Fall Back in Love With Your Writing Practice Through 'Flow'
“The happiest people spend much time in a state of flow — the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it.” — Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Some days, I sit down to write and it just feels blergh. I’m pretty confident I’m not alone here, but writing often feels like both a curse and a blessing. I love sitting down to write. I don’t love feeling like everything I want to say is pointless.
Or worse, that I don’t really know what I want to say or how I want to say it.
I’ve mentioned a couple of times in previous articles, that I don’t subscribe to the idea writing should be this enormous monster we wrestle and battle it out with at the keyboard. I know that writing, just simply getting any words down on paper, makes me feel good, so I’ve worked on developing a writing practice that doesn’t leave me feeling depleted and exhausted at the end of the day.
One of the tools in my writing practice repetoire is the concept of ‘Flow’.
What is a ‘Flow State’?
The concept of ‘flow state’ is often bandied around. Sometimes it’s elevated to a ‘supernatural’ or spiritual experience, which is kinda weird once you understand it a bit better! Flow is a pretty interesting psychological concept and finding it is much more attainable than we might initially be led to believe.
‘Flow State’ was academically legitimised by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced Me-High Chick-Sent-Me-High), who says achieving flow is the secret to happiness. Csikszentmihalyi states that Flow refers to an ‘autotelic experience’: one that is pleasant, enjoyable, and intrinsically motivating.
Flow is about grabbing the moment with both hands and immersing yourself within it and the process of the activity you’re engaging with. Csikszentmihalyi’s research has found that Flow is met through the following conditions:
The understanding of clear, defined goals.
A degree of immediate feedback — from others or the outcome itself.
A balance between challenge and skill.
The merging of action and awareness.
The exclusion of distractions.
No fear of failure.
The elimination of self-consciousness.
A distorted sense of time — the sense of getting ‘lost in the task’.
Flow can be applied to pretty much any activity you want to find joy and satisfaction with. It’s the balance between setting goals and going with ‘the flow’ - allowing the process to take charge and lead you where it leads.
When I first read through the above points, I couldn’t believe how perfect it sounded for application to my writing practice. So, I spent time figuring out what I needed to do to invite a Flow State to the table whenever I decided to sit down and write.
Finding ‘Flow’ in Your Writing Practice
While Csikszentmihalyi’s understanding of Flow is achieved by engaging with challenging tasks, there are steps we can take to adopt Flow into our state of mind during our writing practice. In his book, ‘The Rise of Superman’, author Steven Kotler identifies seven triggers that allow us to enter a flow state which I’ve found particularly helpful.
Before begining any task or activity, Kotler says we should think about:
Minimising the distractions around us.
Embracing risk and mental chance-taking — don’t be afraid to try something new and mix up your routine.
Choosing a rich environment that lends itself well to a state of motivation, inspiration and achievement.
Paying attention to your senses — use meditation and mindfulness to cultivate a state of calm.
What you want to achieve — make sure your goals are realistic and attainable.
Engaging with feedback — tune into the progress you’re making as you’re making it and don’t beat yourself up for not getting to ‘the finish line’.
Finding the balance between challenge and skill — choose tasks which challenge you but allow you to harness a natural ability.
Finding Flow in my writing practice has been a process of experimentation and figuring out what works and doesn’t work. Setting realistic goals has definitely been helpful, and writing for WODT has been particularly instrumental with this! Sitting down to write these articles has clear parameters, a desired outcome, and a set deadline. I love writing them and engaging with a post like this gets me into a state of motivation. Once I finish this piece, for example, there’s a short story I’ve been dragging my heels on that I plan to turn to, as I feel engaged with my writing and inspired to keep going.
Achieving flow is something that all of us can work towards. It’s something I’m always striving for when I sit down to write and implementing the seven steps above have helped me to create more consistent states of flow within this rewarding activity for me.
They might work for you too.
“May what I do flow from me like a river, no forcing and no holding back, the way it is with children.” ― Rainer Maria Rilke
