Entering a State of Flow

The experience of flow is sublimely uplifting, not only for its own sake but also for its results. Last week I spent five days working quietly and steadily on a play I’ve been editing. Most days, about 30 minutes after sitting down to work on it, everything outside the computer screen started to bleed from my awareness. Sounds faded, my own bodily sensations disappeared and I developed a kind of tunnel vision on the laptop display. I was in the zone and the work came easily.

For me, the ultimate sign that I have entered a state of ‘flow’ is that my self-talk evaporates. My concentration narrows to the point where the running commentary in my mind is subsumed by the task.

About the author

Psychologist, Jeremy Dean, PhD is the founder and author of PsyBlog. He holds a doctorate in psychology from University College London and two other advanced degrees in psychology.

He has been writing about scientific research on PsyBlog since 2004. He is also the author of the book “Making Habits, Breaking Habits” (Da Capo, 2003) and several ebooks.

In the Western intellectual world, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is the psychologist usually associated with the idea of flow but practitioners of Buddhism and Taoism would argue the idea is not that new.

SOURCE: PSYBLOG