The Last Holy Grail to pursue seems straight out of a rap battle. According to the gurus of positive psychology, tasting happiness would imply living the “flow”. This concept refers to a moment when you are totally absorbed in a single task, at a peak of concentration that makes you forget your environment and your daily worries.
In recent years, thanks to a rise in general anxiety about the decline of our collective ability to concentrate, flow enthusiasts have multiplied, lending it all the qualities. He would reduce anxiety. He would allow to succeed the impossible. It would be, in a few words, “a hyperconcentrate of happiness”. On YouTube, videos explaining “how to enter the state of flow” are multiplying, each accumulating several thousand, even millions of views.
Within easy reach of anyone
Michelangelo would have experienced it when he painted the Sistine Chapel, depriving himself of food and sleep for several days. Leonardo Da Vinci would have touched on it in his practice of painting, but also of mathematics. Bruce Lee was passionate about this optimal psychological state, to the point of having discussed it at length in the Tao of Jeet Kune Dohis work on the martial art.
However, you don’t have to be an exceptional individual to experience it. In art, sports, work or even household chores: anyone can enjoy its benefits. To achieve this precious sensation, personal development enthusiasts are lavish in advice of all kinds. No pseudo-science behind this concept: the flow does exist. But we still have to meet the conditions to achieve it, in a daily life where our attention is more solicited every day.
An “ecstatic” state
The flow – or “autotelic experience”, in good French – was forged in the 70s by a Hungarian psychologist, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Fascinated by the way in which artists, sportsmen or scientists lost themselves in their work, Csikszentmihalyi carried out dozens of interviews, asking them to describe to him the sensations they felt at the best of their production. All mentioned the feeling of “fluidity” that animated them during the creative process. A sensation powerful enough to make them forget to some extent fatigue, hunger, or discomfort. “You’re in an ecstatic state, to a point where you feel like you almost don’t exist. I’ve experienced it over and over again,” a composer once explained to him. “My hand feels completely detached of my will, and I have nothing to do with what’s going on. I’m just sitting there in a state of awe and wonder. And (the music) just flows by itself “.
The example is specific, but the flow can be experienced in any activity. “It can be the grandmother who knits as well as the potter who works the earth or even the child who becomes a specialist in dinosaurs”, assures Jean Heutte, university professor, director of research within the CIREL-Trigone team from the University of Lille, and one of the leading researchers at European level on flow. “This feeling often comes at your expense: think of the times when you picked up a book without knowing if you were going to like it, only to end up getting lost in it, he continues. Or the time when, a little by chance, especially in order to not to find yourself alone, you accompanied friends who were going to practice an activity that did not seem to you a priori not really interesting (such as ice skating, scuba diving, skydiving, etc.), and that you have discovered a passion for this activity”. Flow is, in short, the illustration of the expression of “time that passes without realizing it, when one feels good in an activity”. “It leads to an alteration in the perception of time, which makes it easy to forget any ruminations , because all the attention is totally monopolized by the activity itself and we no longer have the possibility of thinking about something else”, continues the researcher.
A repeatable experience
An experience that is always positive for those who live it, and which can almost become addictive. Because the flow is exercised a bit like a muscle, or an exercise that becomes easier when you practice it often. “It is easier to find the feeling if you remember having already experienced it”, explains Jean Heutte. On the planet, on average 17% of people are said to be “autotelic”: these lucky individuals choose their activities because they have already experienced the flow. The rest of the population falls into two categories: those who experience it from time to time, like an escape… and those who never experience it. No reason to despair, however: the flow is repeatable. It just takes a little practice.
To be able to reach this level of concentration, or even “absorption” in a task, several conditions must be met. First, eliminate all distractions: to be able to concentrate on a task, turn off your smartphone notifications or any outside noise. Then, it is necessary to find a good balance between the difficulty of the chosen activity and your own skills. Tackle too simple a task, and the brain may get bored. Too difficult, and you risk becoming discouraged.
Commercial applications
The ideal is therefore located in a complex zone, where an individual can have the feeling of taking up a challenge and at the same time, sufficiently test his achievements. It is thus easier to enter a state of flow with an activity that one has already practiced. The composer interviewed by Csikszentmihalyi had, for example, spent years working on his music. No question, either, of embarking on the task without a goal: it is also necessary to set well-defined objectives. If you don’t set yourself a clear outcome, the brain will have difficulty concentrating on the task at hand. Also try to get immediate and direct feedback on what you have accomplished, which will allow you to improve your skills.
Reproducible, the flow can for example be a solution to the inattention of pupils at school. “Grouping students according to levels is a good way to promote their entry into a state close to flow, notes Charles Martin-Krum, professor of social psychology and director of the vulnerability, capability and recovery laboratory at the school of practicing psychologists in Paris. This allows them to immerse themselves in a subject according to their skills, rather than only interest a handful. Highly studied in Anglo-Saxon scientific circles, the flow can also have commercial applications. “One of its main fields of application is the design of video games, but also in that of e-commerce sites, points out Jean Heutte. The idea is to create a product that is sufficiently immersive for the user to lose his sense of it. time, surfing or playing”.
No miracle cure, no key to happiness
Flow can also have dark sides. “The feeling of flow also comes from the fact that we have the feeling of having understood something, even if we misunderstood it”, adds Jean Heutte, who was interested in the explosion of conspiracy sites during Trump’s tenure in the United States. “People have the impression of becoming experts on a subject when they know nothing about it at all. This stimulation is increased tenfold by meeting a community of people who share the same feeling, and the essential aspects of flow are reproduced here: the maximum concentration towards a precise objective – to discover the truth -, fed by an immediate return – the comments of the other Net surfers. But the result can be terribly harmful”. The “addictive” side of the flow can even lead to taking reckless risks. “Some people may have to take reckless risks to find a sufficient level of difficulty to re-enter the flow, warns Charles Martin-Krum. Take the case of surfers who move further and further away to seek better waves, or climbers who go higher”.
Always a positive experience for those who experience it, the flow has also been exploited by many supporters of mindfulness, particularly in the United States. Journalist Steven Kotler, for example, has made a name for himself by writing books, videos and performing “live” coaching sessions on the subject. With one goal: to increase his mental abilities by making the most of his concentration. “But be careful, warns Jean Heutte, flow is neither a miracle cure nor the key to happiness”.