photo @wayne.marcus
f L O W
An Essay by Dr. Irwin Jay Asher
Earnest Hemingway: Sometimes I write better than I can.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi discovered that people find genuine satisfaction during a state of consciousness called FLOW. In this state they are completely absorbed in an activity, especially an activity which involves their creative abilities
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi discovered that people find genuine satisfaction during a state of consciousness called FLOW. In this state they are completely absorbed in an activity, especially an activity which involves their creative abilities
I started knitting when I was six years old. I knit on and off for the next seventy years. There were moments when I actually understood I was in a state of Flow, although I had no conscious awareness of the concept of Flow. It was the rhythm of hearing two needles click, click, click. I disappeared into the pattern. One knit, two purl. I knit without knowing I had been thinking with every stitch, I stopped after an hour and would realize a problem that had earlier seemed insurmountable was solved. I didn’t know it as a child, but I came to learn that sailors, hundreds of years ago, created knitting to make their long ocean voyages go by quickly.
The Guardian interviewed a man who knit. He said, “What sets knitting and crocheting apart from other crafts is the rhythm of the stitches and needles clicking.” This sense of rhythm can lead to a sensation known as Flow state, a pleasurable experience psychologically, when someone is so engaged by an activity that time disappears.
No, I am not suggesting you stop reading and run out to your nearest yarn store. What I am asking you to think about is what gets you into a Flow state? And if you have experienced a Flow state, I’m guessing you would want to go back to those precious moments.
A Flow state can happen when you’re watching or participating in a sport; while climbiWe are all able to get to a Flow state, but we each get there differently. Someone may find a Flow state watching a year-end football match on television. Some may find a Flow state while holding their newborn. Flow state is the absence of thinking; the absence of the world around you; the absence of having to be somewhere. You are in the moment.
I can remember as a six or seven-year-old watching The Wizard of Oz in a movie theater. In those days, it was not unusual to see a black and white film. When the story turned to Technicolor, I was shocked. Shocked. I had disappeared in Judy Garland’s dream world. Welcome to Flow.
As I thought about how I would express my feelings about FLOW in this essay. I realized I had been consciously aware of Flow starting at age sixteen. A neighbor had an extra ticket to a performance of the New York City Ballet. Would I like to go? The experience of seeing Edward Villella dance The Prodigal Son, choreography by George Balanchine, put me in a state of Flow. The world stopped spinning. I was completely absorbed. If you had poked me as the prodigal son fell into his father’s arms, I would not have known my name or where I was.
I have to fight back tears as I think of Regina Resnick in Richard Strauss’s Die Frau Ohne Schatten. At the very end of the last act, the production used the entire new Metropolitan Opera stage, I was gobsmacked.
And, opposite of me, my brothers disappeared into a Flow state when they participated in sports; or, cheering their team on while watching baseball of basketball on television.
For ten years, I participated in retreats in Scotland, and watched how the men connected with Flow as they meditated.
The universal factors of Flow, per Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s studies include:
1. Challenge – skill balance.2. Action – awareness merging.3. Clear goals.4. Unambiguous feedback.5. Concentration on the task at hand.6. A sense of control.7. Lose of self-consciousness.8. Transformation of time.
A personal history of how I started my career in the fashion industry.
In 1967, I came back to New York City after spending nine months traveling Europe. I went to a headhunter I had worked with before and asked if he had any openings in the fashion business. I had absolutely no qualifications except for working for my father after high school in his mother-of-the-bride dress factory. The headhunter said there was a company who had not been having luck finding a designer for their new Oleg Cassini label. He set up an interview. I don’t know what I said during the interview but the vice-president said, “Let me introduce you to the president and owner of the company.” I was hired. I was asked to move to Philadelphia where their factory was located.
Leaving my two-room apartment with a few hours of sleep, I headed to the subway and Kensington and Alleghany, where the factory was located. No one told me there were two K & As! I ended up at the wrong one. I started my first day of my new job late and discombobulated. It was a long first day. I was shown around the factory and offices. I was introduced to the manager of the knit department. I had never seen a knitting machine before. I stood before an entire factory floor of knitting machines. The vice-president said I was responsible for keeping these knitting machines going. Okay!
The staff at the Oleg Cassini design studio had supplied some sportswear sketches for me to have an understanding of what Mr. Cassini hoped to see. I kept those sketches close.
The vice-president explained that the menswear fashion trade show – which happened twice a year – would be happening in six weeks. I needed my line ready in six weeks, he emphasized. I had been to trade shows before when I worked in the notions industry. However, I had no idea what a ‘line’ meant or what was expected by the sales force. Or what price ranges I should be aiming for. I was given a desk, a chair, a bulk of plain white paper and a pencil. OMG!
In six weeks I had created a line of men’s swimwear/sportswear. With my designs/samples, I was sent to the trade show. I won two awards. Now that you know my story, let me match my experiences with Mihaly.
As illuminated above:
1. I had a challenge. I was too young and ambitious to understand how large a challenge I was facing. Although I felt confident (after all, I had my dream job), I had to succeed. Success was the message in my head. Knitting as a child helped me understand what was expected to keep the knitting machines rolling. I grew up in a fashion family and innately understood the seasonal change of fabric, color and design. There was indeed a balance between what was expected of me and the gifts I was born with.2. Action-awareness kept me up nights. I had a six week deadline. That would not change. With a trade show looming, I could not walk in and say, sorry boss, I need one more day. Not in the fashion business. So, I took action. I designed. I checked men’s fashion magazines for current trends, I studied the Oleg Cassini sketches and thought: How do I make a salable line under the Oleg Cassini label? The sportswear had to have a designer feel; but, if the designs were too far forward, they would not sell. I had no idea that I had all this business sense, this design sense in my head. My confidence got me through.3. Absolutely my goals were clear. I had wanted to be a part of the fashion industry and an opportunity presented itself (to a young man with absolutely no training). The universe had presented a challenge, and my goal was to succeed.4. The feedback from the factory people was positive every day of that six week gestation. The salesmen, the vice-president of sales, liked what they saw. I was encouraged.5. I think I got to the end of the six weeks with a line ready for a fashion/trade show because I had concentrated. Focused. I was absolutely focused on the end-game. As I look back, I can guarantee I was in a state of Flow because I was doing what I loved: creating something from nothing.6. A sense of control: I was it. I either made it happen or I did not. I was in control. I was left alone. No one looked over my shoulder. No one said yes, okay; no one said no, do it differently. Sink or swim. I was in control.7. Loss of self-consciousness: this is where Flow came in for me. I was having such a good time working with fabrics and colors and design, I was lost in a world of creativity. I was, as they say, in my element. AND, because I grew up in a factory environment, thanks to my dad, I felt comfortable among factory people. The men and women responded in kind. I liked and appreciated them; they liked and appreciated what I was attempting to do. And succeeded in doing. Everyone likes a success story.8. Transformation of time: The six weeks disappeared. I floated through my work days. How does the saying go? Find a job you love and it won’t feel like work. I was the kid in a candy store. The transformation was in how I saw myself. I wanted to be a fashion designer! Puff! I was a fashion designer. Good for me.
BTW: Here are three definitions of FLOW I found helpful:
• You are totally absorbed in what you are doing. You aren’t thinking of yourself as separate from the task that has captured your imagination. • Flow is positive psychology, also known colloquially as being in the zone, is the mental state a person performing some activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement and enjoyment in the process of the activity. That definition is from Wikipedia.com.• From the HuffPost: Pushing ourselves just outside our comfort zone, stretching to accomplish a set goal and working toward that goal with focus, determination, and little distraction expands our minds and teaches us to be creative and innovative-skills that increase the quality of both the work you do and the life you live.For me, that is the whole point of understanding Flow: to increase the quality of both the work you do and the life you live.
Following are some thoughts I feel are worth pondering:
• …a task stops being a task when it becomes effortless.• …while in Flow one forgets all of life’s unpleasantness.• …you stop being aware of life’s challenges. • …complete involvement.• …the Flow state becomes a world unto its own.• …a loss of consciousness of the self.• …boundaries of imagination have been pushed forward.
Men and women who study Flow use Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s book FLOW because he is the leading researcher into “Flow states.” I have quoted below some of his thoughts I found provocative and enlightening:
• ...the positive aspects of human experience – joy, creativity, the process of total involvement with life I call Flow.• Aristotle concluded that, more than anything else, men and women seek happiness. (and happiness can be found through Flow – the ultimate life experience.)• The best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stetched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile.
Optimal experience is thus something that we make happen.
• For each person there are thousands of opportunities, challenges to expand ourselves.• You know that what you need to do is possible to do, even though difficult, and sense of time disappears. You forget yourself. You feel part of something larger.• …doing the things we enjoy most within the Flow zone helps us tap into the greater meaning of life.• …by directing our own optimal experiences, we attain a kind of mastery.• …attaining a Flow state is as simple as doing what you love.
Positive Psychology values Flow most because it …
a) Inspires me to solve challenges creatively.b) Let’s me feel like I’m at one with everything that’s happening.c) Is about the only time I can turn off my ‘to-do’ list.d) Let’s me share amazing moments with others.
And in conclusion:For the last 10+ years, I have devoted myself to writing (novellas, novels, plays, essays). As Ernest Hemingway said, ‘Sometimes I write better than I can’ (if I write while in the Flow state).
I cannot wake up in the morning and say, I must find a state of Flow in order to write. Rather, before I go to bed, I tell myself a chapter I’ve been working on needs an ending. What is the ending? When I wake up, with luck, I have ideas flooding over me. I turn on my computer and listen to what the characters are telling me to write. I write. And, suddenly, I am in a state of Flow. It’s not work; it’s joy. I have found joy in being creative.
Edited by Kim Campbell