Get In The Flow

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (easy for him to say) was the head of psychology at the University of Chicago. Known widely for his
fabulous work on happiness and creativity and the renowned creator of the modern concept of FLOW.

To some people flow is what wine does at a party! Or what a river does down stream.

Like Csikszentmihalyi we much prefer a more empowering view of this simple word. To us FLOW is the heightened mental, emotional and physiological state of operation, the physiology of excellence. This is when a person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing with passion, complete alignment and laser like focus, fully engaged and involved with an unshakable belief in
the success of the activity."

It is what we have all come to know as "Being in The Zone."

According to Csikszentmihalyi, FLOW is complete belief and alignment, creating intense focused motivation. It's a
single-minded immersion and represents perhaps the ultimate in state control, the harnessing of mental, emotional and physical states in the service of performing and learning a particular task.

In using a natural state of FLOW your emotions are not just contained and channeled, but they are positively energized, and
aligned with the task at hand creating the conditions for heightened performance. You will always know when you are "in the
FLOW" by the feeling of spontaneous joy and confidence, even rapture, while performing a task, you will definitely feel the
BUZZ.

Csikszentmihalyi identified 9 key factors that present when you experience "Being in The Flow"

1- You will have CLEAR GOALS (expectations and rules are discernible and goals are attainable when align appropriately
with one's skill set and abilities). In other words think S.M.A.R.T.

2- Concentrating, a high degree of concentration on a limited field of attention (a person engaged in the activity will have
the opportunity to focus and to delve deeply into it).

3- A loss of the feeling of self-consciousness, the merging of action and awareness.

4- Distorted sense of time, one's subjective experience of time is altered.

5- Direct and immediate feedback (successes and failures in the course of the activity are apparent, so that behavior can be
adjusted as needed).

6- Balance between ability level and challenge (the activity is neither too easy nor too difficult).

7- A sense of personal control over the situation or activity.

8- The activity is intrinsically rewarding, so there is an effortlessness of action.

9- People become absorbed in their activity, and focus of awareness is narrowed down to the activity itself, action
awareness merging.

It's fabulous to be reminded of just how easily we can help create FLOW for ourselves, our family, friends and clients with
our extensive collection of tools and unshakable belief of NLP, Time Line Therapy®, Hypnosis and NLP Coaching. So thank you
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi for your ground breaking insights that allowed us all to embrace the limitless possibilities for change.