Peak Experiences and Flow

Peak Experiences and Flow

Flow

Do you ever find yourself so wrapped up in what you're doing, where your concentration is so intense that you seem to forget about everything around you that you would normally notice?

Personally for me, I feel as though whenever I am concentrating on something so much (for example uni work), I often forget about the time and time flies by! Or for example when I am in work, if I have a headache, I often forget all about it!

Do you ever do something where you feel that the activity is worth doing regardless of whether you are getting rewarded or not?

Do you ever do something that has provided some unique and very memorable moments- where you feel extremely lucky and grateful/ or whether it has changed your perspective on life in some way?

(Csikszenmihalyi, 1997, pp. 275-276)

Why is this relevant in primary education?

According to Barnes (2018, p. 76), it was believed that education should re-establish a focus on the values driven, meaningful, present tense, personal and creative aspects of living, whether they're awesome, exciting or emotional. For a child, this is believed to help the child develop more resilience, motivation, achievement and engagement and this is essential, as it takes children out of their comfort zones, ensuring deeper learning, better relationships and also ensures there is a happier learning community provided for the children.

Having said this, Barnes (2018, p. 87) believed schools do not put children in situations where awe and wonder are their natural responses.

Positive Psychology
This is the focus on healthy minds and focuses on the positive aspect of the brain rather than illnesses.

Psychologists argue "remembering states of 'positive' emotion contribute to a mental bank of positive scenarios which can be recalled and used to generate resilient responses in times of difficulty".

(Barnes, 2018, pp. 81)

"The flow state is intrinsically rewarding and leads the individual to seek to replicate flow experiences". (Csikszentmihalyi, 2014, p. 244)

Condition for flow
Optimal experiences that can include a number of defining characteristics.

Nine main elements are listed which are mentioned repeatedly by individuals who experience these optimal, flow states:

1. Clear goals every step of the way

2. Intimate feedback to one's actions

3. Balances between challenges and skills

4. Action and awareness are merged

5. Distractions are excluded from consciousness

6. No worry of failure

7. Self-consciousness disappears

8. Sense of times becomes distorted

9. Activity becomes autotelic (pursuit that counts- not the end result)

(Csikszentmihalyi)

 

How flow and peak experiences influence our every day lives
For example:
Flow and peak experiences during music making:
“allows the children to lose their sense of time and even imagine that they are in a different reality… they become calmer and more focused”.
(Adams and Beauchamp, 2018, p.60)

 References
Adams, D. and Beauchamp, G. (2018). Portals between world: A study of the experiences of children aged 7-11 years from primary schools in Wales making music outdoors. Research studies in Music Education.
Barnes, J. (2018). Applying Cross-Curricular Approaches Creatively: The Connecting Curriculum. London: Routledge
Csikszentmihalyi, M., Rathunde, K., and Whalen, S. (1997). Talented teenagers: The roots of success and failure. Cambridge University Press.
Csikszenmihalyi, M. and Larson, R. (2014). Flow and the foundations of positive psychology (pp. 209-226). Dordrecht: Springer