In thinking about what states of mind are desirable and what it takes to get us there, I find Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s exploration of flow to be most compelling. Most of us have experienced flow at some point – when your attention is so fully absorbed in an activity that you are undistracted by anything outside, not hunger, or needing to pee, or the million little things that would pull your attention away. Your focus on achieving the requirements of this activity is total, and time just falls away. Hours pass without your notice. 

Artists, athletes, and people dedicated to their craft know flow well. Flow is just about my favorite. I’ve experienced many happy hours of flow in writing this blog, and in doing my work, and I’m addicted to that mindstate and am constantly chasing it. Where is my next opportunity for flow? 

An important ingredient for flow is that the task is just the right level of challenge – it takes all of your attention to do it right, but it’s not so hard as to be a grind. It takes all of the faculties of your mind, and there just isn’t space in your attention for anything else but applying the skill. You might think that recreation offers the most opportunities for flow, but research shows that engaging work is actually the richest ground for hunting flow. It’s not when we’re at rest that we feel the most flow, but when we are undertaking something hard. 

My main squeeze Daniel has a great point to make about flow and substance use. He expresses it this way: You have kind of a window of skills. When you’re impaired, like when you’re drunk or high, your window of skills gets narrower. Impairment means that it takes more of your attention to accomplish tasks like driving, playing video games, or playing an instrument. The video game that was just a way to pass time becomes totally absorbing, inducing a flow state that you just love. What were ordinary, readily achievable tasks now take all of your concentration. Now the ordinary is exciting, interesting, and gets you closer to flow.

I find this to be a very compelling framing. I do find that meditation offers an intriguing spin on this. Seasoned meditators know that a really good meditation session is pretty similar to a flow state. When you train your attention absolutely on the simple act of breathing, breathing becomes exciting and interesting too. The simplest, most ordinary act becomes challenging and worthy of your full attention.

When I carry this quality of attention into my waking life, I find that many ordinary activities blossom under this level of focus. Walking the dog or doing yoga or responding to emails can readily introduce a state of flow if you’re dialed into doing it with total absorption. With the full presence of concentration, your skills are matched to the task and – boop! – there’s your flow.

If addiction is a way of shrinking the skills you have to bring to an activity to make it more interesting and flow-inducing, meditation is a way of expanding what you consider interesting.     

Instead of a smaller world, mindfulness broadens the scope of what might bring you a state of flow. So many of us are always seeking flow – I know I am – and understanding that we can find it anywhere if we look closely enough shows us a world of massively expanding possibility. Instead of making ourselves smaller with addiction, we can grow with mindful presence.