Flowing beyond stress
The research in Csikszentmihalyi’s book, “Flow” indicates that workers tend to mention three main reasons for their dissatisfaction with their jobs: lack of variety and challenge, conflicts with other people, and lastly, burnout – too much pressure and stress, too little time. The author says that all can be addressed by a subjective shift in one’s consciousness. Saying that “stress exists only if we experience it; it takes the most extreme objective conditions to cause it directly.”
He says that to overcome the anxieties and depressions of contemporary life, individuals much become independent of the social environment to the degree that they no longer respond exclusively in terms of its rewards and punishments. The sooner we realize that the quality of the work experience can be transformed at will, the sooner we can improve this enormously important dimension of life.
So how?
Says the author, by becoming an autotelic person and learning to experience flow. ie, in essence (abridged from book), someone who:
1. Learns to make choices (from trivial to life-changing) without much fuss, pays attention to the results of her actions and adjusts accordingly. What she does is not random, nor is it the result of outside determining forces. Actions are reliable and internally controlled.
2. Is immersed in the activity. This is done by learning to balance the opportunities for action with the skills you have. Involvement is greatly facilitated by the ability to concentrate.
3. Pays attention to what is happening and is able to sustain involvement. Self-consciousness, the most common source of distraction, is then not a problem.
4. Learns how to enjoy immediate experience. Feeling a breeze on a hot day, watching a child play with a puppy, drinking a glass of water – even the simplest of experiences can become deeply satisfying and enriching in their own right.
Quick tip – flow
Consider one activity, at work or at home in which you can totally immerse yourself. Notice the ‘ingredients’ that allow you to do this – eg, curiosity, fascination, a sense of achievement, a sense of increasing complexity etc. Explore ways that you can bring these ingredients more into your work life.