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moodwatchers The Psychology of Flow SESSION TWO Some principles - PDF document

Jan 22, 2024 •314 likes •367 views

moodwatchers The Psychology of Flow SESSION TWO Some principles from last session The Role of Thinking in Mood Illogical and irrational thinking ( Is it helpful? Fair? True?) Its not events per se which determine our feelings but

  1. moodwatchers The Psychology of Flow SESSION TWO Some principles from last session • The Role of Thinking in Mood – Illogical and irrational thinking ( Is it helpful? Fair? True?) • It’s not events per se which determine our feelings but the meanings that we attach to them. • Information processing becomes distorted when we experience emotional distress. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi • Flow is a term coined within Positive Psychology • Being completely involved in an activity for its own sake • The ego falls away • Time flies 1

  2. • A state of complete absorption in a complex and challenging activity that stretches one’s skills. • Csikszentmihalyi has made the exploration of flow the centerpiece of his career because he believes that being in flow generates the peak experiences in our lives. • The more flow we experience, he suggests, the happier we are. • Recent studies have shown that life satisfaction and happiness correlate with better health and improved longevity (Veenhoven 2006). • Not only does happiness feel good, but happy people are more likely to engage in healthy behaviours, and experience less illness. So what are the characteristics of a flow experience? • They include clear goals, decisiveness, the merging of action and awareness, complete (yet effortless) concentration, a sense of control, loss of self- consciousness, an altered sense of time, immediate feedback and an autotelic emphasis (Csikszentmihalyi 1993; Nakamura & Csikszentmihalyi 2002). • The word autotelic is used to describe experiences where one is focused solely on the activity itself, not on how it will affect one’s ego 2

  3. • Having plenty of flow experiences in our lives enhances our well-being, yet in a German study only 23% of people surveyed said they often experienced flow and 40% rarely or never had flow experiences (Csikszentmihalyi 1997). • Especially crucial for children and adolescents to develop skills and activities that produce flow, bringing life satisfaction, self-esteem and efficacy early in life. Flow examples • Toy soldiers • Piano • Old man in the cottage • The manicurist • Two brothers • The surgeon FLOW • Doing things you love • Doing things you’re good at • Starting new things • Being stretched • Being positively selfish 3

  4. The right balance • Over-skilled – Bored • Under-skilled – stressed • Being stretched The eight ingredients of flow • The experience occurs usually when we are involved in tasks that we have a good chance of completing. • We are able to concentrate fully on the activity. • The task has clear goals. • The task is such that it gives us immediate feedback on how well we are doing. The eight ingredients of flow • Our involvement is ‘deep but effortless’ and this ‘removes from awareness the worries and frustrations of everyday life’. • There is a sense of exercising a sense of control over our actions. • ‘Concern for the self disappears’ but paradoxically our ‘sense of self emerges stronger after the flow experience is over’. • We lose our normal sense of time – we can feel either that is has speeded up (and passed quickly) or slowed down. 4

  5. STRESS BUSTER FOR THIS WEEK • FLOW • Two New Syndromes • Serious Boring Person Syndrome • Serious Busy Person Syndrome For next week • 2 STRESS BUSTERS IN OPERATION • APPLYING – TAPPING INTO YOUR OWN INTERNAL DIALOGUE • THE TWO QUESTIONS 5

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