04 May 2022
Meaningfulness and Flow
How meaning plays a central role in promoting flow states and optimal experience
by Parker Kennedy
Everything’s beginning to feel like a unified flow experience. Not necessarily the totally immersive, effortless, loss of self type of flow that we normally hear about. That comes and goes. But each event in my life, including suffering, feels meaningfully connected to my past, present, and future in an extremely powerful way.
“The great thing, then, in all education, is to make our nervous system our ally instead of our enemy.” - William James, Habit, 1890
I’d like to discuss the idea of meaning, its role within our lives, and especially the importance of cultivating and understanding meaning in the context of optimal experience and flow states. I’ll make clear the difference between optimal experience and flow, define meaning, and provide anecdotal evidence, principles, and practices that seem to be tremendously powerful for anchoring our experience in a sense of meaningfulness. My hope would be that these ideas make clear why ordering our life according to a sense of meaningfulness is fundamental to achieving optimal experience and flow.
In his book Flow, The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Mihaly Csikszentmihaly wrote an entire chapter on meaning and optimal experience, titled, The Making of Meaning. Here’s how it begins:
“It is not unusual for a famous tennis player to be deeply committed to their game, to take pleasure in playing, but off the court to be morose and hostile. Picasso enjoyed painting, but as soon as he lay down his brushes, he turned into a rather unpleasant man. Bobby Fischer, the chess genius, appeared to be helplessly inept except when his mind was on chess. These and countless similar examples are a reminder that having achieved flow in one activity does not necessarily guarantee that it will be carried over to the rest of life.
If we enjoyed work and friendships, and faced every challenge as an opportunity to develop new skills, we would be getting rewards out of living that are outside the realm of ordinary life. Yet even this would not be enough to assure us of optimal experience. As long as enjoyment follows piecemeal from activities not linked to one another in a meaningful way, one is still vulnerable to vagaries of chaos. Even the most successful career, the most rewarding family relationship eventually runs dry. Sooner or later involvement in work must be reduced. Spouses die, children grow up and move away. To approach optimal experience as closely as is humanly possible, a last step in the control of consciousness is necessary.”
Csikszentmihaly goes on to describe the necessity of anchoring all behavior in a deeply rooted sense of meaning, or ultimate goal, that allows each event in one’s life to be purposefully connected to all others. For me, achieving a sense of optimal experience has only been possible through investigating each aspect of my inner life, especially any sense of resistance to my outer experience, and making it part of how I experience a sense of meaning. Put another way, only as I’ve become aware and willing to work with the parts of myself that feel rather unpleasant, has optimal experience become present. To help better understand this whole picture, it’s important that we distinguish the difference between optimal experience and flow states.
Flow is usually experienced as a byproduct of various conditions working together to drive our focus into the present moment and produce a kind of optimal engagement with whatever we’re doing. Being in flow is amazing, no doubt. In his research, Csikszentmihaly found that people with more flow in their life were, on average, more satisfied with their life. During my career as a Division I decathlete at the University of Washington, flow was a regular occurrence. Although, outside of my sport, I was struggling. This is where optimal experience and the importance of meaning come in. Optimal experience, as I understand it, is the sensation of thoughts, feelings, and actions merging into a unified, flow-like experience.
Indeed, as Csikszentmihaly states, a step in the control of consciousness is necessary to achieve such an experience. This is my attempt to zoom in on the core principles and practices that seem to grant greater access to this idea of optimal experience, where life begins to feel like a unified flow-like experience.
Until recently, I’ve found it hard to find a consistent sense of satisfaction in my life. My emotional landscape was often a rollercoaster. The anticipation of graduation, a new job, or excitement about something meaningful, would make me rise high into joy and motivation. Then, things would eventually come crashing down. Depression, anxiety, addiction, and a sense of inadequacy, confusion, and concern would take over. There’s a lot we could unpack around this experience, but I want to stay focused on the idea of meaning. In fact, focusing on meaning may be the single most important factor in promoting growth, learning how to stay balanced and resilient, and approaching optimal experience as closely as is humanly possible, as Csikszentmihaly put it.
First, we need to define meaning. In one of his lectures on YouTube, Dr. Jordan Peterson defines meaning as, “Implication for action or for the reorganization of the perceptual frames that frame action.” Understanding meaning in this way, I believe, can open a massive doorway of opportunity to tap into optimal experience. In my mind, this definition is like a hint into the “last step in the control of consciousness.” Using my own experience as evidence, I’d like to lay out what I believe is a solid foundation for moving in such a direction.
In the chapter I referenced above, Csikszentmihaly talks about finding an ultimate goal that allows one’s life and everything one does to be anchored in a sense of meaning. “As long as it provides clear objectives, clear rules for action, and a way to concentrate and become involved, any goal can serve to give meaning to a person’s life,'' he says. Can you see how Dr. Peterson’s definition maps onto this statement?
Another interesting point to weave into this discussion is the role of faith or one’s relationship with the idea of truth. I’m not proposing that everyone believe in God, nor do I think that is necessary for achieving optimal experience, but the “perceptual frames which frame action” are very important to consider. Whatever we find to be true and meaningful has a profound impact on our daily lives. Personal values, conscious reflection, goals, and other character traits such as open-mindedness or empathy are all examples of perceptual frames that frame positive action. On the other hand, there’s also the tendency toward a more pathological way of perceiving and interacting with the world and our perceptual frames. Or, allowing the world to influence our perceptual frames in a quite unfortunate way. The manipulative nature of algorithmic social media, strategic profit-based agendas, and other things that exploit our biological vulnerabilities but lead to negative consequences, like processed foods, must be kept in check if we want to access optimal experience.
It’s also worth noting that everyone’s orientation toward a sense of meaningfulness will be different, some similar to others, but surely differences between all. Using my own experience as evidence, I’d like to conclude this discussion by proposing some of the more ubiquitous and positive aspects of meaningfulness and optimal experience that may reveal themselves in our attempt to approach optimal experience as closely as humanly possible.
The quote at the top of this blog, by Williams James, is one of my favorites and I find it extremely meaningful. It’s definitely had an impact on the reorganization of the perceptual frames that frame my daily actions. The idea of getting our nervous system to work for us rather than against us, I believe, lies at the core of optimal experience and flow. Here’s a thought: What if our nervous system is already wired to work for us rather than against us? How might that idea shift the perceptual frames that frame one’s behavior?
Self-inquiry, neuroscience, peak experiences, spiritual literature, and other great thinkers of our world continue to transform my understanding and experience of life into something I could have never imagined. Currently, understanding the nature of my suffering and learning how to integrate the parts of myself that stand out as “negative” feels like the most meaningful experience in my life thus far. Other things like prioritizing the fundamentals of health, i.e. sleep, nutrition, sunlight, and exercise, and seeing the value in treating others how I want to be treated are values that naturally bring a sense of meaning into my life because they allow me to flow through life in a more optimal way. My basic needs feel met, allowing me to ascend higher into the realm of personal growth and optimal experience.
My "personal ultimate goal" is to continue to grow. To stay focused, open, and honest with myself about how I’m feeling and where I want to be headed. This is the perceptual frame that feels aligned with my aspirations and keeps me connected to my personal values which serve to reinforce my growth, health, and well-being.
What has this discussion brought to mind for you? What stands out as meaningful in your life? What actions can you take to feel meaningfully connected with the present moment? What’s getting in the way of finding a sense of meaning in all you do? What actions or perceptual shifts are needed for you to access a sense of optimal experience? What other questions do you have?
I hope you found this blog meaningful and would love to hear your thoughts on how meaningfulness and flow are related.