| The experience of optimal functioning called flow | | | | greater skill. This indicates that increasing ability results |
| enhances creativity, and can be nurtured in our own | | | | in better efficiency, and the brain can "relax into" the |
| lives, says the psychologist who developed the | | | | task. This may be the physiological result, or perhaps a |
| concept. | | | | central cause, of decreasing the "static" of non-flow |
| Author of "Flow: the Psychology of Optimal | | | | consciousness. |
| Experience" and a number of related books, Mihaly | | | | Csikszentmihalyi points out that "Some flow |
| Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced me-high | | | | experiences involve low danger, like reading a good |
| chick-sent-me-high) says we can facilitate the | | | | book. But certain people are disposed to respond to |
| conditions for this experience, and that it may be found | | | | risk, and their flow will depend on it more than |
| in a wide range of careers and activities. | | | | somebody else's. Danger is the hook. But their |
| For his doctoral thesis on "how visual artists create art" | | | | descriptions are not that different from, say, a Thai |
| he studied photos taken every three minutes as artists | | | | woman's description of weaving a rug. The quality of |
| created a painting. He said in a newspaper interview | | | | concentration, forgetfulness, involvement, control are |
| that he was "struck by how deeply they were | | | | similar." |
| involved in work, forgetting everything else." | | | | Csikszentmihalyi's suggestions for experiencing flow |
| He went on to study chess players, rock climbers, | | | | include picking an enjoyable activity that is at or slightly |
| dancers, musicians and others. "I expected to find | | | | above your skill level; continually raising the level of |
| substantial differences in all their activities," he notes, | | | | challenge as performance improves; screening out |
| "but people reported very similar accounts of how | | | | distraction as much as possible; focusing attention on |
| they felt. Then, I started looking at professions like | | | | all the emotional and sensory qualities of the activity, |
| surgery and found the same elements there - a | | | | and looking for regular feedback, or concrete goals to |
| challenge which provides clear, high goals and | | | | monitor progress, even if it is a large or long-term |
| immediate feedback. They forget themselves, the time, | | | | project with delayed outcome. |
| their problems." | | | | Writing a short story, or raising a child, can be contexts |
| He cautions that many people misunderstand flow as | | | | for flow experience: you can see them as a series of |
| a kind of passive "spacing out" and seek it in ordinary | | | | short-term steps or events, each having value in |
| leisure activities. "Most people look so much forward to | | | | engaging one's talents. |
| being home, relaxing. Then they get home and don't | | | | Other examples of "flow activities" are games, artistic |
| know what to do. They aren't challenged, so they sit in | | | | performances and religious rituals, but Csikszentmihalyi |
| front of the TV, depressed." | | | | notes that "people seem to get more flow from what |
| Instead of "spacing out," flow is rather the experience | | | | they do on their jobs than from leisure activities" - |
| resulting from a person's body or mind being "stretched | | | | perhaps especially those kinds of jobs which demand |
| to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish | | | | full attention, like surgery or computer programming. |
| something difficult and worthwhile." | | | | Writer Susan K. Perry, Ph.D. affirms that flow is not a |
| Athletes refer to being in the "zone" - an optimal | | | | state of 'no mind' or meditativeness as such. "I don't |
| psychological and physiological climate for peak | | | | believe that when you get into a creative place, you're |
| performance. | | | | giving up thinking," she said in our interview. "You're |
| The legendary Ted Williams has said that sometimes | | | | super-thinking -- better and with more parts of your |
| he could see the seams on a pitched baseball. | | | | mind than you do normally." |
| Gymnast Carol Johnson found that on some days she | | | | But having a 'busy mind' can also mean being |
| experienced the balance beam as wider, so "any | | | | fragmented, unfocused, distracted. "You want to get to |
| worry of falling off disappeared." | | | | a place which is both loose, relaxed, and focused," she |
| Sports psychologists and trainers use a range of | | | | notes. "What I found in my studies of flow are that |
| techniques such as progressive muscle relaxation, | | | | two things you need to do to get to this place where |
| concentration exercises and meditation to help people | | | | time stops and you can be most creative, are to |
| access this "zone." One of the consistent themes of | | | | loosen up, and focus in." |
| these approaches is the need to "get around" the | | | | "It's a paradox, obviously, to be loose and focused at |
| conscious mind. | | | | the same time," she admits. "And they overlap, and |
| But Csikszentmihalyi has warned "You can't make | | | | one may come before the other." She also thinks we |
| flow happen. All you can do is learn to remove | | | | "choose not to get into flow, which means we aren't |
| obstacles in its way." He says the effort to recapture | | | | able to access our deepest creativity. We choose not |
| the high of a perfect run down a ski slope, for | | | | to because, perhaps, it's more stimulating to be |
| example, will rarely succeed because "you're splitting | | | | surrounded by overflowing inboxes." |
| your attention from what's happening now." | | | | Achieving flow may present a greater challenge for |
| Using PET scan technology (Positron Emission | | | | gifted and talented people, who often experience high |
| Tomography), researchers at the University of | | | | levels of excitability and intensity, but it is worth the |
| California, Irvine, have found that people learning to | | | | effort to remove the obstacles in the way of feeling |
| master a video game show a reduction in the overall | | | | flow. That state of awareness is where we are most |
| metabolism of the brain - less brain activity along with | | | | creatively alive. |