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What Flow State Really Means, And Why Athletes and Artists Both Chase It
By Andrea Slusarski, Far Out Creative Director, Artist, Educator, and Froth Monster
"Flow State is not the end goal of a final artwork or winning a downhill slalom race, but rather it is the joy." — Andrea Slusarski
Sports and Art Are More Alike Than You Think
This past winter, standing in front of my TV, glued to figure skating, I kept whispering to myself, "This is art class." I also couldn't help but notice how many times the announcers called the athletes "artists" and looking at the judging criteria, I agreed that Technique, Composition, and Artistic Skill are exactly what art educators' project rubrics look like.
I've personally never reached any skill on ice skates, but hot dang do I get absolutely enthralled every four years when the Olympics put winter sports front and center for sixteen days (especially ice dance). Growing up and still today a lover of all winter activities, these are my SPORTS. Watching this year, I began to draw even more connections to just how much creativity these games influence.
Flow State: What It Is and Why It Matters for Athletes and Artists
What makes this art educator most stoked about watching winter sports is that you are actually witnessing flow state in real time. When athletes describe "being in the zone" often after their events, they are describing what psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi coined as Flow.
This overlap between athletics and art is where I initially began my curiosity about art education. As the intersection of skill and challenge draws interesting parallels in how students not only learn their own art making in art class, but also in the training and practice in a sport.
Flow State is not the end goal of a final artwork or winning a downhill slalom race, but rather it is the joy. The experience of matching one's skills to meet a challenge is the enjoyment both artists and athletes alike take in their respective processes. Why the Olympics are so great, however, is that we get to spectate these athletes "finding their flow" on the world stage. It's rather hard to see that in action in an artists' studio.
The 6 Factors of Flow State, According to Csíkszentmihályi
Csíkszentmihályi described six factors as encompassing an experience of flow:
| # | Factor | What It Looks Like |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Intense Focus | Total absorption in the task at hand |
| 2 | Merging of action and awareness | You stop thinking about what you're doing — you just do it |
| 3 | Loss of reflective self-consciousness | The inner critic goes quiet |
| 4 | Sense of personal control or agency | You feel capable and in command |
| 5 | Distortion of temporal experience | Time seems to speed up or disappear |
| 6 | Intrinsic reward (autotelic experience) | The activity itself is the reward — not the outcome |
Hot Tip: Flow isn't about being the best. It's about the sweet spot where your skill level meets the right level of challenge. Too easy and you're bored. Too hard and you're anxious. Flow lives exactly in between.
Why Figure Skating Is the Perfect Flow State Demonstration
Further, flow state researchers continue to point out this "effortless control" that emanates from high-level flow.
Enter back into the conversation — figure skating.
When listening to the Olympic announcers reflecting on the scoring, you'll often hear how much the judges are looking for that effortlessness in a performance. Physically, all of the athletes who qualify to represent their countries have the skill and expertise to compete. What the Olympic stage brings is the optimal challenge and high motivation to reach that flow state in executing a routine/race/big air trick with the ease one performs at in an experience of flow.
What Olympians Can Teach Artists (and Adventurers) About Finding Flow
Like each of the athletes' first try at their sport to make it onto the podium, artists in art class can learn from Olympians in achieving their goals creatively as well. What lies in between are the hours and hours of training/practice/heartache/coaching it takes to be "the world's best."
So as you watch your favorite sport this weekend, pay attention to the language and performances these Olympians are putting on for each of us. Then when you go to your studio, music stand, kitchen, or however you like to express yourself creatively, consider how you too will find that effortlessness and flow yourself.
The takeaway: Flow isn't a gift that some people have and others don't. It's a state that anyone can access — through practice, through the right challenge level, and through showing up consistently to the thing that lights you up.
Extended Creative Connections
- 🎥 Qualified — A film by Iz La Motte and Sara Beam Robbins celebrating the incredible women athletes on the US Ski Team, on Peacock and NBC
- 🎵 Olivia Rafferty writing tiny songs for each Olympic sport
Ready to Find Your Flow?
At Far Out, we believe flow state isn't reserved for Olympic athletes and world-class artists. It's available to anyone willing to show up somewhere that asks something of them. Whether you're on a trail, in a studio, or at a creative retreat surrounded by humans who push and inspire you, the conditions for flow are closer than you think.
Explore Far Out's outdoor adventures and creative retreats, designed to put you in exactly that sweet spot where challenge meets skill.