This One Behavior Boosts Well-Being More Than Socializing

This One Behavior Boosts Well-Being More Than Socializing

One of the strongest findings in Positive Psychology, and in fact in psychology more generally, is that health and wellbeing and happiness and SO MUCH MORE is positively correlated with good quality relationships.

There’s absolutely NO DOUBT that … other people matter.

As such, socialising is considered one of THE MOST IMPORTANT wellbeing activities. Which is quite rightly should be.

But, not surprisingly, there are other things we should all also do, and this article by Suzie Pileggi Pawelski and James Pawelski via Psychology Today proffers a powerful one. One that encourages us to get in the flow …

KEY POINTS

  • Cultivating daily flow-like experiences is associated with greater well-being.
  • Parenting is highly correlated with flow-like moments.
  • Unfinished work tasks sap one’s joy and decreases chances for flow.

For many of us who have been working from home over the past few years due to the pandemic, boundaries between our professional and personal lives have blurred, making it harder for us to be fully present at work and with our loved ones. Not to mention the added stress of our physical boundaries. Living in close quarters around the clock with our spouses and children can be challenging as well. Naturally, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and fall into unhealthy behaviors.

In our last couple of posts, we discussed the importance of self-care practices, in particular, mindfulness and self-compassion, two scientific ways of authentically caring for ourselves. Unlike self-indulgence, when we practice self-care, we are deliberate in our actions and focus our attention on practicing healthy habits.

In this post, we’d like to introduce a third intervention to help foster well-being: cultivating more flow-like experiences into our lives.

Being in “flow” isn’t the same as “going with the flow”

Pioneering psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a co-founder of positive psychology with Martin Seligman, is best known for the psychological concept of “flow,” an optimal experience and state of being in which we are so deeply immersed in the moment that time goes by and nothing else seems to matter to us.

In his bestselling book Flow, Csikszentmihalyi, states “contrary to what we usually believe, moments like these, the best moments in our lives, are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times … The best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile.”

Think of the gymnast who leaps into the air and seems to magically pull off that double layout …

… keep reading the full & original article HERE