Enjoying Episodes of Flow

When I was writing my now-published book on how to study the Bible, Inductive Bible Study, I found myself, while alone in a room, writing to experience moments of an upswell of joy that I couldn’t contain. I found myself dancing and thanking God, and when I came to my senses, I would check the door, thinking that I would feel embarrassed if my kids found me jumping and dancing in that fashion. This is what experts call flow. I’ve found that when I engage myself in studying topics in medicine or spiritual formation with the aim of creating something meaningful to help people, I just enjoy the process so thoroughly. I find myself noting inwardly that I love to learn; I just love to learn.

Oh, that the Lord will bless me. That he will enlarge my tent and increase my territory. That he will strengthen my hand to serve others. Oh, that He will empower me not to care for the things of this world but to find my joys in Him alone and in pursuing His will and purposes in the world.

What is flow?

Flow (or the zone) is a mental state in which a person fully immersed in an activity they are performing experiences a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment. People experiencing flow

• Lose track of time.
• Forget about themselves (lose self-consciousness), others, and the world around them.
• Forget about their physical needs
• Are completely focused on the activity itself
• Have feelings of serenity and ecstasy
• Experience deep enjoyment of their work
• Become creative and productive

Flow is a concept popularized by the positive psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi in his book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.

Athletes, musicians, and writers feel the flow when they get lost in the deep enjoyment of their work. They are not the only ones who enjoy it. Anyone in any field can enjoy it too.

How do you create flow in your life?

Flow isn’t something you can self-induce or force. However, we can create an environment that makes it happen. Research shows that you are more likely to experience flow when you are working in your area of expertise (skillfulness and giftedness) on something worthwhile that challenges and stretches your mind or body or both. In other words, flow happens at the intersection between your expertise and a worthwhile, challenging, but attainable task.

To catalyze flow in your life, do the following,

• Tackle challenging but attainable goals. It should be challenging but not too difficult. Flow happens when we stretch our minds or bodies to the limit in the pursuit of a worthwhile goal. Doing something that is either easy or impossibly difficult is less likely to create flow. It must be something challenging but of which you have strong faith that it can be done, and you have what it takes to do it.
• Do work in your area of expertise—skill, giftedness.
• Work on something you love and are passionate about.
• Do work that you feel called to do, i.e., work that is meaningful to you.
• Be intrinsically motivated (from within), not extrinsically motivated by money, fame, etc.
• Pick something you are good at, have expertise in. That is something that aligns with your gifts and talents.
• Completely immerse yourself in your work, forgetting about yourself, others, and the world around you, and just focused on the task.
• Enjoy doing your work.
• Practice, practice, and practice to get better at what you do.
• Don’t focus on seeking flow; just do the above and do the activity for the sake of the activity, and flow will happen.