Great Job consolidating information on flow into a small video. I'm halfway way through "flow" and the book has blown my mind and filling in large gaps of my understanding of flow. I believe the book is going to leave out a few important details and I will likely make a video as well to add a few pieces of information to the subject.
Thanks MZ, Will be interested to watch that video once you've created it - let me know when it's up! As for the book - one of the best I've read in the past few years. Clarified a few misconceptions I had about happiness, enjoyment and so called "work".
Very interesting topic. I think people need to be good at sth, before they can enjoy doing them. It would be great to be able to have fun during an activity even before being good at it, it would make acquiring new skills a lot easier. The recap was really useful. I've been trying to do some meditation, but I'm struggling to make it a habit for some reason, probably due to lack of visible gains.
Regarding your first point about being good at something before you can enjoy it... I know what you mean. The immediate thing that springs to mind is salsa dancing. When I tried to dance salsa for the first time, I was stepping on people's toes, it was embarrassing, and I found the whole experience pretty awkward. But, when I think about it, that's probably because I was focusing my attention worrying about what other people might think of my body coordination. A better approach would have been to enter that first lesson with the goal of picking the basic steps up as fast as possible. To focus wholeheartedly on the movements that I'm trying to learn rather than giving mental bandwidth to what others are thinking about me. Csikszentmihalyi is trying to tell us that we can usually find ways of changing the way we think, even when we are participating in things that we are not good at, to garner more satisfaction and enjoyment out of it. Of course, everyone can enjoy being the best salsa dancer in the room at a Friday night party packed with people. But autotelics can also find a way of enjoying those first few lessons, too. Regarding meditation - it's one of the hardest things. Great point about visible gains. Do a set of curls, your biceps grow = positive reinforcement. Meditate for 10 minutes per day.... the gains aren't so noticeable, especially not straight away.
A novel procedure for developing an autotelic personality The ideal for any scientist with a great idea is to be able to explain it in a minute, and to confirm or falsify it as quickly. The world record for this arguably goes to the English philosopher Samuel Johnson, who rejected Archbishop Berkeley’s argument that material things only exist in one’s mind by striking his foot against a large stone while proclaiming, “I refute it thusly!” Here is a similarly novel and useful idea that can be confirmed or refuted with a proverbial swift kick, and can also be easily explained through affective neuroscience (links below). Basic Facts: Endogenous opioids are induced when we eat, drink, have sex, and relax. Their affective correlate, or how it ‘feels’, is a sense of pleasure. Fun Fact: When we are concurrently perceiving some activity that has a variable and unexpected rate of reward while consuming something pleasurable, opioid activity increases and with it a higher sense of pleasure. In other words, popcorn tastes better when we are watching an exciting movie than when we are watching paint dry. The same effect occurs when we are performing highly variable or meaningful activity (creating art, doing good deeds, doing productive work) while in a pleasurable relaxed state. (Meaning would be defined as behavior that has branching novel positive implications). This is commonly referred to as ‘flow’ or ‘peak’ experience. So why does this occur? Dopamine-Opioid interactions: or the fact that dopamine activity (elicited by positive novel events, and responsible for a state of arousal, but not pleasure) interacts with our pleasures (as reflected by mid brain opioid systems), and can actually stimulate opioid release, which is reflected in self-reports of greater pleasure. Proof (or kicking the stone): Just get relaxed using a relaxation protocol such as progressive muscle relaxation, eyes closed rest, or mindfulness, and then follow it by exclusively attending to or performing meaningful activity, and avoiding all meaningless activity or ‘distraction’. Keep it up and you will not only stay relaxed, but continue so with a greater sense of wellbeing or pleasure. In other words, this is a procedure to increase motivation to do meaningful work by increasing associated positive affect or pleasure, or making useful activity ‘autotelic’ or pleasurable in itself. A Likely Explanation, as if you need one! A more formal explanation from a neurologically based learning theory of this technique is provided on pp. 44-51 in a little open-source book on the psychology of rest linked below. (The flow experience discussed on pp. 81-86.) The book is based on the work of the distinguished affective neuroscientist Kent Berridge, who was kind to review for accuracy and endorse the work. Implications for ‘self-help’ from the neuroscience of incentives Affect in rest is labile, or changeable, and rest is not an inert and non-affective state. In addition, the modulation of pleasurable affect induced by rest is not dependent upon a species of attention (focal meditation, mindfulness meditation), but is ‘schedule dependent’, or correlates with the variability of schedules or contingencies of reward and the discriminative aspects of incentives (i.e. their cognitive implications). In other words, sustained meaningful activity or the anticipation of acting meaningfully during resting states increases the affective ‘tone’ or value of that behavior, thus making productive work ‘autotelic’, or rewarding in itself. References: Rauwolf, P., et al. (2021) Reward uncertainty - as a 'psychological salt'- can alter the sensory experience and consumption of high-value rewards in young healthy adults. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General (prepub) doi.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fxge0001029 The Psychology of Rest www.scribd.com/doc/284056765/The-Book-of-Rest-The-Odd-Psychology-of-Doing-Nothing The Psychology of Incentive Motivation and Affect www.scribd.com/document/495438436/A-Mouse-s-Tale-a-practical-explanation-and-handbook-of-motivation-from-the-perspective-of-a-humble-creature Meditation and Rest, from International Journal of Stress Management, by this author www.scribd.com/doc/121345732/Relaxation-and-Muscular-Tension-A-bio-behavioristic-explanation Berridge Lab, University of Michigan sites.lsa.umich.edu/berridge-lab/
"Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world" - Miyamoto Musashi
Brilliant video, thank you! This isn't talked about enough!
I hope you will upload again. You are really good at this. Please keep at it! Your content is gold. Eventually more people will notice!
He entered a state of flow
It made hime fly away
Been years and years since then
Still waiting for a new upload I know will never happen
Brilliant, thank you for this
You have 0 dislikes and I hope you never do. Very useful and grounding video. Thank you
This is actually gold glad I found this 🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽
Great Job consolidating information on flow into a small video.
I'm halfway way through "flow" and the book has blown my mind and filling in large gaps of my understanding of flow. I believe the book is going to leave out a few important details and I will likely make a video as well to add a few pieces of information to the subject.
Thanks MZ, Will be interested to watch that video once you've created it - let me know when it's up!
As for the book - one of the best I've read in the past few years. Clarified a few misconceptions I had about happiness, enjoyment and so called "work".
Love you, man. I always think what you do is possible. Really really want everybody can do like you. Follow you. Goodluck
Thank you my friend!
Thank you for making this. I felt a little left wanting after reading Flow (it’s my favorite book! But still)
Amazing video! Thank you
I don't want eternal bliss or happiness, I want eternal focus, laser like focus.
Beautifully said. Well done kind sir.
Very interesting topic.
I think people need to be good at sth, before they can enjoy doing them. It would be great to be able to have fun during an activity even before being good at it, it would make acquiring new skills a lot easier.
The recap was really useful.
I've been trying to do some meditation, but I'm struggling to make it a habit for some reason, probably due to lack of visible gains.
Regarding your first point about being good at something before you can enjoy it...
I know what you mean.
The immediate thing that springs to mind is salsa dancing. When I tried to dance salsa for the first time, I was stepping on people's toes, it was embarrassing, and I found the whole experience pretty awkward. But, when I think about it, that's probably because I was focusing my attention worrying about what other people might think of my body coordination.
A better approach would have been to enter that first lesson with the goal of picking the basic steps up as fast as possible. To focus wholeheartedly on the movements that I'm trying to learn rather than giving mental bandwidth to what others are thinking about me.
Csikszentmihalyi is trying to tell us that we can usually find ways of changing the way we think, even when we are participating in things that we are not good at, to garner more satisfaction and enjoyment out of it.
Of course, everyone can enjoy being the best salsa dancer in the room at a Friday night party packed with people. But autotelics can also find a way of enjoying those first few lessons, too.
Regarding meditation - it's one of the hardest things. Great point about visible gains. Do a set of curls, your biceps grow = positive reinforcement. Meditate for 10 minutes per day.... the gains aren't so noticeable, especially not straight away.
Yeah, it's all about the mindset. It's the hardest thing to change though:D
Great video. So much value, easy to understand, great examples and amazing overall production! Thanks! 😃
thanks, glad you found it useful
Epic video and epic editing, I recommend you to use the boom mic, it will give a much more realistic sound.
Thanks for the tips mate!
awesome video....thanks a lot...it helped me a lot.
I hope your channel grows......
Read the book Flow twice, excellent!
Agreed, it's one of the best I've read
A novel procedure for developing an autotelic personality
The ideal for any scientist with a great idea is to be able to explain it in a minute, and to confirm or falsify it as quickly. The world record for this arguably goes to the English philosopher Samuel Johnson, who rejected Archbishop Berkeley’s argument that material things only exist in one’s mind by striking his foot against a large stone while proclaiming, “I refute it thusly!”
Here is a similarly novel and useful idea that can be confirmed or refuted with a proverbial swift kick, and can also be easily explained through affective neuroscience (links below).
Basic Facts:
Endogenous opioids are induced when we eat, drink, have sex, and relax. Their affective correlate, or how it ‘feels’, is a sense of pleasure.
Fun Fact:
When we are concurrently perceiving some activity that has a variable and unexpected rate of reward while consuming something pleasurable, opioid activity increases and with it a higher sense of pleasure. In other words, popcorn tastes better when we are watching an exciting movie than when we are watching paint dry. The same effect occurs when we are performing highly variable or meaningful activity (creating art, doing good deeds, doing productive work) while in a pleasurable relaxed state. (Meaning would be defined as behavior that has branching novel positive implications). This is commonly referred to as ‘flow’ or ‘peak’ experience.
So why does this occur?
Dopamine-Opioid interactions: or the fact that dopamine activity (elicited by positive novel events, and responsible for a state of arousal, but not pleasure) interacts with our pleasures (as reflected by mid brain opioid systems), and can actually stimulate opioid release, which is reflected in self-reports of greater pleasure.
Proof (or kicking the stone):
Just get relaxed using a relaxation protocol such as progressive muscle relaxation, eyes closed rest, or mindfulness, and then follow it by exclusively attending to or performing meaningful activity, and avoiding all meaningless activity or ‘distraction’. Keep it up and you will not only stay relaxed, but continue so with a greater sense of wellbeing or pleasure. In other words, this is a procedure to increase motivation to do meaningful work by increasing associated positive affect or pleasure, or making useful activity ‘autotelic’ or pleasurable in itself.
A Likely Explanation, as if you need one!
A more formal explanation from a neurologically based learning theory of this technique is provided on pp. 44-51 in a little open-source book on the psychology of rest linked below. (The flow experience discussed on pp. 81-86.) The book is based on the work of the distinguished affective neuroscientist Kent Berridge, who was kind to review for accuracy and endorse the work.
Implications for ‘self-help’ from the neuroscience of incentives
Affect in rest is labile, or changeable, and rest is not an inert and non-affective state. In addition, the modulation of pleasurable affect induced by rest is not dependent upon a species of attention (focal meditation, mindfulness meditation), but is ‘schedule dependent’, or correlates with the variability of schedules or contingencies of reward and the discriminative aspects of incentives (i.e. their cognitive implications). In other words, sustained meaningful activity or the anticipation of acting meaningfully during resting states increases the affective ‘tone’ or value of that behavior, thus making productive work ‘autotelic’, or rewarding in itself.
References:
Rauwolf, P., et al. (2021) Reward uncertainty - as a 'psychological salt'- can alter the sensory experience and consumption of high-value rewards in young healthy adults. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General (prepub)
doi.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fxge0001029
The Psychology of Rest
www.scribd.com/doc/284056765/The-Book-of-Rest-The-Odd-Psychology-of-Doing-Nothing
The Psychology of Incentive Motivation and Affect
www.scribd.com/document/495438436/A-Mouse-s-Tale-a-practical-explanation-and-handbook-of-motivation-from-the-perspective-of-a-humble-creature
Meditation and Rest, from International Journal of Stress Management, by this author
www.scribd.com/doc/121345732/Relaxation-and-Muscular-Tension-A-bio-behavioristic-explanation
Berridge Lab, University of Michigan sites.lsa.umich.edu/berridge-lab/
Great content ! Thank you for the good work ! 👌🔥
thanks Damien, appreciate the comment!
Great videos man, good presentation, awesome topic choice, maybe a bit lengthy for some people, but I don't have anything against that.
Cheers Bart, I appreciate the validation :)
Where is the link in the description about the previous video that we should watch first?
Why did you stop making vids? haven’t seen a new one in so long
New to your channel
💙
Awesome thanks for stopping by
where r u dude
Don't know how to do this with ptsd
15:10 ah yes the holy american solution
come from 10fastfingers.com
Thanks for stopping by Thidarat!