Understanding Flow and Happiness

Hello friends, I welcome you to the lecture number 30 of the course titled Psychology of Stress, Health and Well-being. So, today we will talk about lecture number 3 of the module 10 and overall it is lecture number 30. So, today we will talk about the last happiness activity that is cultivating happiness with flow. So, let me, before we start today's lecture, let me briefly give you a recap of the last lecture. So, in the last lecture, in lecture number 29, we talked about enhancing happiness. or well-being with psychological strengths so we had two lectures on psychological strengths in lecture one in the first lecture we talked about via a classification of psychological strength proposed by you know Peterson and Seligman where we talked specifically about character strengths strengths which are desirable and with certain moral desirability and in the last lecture we talked about and we try to understand strength from the perspective of Gallup strength finder where two researchers from the Gallup's organization you know found 34 psychological strengths which are relevant in the context of the context of workplace. So Clifton and Anderson, two researchers from the Gallup's organization, they aimed at understanding what makes people excel in their field or people with high achievement, what are the important strengths that they have. So with the aim of this particular objective, they interviewed many top achievers and they came to a list of psychological strength that are relevant in the context of workplace So, they said, you know, basis of strength in this particular approach, they said the basis of strength is talent. So, talents are like raw capabilities that we all have inside us. And when these talents or raw capabilities are polished or kind of refined with knowledge and skill, they become our strengths. So, that is the idea of strength that they have used in this context. And they said developing strength from their talent is very important and it has lot of benefits such as you know it increases your achievement in life, it gives you a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction, it increases the quality of your life and it increases your confidence and optimism in your life. So, the Gallup study when they basically did study on top achievers. So, some of the main findings they found is that you know top achievers they recognize their talents and you know. refine those talents into their strengths and then they apply their greatest talents in roles and the task that they do which best suit those talents and strengths so they apply their talents and find tasks and roles that you know best suit which are best suitable for their talents and also they always know invent newer ways ways of applying their strengths and talents so these are some of the main findings they summarize from their study so from that study they found about 34 strengths strengths and talents and all this 34 strengths and talents they categorize them under four headings they are strength associated with execution or executing or implementation of a solution strength related to influencing people, strength related to relationship building, and strength related to strategic thinking. So, overall they had 34 strengths. And in the end, we also discussed various strategies or various ideas by which we can develop strength within us. So, we have discussed all these things in the last lecture. We will talk about the concept of flow. The concept of flow is also an interesting concept in the field of psychology and particularly in the field of positive psychology. That has a very strong connection with the well-being and happiness and performance. so we'll talk about concept of law we'll talk about conditions characteristics and consequences of law we'll talk about interventions to foster flow and at the end we'll talk about dangers of flow so let's see what are these concepts So, before we talk about the meaning of law, I will ask you a few questions. From that you can understand some of the main ideas of this concept. Have you ever experienced moments in your life when you were so involved and engrossed in what you were doing? So, have you experienced some moments in your life where you know and you are basically involved in a task where rest of the world seems to have disappeared so you are so involved and focused in that task that rest of the world seems to have vanished your mind wasn't wondering your mind was completely focused on that task and it was not going here and there You are totally focused and concentrated on that activity to such an extent that you are not even aware of yourself. You are not even aware of your own self-consciousness. So you are so involved in the task itself. Time seems to disappear or time seems to run faster. Only when you came out of the experience did you realize how much time had actually passed. So, if you have experienced this some of this important characteristics experientially while involved in a task, you might have experienced what is called as flow experience. So, these are characteristics of flow experience. So, if you have experienced, I am sure all of you might have experienced, you know, at least few moments in your life in certain occasions where these characteristics were present. So, that means you are in the state of flow at that time. So, let me give you some of the background of the flow research. Flow state was first discovered by a psychologist whose name is very difficult to pronounce. It is pronounced somewhat like Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. He popularized this concept through one of his bestseller book which is titled as Flow the Psychology of Optimal Experience. So, Csikszentmihalyi in 1975, he began his research on flow with a simple question. Why people are often highly committed to activities without obvious external rewards? He could observe that some people are so engrossed in their activities even without any external rewards and so committed in their activities you know that you know that has all these characteristics that I have discussed you know that you know this seems to forget everything else and time seems to disappear that you know why people experience and what is their experience when they actually you know are engaged in such task what is their subjective experience he was interested in to understanding this thing So he found that all these such activities are actually share a common aspect which he called as flow state or flow experience. He found that all these activities or people who are engaged in such deep absorbed task. One of the common things he found is the experience of flow, which he kind of elaborated in his later research. So he was fascinated with artists and their unwavering concentration and wanted to understand their subjective experience. experiences when they are in such states. Various creative people and artists very often they experience such state when they are so engaged in their task and the creative work. They kind of get so absorbed that they forget everything else and such state he could observe in lot of people particularly creative and artist where there was an unwavering concentration and he wanted to do something. wanted to understand what happens in such state and under what conditions such state actually happens. So, that was his main idea and objective which guided him. his research. So, what is flow? Csikszentmihalyi, he defined flow as The intense experiential involvement in moment to moment activity. So, one thing is in flow state there is an intense involvement moment to moment. So, in the present moment you are fully in the present moment, moment to moment you are focused on the task. which can be either a physical or a mental task physical task can be their mental task physical task let's say it could be you know sports mental task it could be some you know it could be some mathematical problem whatever it is here attention is fully invested in the task at hand and the person functions at her or his fullest capacity so generally people are when they're in the state of flow they function at their best in their fullest capacity so at the functional state there it is highly functional state because of the involvement and engagement unwavering concentration chixen mihail further saint The state of flow is a state of concentration so focused that it abounds to absolute absorption in the activity. Everyone experiences flow from time to time. So, flow is generally experienced by everybody. Some people may experience it more, some may experience it less. But generally all of us might have experienced flow in certain occasions in our life. And will recognize his characteristics. So when I ask this question, probably most of you could connect with those characteristics. Simply because you might have experienced certain moments like that. People typically feel strong, alert, in effortless control, unselfconscious, and at the peak of their abilities. So these are some of the things that he has observed. while doing research in the state of law. Both a sense of time and emotional problem seems to disappear. Emotional problem also seems to disappear because you are not focused on your own typical concept of self. And there is an exhilarating feeling of transcendence. So, you are so involved that you kind of forget yourself. So, that may induce a state of self-transcendence. So, this is a broad conceptual definition of what flow is all about. And I am sure... you can connect with these ideas because we all experienced this state sometimes at least in our life so you might have heard some of the common terms that are associated with flow for example athletes generally they talk about being in the zone you know sportsmen athletes they sometimes say you know i was sometimes they perform so well and they when People ask, what is the reason for your performance today? Most of the people say that I was in the zone. Zone means they are so involved in the sports activity itself. and almost you know the whole sports their abilities was flowing out of it very spontaneously so they were in the zone you know they're at the fullest capacity religious or mystics call it as a ecstatic state artist musician call it as an aesthetic rapture so these are some of the terms which are kind of connotes the idea of flow So, it is the full involvement of flow. In flow, one important characteristic is that the person is fully involved in the task. So, it is not just about happiness, the emotional experiences of happiness. So, involvement in the task which may lead to happiness as a by-product, but it is not just about experiencing happiness. and it makes for excellence in life. So that is why, you know, it enhances your performance and functionings in life. We can be happy experiencing passive pleasures of a rested body, warm sunshine, or the contentment of a serene... relationship but this kind of happiness is dependent on the favorable external circumstances so happiness can be achieved even without flow state also when there is a favorable external circumstances you know when you are relaxing you are resting you have good relationship contentment without even you know focused involvement also one can experience happiness but in the flow state involvement is very important focus in a particular task is one of the criteria so in that sense it is not just a about happiness it is more about a functional state how you are functioning in a task situation The happiness that follows flow is of our own making and it leads to increasing complexity and growth in consciousness. So, it enhances your functioning levels also apart from just mental experiences of happiness. so there seems to be three common elements in floor definitions of various from various definitions that we can find in the literature three things are very common one is sense of deep involvement and concentration in the task feeling of ultimate enjoyment while doing the task because you are so engaged you can be only engaged in a task in which you enjoy it otherwise you cannot be engaged in the task so there is a sense of joy and you know involvement in the task. There is an intrinsic interest in the task. That is also very important. If you are not interested in the task, you cannot experience flow simply because you will not have that deep involvement. We generally experience deep involvement in tasks where we are really internally interested or intrinsically interested or motivated. So, basically doing the task for its own sake and not because of the external pressure or demands mostly it happens in those kind of tasks. It is you are intrinsically interested in that task there is a deeper involvement there is an intrinsic joy. So, Csikszentmihalyi in his research he found that you know there is a specific condition under which flow generally happens. So, when people experience flow it is not a random thing that happens you know random activities you know there is a specific conditions if those conditions are fulfilled then flow happens. So, he found that the state of flow happens under very specific conditions. When we encounter a challenging task, it will stretch your skills. It will not be very easy for you. It will not be either very easy nor it will be too difficult that you will not be able to do it. So there is a sense of challenge in here. It will not be easier but you need to stretch your skills to complete it. So that is the meaning of challenge. So when we encounter a challenging task that tests our skill. So you need to expand your skill to complete that task. That is a task which is high on challenge and the skill level. So task that is high in terms of challenge, it is highly challenging task as well as it requires high skill also. Stretching almost the limit. Only in that condition flow experiences can happen. We will experience anxiety if challenge exceeds skill. So if our skill is less and it is very challenging, then we will experience anxiety because I will not be able to do it. Because I don't have skills to complete that task. It is because it is highly challenging and I don't have that skill. So generally people will experience anxiety in such situation. And may experience bored if skill exceeds challenge. If their skill is very high and challenge is very low, then they will feel bored. in doing those task because it is too easy for them. So, neither of these two cases actually results in flow. Flow only happens when there is a high challenge, high skill situation. So, there is a quadrant model of flow that was proposed. So, I will just draw that model. So, where you can understand conditions under which flow can happen. So, this quadrant model of flow is shown like that. So, if you draw it as a graph, so in one axis it will be skill, skill is from low to high, skill from low to high and here it is challenge dimension. How much challenging is the task? What is the level of challenge? So challenge could be low or high. So this four based on this interaction of this four condition high and low challenge, high and low skill, there can be certain outcomes. So when in this condition when there is a low skill, low challenge. Here, we will experience something called as apathy. There will not be any involvement, you know. So, here the person is… You know, neither having skill nor the task is challenging. Skill, there is no skill, there is not challenge also in the task. So, person will not have any sense of involvement. So, that is called as an apathy, apathy situation. Whenever there is a high skill, and low challenge, so skill, the person has high skill but the task is lower, it is not very challenging, so it is easier for that person. The person may feel boredom or may feel relaxed. Because he has high skill, but task is very easy for that person. Here, when the skill requirement is high and also the challenge requirement is also high. So, this is a condition where there is a high skill as well as high challenge. This is where experiences of flow happens. there is a high requirement of skills as well as challenge is very high flow happens here here when there is a high challenge but skill is very low one will experience anxiety because here the task is very difficult and the person is not having the appropriate skill to do it so the person will experience anxiety so this is the quadrant model of flow which shows basically with the different levels of challenge and different levels of skill the different experiential what what are the experiential outcomes so one may experience apathy boredom flow anxiety depending on skill skill level as well as challenge level of the task so flow happens only when there is a high skill requirement as well as high challenging situation you So, let us see some characteristics of flow in more detail. So, Csikszentmihalyi, he interviewed thousands of people from different areas such as chess players, mountain climbers, tennis players, ballet dancers, surgeons and so on. And he concluded that flow is an universal experience. So, it is found in the world. among people of different cultures almost all cultures so it is an universal experience that is displayed by people of all countries and cultures and he found from his research that you know flow has following important characteristics some of them we have already discussed one is you know there is an intense and focus on to concentration on what one is doing in the present moment with no room in one's mind for any other information so there is an intense involvement and mind is not wandering anywhere else person is the is in the present moment fully focused in the task second is you know there is a loss of reflective self-consciousness what is the meaning of this is that you know loss of self-consciousness can lead to self-transcending and pushes the boundary of our being forward when not preoccupied with ourselves we experience joy and chance to expand our sense of self so basically your focus on your own egoistic self it diminishes and it goes completely to the task at hand so that is the meaning of loss of reflective self-consciousness and that itself is enjoyable because then you forget everything about your own emotional and other problems third is merging of action and awareness so in the state of flow activity becomes spontaneous and we merge with the actions and become almost one with the action such as a painter merges with his painting you So, flow is basically description of flow is like that you know you kind of merge with the action that you are doing. So, you become one with that. So, there is no separation. a flaw generally happens when there is a clear goals and immediate feedback so whenever there is a very clear goal that you know now what what i should do what is what is what is i am intending to achieve there is a very clear-cut goal and you are also getting immediate feedback it feedback could be only your own you are getting feedback from doing the task or sometimes it others can give that feedback so one should have a clear proximate goal and get immediate feedback how he or she is doing in the task to enjoy and enter into the flow so these are also important characteristics or requirement in terms of experiencing flow fifth is the sense of control over what one is doing you know because you are so involved so there is a sense of competence that is why there is a sense of involvement also so there is a sense that one can deal with situation and respond to what whatever happens next. So that sense is there. Although you are merged with the action, but there is equally sense of control of the situation also. Sixth characteristic is distortion of temporal experience, especially the sense that time has passed faster. So experiences of time is very subjective. So there is one concept of time which is clock time, which is called as objective time, which is same for everybody. And there can be another time which is called subjective time. How you experience time in your mind. mind so depending on your state of mind you can experience time differently for example you know when we when we are in the state of you know positive emotions or happiness so we are very happy when we experience high happiness uh generally time runs faster uh you know we may spend hours and we may feel like you know it was just few moments uh so this is what happens you know and maybe and when we are very sad or depressed time seems to get get stuck or freeze almost you know you know time is you are not able to spend time so time seems to be longer so few minutes looks like hours so this is experientially objectively time is same for everybody but experientially depending on your state of mind you may feel time is running faster or slower so this is what's there so in the state of flow you are fully involved engaged so it is a positive state of mind so generally time seems to oh run very faster. And seventh is activities are intrinsically rewarding, doing the activity itself is rewarding and end goal is often an excuse for the process. And generally when the activity itself is intrinsically interested and you know intrinsically rewarding, then flow is likely to happen you know more likely to happen. So, these are some of the important characteristics that we found from the research. What are the activities that are conducive and non conducive for flow experiences? So activities you know that can facilitate flow experiences are called autotelic activities. Autotelic means it is a Greek term, auto means self, telios means goal. Activities which are intrinsically interested you know self goal oriented kind of activities because they are mostly intrinsically motivated and enjoyable and have an end in themselves. So, flow can happen or it is conducive, it can happen to any activities as long as the activity is able to activate high challenge and high skill situation. So, any activity can induce flow state. provided this necessary condition of high skill and high challenge situation is there. Flow can happen to any activities. Activities such as sports, dancing, creative arts and other hobbies socialization studying reading and very often work situation job situation one can experience flow provided that no high skill high challenge task is there it can happen to any situations and mostly creative tasks and most often people experiences their work in the work life situation they experience lot of flow experiences if they enjoy their work most probably activities which are less likely to be uh induced flow experiences are housework idling and resting watching tv etc these activities can be relaxing activities you know but they may not be may not induce flow simply because you know you don't need very strong involvement and concentration You may watch TV, but you may relax and enjoy, but it may not induce flow state, because there is no requirement of absolute absorption and concentration. There is no high challenge kind of thing situation. So therefore, these activities are not likely to generally not likely to induce flow state. So, consequences of flow. What are the consequences of flow? A lot of research have been conducted in this area and research shows flow has many positive consequences. So, let us see some of the research findings. Flow seems to improve subjective well-being, happiness, which are almost same thing, life satisfaction and positive. So these are all part of subjective well-being, life satisfaction, positive emotions. So all this at the emotional level, experiential level, flow seems to increase all of this. Flow is also found to be correlated with increase in performance. It is very obvious because you are so involved in the task, so whatever the outcome of the task is likely to be very good. So your efficiency and the output of the task will be much better because you are so involved in the task. engagement is very very high in this situation so performance generally increases there is a higher motivation and engagement and positive mode in organizational context so in the organizational context employees when they experience flow it leads to higher performance higher motivation higher engagement and positive mood in the organizational setting Few research also indicated that developing enriching and challenging working environment that are conducive for flow may enhance employee productivity. So research also shows by changing the work environment in an organization where it is more. conducive and more challenging work environment can facilitate flow experiences among employees and increase productivity while boosting organizational productivity. productivity level as a whole. So, by changing certain environmental thing, so we will see some few more examples how that can be done, you know, and making it more conducive for flow to happen. So, creating a situation where high challenge, high skill situation can increase productivity of the organization. According to Angisser and Reinberg, the organization Flow is correlated with better performance for two main reasons. Why flow increases better performance? Two main reasons are there. One is flow is highly functional state. So you are fully engaged in the task. So obviously it is highly functional state. You are fully engaged in the task. engaged and it promotes performance by itself so engagement itself will promote performance second is a person experiencing flow are more motivated to perform the further task so the motivation will be much higher because experience is better So, more they will be more motivated to do this task as well as some future task related to them to keep experiencing flow. So, because they will be more likely to do such task in future because they will like to experience flow state because it is in present state. will set their own challenging tasks to experience flow they will set their own challenging task so these are the important reasons why it leads to better productivity Flow can also facilitate positive mood which may further promote creativity and positive thinking and also encourage helping behavior among employees. So, flow state induces positive emotions and moods and happiness which also facilitate this positive state of mind, facilitate creativity and critical thinking. So, all these things also can promote productivity indirectly. Experiencing flow encourages a person to persist and return to the activity because of the experiential reward. So because if person experiences flow in a state, they will likely to engage in such task more and more in future because the task itself is rewarding. Thereby fosters growth and skills over time. Flow is also associated with commitment and achievement during the high school years. Some high school research also shows that students who experience flow state, they seem to be more committed and they seem to achieve better in their school days. longitudinal research also suggests that in a mastering challenges in daily life so basically experiencing flow mastering challenges is associated with flow experiences can protect against negative outcomes in life for example For example, flow experiences was associated with diminished delinquency after two years of high adversity at home school in a sample of American adolescents. or if we experience flow from our childhood itself or from our school days you know they will protect us from some negative outcomes in life such you know negative behavior such as you know it protects it one research protects that it you know reduces the chances of becoming you know or involving behaviors that are related to child or you know some criminal behaviors or negative behaviors, because the person will have you know some positive direction in terms of doing productive activities. So, flow experiences were associated with the diminished delinquency after even two years of high adversity, because generally after adversity at home and school, many children or very many children are likely to become delinquent, especially after negative events in their life. So, flow seems to protect against all these things. Another concept that is related to flow is called as Autotelic Personality. It is basically what it basically means there are possibility of individual differences in the frequency and intensity of flow experiences. So, it is possible that individual also differ in the experiences of flow. Some individuals are more likely to experience flow as compared to others. And so there may be some individual differences. So that means personality differences. So autotelic personalities are those people who are more likely to experience flow. So because you know flow experience could be related to personality factors as well as situational variables. Csikszentmihalyi hypothesized that some may have an increased likelihood of experiencing this state of flow. He called them as autotelic personality or people with autotelic personality are more likely to engage in flow activity. or more likely to experiences flow in their life he suggested that autotelic personality which which is a term that derived from the greek word autos means self telos means and So he suggested that autotelic personality as exhibited by a person who enjoys life and generally does things for their own sake rather than in order to achieve some external goal. So generally this autotelic personality is a person who enjoys life. personality who experiences more flow experiences in their life they seems to guided more by the internal standards or internal motivations so they generally tend to do those things that they'll they like internally, they themselves, rather than some external pressures. Somebody says do that and they are less likely to be guided by those external pressures to do something. They are more guided by doing things that they enjoy, that they come intrinsically and they are intrinsically motivated to pursue them. So, this is one thing that he observed. Thank you. further he said autotronic individuals have a disposition to be intrinsically motivated in high challenge and high skill situations so there is an individual differences here some people enjoy being in the high challenge high skill situation they enjoy doing challenging tasks so autotronic people are like that you know they enjoy doing challenging tasks so therefore they are more likely to experience that flow experience They are not very happy when low-skill situations, you know, they try to avoid those situations. And they enjoy and prefer situations of high skills and high-challenge situations. He also said non-autotelics, people who are not autotelics, They are not least motivated in high-challenge, high-skill situations. So people who don't experience flow too much actually are those people who avoid high-challenge situations. So there may be individual differences here. So they, even though they may be good at, but they may seem to enjoy avoid high-challenge, high-skill situations. So therefore, they miss a lot of opportunities to experience flow. So, on the other hand, such people may prefer apathy condition, may prefer apathy conditions where low challenge situation they may prefer. So, there may be individual differences. Some people are predisposed to experience flow mode simply because they seek high challenging situation. And another reason is they... They tend to engage in tasks which are intrinsically interesting for them rather than just following the demands of external social demands of what to do. So because of that intrinsic motivation probably they experience more also. Rathunde, one of the researchers, demonstrated that autotelic personality is fostered in what he called as complex family environment. one that simultaneously provides support and challenge so research also says family environment may also play some role in terms of development of this autotelic personality, especially family environment, it simultaneously provides support as well as challenging situations. So, they are exposed from their childhood to challenging circumstances and there is a supporting family environment also. So, such family environment may promote autotelic personality. They are more likely to become autotelic personalities in their adulthood. So, intervention to foster flow, because from this research findings people have also tried to use this research and understanding to facilitate flow in different environmental context. Flow principles have been applied in variety of context you know. So, in general two types of intervention approaches. can be seen in terms of various applied researches one is to shape activity structure and environment so that they foster flow and obstruct it less so one thing is that you change the environment of work environment it could be in the organizations it could be in the school so you change the structure and then and then and the environment of an work context so that they promote flow more or there is a less obstruction for flow to happen so this could be one way of promoting flow by changing the environment to facilitate flow another approach is to assist individuals in finding flow another approach is to help individuals and clarify and make them understand how can they experience flow and assist them in experiencing flow. So, by intervention could be at the individual level, it could be at the environmental level. So, one of the such application, one of the best application of such flow principles, both of these principles of the environment as well as personal uh intervention uh could be seen took place in one of the school in u.s which is called as key school in indiana police u.s where they made a separate flow activity centered in their school and they tried to implement these understandings in their schools how they implemented is there so so the goal was to foster flow by influencing both environment and the individual so both the principles were applied in that school so the school tried try to create a learning environment that foster flow experiences. So, they try to create an environment in the school so that flow can be facilitated and also they help student to develop interest. and capacity to experience flow students are also kind of counseled how they can experience flow so for so this this is an example where both environmental as well as individual level interventions were done so in that school flow activity center what they did students are given regular opportunities to actively choose and engage in activities of their own interest so in the flow activity center in order to facilitate flow experience the student are given opportunities to choose activities so one thing is when you choose something it is intrinsically motivated when it is given to you it is extrinsically given so as research suggests intrinsically motivated task promote flow experiences so they So they were given choice to engage in activities that they enjoy of their own interest and then pursue these activities without demands and distractions. There was not much demands and distractions from the environment. They could choose their activities and so basically they created what they used to call as serious play like situation. So there is a playfulness but there is a seriousness to it also. so this is one thing that they did so in the environmental level in terms of giving activities they were given activities and situations which could promote flow also the to support students capacity to develop experience flow teachers encourage students to challenge and stress themselves so they are also been guided by the teachers to experience this flow from their you know so in individual level interventions were also given so teachers also provided new challenges to the children to foster growth so new challenging tasks were also given and they were asked to choose more challenging tasks in such a situation in a way so that flow can be fostered so this is how you know you know applied flow can be applied in different context such as schools. Similar principles of law research have also been applied in other settings such as organizations, various kinds of organizations such as police organization, automobile factory, art museums and flow experiences or principles of flow have also been used in psychotherapies also where therapists assist their clients to experience this flow to help them and they guide them to experience this flow and what activities to choose and all these kinds of individual guidance are also given in many psychotherapic situation also. So these are some of the important findings and most of the findings shows flow has many benefits in terms of experiences of happiness, positive emotion as well as performance in terms of increasing outputs and efficiencies. It has so many benefits. However, research also shows there could be some dangers to flow experiences also. What is the danger is that you know flow experiences can happen to both morally good as well as bad activities. Now, flow happens to an activity. Now, what kind of activity you choose is something, you know, it depends to the person. So, flow can happen even to some activities which are not considered morally good. For example, flow can happen to activities such as gambling, such as, you know, games, video games or some internet gaming and gambling activities. So, because Because those situations or activities provide opportunities for high challenge and high skill situations. So, some people get very addicted to those activities because they experience it very good. So, at the experiential level, they experience very positive emotions and there is a high engagement. So, they like it so much that they want to experience it again and again. So, there is a danger in that sense. It can become addictive. And activities which which may not be good or productive for the person's life. So in that sense it can be dangerous. Some flow activities can become addictive such as mountain climbing. Some people become so addicted to certain activities that they forget other aspects of life. You know they perceive only certain activities. Addiction to flow can also be dangerous. lead to losing a larger perspective of life. Then you don't give enough attention to other part of your life. You only get addicted to only those activities. So you neglect other aspects of life which are important for your growth. So that can happen sometime. So, in this context, Csikszentmihalyi wrote, enjoyable activities that produce flow have a potentially negative effect also. While they are capable of improving the quality of existence by creating order in the mind, they can become addictive. at which point the self becomes captive of the certain kinds of order and is then unwilling to cope with the ambiguities of life. So, one can become captive of the activities because it induces flow. It is possible. Therefore, it is important to remember the issue of regarding flow is not only how we make it happen, but also how we can manage it using it to enhance life yet being able to let go of when necessary. So it is important. you know for all the context or for all the things that we do in life it can be used in a negative sense and it could be used in the positive sense also so flow can happen in the case of flow also similar things can happen you know you want it to choose it choose the activities properly and so that you know it enhances your life you can use flow to enhance your life to make your life happier to make your life more satisfactory to make your life more productive to make your life more achievement oriented but it can also lead to some negative outcomes if you get hooked into wrong activities so that is possible so that choice is always there wanted to choose it wisely So, according to Csikszentmihalyi, flow is a source of mental energy that focuses attention and motivates action like other forms of energy. It can be used for constructive or destructive purpose. So, it can be done for both the ways. Therefore, he suggested that it is not enough to strive for enjoyable goals only. One must also choose goals that will reduce sum total of entropy of the world, that is constructive goals. So, the fundamental important aspect is that you know choose goals. goals which are constructive to your life and for the people around you for the organization for the society whatever it is it choose goals that are constructive and if you engage or if you experience flow in those constructive goals you know then you know your quality of life will be very high and it will lead to a lot of satisfaction and productivity so same thing can become dangerous if you choose wrong things and in certain activities where you know which are not morally desirable so that individual you know discernment is very important so these are some of the ideas related to flow so we have discussed various happiness and hunts activities in last two modules from getting from gratitude act of kindness social comparison we have discussed you know, psychological strengths, how to use strengths to enhance our life, and how to use flow experiences to enhance our life. So, these are very important concepts. We can use all of these concepts in our life to enhance the quality of your life, to the experiences of our life, and functioning of our life. So, with this, I end today's lecture. Thank you.

or well-being with psychological strengths so we had two lectures on psychological strengths in lecture one in the first lecture we talked about via a classification of psychological strength proposed by you know Peterson and Seligman where we talked specifically about character strengths strengths which are desirable and with certain moral desirability and in the last lecture we talked about and we try to understand strength from the perspective of Gallup strength finder where two researchers from the Gallup's organization you know found 34 psychological strengths which are relevant in the context of the context of workplace. So Clifton and Anderson, two researchers from the Gallup's organization, they aimed at understanding what makes people excel in their field or people with high achievement, what are the important strengths that they have. So with the aim of this particular objective, they interviewed many top achievers and they came to a list of psychological strength that are relevant in the context of workplace So, they said, you know, basis of strength in this particular approach, they said the basis of strength is talent. So, talents are like raw capabilities that we all have inside us.

And when these talents or raw capabilities are polished or kind of refined with knowledge and skill, they become our strengths. So, that is the idea of strength that they have used in this context. And they said developing strength from their talent is very important and it has lot of benefits such as you know it increases your achievement in life, it gives you a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction, it increases the quality of your life and it increases your confidence and optimism in your life. So, the Gallup study when they basically did study on top achievers. So, some of the main findings they found is that you know top achievers they recognize their talents and you know.

refine those talents into their strengths and then they apply their greatest talents in roles and the task that they do which best suit those talents and strengths so they apply their talents and find tasks and roles that you know best suit which are best suitable for their talents and also they always know invent newer ways ways of applying their strengths and talents so these are some of the main findings they summarize from their study so from that study they found about 34 strengths strengths and talents and all this 34 strengths and talents they categorize them under four headings they are strength associated with execution or executing or implementation of a solution strength related to influencing people, strength related to relationship building, and strength related to strategic thinking. So, overall they had 34 strengths. And in the end, we also discussed various strategies or various ideas by which we can develop strength within us.

So, we have discussed all these things in the last lecture. We will talk about the concept of flow. The concept of flow is also an interesting concept in the field of psychology and particularly in the field of positive psychology. That has a very strong connection with the well-being and happiness and performance. so we'll talk about concept of law we'll talk about conditions characteristics and consequences of law we'll talk about interventions to foster flow and at the end we'll talk about dangers of flow so let's see what are these concepts So, before we talk about the meaning of law, I will ask you a few questions.

From that you can understand some of the main ideas of this concept. Have you ever experienced moments in your life when you were so involved and engrossed in what you were doing? So, have you experienced some moments in your life where you know and you are basically involved in a task where rest of the world seems to have disappeared so you are so involved and focused in that task that rest of the world seems to have vanished your mind wasn't wondering your mind was completely focused on that task and it was not going here and there You are totally focused and concentrated on that activity to such an extent that you are not even aware of yourself. You are not even aware of your own self-consciousness.

So you are so involved in the task itself. Time seems to disappear or time seems to run faster. Only when you came out of the experience did you realize how much time had actually passed. So, if you have experienced this some of this important characteristics experientially while involved in a task, you might have experienced what is called as flow experience. So, these are characteristics of flow experience.

So, if you have experienced, I am sure all of you might have experienced, you know, at least few moments in your life in certain occasions where these characteristics were present. So, that means you are in the state of flow at that time. So, let me give you some of the background of the flow research. Flow state was first discovered by a psychologist whose name is very difficult to pronounce.

It is pronounced somewhat like Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. He popularized this concept through one of his bestseller book which is titled as Flow the Psychology of Optimal Experience. So, Csikszentmihalyi in 1975, he began his research on flow with a simple question. Why people are often highly committed to activities without obvious external rewards?

He could observe that some people are so engrossed in their activities even without any external rewards and so committed in their activities you know that you know that has all these characteristics that I have discussed you know that you know this seems to forget everything else and time seems to disappear that you know why people experience and what is their experience when they actually you know are engaged in such task what is their subjective experience he was interested in to understanding this thing So he found that all these such activities are actually share a common aspect which he called as flow state or flow experience. He found that all these activities or people who are engaged in such deep absorbed task. One of the common things he found is the experience of flow, which he kind of elaborated in his later research. So he was fascinated with artists and their unwavering concentration and wanted to understand their subjective experience.

experiences when they are in such states. Various creative people and artists very often they experience such state when they are so engaged in their task and the creative work. They kind of get so absorbed that they forget everything else and such state he could observe in lot of people particularly creative and artist where there was an unwavering concentration and he wanted to do something. wanted to understand what happens in such state and under what conditions such state actually happens.

So, that was his main idea and objective which guided him. his research. So, what is flow? Csikszentmihalyi, he defined flow as The intense experiential involvement in moment to moment activity. So, one thing is in flow state there is an intense involvement moment to moment.

So, in the present moment you are fully in the present moment, moment to moment you are focused on the task. which can be either a physical or a mental task physical task can be their mental task physical task let's say it could be you know sports mental task it could be some you know it could be some mathematical problem whatever it is here attention is fully invested in the task at hand and the person functions at her or his fullest capacity so generally people are when they're in the state of flow they function at their best in their fullest capacity so at the functional state there it is highly functional state because of the involvement and engagement unwavering concentration chixen mihail further saint The state of flow is a state of concentration so focused that it abounds to absolute absorption in the activity. Everyone experiences flow from time to time.

So, flow is generally experienced by everybody. Some people may experience it more, some may experience it less. But generally all of us might have experienced flow in certain occasions in our life.

And will recognize his characteristics. So when I ask this question, probably most of you could connect with those characteristics. Simply because you might have experienced certain moments like that.

People typically feel strong, alert, in effortless control, unselfconscious, and at the peak of their abilities. So these are some of the things that he has observed. while doing research in the state of law.

Both a sense of time and emotional problem seems to disappear. Emotional problem also seems to disappear because you are not focused on your own typical concept of self. And there is an exhilarating feeling of transcendence.

So, you are so involved that you kind of forget yourself. So, that may induce a state of self-transcendence. So, this is a broad conceptual definition of what flow is all about.

And I am sure... you can connect with these ideas because we all experienced this state sometimes at least in our life so you might have heard some of the common terms that are associated with flow for example athletes generally they talk about being in the zone you know sportsmen athletes they sometimes say you know i was sometimes they perform so well and they when People ask, what is the reason for your performance today? Most of the people say that I was in the zone. Zone means they are so involved in the sports activity itself.

and almost you know the whole sports their abilities was flowing out of it very spontaneously so they were in the zone you know they're at the fullest capacity religious or mystics call it as a ecstatic state artist musician call it as an aesthetic rapture so these are some of the terms which are kind of connotes the idea of flow So, it is the full involvement of flow. In flow, one important characteristic is that the person is fully involved in the task. So, it is not just about happiness, the emotional experiences of happiness. So, involvement in the task which may lead to happiness as a by-product, but it is not just about experiencing happiness. and it makes for excellence in life.

So that is why, you know, it enhances your performance and functionings in life. We can be happy experiencing passive pleasures of a rested body, warm sunshine, or the contentment of a serene... relationship but this kind of happiness is dependent on the favorable external circumstances so happiness can be achieved even without flow state also when there is a favorable external circumstances you know when you are relaxing you are resting you have good relationship contentment without even you know focused involvement also one can experience happiness but in the flow state involvement is very important focus in a particular task is one of the criteria so in that sense it is not just a about happiness it is more about a functional state how you are functioning in a task situation The happiness that follows flow is of our own making and it leads to increasing complexity and growth in consciousness.

So, it enhances your functioning levels also apart from just mental experiences of happiness. so there seems to be three common elements in floor definitions of various from various definitions that we can find in the literature three things are very common one is sense of deep involvement and concentration in the task feeling of ultimate enjoyment while doing the task because you are so engaged you can be only engaged in a task in which you enjoy it otherwise you cannot be engaged in the task so there is a sense of joy and you know involvement in the task. There is an intrinsic interest in the task.

That is also very important. If you are not interested in the task, you cannot experience flow simply because you will not have that deep involvement. We generally experience deep involvement in tasks where we are really internally interested or intrinsically interested or motivated. So, basically doing the task for its own sake and not because of the external pressure or demands mostly it happens in those kind of tasks. It is you are intrinsically interested in that task there is a deeper involvement there is an intrinsic joy.

So, Csikszentmihalyi in his research he found that you know there is a specific condition under which flow generally happens. So, when people experience flow it is not a random thing that happens you know random activities you know there is a specific conditions if those conditions are fulfilled then flow happens. So, he found that the state of flow happens under very specific conditions. When we encounter a challenging task, it will stretch your skills. It will not be very easy for you.

It will not be either very easy nor it will be too difficult that you will not be able to do it. So there is a sense of challenge in here. It will not be easier but you need to stretch your skills to complete it. So that is the meaning of challenge.

So when we encounter a challenging task that tests our skill. So you need to expand your skill to complete that task. That is a task which is high on challenge and the skill level.

So task that is high in terms of challenge, it is highly challenging task as well as it requires high skill also. Stretching almost the limit. Only in that condition flow experiences can happen. We will experience anxiety if challenge exceeds skill.

So if our skill is less and it is very challenging, then we will experience anxiety because I will not be able to do it. Because I don't have skills to complete that task. It is because it is highly challenging and I don't have that skill. So generally people will experience anxiety in such situation.

And may experience bored if skill exceeds challenge. If their skill is very high and challenge is very low, then they will feel bored. in doing those task because it is too easy for them.

So, neither of these two cases actually results in flow. Flow only happens when there is a high challenge, high skill situation. So, there is a quadrant model of flow that was proposed.

So, I will just draw that model. So, where you can understand conditions under which flow can happen. So, this quadrant model of flow is shown like that. So, if you draw it as a graph, so in one axis it will be skill, skill is from low to high, skill from low to high and here it is challenge dimension.

How much challenging is the task? What is the level of challenge? So challenge could be low or high.

So this four based on this interaction of this four condition high and low challenge, high and low skill, there can be certain outcomes. So when in this condition when there is a low skill, low challenge. Here, we will experience something called as apathy.

There will not be any involvement, you know. So, here the person is… You know, neither having skill nor the task is challenging. Skill, there is no skill, there is not challenge also in the task. So, person will not have any sense of involvement.

So, that is called as an apathy, apathy situation. Whenever there is a high skill, and low challenge, so skill, the person has high skill but the task is lower, it is not very challenging, so it is easier for that person. The person may feel boredom or may feel relaxed.

Because he has high skill, but task is very easy for that person. Here, when the skill requirement is high and also the challenge requirement is also high. So, this is a condition where there is a high skill as well as high challenge.

This is where experiences of flow happens. there is a high requirement of skills as well as challenge is very high flow happens here here when there is a high challenge but skill is very low one will experience anxiety because here the task is very difficult and the person is not having the appropriate skill to do it so the person will experience anxiety so this is the quadrant model of flow which shows basically with the different levels of challenge and different levels of skill the different experiential what what are the experiential outcomes so one may experience apathy boredom flow anxiety depending on skill skill level as well as challenge level of the task so flow happens only when there is a high skill requirement as well as high challenging situation you So, let us see some characteristics of flow in more detail. So, Csikszentmihalyi, he interviewed thousands of people from different areas such as chess players, mountain climbers, tennis players, ballet dancers, surgeons and so on. And he concluded that flow is an universal experience. So, it is found in the world.

among people of different cultures almost all cultures so it is an universal experience that is displayed by people of all countries and cultures and he found from his research that you know flow has following important characteristics some of them we have already discussed one is you know there is an intense and focus on to concentration on what one is doing in the present moment with no room in one's mind for any other information so there is an intense involvement and mind is not wandering anywhere else person is the is in the present moment fully focused in the task second is you know there is a loss of reflective self-consciousness what is the meaning of this is that you know loss of self-consciousness can lead to self-transcending and pushes the boundary of our being forward when not preoccupied with ourselves we experience joy and chance to expand our sense of self so basically your focus on your own egoistic self it diminishes and it goes completely to the task at hand so that is the meaning of loss of reflective self-consciousness and that itself is enjoyable because then you forget everything about your own emotional and other problems third is merging of action and awareness so in the state of flow activity becomes spontaneous and we merge with the actions and become almost one with the action such as a painter merges with his painting you So, flow is basically description of flow is like that you know you kind of merge with the action that you are doing. So, you become one with that. So, there is no separation. a flaw generally happens when there is a clear goals and immediate feedback so whenever there is a very clear goal that you know now what what i should do what is what is what is i am intending to achieve there is a very clear-cut goal and you are also getting immediate feedback it feedback could be only your own you are getting feedback from doing the task or sometimes it others can give that feedback so one should have a clear proximate goal and get immediate feedback how he or she is doing in the task to enjoy and enter into the flow so these are also important characteristics or requirement in terms of experiencing flow fifth is the sense of control over what one is doing you know because you are so involved so there is a sense of competence that is why there is a sense of involvement also so there is a sense that one can deal with situation and respond to what whatever happens next.

So that sense is there. Although you are merged with the action, but there is equally sense of control of the situation also. Sixth characteristic is distortion of temporal experience, especially the sense that time has passed faster. So experiences of time is very subjective.

So there is one concept of time which is clock time, which is called as objective time, which is same for everybody. And there can be another time which is called subjective time. How you experience time in your mind. mind so depending on your state of mind you can experience time differently for example you know when we when we are in the state of you know positive emotions or happiness so we are very happy when we experience high happiness uh generally time runs faster uh you know we may spend hours and we may feel like you know it was just few moments uh so this is what happens you know and maybe and when we are very sad or depressed time seems to get get stuck or freeze almost you know you know time is you are not able to spend time so time seems to be longer so few minutes looks like hours so this is experientially objectively time is same for everybody but experientially depending on your state of mind you may feel time is running faster or slower so this is what's there so in the state of flow you are fully involved engaged so it is a positive state of mind so generally time seems to oh run very faster.

And seventh is activities are intrinsically rewarding, doing the activity itself is rewarding and end goal is often an excuse for the process. And generally when the activity itself is intrinsically interested and you know intrinsically rewarding, then flow is likely to happen you know more likely to happen. So, these are some of the important characteristics that we found from the research.

What are the activities that are conducive and non conducive for flow experiences? So activities you know that can facilitate flow experiences are called autotelic activities. Autotelic means it is a Greek term, auto means self, telios means goal. Activities which are intrinsically interested you know self goal oriented kind of activities because they are mostly intrinsically motivated and enjoyable and have an end in themselves. So, flow can happen or it is conducive, it can happen to any activities as long as the activity is able to activate high challenge and high skill situation.

So, any activity can induce flow state. provided this necessary condition of high skill and high challenge situation is there. Flow can happen to any activities.

Activities such as sports, dancing, creative arts and other hobbies socialization studying reading and very often work situation job situation one can experience flow provided that no high skill high challenge task is there it can happen to any situations and mostly creative tasks and most often people experiences their work in the work life situation they experience lot of flow experiences if they enjoy their work most probably activities which are less likely to be uh induced flow experiences are housework idling and resting watching tv etc these activities can be relaxing activities you know but they may not be may not induce flow simply because you know you don't need very strong involvement and concentration You may watch TV, but you may relax and enjoy, but it may not induce flow state, because there is no requirement of absolute absorption and concentration. There is no high challenge kind of thing situation. So therefore, these activities are not likely to generally not likely to induce flow state.

So, consequences of flow. What are the consequences of flow? A lot of research have been conducted in this area and research shows flow has many positive consequences. So, let us see some of the research findings. Flow seems to improve subjective well-being, happiness, which are almost same thing, life satisfaction and positive.

So these are all part of subjective well-being, life satisfaction, positive emotions. So all this at the emotional level, experiential level, flow seems to increase all of this. Flow is also found to be correlated with increase in performance.

It is very obvious because you are so involved in the task, so whatever the outcome of the task is likely to be very good. So your efficiency and the output of the task will be much better because you are so involved in the task. engagement is very very high in this situation so performance generally increases there is a higher motivation and engagement and positive mode in organizational context so in the organizational context employees when they experience flow it leads to higher performance higher motivation higher engagement and positive mood in the organizational setting Few research also indicated that developing enriching and challenging working environment that are conducive for flow may enhance employee productivity. So research also shows by changing the work environment in an organization where it is more.

conducive and more challenging work environment can facilitate flow experiences among employees and increase productivity while boosting organizational productivity. productivity level as a whole. So, by changing certain environmental thing, so we will see some few more examples how that can be done, you know, and making it more conducive for flow to happen.

So, creating a situation where high challenge, high skill situation can increase productivity of the organization. According to Angisser and Reinberg, the organization Flow is correlated with better performance for two main reasons. Why flow increases better performance? Two main reasons are there.

One is flow is highly functional state. So you are fully engaged in the task. So obviously it is highly functional state.

You are fully engaged in the task. engaged and it promotes performance by itself so engagement itself will promote performance second is a person experiencing flow are more motivated to perform the further task so the motivation will be much higher because experience is better So, more they will be more motivated to do this task as well as some future task related to them to keep experiencing flow. So, because they will be more likely to do such task in future because they will like to experience flow state because it is in present state. will set their own challenging tasks to experience flow they will set their own challenging task so these are the important reasons why it leads to better productivity Flow can also facilitate positive mood which may further promote creativity and positive thinking and also encourage helping behavior among employees.

So, flow state induces positive emotions and moods and happiness which also facilitate this positive state of mind, facilitate creativity and critical thinking. So, all these things also can promote productivity indirectly. Experiencing flow encourages a person to persist and return to the activity because of the experiential reward.

So because if person experiences flow in a state, they will likely to engage in such task more and more in future because the task itself is rewarding. Thereby fosters growth and skills over time. Flow is also associated with commitment and achievement during the high school years.

Some high school research also shows that students who experience flow state, they seem to be more committed and they seem to achieve better in their school days. longitudinal research also suggests that in a mastering challenges in daily life so basically experiencing flow mastering challenges is associated with flow experiences can protect against negative outcomes in life for example For example, flow experiences was associated with diminished delinquency after two years of high adversity at home school in a sample of American adolescents. or if we experience flow from our childhood itself or from our school days you know they will protect us from some negative outcomes in life such you know negative behavior such as you know it protects it one research protects that it you know reduces the chances of becoming you know or involving behaviors that are related to child or you know some criminal behaviors or negative behaviors, because the person will have you know some positive direction in terms of doing productive activities.

So, flow experiences were associated with the diminished delinquency after even two years of high adversity, because generally after adversity at home and school, many children or very many children are likely to become delinquent, especially after negative events in their life. So, flow seems to protect against all these things. Another concept that is related to flow is called as Autotelic Personality.

It is basically what it basically means there are possibility of individual differences in the frequency and intensity of flow experiences. So, it is possible that individual also differ in the experiences of flow. Some individuals are more likely to experience flow as compared to others. And so there may be some individual differences.

So that means personality differences. So autotelic personalities are those people who are more likely to experience flow. So because you know flow experience could be related to personality factors as well as situational variables. Csikszentmihalyi hypothesized that some may have an increased likelihood of experiencing this state of flow.

He called them as autotelic personality or people with autotelic personality are more likely to engage in flow activity. or more likely to experiences flow in their life he suggested that autotelic personality which which is a term that derived from the greek word autos means self telos means and So he suggested that autotelic personality as exhibited by a person who enjoys life and generally does things for their own sake rather than in order to achieve some external goal. So generally this autotelic personality is a person who enjoys life.

personality who experiences more flow experiences in their life they seems to guided more by the internal standards or internal motivations so they generally tend to do those things that they'll they like internally, they themselves, rather than some external pressures. Somebody says do that and they are less likely to be guided by those external pressures to do something. They are more guided by doing things that they enjoy, that they come intrinsically and they are intrinsically motivated to pursue them. So, this is one thing that he observed. Thank you.

further he said autotronic individuals have a disposition to be intrinsically motivated in high challenge and high skill situations so there is an individual differences here some people enjoy being in the high challenge high skill situation they enjoy doing challenging tasks so autotronic people are like that you know they enjoy doing challenging tasks so therefore they are more likely to experience that flow experience They are not very happy when low-skill situations, you know, they try to avoid those situations. And they enjoy and prefer situations of high skills and high-challenge situations. He also said non-autotelics, people who are not autotelics, They are not least motivated in high-challenge, high-skill situations. So people who don't experience flow too much actually are those people who avoid high-challenge situations.

So there may be individual differences here. So they, even though they may be good at, but they may seem to enjoy avoid high-challenge, high-skill situations. So therefore, they miss a lot of opportunities to experience flow. So, on the other hand, such people may prefer apathy condition, may prefer apathy conditions where low challenge situation they may prefer.

So, there may be individual differences. Some people are predisposed to experience flow mode simply because they seek high challenging situation. And another reason is they... They tend to engage in tasks which are intrinsically interesting for them rather than just following the demands of external social demands of what to do.

So because of that intrinsic motivation probably they experience more also. Rathunde, one of the researchers, demonstrated that autotelic personality is fostered in what he called as complex family environment. one that simultaneously provides support and challenge so research also says family environment may also play some role in terms of development of this autotelic personality, especially family environment, it simultaneously provides support as well as challenging situations. So, they are exposed from their childhood to challenging circumstances and there is a supporting family environment also.

So, such family environment may promote autotelic personality. They are more likely to become autotelic personalities in their adulthood. So, intervention to foster flow, because from this research findings people have also tried to use this research and understanding to facilitate flow in different environmental context. Flow principles have been applied in variety of context you know. So, in general two types of intervention approaches.

can be seen in terms of various applied researches one is to shape activity structure and environment so that they foster flow and obstruct it less so one thing is that you change the environment of work environment it could be in the organizations it could be in the school so you change the structure and then and then and the environment of an work context so that they promote flow more or there is a less obstruction for flow to happen so this could be one way of promoting flow by changing the environment to facilitate flow another approach is to assist individuals in finding flow another approach is to help individuals and clarify and make them understand how can they experience flow and assist them in experiencing flow. So, by intervention could be at the individual level, it could be at the environmental level. So, one of the such application, one of the best application of such flow principles, both of these principles of the environment as well as personal uh intervention uh could be seen took place in one of the school in u.s which is called as key school in indiana police u.s where they made a separate flow activity centered in their school and they tried to implement these understandings in their schools how they implemented is there so so the goal was to foster flow by influencing both environment and the individual so both the principles were applied in that school so the school tried try to create a learning environment that foster flow experiences. So, they try to create an environment in the school so that flow can be facilitated and also they help student to develop interest.

and capacity to experience flow students are also kind of counseled how they can experience flow so for so this this is an example where both environmental as well as individual level interventions were done so in that school flow activity center what they did students are given regular opportunities to actively choose and engage in activities of their own interest so in the flow activity center in order to facilitate flow experience the student are given opportunities to choose activities so one thing is when you choose something it is intrinsically motivated when it is given to you it is extrinsically given so as research suggests intrinsically motivated task promote flow experiences so they So they were given choice to engage in activities that they enjoy of their own interest and then pursue these activities without demands and distractions. There was not much demands and distractions from the environment. They could choose their activities and so basically they created what they used to call as serious play like situation.

So there is a playfulness but there is a seriousness to it also. so this is one thing that they did so in the environmental level in terms of giving activities they were given activities and situations which could promote flow also the to support students capacity to develop experience flow teachers encourage students to challenge and stress themselves so they are also been guided by the teachers to experience this flow from their you know so in individual level interventions were also given so teachers also provided new challenges to the children to foster growth so new challenging tasks were also given and they were asked to choose more challenging tasks in such a situation in a way so that flow can be fostered so this is how you know you know applied flow can be applied in different context such as schools. Similar principles of law research have also been applied in other settings such as organizations, various kinds of organizations such as police organization, automobile factory, art museums and flow experiences or principles of flow have also been used in psychotherapies also where therapists assist their clients to experience this flow to help them and they guide them to experience this flow and what activities to choose and all these kinds of individual guidance are also given in many psychotherapic situation also. So these are some of the important findings and most of the findings shows flow has many benefits in terms of experiences of happiness, positive emotion as well as performance in terms of increasing outputs and efficiencies. It has so many benefits.

However, research also shows there could be some dangers to flow experiences also. What is the danger is that you know flow experiences can happen to both morally good as well as bad activities. Now, flow happens to an activity.

Now, what kind of activity you choose is something, you know, it depends to the person. So, flow can happen even to some activities which are not considered morally good. For example, flow can happen to activities such as gambling, such as, you know, games, video games or some internet gaming and gambling activities.

So, because Because those situations or activities provide opportunities for high challenge and high skill situations. So, some people get very addicted to those activities because they experience it very good. So, at the experiential level, they experience very positive emotions and there is a high engagement.

So, they like it so much that they want to experience it again and again. So, there is a danger in that sense. It can become addictive. And activities which which may not be good or productive for the person's life. So in that sense it can be dangerous.

Some flow activities can become addictive such as mountain climbing. Some people become so addicted to certain activities that they forget other aspects of life. You know they perceive only certain activities. Addiction to flow can also be dangerous. lead to losing a larger perspective of life.

Then you don't give enough attention to other part of your life. You only get addicted to only those activities. So you neglect other aspects of life which are important for your growth. So that can happen sometime. So, in this context, Csikszentmihalyi wrote, enjoyable activities that produce flow have a potentially negative effect also.

While they are capable of improving the quality of existence by creating order in the mind, they can become addictive. at which point the self becomes captive of the certain kinds of order and is then unwilling to cope with the ambiguities of life. So, one can become captive of the activities because it induces flow.

It is possible. Therefore, it is important to remember the issue of regarding flow is not only how we make it happen, but also how we can manage it using it to enhance life yet being able to let go of when necessary. So it is important.

you know for all the context or for all the things that we do in life it can be used in a negative sense and it could be used in the positive sense also so flow can happen in the case of flow also similar things can happen you know you want it to choose it choose the activities properly and so that you know it enhances your life you can use flow to enhance your life to make your life happier to make your life more satisfactory to make your life more productive to make your life more achievement oriented but it can also lead to some negative outcomes if you get hooked into wrong activities so that is possible so that choice is always there wanted to choose it wisely So, according to Csikszentmihalyi, flow is a source of mental energy that focuses attention and motivates action like other forms of energy. It can be used for constructive or destructive purpose. So, it can be done for both the ways.

Therefore, he suggested that it is not enough to strive for enjoyable goals only. One must also choose goals that will reduce sum total of entropy of the world, that is constructive goals. So, the fundamental important aspect is that you know choose goals. goals which are constructive to your life and for the people around you for the organization for the society whatever it is it choose goals that are constructive and if you engage or if you experience flow in those constructive goals you know then you know your quality of life will be very high and it will lead to a lot of satisfaction and productivity so same thing can become dangerous if you choose wrong things and in certain activities where you know which are not morally desirable so that individual you know discernment is very important so these are some of the ideas related to flow so we have discussed various happiness and hunts activities in last two modules from getting from gratitude act of kindness social comparison we have discussed you know, psychological strengths, how to use strengths to enhance our life, and how to use flow experiences to enhance our life.

So, these are very important concepts. We can use all of these concepts in our life to enhance the quality of your life, to the experiences of our life, and functioning of our life. So, with this, I end today's lecture.

Thank you.

Transcript for:Understanding Flow and Happiness

Transcript for:
Understanding Flow and Happiness