“Rhythm is a fundamental fact of life, the key, indeed, to
the universe.” ~Anna Pavlova
Have you ever experienced that you lost the sense of time
being engaged in an activity? For ballerinas the time slows down when they are
dancing and for a musician time passes away quickly when they are performing or
practicing. This state of being where you lose sense of time and the actions
become effortless is called flow or rhythm or Wu Wei. This
idea of flow is very ancient and has been in practice of Taoists since ages. We all have
experienced this state of flow but this happens for many of us unconsciously. So, what can we achieve by entering this state
of flow consciously?
The answer is Happiness, which is generally
perceived as fleeting and momentary. Anna Pavlova quotes, “When a small
child, I thought that success spelled happiness. I was wrong, happiness is like
a butterfly which appears and delights us for one brief moment, but soon flits
away.” So, can we find a way to make this butterfly of happiness stay longer?
The author of the book Flow – The Psychology of
optimal experience, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi explores the most ancient question,
when do people feel most happy? He answers, when people enter the state of flow
consciously or unconsciously, they feel most happy and have optimal
experiences. Optimal experiences are
the occasions
where we feel a sense of exhilaration, a deep sense of enjoyment, which we
cherish for long and that becomes a landmark in our lives. These moments are
often not passive, receptive relaxing times. They tend to occur when a person’s
body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish
something that is difficult or worthwhile.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
quotes, “A
person can make himself happy or miserable, regardless of what is happening outside,
just by changing the contents of consciousness.”
Everything we experience
– joy or pain, interest or boredom—is represented in the mind as
information. If we are able to control this information, we can determine what
our lives will be like. Optimal states result when there is order in
consciousness. This happens when we are focused on realistic goals with our
skills matching the opportunities for action. Goals allow people to concentrate
attention on the task at hand, forgetting other things temporarily. Thus, it is
an end in itself i.e. is autotelic (Auto means self and telos means goal), without thought of
growth or reward. And yet, they create the perfect conditions for both growth
and reward.
An autotelic experience lifts life to a different level. Alienation gives way
to involvement, enjoyment replaces boredom, helplessness turns into a feeling
of control, and psychic energy works to reinforce the sense of self, instead of
being lost in the service of external goals. When experience is intrinsically
rewarding life is justified in the present, instead of being held hostage to a
hypothetical future gain.
The autotelic self transforms potentially entropic experience into flow. Developing an autotelic
self involves the following:
• Setting goals – monitoring feedback
• Becoming immersed in the activity
• Paying attention to what is happening
• Enjoying the immediate experience
Understanding Flow
Flow is an optimal state
of mind between boredom and anxiety, where you perform your best and feel your
best. During flow, attention is freely invested to achieve a person’s goals
because there is no disorder to strengthen out or no threat for the self to
defend against. When a person can organize his or her consciousness so as to
experience flow as often as possible, the quality of life starts to improve. In
flow, we are in control of our psychic energy and everything we do adds order
to consciousness. Following a flow experience, our self becomes more complex
than that it had been before, due to two broad psychological processes –
differentiation and integration. The self becomes differentiated as the person
after a flow experience feels more capable and skilled. Flow leads to
integration because thoughts, intentions, feelings and the senses are focused
on the same goal. After a flow episode, one feels more together than before,
not only internally but also with respect to other people and the world in
general. Differentiation promotes individuality while integration facilitates
connections and security. To improve the quality of life, we can try to make
external conditions match our goals and also change how to experience or
interpret external conditions. Both are needed. Each by itself is insufficient.
The most important trait of people who find flow even during adversity is non
self-conscious individualism, i.e. a strongly directed purpose that is not self-seeking.
Because of their intrinsic motivation, they are not easily disturbed by
external events.
Creating a Unified Flow
Experience
Having achieved flow in
one activity does not necessarily guarantee that it will be carried over into
the rest of life. All life must be turned into a unified flow experience. It
does not matter what the goal is. What is important is, it should be compelling
enough to order a lifetime’s worth of psychic energy. If a person sets out to
achieve a difficult enough goal, from which all other goals logically follow
and if he or she invests all the energy in developing skills to reach that
goal, then actions and feelings will be in harmony and the separate parts of
life will fit together and each activity will make sense in the present, as
well as in view of the past and the future.
1)
Building inner harmony
Our level of happiness
ultimately depends on how our mind filters and interprets everyday experiences.
Happiness depends on inner harmony, not on our ability to exert control over
the great forces of the
universe. People must learn to find enjoyment and purpose, regardless of
external circumstances. To become happy, we must strive to become independent
of the social environment, i.e. become less sensitive to its rewards and
punishments. We must learn to enjoy and find meaning in the ongoing stream of
experience, in the process of living itself. This will ensure that the burden
of social controls falls off from our shoulders.
2)
Controlling the consciousness
Control over consciousness
is not a cognitive skill. It cannot be memorized or routinely applied, but must
be learnt by trial and error. The function of consciousness is to represent
information about what is happening inside and outside the organization in such
a way that it can be evaluated and acted upon by the body. It is consciousness
which enables us to daydream, write beautiful poems and scientific
theories. Unfortunately, the nervous system has definite limits on how much
information it can process at any given time. The information we allow into
consciousness becomes extremely important. It is what determines the content
and quality of life.
3)
Finding balance between challenges and skills
Competition is enjoyable only
when it is a means to perfect one’s skills; when it becomes an end in itself,
it ceases to be fun. The best moments usually occur when a person’s body or
mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something
difficult and worthwhile.
4) Coping with Stress
Having the ability to consciously enter this state of trance helps us in coping with difficult times. While coping with stress, a person has three resources to draw from:
• External support, especially the network of social support
• Psychological support, intelligence, education, relevant personality factors
• Coping strategies
Coping strategy is what makes the big difference. People respond to stress in two main ways. The positive response is called a mature defense. The negative response is called neurotic defense or regressive coping. No trait is more useful, more essential for survival or more likely to improve the quality of life than the ability to transform adversity into an enjoyable challenge ie. responding positively to stress. The mature defense is like becoming a stoic i.e having the wisdom to tell the difference between what I can control and what I can't, not worrying about the about things that you cannot control. They are not focused on satisfying their needs. They are alert, constantly processing information from the surroundings. Instead of becoming internally focused, they stay in touch with what is going on. So new possibilities and new responses emerge. When an opportunity presents itself to them, they go for it and enjoy themselves.
One can cope with new situations either by trying to remove the obstacles or by focusing on the entire situation and asking whether alternative goals may be more appropriate.The moment biological or social goals are frustrated, a person must formulate new goals and create a new flow activity. The secret of change is
to focus all your energy, not on fighting the old but on building the new!. Art, Philosophy, communication, music, walking and having a hobby can really help you, when you are not feeling yourself.
References : Flow – The Psychology of optimal experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Artwork Credits : Kashish Panjvani
