All About Flow States: 3 Benefits of Achieving Flow State

The flow state is a deep, pleasurable, sustained focus or absorption in a given task. A person in the flow state experiences a balance of ability and challenge and a connection between the mind and body. Anyone from top-level athletes to amateur chess players can achieve a flow state.

Named by positive psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi in 1975 and later elaborated in his Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, this state of mind has become a widely-discussed and frequently sought concept in positive psychology and the fields of sports, business, neuroscience, and spirituality.

You can experience a flow state in a game, performance, or everyday life tasks. Some of the defining characteristics of a flow state include:

1. 1. Deep focus: To get into the flow state, you need to be in a deep state of focus on a particular task. Other considerations, even aspects of your physical surroundings, become ignored or irrelevant.
2. 2. Clear goals: When completing a task in the flow state, it should have a specific objective. This could be finishing a painting or getting to the end of the trail on your mountain bike. Setting a goal can help root you in the experience of the task.
3. 3. Timelessness: When in the flow state, it’s common to lose track of time. The absorption in the task is so deep that you may not notice how much time has passed since you began the task, or your subjective experience of time slows down dramatically.
4. 4. Loss of self-consciousness: Often, you become less aware of your identity as someone doing a task in the flow state—your sense of self merges with the task itself. This peak experience tends to be exhilarating, and those who achieve it want to do it again.
5. 5. Immediate feedback: Tasks conducive to the flow state give immediate, easily-perceived feedback. This feedback prompts rapid, dynamic adjustment to the present moment’s needs.
6. 6. A sense of control: Experiencing the flow state can give you a high degree of control over the situation. Uncertainty and doubt melt away, and peak performance becomes possible.
7. 7. Intrinsic reward: In the flow state, you might feel intrinsic motivation, meaning the task at hand is rewarding. This quality, also known as the autotelic experience, means there is no need for an extra reward or compensation for performing the task.
8. 8. Skill and difficulty match: Researchers who study the flow state have found that the task requires a high level of skill, but not more than the person performing has. This balance of highly developed skills and a high level of challenge is a necessary component of tasks for the flow state.

Scientists are researching this elusive zone of human performance, but known benefits of the flow state for groups and individuals include:

1. 1. Improved emotional well-being: State of flow research has shown that dopamine, a key neurotransmitter involved in pleasure, motivation, and reward, releases during the flow state and remains elevated afterward. This dopamine release correlates with a lasting sense of accomplishment and well-being.
2. 2. Higher productivity: Working in the flow state tends to be more efficient. When in a state of flow, you tend not to feel like you’re trying at all, and are less likely to get tired or bored. Also, the increased level of focus can make the task go faster.
3. 3. Greater life satisfaction: People who regularly enter the flow state tend to have more life satisfaction. This could be a secondary effect from the positive experiences of flow, the satisfaction of achieving goals, or a combination of the two.

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