Flow (Flow State)

Flow or flow state is a positive psychology concept which is informally termed as “being in the zone”.

It occurs when you are completely engaged in a certain activity that you may even forget the time and other factors. Being in a state of flow results to feelings of happiness and accomplishment. For instance, an artist is so immersed in his art that he did not notice that he has already been painting for four hours. This concept was developed in 1975 by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a Hungarian American psychologist. Flow should not be confused with “hyper-focus” which is spending “too much” time on certain activities such as being addicted to playing video games. Flow is a positive mental state characterized by healthy focus while hyper-focus is not always defined as positive.