Go With the Flow

By Paul Roberts

It’s Monday morning, February 14th, approximately 10:00 a.m. I’ve done my morning pages, read a little from the Artist’s Way, took puppy Cleo on a good walk, downed my second cup of coffee, checked both of my email accounts for any critical information for today, and stared at my computer screen wondering when my inner muse is going to tell me what I am putting in my blog today. Since it’s published on Tuesday, I need to finish it today, and preferably before our 5:00 p.m. Woolum family dinner time. I stalled for time by watching 15 minutes of the Super Bowl highlights, since I didn’t see any of the big game yesterday. I’m sitting at the dining room table, with a nice big picture window to my left, watching winter trying hard to fend off spring, but the birds at the feeder and the tiny buds on the dappled willow tell me that, once again, spring will win out. I just heard Carol close the door to her office down the hall, which means she’s starting her Zoom session with some of you, covering another chapter in the Artist’s Way. Here I go. I’m going to get into flow now.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Me-high Cheek-sent-me-high), is a researcher who coined the term ‘flow’, the experience when an individual has a feeling of “timelessness”, when the task seems easy and things just “come together.”

Cziksentmihalyi defines it in his book, ‘Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience’ (2008):

“A state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience is so enjoyable that people will continue to do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it.”

I first heard of his research quite a few years ago, and at the time was drawn to it partially because of his work with athletes. Anyone who engages in any athletic endeavor consistently enough can probably tell you of a time when they were “in the zone” as athletes put it, and everything seemed to come easy. 

Importantly, Cziksentmihalyi makes a distinction between what is pleasurable versus enjoyable. He categorizes activities like sex, eating, watching TV, and sleeping as pleasurable. Activities like sports, recreational adventure, writing, art, and the like are enjoyable. While pleasurable experiences are typically passive and fleeting, flow experiences are active. He states that when in “flow” we tend to “transcend our ordinary consciousness, and become so completely involved that we lose our sense of time.”

Wow. Cool. How do I get there? Perhaps more importantly, how do I stay there?

Ahh. There’s the rub. Getting there is no guarantee. Staying there indefinitely appears to be outside the realm of possibility. But, there are some things an individual can do to increase the odds of having the “optimal experience.”

Cziksentmihalyi would suggest that when we involve ourselves in creative,  pleasurable, engaging, meaningful activities we are headed in the right direction. Activities that are not so easy that they require little effort or initiative, but not so hard that we know we can’t complete the task.

Julia Cameron suggests, among other things, regular morning pages, Artist Dates, and connecting with the Creator.

The prophet Isaiah suggested “Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created the stars…they that wait on the Lord will renew their strength, they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint…” Sounds like flow to me.

John the Revelator, in describing his vision says, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day.” I believe John made it a practice to regularly participate in the Lord’s Day, which enabled him to be “in the Spirit.”

Many of my coaches used to talk to me and my teammates about the need to avoid “pressing.” They wanted me to both relax and put out great effort at the same time.

It’s almost noon. Puppy Cleo interrupted my flow several times asking for a treat. Cat Clark came and begged for attention. The two of them then had a disagreement about who had proper claim to my time. But in between, there were a few moments when I got lost in what I was doing, and thoroughly enjoyed having this conversation with you.

“Flow is neither good nor bad. It simply is. Flow can lead to experiencing life more fully and intensely. We can experience more meaning. It also can strengthen how we define who we are (Cziksentmihalyi, 2009).”

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What experiences have you had in your life with the idea of “flow?” Have you ever “been in the zone” in your creative endeavors?

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