{"id":361,"date":"2019-08-10T08:21:01","date_gmt":"2019-08-10T13:21:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/educationalrenaissance.com\/?p=361"},"modified":"2023-05-14T19:04:06","modified_gmt":"2023-05-15T00:04:06","slug":"the-flow-of-thought-part-1-training-the-attention-for-happiness-sake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/educationalrenaissance.com\/2019\/08\/10\/the-flow-of-thought-part-1-training-the-attention-for-happiness-sake\/","title":{"rendered":"The Flow of Thought, Part 1: Training the Attention for Happiness\u2019 Sake"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It may seem strange to look to modern psychology for support of classical education. After all, it\u2019s the vagaries of modern thought that have got us into this educational trouble in the first place. The abandonment of tradition, the scientism<\/a> and revolutionary overhaul of religion have all taken their toll on the proper training of our children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Buy through the EdRen Bookstore<\/a>!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

However, there\u2019s always a diamond in the rough, a silver lining to every \u201csable cloud\u201d. I recently found such a rare jewel in the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi\u2019s Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience<\/a><\/em>. Besides being one of the best written books I\u2019ve read, Csikszentmihalyi\u2019s thesis seems to confirm so many insights of the great philosopher Aristotle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Future installments: Part 2: The Joy of Memory<\/a>, Part 3: Narration as Flow<\/a>, Part 4: The Seven Liberal Arts as Mental Games<\/a>, Part 5: The Play of Words<\/a>; Part 6: Becoming Amateur Historians<\/a>; Part 7: Rediscovering Science as the Love of Wisdom<\/a>; Part 8, Restoring the School of Philosophers<\/a>, Part 9, The Lifelong Love of Learning<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By this point I probably shouldn\u2019t be surprised, given that I\u2019ve already analyzed how the roots of the growth mindset<\/a> lay in an Aristotelian view of virtue<\/a> or excellence, along with more recently noting how the importance of habits for moral excellence<\/a> mirrors the findings of neuroscience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Flow<\/em> Csikszentmihalyi argues that happiness or optimal experience, as self-reported by people in numerous social-scientific studies, does not come where they or we often think it does, in unstructured leisure time. In fact, TV watching, for instance, is correlated with mild depression! Instead, the best experiences of a person\u2019s life occur when in a state of flow<\/a>, where the person is engaged in a challenging activity that has clear goals and feedback, requires ever more skill and therefore total concentration, such that he is swept into an almost timeless state of loss of self-consciousness (Harper Modern Classics ed.; 49-66). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The happy life, then, is a life full of the sort of activities that order consciousness optimally and crowd out what Csikszentmihalyi calls \u201cpsychic entropy\u201d (36-39), which is when our consciousness is filled with the disorder of negative emotions, like anxiety, boredom, pain, fear, or rage. Throughout the book he discusses how to order one\u2019s consciousness to achieve flow<\/a> through the body (sports, dance, sex, music, tasting), through work and career at all levels of the social strata, through times of solitude and with other people, and even in the chaos of tragedy. In this way, his book is a life treatise on attaining happiness or meaning through flow, with many natural connections to Aristotle\u2019s discussions of eudaimonia<\/em> (happiness\/blessedness) and excellence or virtue<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But the chapter that I found most exciting was entitled \u201cThe Flow of Thought,\u201d in which were contained more reasons for a classical education per page than many of the best classical education books out there. So for this reason, I\u2019m going to unpack his chapter on the flow of thought<\/a> in a series of blog posts, setting Csikszentmihalyi\u2019s ideas in dialogue with Aristotle, Charlotte Mason<\/a> and other classical education<\/a> thinkers. I think we\u2019ll find much of value to bolster our convictions from this unlikely source in modern positive psychology. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lacking the Flow of Thought: The Natural Disorder of Consciousness<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Our psychologist starts off the chapter with a stunningly obvious and yet profound truth: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cContrary to what we tend to assume, the normal state of the mind is chaos.<\/strong> Without training, and without an object in the external world that demands attention, people are unable to focus their thoughts for more than a few minutes at a time.\u201d (Csikszentmihalyi 119)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The disorder of our minds, the waywardness of our fleeting thoughts, is, of course, something we all experience. But we are perhaps not aware enough of how we much we rely on external stimuli for relief. The pain of \u201cpsychic entropy\u201d is significant, and escaping it drives us into all manner of entertainment and timewasters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"goldfish<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve all heard the statistics on shortening attention spans, though apparently Gen Z is the first to sink below the level of a goldfish (clocking in at 8 sec. compared to the goldfish\u2019s 9<\/a>). But perhaps we shouldn\u2019t be surprised with attention grabbers more readily available than ever before. One of the quaint features of our psychologist\u2019s tour de force<\/em> is his attack on TV. As he states:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCompared to other sources of stimulation\u2014like reading, talking to other people, or working on a hobby\u2014TV can provide continuous and easily accessible information that will structure the viewer\u2019s attention, at a very low cost in terms of the psychic energy that needs to be invested. While people watch television, they need not fear that their drifting minds will force them to face disturbing personal problems.\u201d (Csikszentmihalyi 119)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This analysis of why we give in to easy sources of entertainment rather than productive thought, relationships or hobbies could easily be updated to include more recent addictions to social media, click bait or silly YouTube videos. The reason we are seeking escape is the \u201cdisturbing personal problems\u201d in our lives that we should<\/em> be doing something about. If our minds were left to their wandering<\/a>, these personal problems would quickly rise to the surface of our consciousness and fill our attention with fear, dread and pain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this isn\u2019t just a challenge when we\u2019ve neglected the moral demands of our lives, such that personal problems cloud around us; Csikszentmihalyi explains:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUnless a person knows how to give order to his or her thoughts, attention will be attracted to whatever is most problematic at the moment: it will focus on some real or imaginary pain, on recent grudges or longterm frustrations. Entropy is the normal state of consciousness\u2014a condition that is neither useful nor enjoyable.\u201d (Csikszentmihalyi 119)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In other words, our minds are naturally in a state of chaos. They are attracted to problems and pain, which is good if we can do something about them, but we can\u2019t always. And our minds are even inclined to make up problems, imagining them where none exist. It\u2019s a useful skill that we have\u2014to be able to plan and anticipate all sorts of problems\u2014but the imaginative faculty is liable to getting out of whack. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From a Christian perspective we might think of the effects of the Fall on our hearts and minds. It\u2019s no coincidence that a few chapters after Genesis 3, the text says: \u201cThe LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually\u201d (6:5 ESV). Perhaps this continual evil of our minds speaks to the disorder of consciousness that our psychologist discovered in his research. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our psychologist has a lot of compassion for reliance on TV or any other external stimulus to relieve the pain of this natural state, but his warnings are still dire: \u201conce one develops this strategy for overcoming psychic entropy, to give up the habit becomes almost impossible\u201d (Csikszentmihalyi 120). The logic is that of a crutch. The more you use it the weaker your limb becomes. The weaker your limb becomes, the more dependent you are on using it. So goes our ability to focus our minds internally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"boy<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The internal flow<\/a> of thought is, accordingly, a \u201cbetter route for avoiding chaos in consciousness\u201d because it comes \u201cthrough habits that give control over mental processes to the individual, rather than to some external source of stimulation, such as the programs of network TV\u201d (Csikszentmihalyi 120). This leads our psychologist to recommend the type of life of learning and educational leisure pursuits that the classical tradition has championed. He begins with training in memory, symbol systems, writing, history, science and philosophy, ending with reflections on being an amateur and the challenge of lifelong learning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The training of the mind through the classical liberal arts and sciences is thus the antidote to the natural disorder of the mind.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Aside:<\/em> Download the Free eBook “5 Tips for Fostering Flow in the Classical Classroom”<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Wondering how to practically apply the idea of flow in your classroom? These 5 actionable steps will help you keep the insights of flow from being a pie-in-the-sky idea. Embody flow in your classroom and witness the increased joy and skill development that result!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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