Flow Training: What Is It Actually?
Do you know the feeling of sitting on a task for ages but barely making progress? Maybe you can't get motivated or get distracted quickly. Yet you have quite a few goals or to-dos on your list and would rather use your time productively?
Or do you sometimes find it hard to take a breath in the hectic daily grind because stress, uncertainties, and fear hold you back? Would you rather gain confidence and find your inner calm again?
Do you want more flow too? Then start your F.L.O.W. training now and develop all the skills that enable you to get into this highly productive creative state more easily and often.
Flow: The Optimal Experience
Flow was first defined by psychologist and happiness researcher Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and describes the mental state in which we become fully absorbed with joy in a challenging activity and lose track of time.
We're highly concentrated and seem to have everything effortlessly under control. Flow is considered the optimal experience because we not only feel great but are also capable of peak performance.
Find the Golden Mean
To get into flow, the right balance of perceived demands and abilities is necessary. If we perceive a task as too easy, we're understimulated and bored. Conversely, overwhelm and fear can arise when a task seems to exceed our abilities.
So it comes down to the golden mean: When demands and abilities are properly aligned, an activity seems challenging but still doable. Then we enter the so-called flow channel and can achieve extraordinary performance.
The Autotelic Personality
Some seem to find this balance more easily and thus experience more flow. How do they do it? These people possess certain abilities and characteristics that are summarized as the autotelic personality.
Scientists explain that flow personalities can better handle an imbalance between demands and abilities: Even when a task seems too demanding, they can counteract negative feelings like overwhelm or fear through stress management and optimism.
They see the task more as a welcome challenge to expand their own abilities. Stress management therefore plays a major role for flow.
The Necessary Skills
What enables autotelic people are so-called "meta-skills":
- Curiosity and interest help to get excited about new things and constantly seek further challenges
- High intrinsic motivation - the activity itself is the goal and provides joy and satisfaction
- Emotional regulation - negative feelings like stress arise in the mind and can be reduced there too
- Low self-centeredness - not constantly preoccupied with insecurities
- Active attention control - focus on the task, blocking out distractions
- Persistence - setbacks don't stop them from pursuing goals
The F.L.O.W. Training
Would you also like to have these abilities? Then I have good news for you: These "flow skills" can be learned and, thanks to neuroplasticity, also neurally anchored and consolidated in the brain.
The F.L.O.W. training summarizes the "meta-skills" of the autotelic personality in four areas:
Focus
How often does it happen that you're really present in what you're doing? With the exercises in the Focus area, you improve your concentration ability, mindfulness, and attention control.
You learn not to let yourself be pulled out of flow by distractions and disturbing thoughts. For this, we provide you with mental strategies from mindfulness-based stress reduction.
Lightness (Ease)
Stress, fear, or grimness are familiar everyday companions for many people. But it doesn't have to stay that way!
Through methods like progressive muscle relaxation, autogenic training, and targeted breathing techniques, you learn to remain calm, balanced, and peaceful even in stressful situations.
Optimism
How often do you feel like you have everything effortlessly under control? Are you convinced that you can achieve anything you set out to do?
With the exercises in the Optimism area, you strengthen positive beliefs, your confidence, and the belief that you can successfully master your challenges. This works with the help of visualizations, affirmations, and selected techniques from cognitive behavioral therapy.
Growth
If you have difficulty motivating yourself or lack purpose behind your actions, the exercises in the Growth area are exactly right for you!
They support you in finding your inner drive, transforming boredom into an interesting challenge, and pursuing your goals with persistence.
Train Your Flow Skills Now!
With the right exercises, it's possible to develop the flow skills of the autotelic personality and master your challenges with effortless focus, confidence, and calm!
If you too want to lead a productive, fulfilled life, start your flow training now!