Happiness and the flow state ǀ a competition winning speech
Ladies and gentlemen, good evening. If I was allowed a prop
tonight I would have a banana and if I bit into that banana, without unwrapping
it, I think you would say that isn’t right...
Well that is how most of the
population views happiness, as something they cannot reach. However, if they took the time to unwrap it they may
discover something far tastier on the inside…
The other day, I was brushing my teeth, and questions started
popping in to my head: like what’s for dinner, when am I going to do that last-minute
homework, ….and what makes people happy?
You know, the ordinary things.
I then asked myself that last question - How to enjoy the most
boring of tasks and be happy. That is the question I want to answer today.
When was the last time you felt unhappy
or just plain bored recently?
Probably not that long ago, and you're not alone.
According to a recent study, 1 in 3 of us, here in the UK, are unhappy most of the time and I
think you would agree that it is shocking to hear that 300 million people have
depression globally. I think you might also agree that it is saddening to hear that
today so many of us struggle to be happy.
If you asked my little brother how people could be happier I
think he would say chocolate and sweets in fact I know – I asked him, what a
valuable resource that was
if I asked you what
makes you happy I think I would hear a variety of answers and some of you may
not even know.
That, as a society, we are not sure how to be happy; is a bit
disappointing.
There were and are indigenous tribes who are very happy
and successful businessmen who are not.
What are we striving towards? Isn’t it astonishing that we haven’t figured this
out?
Well Let me introduce
you to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi a Hungarian-American psychologist and leading
American academic.
In the 1970s
mihayi became fascinated by artists who were so absorbed in their work they
lost track of time, and overlooked their needs for food, water and even sleep.
Mihaly
recognised that when a person is immersed in an activity all their focus is
pointed directly towards the task at hand: they lose awareness of all other
things.
His research
found that the body can process around 110 bits per second and it takes 60 bits
just to listen to someone talking. People can decide what they wish to focus on
and where these bits go.
Having all
of your focus pointed at one activity Mihaly recognised and named as the
psychological concept of flow,
He described
flow as “Being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like
playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re
using your skills to the utmost.
His study
led him to believe that it is being in this state which leads to happiness.
This fits
with the Greek definition of happiness as ‘the joy we feel when we are striving
towards our potential’.
‘Flow’ - this
is a state we have all hopefully experienced at some time, perhaps when you
were a child, the perfect balance between control and arousal. Sometimes referred to as ‘being in the
moment’
Another
psychologist summarised the 6 conditions that need to be satisfied for a task
to make you happy as:
1. Knowing what to do
2. and HOW to do it
3. Knowing how well you are doing.
4. The task needs to be seen as a
challenge and you must believe it is
achievable
5. And you need to be free from
distractions.
Analysing these conditions we can see why sport can make us
happy. It can meet the criteria.
You know what to do – score,
or save a goal;
You know how to do it, you’ve practised,
you know how well you are doing from the score.
The match will have the right skill level and all the players
know the match is winnable. Finally, sport is free from distractions you’re
focused, you’re in the zone.
Just remember When doing sport with animals you need to be careful-
My dog used to chase people on a bike a lot, it got so bad I had to take his
bike away
From the
conditions we can also see why, for example, school might not be enjoyable, and
this may be why so many of us – up to 40% of students, are not engaged and
“happy” in school.
There are so
many distractions: your phone, your friends, those people
playing on the field. Sometimes the work is
too easy, we get bored and sometimes it is too hard.
People
should be going to and enjoying school and work. – I know a lot of jokes about
unemployed people, but none of them work
Really
though many people are happy at
school, so what are they doing that others are not?
To answer this, I turn to my friend who plays for the
Leicester city football academy. John used to hate school, but he found that if
he used his sport to help him, he could enjoy it a whole lot more. A couple of
years ago he began adding metaphorical goals into the classroom. He challenged
himself to finish the work first, ask the most questions or fit the most words
on a line. By adding goals, he provided himself with an immediate feedback
mechanism and turned school into a game therefore allowing it to more closely
resemble the conditions for flow.
So you see, Ladies and gentlemen,
as we now know how there is no need to have a secret to happiness, remember
that games make the boring fun, this can be common knowledge and then we all
may unlock the greatest superpower of all.
Now I
challenge you to open your banana and view life as a game.
I hope you
found this interesting and thank you for listening to me today.
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Some sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgv__KZTZZU
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_%28psychology%29
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXIeFJCqsPs