Flow state describes a state of total immersion where you feel ideally challenged and is also referred to as “being in the zone, in the pocket, runner’s high, or when everything clicks”. Flow stands for synergistic movement, efficiency, aesthetics, and harmony. Flow occurs when you are one with what you are doing, and we experience a sense of deep meaning, competence, and growth. . In flow everything else seems to disappear and the doing does itself. In short, we feel our best and we perform our best. Flow is a sweet spot spectrum also called the “optimal human experience”, a state in which mind and body work synergistically in a “voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile”. (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). Flow is a universal phenomena and even necessary to maintain good physical and mental health. 

There are 9 dimensions of flow (triggers and characteristics):

1. The challenge-skill balance (we feel optimally challenged when we have to slightly stretch our skills)
2. Action-awareness merge (we feel totally immersed, and action becomes effortless, spontaneous, efficient) 
3. Clear goals (a clear sense of what you want to accomplish)
4. Unambiguous feedback (environment, intuition, and internal pattern recognition keep us in check when we deviate from our goals)  
5. Concentration on the task at hand (energy flows where attention goes)
6. A loss of self-consciousness (as the sense of self/ego vanishes, we get out of our own way and can access immeasurable amounts of potential energy)
7. A sense of control (we feel competent and in charge of our own destiny)
8. A transformation of time (time can speed up, slow down, or entirely vanish)
9. Autotelic nature (the task becomes enjoyable in itself detached from the outcome)