What is Flow State?

A doctor was performing a complex and risky surgery that pushed him to his personal and professional limits. Finally, after countless hours, he was finished.

He looked up at the nurse — and saw a massive pile of rubble in the corner of the room. What happened, he asked. The nurse told him that the ceiling had collapsed during the surgery, but that he didn’t notice because he was so focused on the surgery.

This is a particularly poignant example of the idea of ‘flow’ or a ‘flow state’.

The term, coined by the late Hungarian-American psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, refers to a mental state where individuals are fully immersed and absorbed in an activity, experiencing a heightened sense of focus, creativity, and fulfillment.

Csikszentmihalyi's work has become seminal in understanding the psychology of optimal experience and has significant implications for optimizing human wellness and performance. The concept can also shed light on how we might become more self-actualized in our own lives.

Flow and human performance

Flow, as described by Csikszentmihalyi, is characterized by a perfect harmony between skill and challenge.

When an individual engages in an activity that aligns with their skills and presents an optimal level of challenge, they can enter a ‘flow state’.

Check out how NBA superstar Steph Curry describes his experience with flow:

One of the distinctive features of flow is the merging of action and awareness. In this state, individuals become so engrossed in the activity that they lose self-consciousness and experience a sense of unity between their actions and thoughts.

This merger creates a seamless experience, where the boundaries between the self and the activity blur, resulting in a profound sense of enjoyment and fulfillment.

Unsurprisingly, individuals who frequently experience flow report higher levels of life satisfaction, improved well-being, and a greater sense of purpose in their lives.

Like a butterfly or happiness, the flow state is elusive. It will only come to you when you’re not forcing things. I’ve had a few times in my life when I felt like I was genuinely in a flow state. It happens most frequently when playing sports (rugby or basketball for me). When you’re flowing, you’re not thinking about what to do — you’re just doing it. Nike may be on to something here.

My favorite memory of being in a flow state was when I was finishing my Ph.D. For several weeks, I was working 12+ hours a day on my dissertation, editing what was essentially a 225-page book that I’d written over the previous several years and going through over 400 footnotes and countless documents.

Towards the end, after years of self-criticism (which all Ph.D. students experience), I finally thought, “This is pretty damn good.” Satisfaction doesn’t really capture the feeling I had then — it was more like gratification or even fulfillment. The work became unconscious and extremely pleasurable, and it was one of the most enjoyable and memorable moments of my life.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: international man of mystery

Csikszentmihalyi's interests extended beyond human psychology. He was also passionate about rock climbing, an activity well-suited for enabling a flow state. As a young man living in a post-war refugee camp in Italy, Csikszentmihalyi,

Csikszentmihalyi said of that time after World War II:

From flow to positive psychology

Csikszentmihalyi's son noted that his father's research into positive aspects of human psychology was rare, as the fields of psychology and psychotherapy were “largely anchored in the analysis of negative pathologies” at the time.

Csikszentmihalyi also wrote about what he called the autotelic personality, which refers to people who do things because of intrinsic motivation rather than because of external rewards or goals. Research has identified curiosity, perseverance, and humility as key traits of the autotelic personality.

In recent decades, the field of ‘positive psychology’ has emerged to help humans live better lives. Csikszentmihalyi’s work on flow helped to usher in this positive shift, and his concept of flow is an idea that we should all reflect on and try to cultivate in our personal lives.

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Yours,
Dan