Experiencing "Flow" - The Secret to Happiness

What is flow and how can we achieve it?  How it helps us through challenging times.

Related:
Pahrump Point Hike and Tecopa Hot Springs, California
​Southern Utah Hiking and Biking in a Pandemic:  Wire Mesa, Snow Canyon, Zion NP

Feeling "Flow" - The Theory of Optimal Experience
If it wasn't for a friend who reads my hiking posts, I probably would have never heard of "flow", the feeling of immense joy felt during an intrinsically rewarding task whereby the focus is not on the self, but on the activity.  He knew that I would be interested in the article he sent me, "Why does Experiencing 'Flow' feel so good?  A Communication Scientist Explains", because it relates to my passion for hiking and nature.  It helped me question more specifically why hiking makes me happy and turns on my creativity.  Is this happiness caused by flow or the release of serotonin, the body's natural mood stabilizer, or both?  Is it simply the rhythm of walking?  Or is it because nature is inherently relaxing?  Did hiking help me through​ the COVID-19 pandemic?  It has led to a cascade of great articles and books to peruse.

Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, in the 1970's, asked the question "what is enjoyment?" when he saw that many Europeans were traumatized by World War II.  He decided to find out what makes life worthwhile after he attended Carl Jung's presentation about Hindu mandalas as a technique to gain a sense of order.  After that, his life was devoted to answering the question, "how can we achieve a state of optimal experience?" and studying positive psychology.   He interviewed athletes, artists, composers, surgeons and CEOs of large companies to ascertain what made their lives meaningful and describe how they felt during happy, intense experiences.  Many used the metaphor of feeling like they were carried by a current - like the flow of water.   Others achieve flow with yoga, snowboarding, playing chess, and writing.  Mountain climbers are among the 8,000 people around the world who have been interviewed for flow research, as well as blind nuns, Navajo shepherds and Dominican monks.  He found that regardless of culture, education, vocation, etc.,  seven conditions appear when a person is in flow.

Flow happens when we complete an activity and feel self-assurance, satisfaction, and joy.   An activity in which you can achieve flow is one that is worth doing for its own sake.  A website with a great name, "Happiness Lessons," indicates that if we can find this activity, we will be able to move society and humanity forward.

Trail Creek, Sawtooth Mountains

Payette River, Idaho

Big Wood River - Ketchum, Idaho

Virgin River - Zion NP

Middle Fork Taylor Creek, Zion NP

Catoctin Mountain Park - Maryland

hover for locations

In my last post, Pahrump Point Hike and Tecopa Hot Springs, I mentioned that our friend Scott proclaimed from the summit, "This is good for my soul!" after a challenging climb with amazing views of Death Valley.  Getting up to these spectacular places with your friends and overcoming physical and mental obstacles together is good for your soul.  Maybe Scott was feeling a sense of ecstasy, serenity and clarity, some of the feelings reported by people experiencing flow who are in an optimal psychophysical state.

Besides the research on flow, studies in the past 10 years show increasing evidence that exercise is equally effective as medications in treating anxiety and depression.  I have known for a long time that hiking is great medicine for me.  Jennifer Heisz, PhD talks about her research on this subject in her upcoming book called Move the Body, Heal the Mind, the subject of my next post.

​The Flow Model
Csíkszentmihályi created the Flow Model after he narrowed down the abstract idea of flow to two more concrete and easily-identifiable metrics:  challenge and skill which he placed on axes of a graph.  A gamut of emotions arise out of a combination of these two conditions;  flow occurs when an activity's challenge is balanced with one's skill.

Trinity Mountains, Idaho

From Why does experiencing 'flow' feel so good?  A communication scientist explains.​  www.theconversation.com.

Flow lies in the upper right-hand corner of the graph, where you are engaging in a challenging activity with an above-average amount of skill.  Arousal and Control are good states to be in because you can move into flow easily.   If you are in a state of Arousal, you may be beyond your comfort zone because of high challenge, but you can easily move into Flow when you develop more skills for that activity.  In the Control realm, you can move into Flow with added challenge.

So, do I get Flow with hiking?
Translate these ideas into an activity that makes you happy, like hiking does for me.  I can overcome my fear (Anxiety/Arousal) of losing an unmarked route by improving my GPS and map/compass skills to have a greater chance to achieve flow.  Or, if I'm feeling too much Control, I can enter Flow by challenging myself a little more, perhaps with a physically tougher climb - more elevation gain or more difficult terrain to navigate.  I would want to avoid the top right of the graph, where extreme amounts of skill and challenge would make hiking too intense.

Not surprisingly, research shows how people with stronger feelings of flow felt better during COVID-19 quarantine compared to people with weaker experiences because knowing how to get into flow distracted them from worry.  Flow refocuses thoughts away from stressful circumstances to more positive and enjoyable ones, and it can decrease depression and burnout.  I believe that if you know what to do in order to experience flow and optimal well-being, then you have more confidence and less fear.  ​

Your brain during flow
The brain actually changes its network configuration during flow, says Richard Huskey, the author of this article.  He is Assistant Professor of Communication and Cognitive Science, University of California, Davis, and has studied flow for 10 years in his lab.  This network change helps people adapt to difficult tasks.

Three activities occur during flow that lead to well-being.  We stop thinking about ourselves and our negative thoughts decrease because that structure of the brain becomes suppressed.  Conversely, with flow, the brain is thought to increase activation in reward-processing regions.   At this time, however, this has not been proven; these brain responses are associated with flow, but we can't yet conclude that these responses cause flow.

So, yes, I would have to conclude I do feel flow on most of my hikes, as long as I don't get stuck on a ledge, or in a thunderstorm, or have to climb Class 4 rocks.  There's probably a bit of serotonin mixed in.  Hiking with my husband and friends creates "optimal happiness."  For a few hours we can can leave negative thoughts behind and feed our souls.  There's something about moving in nature and witnessing extraordinary scenes in the American west that bonds us together.  

Old Growth Trail - Kokanee Creek -  just outside of Kokanee Glacier Provincial Park, Nelson, British Columbia
photo by Ann Amberg - annamberg.com

References
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi:  Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Management
Founder, Co-Director, Quality of Life Research Center.  Retrieved from https://www.cgu.edu/people/mihaly-csikszentmihalyi/
Huskey, R.  January 4, 2022.  Why does Experiencing 'flow' feel so good?  A communication scientist explains.  Retrieved from The Conversation.  
Stanford researches find mental health prescription:  Nature.  6/30/15.  Stanford News.  
TED Talk . February 2004.   https://www.ted.com/talks/mihaly_csikszentmihalyi_flow_the_secret_to_happiness