What does Goddess Durga Have to do with experiencing the state of Flow at work?

I too had no idea - Until yesterday!?

I am so excited to share with you the story of how it unfolded for me -? and you will need to read till the end to get why I am so excited with this discovery. I found a valuable piece of a puzzle that I have been exploring for over 20 years. So forgive me if I could not find a shorter way of sharing this with you.

?But if you are truly interested in this topic and willing to journey with me through the article then you can also share and experience the benefits of my big Aha moment - and the new gateway that it has opened for all of us.?

So I had recently created a WhatsApp group for students from all my past programs (whoever has been in touch with me that is). Yesterday I posted this question for them in the group:?

“Here is a little mid-week reminder cum boost as you craft your work and life to be more enjoyable and meaningful experiences for yourself. Remember the concept of Flow? Here are 8 characteristics that have been frequently observed to accompany the flow experience. Some of these can be consciously used to actually increase the chances of experiencing flow in whatever we are doing. Which ones would you like to experiment with today?

1. Goals are clear

2. Feedback is immediate

3. Balance between skill and challenge (both high)

4. Concentration deepening

5. Present is what matters

6. Control is no problem

7. Sense of time is altered

8. Loss of Ego

?

Now, some of context for here for those who are not my old students.?

What is the state of Flow??

It is essentially a state of consciousness where we typically experience deep enjoyment, creativity, and a total involvement with life.?

The theory of ‘Flow’ itself, originally coined and written about by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is actually older than me. Yup, the first research on this topic had started even before I was even born!

Csikszentmihalyi describes the flow state as, “The optimal state of inner experience is one in which there is order in consciousness. This happens when psychic energy — or attention — is invested in realistic goals, and when skills match the opportunities for action. The pursuit of a goal brings order in awareness because a person must concentrate attention on the task at hand and momentarily forget everything else.”~ Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Flow, 1990, p.6)?

I first stumbled upon the writings of Csikszentmihalyi when I was researching on how we can make work more enjoyable during my PhD days at London Business School. When I read his description of the state of flow, a light bulb switched on in my head - and that light bulb is still guiding me more than 20 years later.

What Csikszentmihalyi had described in his writings was exactly what I had experienced at special moments in my life - moments that were strongly etched in my memory as some of my best experiences so far. Sometimes it had been while playing basketball, sometimes while trekking, sometimes while studying, sometimes while dating, and many a time while writing poetry or making flower arrangements :-).?

These were the times when I had truly felt completely alive. Not walking around trying to fit in somehow and drag on a compromised, half-zombie existence - and call it survival.

I had thought that these peak experiences in my past had just been lucky moments for me - that happened by chance, or perhaps gods grace. However, Csikszentmihalyi's research showed that there seemed to be a system to this madness. There seemed to be things that we could consciously do to actually increase the probability of experiencing more of the flow state.?

The big light bulb that switched on for me was that, by reverse engineering the factors that Csikszentmihalyi had found to accompany the state of flow, we can actually consciously start crafting our lives (and work experiences as part of it), to become contexts that are more and more likely to (1) switch us into a state of flow (2) keep us for longer in the state of flow, should we so desire to.?

For the last 20 years of my life I have been researching, practising, and testing with myself, my students and clients more and more of these reverse engineering techniques. I now definitely know that my own flow states need not be restricted to writing poetry or making flower arrangements. Neither do I have to leave it to chance.?

It is a journey and process - it takes time, energy and work to craft our inner and outer lives but if we are willing to do the conscious work we don't need to leave the experience of flow to luck any more.

Unfortunately, it is not one simple switch though - rather it is a series of inner work steps. I have an entire course on this topic called Crafting Realities: Work Happiness and Meaning hosted jointly by IIM Bangalore and EDx. You can access this self-paced course here - https://www.edx.org/course/crafting-realities-work-happiness-and-meaning#:~:text=This%20course%20is%20for%20anyone,success%2C%20failure%2C%20and%20identity.?

I had created this course in 2012 (almost a decade back), and the system taught in the course is still valid and effective. However, my learnings and explorations on this topic have never stopped and this is where it gets really exciting. You see in my earlier system which I teach in my edX course I had mainly focussed on reverse engineering the first 3 points in the list of 8 characteristics that are frequently associated with the Flow state.?

1. Goals are clear

2. Feedback is immediate

3. Balance between skill and challenge (both high)

Focussing on creating the first three points yield quite good results by themselves, and so the system works, but there is always more to it - ways it can get better.??

Over the years I have been refining this system to make it more effective, and faster and get better results for my students and clients. For example with goals, I have been researching and experimenting with adding in more elements to make the goal setting powerful, meaningful and useful. (If you are interested in learning some of these updated techniques you can look up my recorded masterclass on the tricks and traps of goal setting here https://www.drramya.com/goal-setting-tricks-and-traps/p369525/)

Similarly, there are more effective and nuanced ways I have found to keep us in that sweet spot of balance between our skills(or capacities) and the challenge level - even as we grow and expand our capabilities in multiple dimensions. One example of this is that upping our level of challenge need not always be in the same domain - it can also be through creating more complexity in our portfolio of life and work. I use techniques like this now with my coaching clients as I help them craft their lives and careers into more meaningful and enjoyable experiences for themselves.

The core exploration continues however, and in the last 10 years I have expanded my focus to look for tools and techniques that can help us reverse engineer one or more of the next five points that Csikszentmihalyi had originally identified.?

4.? Concentration deepening

5.? Present is what matters

6.? Control is no problem

7.? Sense of time is altered

8.? Loss of Ego

I must say that I have made quite a bit of progress on points 4, 5 and 6 by integrating learnings from different modalities (not just psychology) and many wonderful teachers that I have trained under. These techniques are indeed showing results (both for me personally and my clients) in terms of launching us into a state of flow more and more easily. Of course, some of the techniques are more difficult to ‘induce’ into our work (and life) experience than others. So as of now, points 4, 5 and 6 are actually quite doable for me and I can coach others on how to do it as well.?

However, point 7 (altering the sense of time) still remains a mystery (in terms of inducing it consciously). And I still don't have a reliable technique for point 8 - “loss of ego”. I have been using some tools but with mixed results. They sometimes, work, and sometimes do not. Quite frankly, the journey of dissolving our ego has had me quite baffled by its unpredictable effects.

Yesterday, I got a big insight on how to approach point 8 (dissolving of the ego) in a more effective way. I realized that one of the limitations in the way I had been approaching the dissolving of our ego (whether it be work-related or otherwise), is that I was looking at our ego as a relatively static construct. Definitely multidimensional and multi-faceted but somewhat stable at any point in time. I knew it changed over time but I had assumed that it was slowly morphing and evolving as we grew and evolved.?

This was the understanding that got challenged (and shattered) in a liberating way, yesterday.

So how did it happen?

You see when I posted the question with the 8 frequently observed characteristics of flow on my old students whatsapp group and asked which one they would focus on, they started replying with varied responses. Many chose to work on clarity of goals, quite a few chose to bring in present moment awareness, and a few chose some of the other points. One person Padma, wrote in that she was choosing to focus on dissolving the ego and also described why she was choosing it.?

Quite by chance (or grace) I read her beautiful reply yesterday, just before I entered the house of my dear friend and soul sister who had invited me for Navaratri.?

My friend explained to me most serendipitously about the symbolism of the demon, Mahishasura. She told me the story of how Goddess Durga fought Mahishasura over a period of fifteen days during which he kept changing his shape to become different animals to mislead. Finally when he transformed into a buffalo, Goddess Durga stabbed him with her trident and that was the end of him.

As she told me this story my friend explained that Mahishasura actually represents our ego. That was when I realized that our ego can actually be quite dynamic in the forms it adopts and how fast it adapts. It can mislead us by disguising it into different forms - thoughts and reasons in our head. These ego-based thought patterns can truly be difficult to spot and identify because they keep changing form - and that too quite dynamically.

In my own experience, I have at times felt like I have been able to spot my ego at play and then used a psychological reframe, choice of surrender, or certain energy modalities (like EFT, pranic psychotherapy or access tools)? to discharge those thinking patterns. I have felt the pattern release its grip on me and assumed I have killed the ‘demon’. I guess it might have just dynamically changed instead into another different looking animal (thought pattern) like Mahishsura did. No wonder it’s been a tricky journey with mixed results!?

So THIS my friends (for whoever has been patient to read this through) has been my big Aha on how to dissolve the ego. We now need to become Goddess Durga - otherwise dear ones, even when we become aware of our ego-based thoughts we have absolutely no chance at dissolving it. Because even as we work on it, it will dynamically morph and change into a new form that we cant recognize as the voice of ego yet again.?

We need to integrate all our strengths, powers, wisdom, presence, mental, emotional and energetic faculties (just as was done in the creation of Goddess Durga), and only when we do that we shall have a better shot at destroying our dynamic, quickly morphing, tricky, ego-based thoughts patterns.?

(And yes, if you have been a participant any of my programs - in person or online and would like to join the old student's group please send me a dm to get the link).?

I stand here with a vision to help more and more people enjoy and experience flow in their work (and lives). And I invite you to join me in it.?

Ramya

www.craftingourlives.com