The Psychology of Flow: Getting Into the Learning Zone

Have you ever seen your child so completely engrossed in an activity that he or she loses all sense of time and place? For my son, it happens when he’s engaged in certain math games on the computer. An hour can pass and, to use a sporting term, he’s still “in the zone.” His key strokes are automatic, his focus intense, yet his body is relaxed and his expression serene. It’s almost as if he’s “one” with the game.

Hungarian psychologist, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, coined this optimal experience - and its far-reaching consequences - “the psychology of flow." The concept is simple: One engages in an activity simply for the sake of the activity itself. As a homeschooling mom, there have been times when I’ve reprimanded my son for spending too long on an activity he‘s clearly engrossed in, because I‘ve viewed it as a waste of time. I’ve been anxious for him to do some “real work” and, as a result, I’ve unintentionally sabotaged the process of flow. I only learned its true value when I made the connection between him playing certain games, and a marked elevation in his mood. What I viewed as frustrating, he found fun and challenging. What I perceived as pointless and fruitless, he viewed as richly rewarding. Perhaps one reason I’ve had a hard time helping my children achieve flow at home up until this point, is that I’ve had preconceived notions about what my children enjoy. I have failed to recognize what they are really passionate about. Maybe it is because I have been overwhelmed by distractions and time constraints. But honestly, I think it is because I have not perceived some things as worth doing if their value can not be measured quantitatively.

Whatever the reason, I can now see that flow has not only enhanced my son‘s life, it has also made our family life happier. Flow is something that happens naturally when a child is fully engaged in an activity. However, it can be encouraged in other areas of their lives as well. Flow isn’t a passive process, but rather involves the highest state of creativity, so it makes sense that activities where children achieve the highest levels of flow are the ones they truly enjoy doing. These activities could be a sport, music, or painting. Oftentimes, these are activities where the rules or goals are already in place, so the child can concentrate on the challenge at hand, rather than on questions regarding what to do and how to do it.

I wanted to see if I could enhance flow in other areas of my son’s life, so we made a chart and divided it into the following categories: the ability to “lose” oneself; serenity; something worth doing; suspension of time; complete concentration; feeling of control; challenging, but not overwhelming. We chose different activities and marked each category with a 0 or 1, depending on whether he experienced that flow characteristic or not. We added up the score out of seven, then set time aside to concentrate on the activities with the highest scores. In some instances, flow did not happen at all. But in other activities, particularly drawing and building, I noticed that within a few weeks, he started to feel and flow his way through them, rather than simply think his way through them. That, in addition to the more balanced, peaceful, child I see each time he’s fully engaged, leads me to believe that the process of creative flow has begun.