Flow is the mental state of operation in which a person in an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity.
Proposed by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, the positive psychology concept has been widely referenced across a variety of fields.
According to Csikszentmihalyi, flow is completely focused motivation.
It is a single-minded immersion and represents perhaps the ultimate in harnessing the emotions in the service of performing and learning.
In flow, the emotions are not just contained and channeled, but positive, energized, and aligned with the task at hand.
To be caught in the ennui of depression or the agitation of anxiety is to be barred from flow.
The hallmark of flow is a feeling of spontaneous joy, even rapture, while performing a task although flow is also described (below) as a deep focus on nothing but the activity – not even oneself or one's emotions.
Buzz terms for this or similar mental states include: to be on the ball, in the moment, present, in the zone, on a roll, wired in, in the groove, on fire, in tune, or centered.
To achieve flow:
1. goals are clear
2. feedback is immediate
3. a balance between opportunity and capacity
4. concentration deepens
5. the present is what matters
6. control is no problem
7. the sense of time is altered
8. the loss of ego
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow - psychology
