FROM FLOW TO FLAMES, NAVIGATING THE THIN LINE BETWEEN FLOW AND BURNOUT STATES.

''Repression is not the way to virtue. When people restrain themselves out of fear, their lives are by necessity diminished. Only through freely chosen discipline can life be enjoyed and still kept within the bounds of reason." -Mihaly Csikszentmihályi.

"It was like floating,' 'I was carried on by the flow.'" - an interviewee chorused during one of Mihaly's early interviews in 1975''

                                                               

''Game 6 of the world championship in 2021 in Dubai is still going on after 7 hours of intense fighting. The defending world champion, Magnus Carlson, and the challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi are giving the fights of their lives and just a while ago they reached 125 moves. this is officially the longest world chess championship game in history, defeating the 124-move game 5 of the 1978 Karpov match.'

                     

''More and more we sensed we were creating a truly great thing, and after a while, all of us old hands became truly dedicated to it''- Red Anderson, Mount Rushmore carver

Mount Rushmore Carvers reportedly spent very long hours on end daily during the crafting of the masterpiece.''

Mount Rushmore 

WHAT EXACTLY IS FLOW AND WHAT IS BURNOUT?

Flow refers to the complete absorption of one in the work being done, creating an illusion of time alchemy. The soul is completely involved in the activity and every action proceeds from the previous action. It is the melting together of action and consequence, the performer is spurred on in a cycle fueled by the correct prediction of the result of every microunit of action. In other words, the overall flow state is a macrocosm of oftentimes a gazillion microseconds of individual flow units.

Despite the complex nature of the human brain, psychologists have found out that we can only attend to 110 bits of information in a given second. Consequently, our attention capacities per second are fixed and so we may find it difficult to perform two or more attention-consuming activities at the same time. A classical example is seen in gaming subjects, when hyperfocused on gaming, gamers oftentimes miss out on everything going on around them and fail to grasp even the most overt changes in their immediate environment. Psychologists have been able to show that normal conversations take up as much as 40 bits of the 110-bit roof per second.

People in the state of flow will do whatever they are doing for surprisingly long periods, be it studying, gaming, painting, or practicing a new craft.

  Burnout on the other hand is the feeling of energy depletion or exhaustion; increased mental distance from one's job, feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one's job; and reduced professional efficacy.

Where then do the two lines meet?

    Burnout thrives in a mind that has lost its rhythm of flow. It creeps in stealthily, slowly, but surely. The brain loses its appetite for the work at hand usually due to the illusion of stress created by the repetitive performance of an unpleasant job, or of a pleasant job for an unpleasant amount of time regularly.

   Flow has been linked to heightened performance, while burnout impedes work. The mind struggles with basic focus during burnout, depression, hormonal imbalance, irritability, and depression are diagnostic signs, whereas during flow, the focus is at its maximum and the performer doesn't struggle with any of the above symptoms.

    The possibility therefore exists, that two workers working on the same project in a company or two students studying for the same course at uni over time might have very different experiences while working/studying and this can be linked to their overall productivity.

 WHAT THEN CAN BE DONE ABOUT BURNOUT, AND IS THERE A SALVAGE PATHWAY FROM BURNOUT TO FLOW?

   The linked research by the University of California used brain imaging technology to pinpoint what triggers flow activity in the brain. They tracked the neurological activity of 140 people playing video games, and they discovered that flow occurs most times when the activity at hand is challenging enough to engage the subject fully the subject is almost immune to every form of external distraction.

   The major key to avoiding burnout is to choose your engagements wisely. Activities that interest you and match your personality are way less likely to throw you into the horrors of burnout compared to activities that you lack interest in.

  CONCLUDING

     Perfectionism is an enemy of flow. The crux of flow is passion, deep immersion in work and increased productivity with reduced stress. So while performing tasks that you intent to flow with, remember, you don't have to do it perfectly you just have to do it in such a way that you get truly immersed in the job at hand with very minimal distraction. The fruits of flow will come.