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When you are experiencing the Flow State, you are not experiencing stress!

Most of you would like to experience more of the flow state.

This is especially true if you are feeling stressed-out, tired of, fed-up with, and bored doing what you spend much of your time doing -- like maybe your job, or household chores, or some other necessary activity:-(

Flow is the opposite of your overwhelmed state of mind. To be in flow is to be completely happy doing what you're doing.

The flow state was named by a Hungarian psychologist, Mihály Csíkszentmihályi (pronounced "cheeks sent me high").

Dr. Csíkszentmihályi is a big deal in the world of positive psychology.

He is the former head of the psychology department at the University of Chicago. He was also head of the department of sociology and anthropology at Lake Forest College. Currently, he is the a professor of psychology and management at Claremont Graduate University.

He has been described as the world leading researcher in positive psychology.

Dr. Csíkszentmihályi says that when you are in flow, you are totally focused on what you are doing.

Because your focus on what you are doing is so complete, your awareness and your action merge; you become unaware of everything else.

You are not even conscious of yourself. The pressures and problems of your life are nonexistent in your mind for the moment. You are not even aware of the passing of time.

Have you ever been so caught up in doing something that hours passed and you didn't know where the time went?

In flow, your experience is filled with a sense of control, meaning, purpose, and complete joy. You are loving what you are doing.

You become more successful in multiple parts of your life when you experience more flow. Work performance and satisfaction improve. Your skills increase and you perform better and better. Research has found this to be true in artistic, scientific, educational, and athletic activities.

I don't know about you, but I want more of the flow state in my life.

What does it take to experience the flow state?

Dr. Csíkszentmihályi says that the necessary conditions for flow to happen include...

• having clear goals and making progress
• getting immediate feedback concerning how well you are doing
• a balance between the difficulty of the task (enough to be challenging) and your level of skill (not overwhelmingly difficult).

In an article published on PositivePsychologyNews.com by positive psychologist Orin Davis, PhD, entitled "What Am I Doing, and Why?", Dr. Davis points out that much of the time people have no idea what they want.

He goes on to say that when you don't know what you want you are not likely to get what you want.

If you don't have a goal, you will not experience flow.

Thus, experiencing the flow state requires you to have a goal and to have a goal you have to know what you want.

What do you want in the important areas of your life?

By answering this question you can increase flow in your life.

The Balanced Lifestyle Matrix can help you answer the question.

I have written a course that can help you design a less stressful, more balanced,  and highly satisfying lifestyle. By designing and living such a life you can increase flow. Check it out here.

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