We live in a world where it seems that if you don’t make the most of your time and be super productive, you will be left behind and someone will do your job better and in less time.
We live in a competitive world and stressful that demands more and more of us at work and also on a personal and social level.
However, we can get out of that wheel, break automatisms and inertia and decide what for us is an adequate level of work and activity and so on. being able to enjoy what we do from calm and awareness It all starts with listening to ourselves and getting to know ourselves, to make decisions that allow us to lead the life we want.
Directly related to activity and time occupation, a very relevant and useful topic also appears linked to awareness, attention and well-being: the flow or the optimal experience You know what I’m talking about? Does the so-called flow channel sound familiar to you?
Flow is one of those things that we have all experienced, but perhaps we have not given a name to nor do we know how important it is for our happiness and personal growth.
The theory of flow was developed in the 90s by the psychologist Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi one of the fathers of positive psychology and pioneer in the scientific study of happiness with Martin Seligman.
Mihalyi discovered that people find authentic satisfaction during a state of consciousness that he called flow. It is a state in which people They are completely absorbed in an activity and lose track of time and self-awareness, while being super focused and motivated. An experience in which the person’s body and mind reach their limit through a voluntary effort that we invest in a project or a task that we find meaningful and that “connects” with our motivations.
The psychological characteristics of the flow state
As we see, in contrast to mind-wandering, flow speaks of stimulating moments, of occupation and concentration ; of challenges and challenges that satisfy us in themselves, since, as research has found, in this way we feel better and more fulfilled.
It is not about doing more in less time, but about doing things more consciously and with a constructive mindset, finding a way to motivate ourselves, enjoy and learn from what we do. During this “optimal experience” people feel “strong, alert, in control and at the peak of their abilities.”
The author insists that happiness does not just happen. It must be prepared and cultivated by each person proactively, establishing challenges that are neither too demanding nor too easy for your abilities This is a fundamental aspect of flow and one of its most notable characteristics: the fit between a person’s capabilities or abilities and the demands of the environment. We can see this very well reflected in the graphic representation of the so-called flow channel:
In the graph it can be seen that when there are very high challenges and low skills to solve them, we will feel anxiety, nerves, frustration… On the contrary, if our level of skill is high, but the level of challenge or challenge of the situation is low, we We get bored and demotivated. That is to say, what is important in this sense is that there are challenges at an appropriate level and proportional to our abilities and that, if we do not have challenges or skills, the key is to look for the former and to learn and train the latter.
According to this theory, the ideal situation for flow to occur is when the challenge level is slightly above the skill level, since that is where the challenge and opportunity for optimal improvement and growth arise. Other characteristics of the flow state are:
Sports and creative activities are the ones that most easily produce this state of flow or optimal experience. However, It also appears at work or in other apparently less satisfying moments of our daily lives and we can contribute to increasing its frequency.
This theory and its practical application reveal how conscious, goal-oriented attention and action leads to personal growth and increased well-being. It is a clear example of why it is important to stop and do things voluntarily and consciously, going deeper and dedicating quality time, instead of interacting from superficiality and immediacy.
The more moments of flow we have in our lives, the happier we will be and the more we will evolve and advance on our path to happiness. To achieve moments of optimal experience, we must live a conscious life connected to our essence and what we do. In this way we can discover the activities that get us into flow and encourage them, as well as the skills that we already have or those that we need to develop or improve.
