FLOURISH - Flow as a Measure of Flourishing

My "Qualongevity" goal is to flourish and enhance my quality of life as I age.  But, what do I mean by quality of life? How will I know when I am flourishing?  How will I measure the quality of my life.?

In this episode, I suggest that the state of flow - that state when we are so absorbed in an activity that time stands still - might be a good measure of quality-of-life. My life will be worth living if I can still engage in activities that activate a flow state. The more time I spend in the flow state, the higher my quality-of-life. 

Transcript

FLOW AS A MEASURE OF QUALITY-OF-LIFE

Hi. Welcome to this episode of the Flourish As You Age podcast series where we are exploring techniques and practices to enhance our wellbeing and our ability to flourish. I’m Michael C. Patterson. 

Here’s a quick recap of previous episodes. The basic question we are trying to answer is how we can flourish as we age and we suggested that To flourish we need optimize both our brain health and our mental management – we need a healthy brain and well-managed mind. 

In Episode #3, I gave a quick review of the eight behavioral roots of brain health. That’s the brain health side. The main focus of this series is on the mental management side of the equation, and in episode #4, I introduced the idea that we have to manage two minds, each with a radically different perspective on the world;  a sensory mind and a conceptual mind. Episode #5, The Empress and Her Deputy offers an allegory about the dangers of allowing our conceptual mind to dominate.  And in Episode #6 & 7 we discussed  Richie Davidson’s 4 DIMENSIONS OF WELLBEING: Awareness, Connection, Insight, Purpose 

In this episode I’d like to move on and introduce the idea of FLOW. Specifically, I’d like to make the case that the state of flow can a useful way to measure our quality-of-life as we age. 

I should take a moment to say a word about aging. I’m 76 and I’m thinking about flourishing from my 76-year-old perspective, and I’m targeting these podcasts to older people. But it should be pointed out, that we are aging from the moment we are born until the moment we die. So, using flow as a measure of quality-of-life as we age applies to anyone, of any age. 

I use the term “Qualongevity” to combine the ideas of longevity and quality-of-life. I want to live a long life and I want old age to be pleasant and fulfilling.  I want to live long and live well. 

I don’t want to stay alive if my life is nothing more than pain and suffering or is without meaning and purpose.  No. I want more quality years. 

But, just what do I mean by quality-of-life? Your ideas of quality-of-life are likely to differ from mind. Is there any way to generalize “a good life,” and if so, how could we measure it? How much quality is needed to make my life worth living? Or, better yet, how much quality do I need to feel that I am flourishing? These are complex and nuanced questions that are hard to answer. 

The concept of flow has given me a useful way of corralling my thoughts about quality-of-life, and simplifying my thinking about this topic. The state of flow helps me define what I mean by a good life. 

The psychologist Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi coined the term flow to describe an altered state of consciousness that he describes as, “being so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.”

Well, that all sounds lovely. 

One strength of the term flow, as a marker for quality-of-life, is that we have all experienced it.  We have all – I hope – experienced the feeling of flow at least once in our lives. When we were children and engaged in exuberant, uninhibited play, we almost certainly were in a flow state.   It’s a great feeling and isn’t easy to forget.   

Csikszentmihalyi says,“On those rare occasions when it happens,  we feel a sense of exhilaration, a deep sense of enjoyment that is long cherished and that becomes a landmark in memory for what life should be like.”

Right! Exactly! That’s what life should be like. I’d like flow to be a more integral part of my remaining years.  So, I’m interested in figuring out how to find flow more often and more regularly during each and every day. 

I get into a kind of flow state when I’m playing with my grandkids, fooling around, tickling and laughing. Or when I am reading them a story and acting out the voices of all the characters. I get into flow, sometimes, when writing, or when I get caught up in researching a particularly fascinating question. I can get into flow when reading an absorbing book.  I used to get into flow when dancing and playing sports.

Flow ties into the Hemisphere Hypothesis that I talked about in previous episodes. I think that when we are in a flow state we are connecting with our sensory/experiential mind and are quieting the endless chatter of our conceptual mind. Or, perhaps, the thinking we do in flow is more mindful and focused, rather than the mindless rumination that fills our mind when we are daydreaming. 

If flow is associated with our sensory/experiential mind, then training our mind to focus on sensations and direct experience may be a way to stimulate the flow state. 

In any case, when I am in a state of flow, I feel good. I’m happy. I have purpose. In the flow state, I am focused and centered - I believe - on real experience, on the life I am actually living and not on some fantasy of what should have been or could have been, or ought to be. In flow, I have no time to ruminate about the past or to become anxious about the future because I’m rooted in the present moment. 

So, back to quality-of-life. It makes sense that the more time I spend in a state of flow, the higher my quality-of-life. More flow = higher quality of life. That is a workable formula. 

This is much simpler than, say, thinking up a bucket list of things I want to achieve before I die, on the theory that each item I check off my list takes me one rung higher on the ladder of happiness and fulfillment. That never seems to work.

Happiness is a state of mind - a state of consciousness. Quality-of-life has less to do with what we do and more with how we go about doing it. With the right attitude and frame of mind, we can be doing just about anything and find it pleasurable and fulfilling. And the flow state seems to sweep us into that right attitude and that positive state of mind. 

With flow as my standard, quality-of-life as I age will be determined by my state of mind, not by what I am doing or where I happen to be. I could be traveling to Ireland or sitting in my office in San Diego. If I’m in the flow, life will be good. Conversely, if the state of flow eludes me, it won’t matter where I am.  If my mind is caught up in rumination, even in the most exotic of locales, life would feel unsatisfactory and disappointing.

Using flow as a proxy for QoL also gives me a strategy. My goal is Qualongevity - to flourish in my final years. One important strategy I can use to achieve that goal will be to increase the amount of time I spend in the flow state. To flourish more, I need to get into a flow state more often. 

So, how can I make that happen? What tactics can I use to get into a flow state more often?  

I’ll explore this question in the coming episodes of the Flourish As You Age podcast.  

Until next time. Be well. Be happy. Flow with the Flow.