Flow Exercises
What follows is a collection of exercises to help bring Flow into your daily life. Try out as many of these as you can, knowing that some will feel more natural or impactful than others. Feel free to modify and personalize these exercises to help them meet your needs. Over time, you’ll likely notice a few of these exercises that really resonate with you. Make note of these and practice them consistently to increase your ability to experience flow and better your overall well being. Remember there are three key elements of flow activities: 1. Clarity of goals and required activities (knowing what to do), 2. Immediate feedback (knowing how well you are doing), and 3. High level of skills and challenges (motivating but not anxiety inducing).
Cultivating a hobby or skill: Figure out a hobby or skill that you currently love, have previously enjoyed, or really would like to figure out. The first step in using this hobby as a flow experience will be to figure out how to implement the three elements of flow within the context of the activity you have chosen. You need to identify clear goals for your specific session of practice, develop a system of feedback, and start at a skill level that is neither too boring or too difficult. Recommended activities that are conducive to these guidelines are listed below (but do not feel restricted to this list).
Rock climbing
Playing a musical instrument
Doing origami
Photography
Writing in some formats (make sure you can receive feedback from an instructor or online writing group)
Art in various formats
Group sports (make sure you join a group that plays at your level of expertise)
Yoga
Make sure to find a way to track your progress over time. This will help facilitate flow as well as provide you with the motivation that seeing improvement brings.
Enhancing work/school performance -- Find a specific component of your job that you would like to improve; whether it’s your typing speed, or public speaking ability just make sure that it is conducive to the key elements of flow listed above (while most work activities are amenable to improvement, some may be too boring or too ambiguous to produce a flow state). Identify clear goals for your specific session of practice, develop a system of feedback, and start at a skill level that is neither too boring or too difficult. A great way to turn previously boring activities into flow experiences is to try doing them faster, or doing them slower, but more accurately. Alternatively, you can turn previously anxiety-inducing work activities into flow experiences by cutting them into smaller and more manageable pieces.
Parenting and flow -- The key to experiencing flow while parenting is shared goals and a willingness from both parties to invest attention in achieving those goals. Of course you can experience flow without the participation of the other party (i.e. improving diaper changing speed or putting your child to sleep), but for this module we’ll classify those activities as cultivating a skill rather than cultivating a relationship. Instead parenting in flow will involve activities like teaching a child a new math concept, playing catch in the backyard, or cooking with your family. Flow will not be achieved if there is not a clear common goal in the activity, even if that goal is unspoken; nor if there is not immediate feedback about either parties participation. Below is a list of recommended activities to experience flow with your child.
Pretend play - this activity lends itself well because both parties have to be attentive and interested in making pretend play work. While the required skills may be different for child and parent, both require a lot of work (i.e. storyline and role creation for the child and following along with a very weird and confusing story for the parent).
Sports/outdoor activities. These can range from taking a walk up a nearby mountian to teaching a pre-teen how to throw a curveball.
Helping children through issues with friends or crushes. Devoting your full attention to a child's problem can improve your relationship with your child and result in a flow experience, just make sure your child actually wants your help.
Reading books together. While this activity may often be too boring to induce a flow state, if you focus on making the story come alive for the child, it may result in flow.
Helping children with school work.
The most important part of experiencing flow in parenting is full investment of attention—turn off phones, put away books, and try not to think about future stressors.
Flow in Exercise -- Physical Exercise is an area of life that can easily be turned into a flow experience. Both group or individual sports provide external structure and rules, variable levels of difficulty, and lots of opportunities for immediate feedback. In order to continue to experience flow in sports you will need to make your activities more difficult as you improve and be willing to implement feedback you receive from your own performance and from others recommendations. Below is a list of physical exercise activities that are particularly conducive to flow experiences.
Rock Climbing
Yoga
Mountain Biking
Weight training
Group sports (Basketball, Soccer, Volleyball)
Hiking
Tennis
Flow with Social Settings -- Many social settings offer all of the requisite requirements to experience flow. From extended family dinners to corporate board meetings, often social settings offer unique challenges, and rules. Feedback on your performance in these situations are generally given, although usually not explicitly.
Family gatherings are a good example of a social setting that can be leveraged for flow of done properly. We all hope that extended family dinners will be a chance to relax and enjoy the company of people we don't often see. However, there are often complex social situations that need to be navigated, as well as family rules and routines that need to be followed. Rather than spending your next family gathering stressed out and wanting to leave, you can try to lead a family discussion or play a family game might be somewhat stressful but ultimately beneficial both for the families well-being and for your personal flow experience.
Preparing yourself for a flow experience using guided imagery:
Think of an upcoming difficult experience which you would like to have flow in.
Imagine each part of the experience, and visualize what it would be like to successfully complete each part. If you’re having a hard time imagining a successful completion of a part of the experience, be kind to yourself, and try imagining a successful completion.
Try to imagine each part of the experience. What will you see during the experience? What will you hear? What will you feel? Imagine yourself overcoming any obstacles you may face
As you prepare yourself for flow experiences, your performance level can increase in future experiences. This will help future experiences be more conducive to flow.