is Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi?

From his own adverse experiences as a prisoner during World War II and from witnessing the pain and suffering from many people around him during this time, he developed a curiosity about happiness and being content with life.

He observed how many people were unable to live a life of contentment after their jobs, homes, security, etc, were taken from them during the war. After the war, he read philosophy and took an interest in art and religion as a means to seek an answer to the question, what creates a life worth living?

Eventually, he stumbled upon psychology whilst at a ski resort in Switzerland. He attended a lecture by Carl Jung, who talked about the traumatized psyches of the European people after World War II. He was so intrigued that he started to read Jung’s work, and eventually took an interest in psychology. Which in turn led him to the United States to pursue psychology. What he really wanted was to study the roots of happiness.

Finding Out What Happiness Really Is

His studies led him to conclude that happiness is an internal state of being, not an external one. His popular book, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (Amazon) is based on the premise that happiness levels can be shifted through the introduction of more flow.

Happiness is not a rigid state that can’t be changed. On the contrary, happiness takes a committed effort to be manifested. After the baseline set point, there is a percentage of happiness that every individual has the responsibility to take control of. He believes that flow is crucial to creating genuine happiness.

“Happiness takes a committed effort to be manifested.”

Through much research he began to understand that people were most creative, productive, and often, happiest when they are in this state of flow. He interviewed athletes, musicians, artists, etc. because he wanted to know when they experienced the most optimal performance levels.

He was also interested in finding out how they felt during these experiences. He developed the term flow state because many of the people he interviewed described their optimal states of performance as instances when their work simply flowed out of them without much effort.

He aimed to discover what piqued creativity, especially in the workplace, and how creativity lead to more productivity. He also determined that flow is not only essential to a productive employee but it is imperative for a contented one as well. In his own words, flow is:

“A state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience is so enjoyable that people will continue to do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it.”  

– Csikszentmihalyi, 1990

Here are some of the characteristics that comprise Csikszentmihalyi’s definition of optimal flow performance.

The 8 Characteristics of Flow

Csikszentmihalyi describes 8 characteristics of flow:

1. Complete concentration on the task
2. Clarity of goals and reward in mind and immediate feedback
3. Transformation of time (speeding up/slowing down of time)
4. The experience is intrinsically rewarding
5. Effortlessness and ease
6. There is a balance between challenge and skills
7. Actions and awareness are merged, losing self-conscious rumination
8. There is a feeling of control over the task

Who Experiences Flow?

Interestingly, a capacity to experience flow can differ from person to person. Studies suggest that those with ‘’autotelic personalities’’ tend to experience more flow.

A person with an ‘’autotelic personality’’ tends to do things for their own sake rather than chasing some distant external goal. This type of personality is distinguished by certain meta-skills such as high interest in life, persistence, as well as low self-centeredness.

Moreover, in a recent study investigating associations between flow and the 5-personality types, they found a negative correlation with neuroticism and a positive correlation between conscientiousness with the state of flow.

It can be speculated that neurotic individuals are more prone to anxiety and self-criticism, which are conditions that can disrupt this state. In contrast, conscientious individuals are more likely to spend time on mastering challenging tasks, which are characteristics important for flow experience, especially in the workplace.

What Happens in the Brain During Flow?

This marathon runner definitely has decreased prefrontal cortex activity

The state of flow has been rarely investigated from a neuropsychological perspective but is a growing interest. According to Dietrich, it has been associated with decreased activity in the prefrontal cortex.

The prefrontal cortex is an area responsible for higher cognitive functions such as self-reflective consciousness, memory, temporal integration, and working memory. It’s an area that’s responsible for our conscious and explicit mind state.

However, in a state of flow, this area is believed to temporarily down-regulate; a process called transient hypofrontality. This temporary inactivation of the prefrontal area may trigger the feeling of distortion of time, loss of self-consciousness, and loss of inner-critic.

Moreover, the inhibition of the prefrontal lobe may enable the implicit mind to take over, resulting in more brain areas to communicate freely and engage in a creative process. In other research, it’s also hypothesized that the flow state is related to the brain’s dopamine reward circuitry since curiosity is highly amplified.

How to Get Into The Flow?

It’s important to note that one can’t experience flow if other distractions disrupt the experience (Nakamura et al., 2009). Thus, to experience this state, one has to stay away from the attention-robbers in our modern fast-paced life. A first step would be to dump your smartphone 😉

Also, the balance of perceived challenges and skills are important factors (Nakamura et al., 2009). On the one hand, when a challenge is bigger than one’s level of skills, one becomes anxious and stressed. On the other hand, when the level of skill exceeds the size of the challenge, one becomes bored and distracted. Since the experience of this state is just in the middle, the balance is essential.

“Inducing flow is about the balance between the level of skill and the size of the challenge at hand.”

The experience of flow in everyday life is an important component of creativity and well-being. Indeed, it can be prescribed as a key aspect of ‘’eudaimonia’’ or self-actualization in an individual, a contradictory term to “hedonia” or pleasure. Since it is also intrinsically rewarding, the more you practice it, the more you seek to replicate these experiences, which help lead to a fully engaged and happy life.

Don’t Flow Alone…

Researchers from St. Bonaventure University asked students to participate in activities that would induce flow either in a team or by themselves.

Students rated flow to be more enjoyable when in a team rather than when they were alone. Students also found it more joyful if the team members were able to talk to one another. This finding was replicated even when skill level and challenge were equal.

A final study found that being in an interdependent group whilst in flow is more enjoyable than one that is not. So, if you want to get more enjoyment out of an experience of flow, try engaging in activities together.

This beautifully echoes Christopher Peterson’s conclusion that positive psychology can be summed up in three words: “Other people matter“. 

What is The Motivation Behind Your Flow State?

Most of your conscious action requires motivation and there are two basic types: Intrinsic and Extrinsic.

Intrinsic motivation is where you do something because you love it. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2013) said the highest intrinsic motivation is “Flow” where self-consciousness is lost, one surrenders completely to the moment and time means nothing. Like when a competent musician plays without thinking, or a surfer catches a great wave and rides it with joy.

Extrinsic motivation is where your motivation to succeed is controlled externally. Fear motivation is not getting into trouble or working hard to earn more money. That type of motivation is short-lived. Good extrinsic motivation is where you are practicing to get better but you still need a tutor or teacher to validate your efforts.

Using Images To Boost Confidence And Flow

Psychologists Koehn et al. (2013) conducted research into different performance contexts and the production of the flow state, looking specifically at the way imagery and confidence levels interact to create flow. Participants completed imagery and confidence measures before undertaking a field test (Koehn et al., 2013). Measuring the performance of a tennis groundstroke, Koehn et al. (2013) found a significant interaction between imagery and confidence.

Koehn et al. (2013) were able to demonstrate positive associations between imagery, confidence and the inducement of a flow state, which in turn predicts increased performance. In essence, the conduction of a flow state is seen to significantly increase performance levels in a given external task (Koehn et al., 2013).

TED Talk On Flow: The Secret To Happiness

We leave you with the Ted Talk of this great scientist and we’d love to hear from you, how often do you experience flow and what type of activities lead to this experience. Drop us a comment below.

• References

  Walker, C. J. (2010) Experiencing flow: Is doing it together better than doing it alone? The Journal of Positive Psychology, 5(1), 5-11. doi: 10.1080/17439760903271116 Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2013). Flow: The Psychology of Happiness: Random House. KOEHN, S., MORRIS, T. & WATT, A. P. 2013. Flow state in self-paced and externally-paced performance contexts: An examination of the flow model. Psychology of Sport & Exercise, 14, 787-795.

  Dietrich, A. (2003). Functional neuroanatomy of altered states of consciousness: the transient hypofrontality hypothesis. Consciousness and cognition, 12(2), 231-256.

  Dietrich, A. (2004). Neurocognitive mechanisms underlying the experience of flow. Consciousness and Cognition, 13(4), 746-761.

  Gruber, M. J., Gelman, B. D., & Ranganath, C. (2014). States of curiosity modulate hippocampus-dependent learning via the dopaminergic circuit.Neuron, 84(2), 486-496.

  Nakamura, J., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2009). Flow theory and research.Handbook of positive psychology, 195-206.

  Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1975). Beyond boredom and anxiety. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass

  Ullén, F., de Manzano, Ö., Almeida, R., Magnusson, P. K., Pedersen, N. L., Nakamura, J., ... & Madison, G. (2012). Proneness for psychological flow in everyday life: Associations with personality and intelligence. Personality and Individual Differences, 52(2), 167-172.

  Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1975). Beyond boredom and anxiety. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass

  Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2013). Flow: The Psychology of Happiness: Random House.

  Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. New York, NY: Harper and Row.

  Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2004). Flow: The secret to happiness. TED Talk.

  Dietrich, A. (2003). Functional neuroanatomy of altered states of consciousness: the transient hypofrontality hypothesis. Consciousness and cognition, 12(2), 231-256.

  Dietrich, A. (2004). Neurocognitive mechanisms underlying the experience of flow. Consciousness and Cognition, 13(4), 746-761.

  Gruber, M. J., Gelman, B. D., & Ranganath, C. (2014). States of curiosity modulate hippocampus-dependent learning via the dopaminergic circuit.Neuron, 84(2), 486-496.

  Koehn, S., Morris, T. & Watt, A. P. 2013. Flow state in self-paced and externally-paced performance contexts: An examination of the flow model. Psychology of Sport & Exercise, 14, 787-795.

  Lickerman, A. (21 April 2013). How to reset your happiness set point: The surprising truth about what science says makes us happier in the long term. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/happiness-in-world/201304/how-reset-your-happiness-set-point.

  Nakamura, J., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2009). Flow theory and research.Handbook of positive psychology, 195-206.

  Ullén, F., de Manzano, Ö., Almeida, R., Magnusson, P. K., Pedersen, N. L., Nakamura, J., … & Madison, G. (2012). Proneness for psychological flow in everyday life: Associations with personality and intelligence. Personality and Individual Differences, 52(2), 167-172.

  Walker, C. J. (2010) Experiencing flow: Is doing it together better than doing it alone? The Journal of Positive Psychology, 5(1), 5-11.