Have you heard of FLOW? It's a state of mind that has been studied for many years now and refers to a near total mental immersion into an activity. That focus can be seen in a loss of your sense of time, a high level of satisfaction, quality results and general happiness. It's been compared to the Zen state of “being here, now” where the practitioner is fully committed to what they are doing; chopping wood, carrying water, writing code, painting walls, fixing things, dancing, playing music, whatever. It is “Optimal Experience” and linked to a higher quality of life.
It is the fact that the Flow state results in pleasure, satisfaction and even happiness that attracted me to the 1990 book by University of Chicago psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. It kind of came back to me recently as I attempted to explain why my crossdressing is so satisfying. It turns out it fits all the criteria for a flow experience. Consider the following quote from page 74 of the book.
“In our studies we found that every flow activity, whether it involved competition, chance, or any other dimension of experience, had this in common: It provided a sense of discovery, a creative feeling of transporting the person into a new reality. It pushed the person to higher levels of performance, and led to previously undreamed of states of consciousness. In short, it transformed the self by making it more complex. In this growth of the self lies the key to flow activities.”
From “Flow, The Psychology of Optimal Experience”
So crossdressing hits on several positive notes including the validation of personality, resolution of gender identity conflict and the flow experience. What else do you have in your life that is so full of positive reinforcement? And is there any question now about why we come back again and again to the same activities?
Originally Posted by Helen_Highwater
