WB.5: Deep Dive – Finding Your Flow and Focusing on Engagement: Our Two Paths to Fulfillment

Approximate reading time: 3 minutes

Flow and engagement are parts of the PERMA model (see text box.W.1), especially important for feeling deeply involved in life. Flow is when you are so into an activity that you lose track of time. Everything else fades away because you are completely focused on what you are doing. It’s like when you are playing a game or doing a hobby and everything just “clicks”. Flow could also happen when you are painting a landscape, playing a musical instrument, or even solving a complex puzzle.

Engagement, on the other hand, is about being deeply involved in activities that challenge us. It means being so absorbed in something that it requires our full attention and skills, but in a broader sense than flow. It’s not just about moments; it’s about how we engage with life in general, including our work, learning, and hobbies.

Both flow and engagement help us feel more connected to what we are doing and give us a sense of satisfaction. They are crucial for our well-being because they make us feel alive and part of something bigger. When we experience flow and engagement, we are using our strengths and abilities to their fullest, which is a key part of being happy and fulfilled.

The concept of flow, as defined by Csikszentmihalyi (1997, 1999), is unique because it usually occurs during individual activities, where your skills perfectly match the challenge at hand. About 20% of people in America and Europe report regularly experiencing this kind of engrossing engagement (Csikszentmihalyi, 1997). Flow is specific to situations where you’re doing something primarily for your own enjoyment or fulfilment. It’s less about the application of strengths in diverse life areas and more about the personal joy and the intrinsic reward of the activity itself.

It suggests that engaging in personal activities that we love, not for any external reward but simply for the experience itself, is a key component of our overall happiness. Flow reminds us that sometimes, the path to well-being lies in those moments where we are completely one with what we’re doing, finding joy and fulfillment in the process itself.

Having explored the concept of ‘flow’, where we experience deep immersion in enjoyable activities, we now turn our attention to how we can harness our brain’s capabilities to enhance this and other aspects of our happiness. The upcoming “Rewiring for Happiness” section explores how we can benefit from our brain’s neuroplasticity to grow a less negative and more consistently positive mindset.