These moments described in the previous section represent a feeling of unity, surrendering, letting go, being one, flow, calmness, and awe.
Unity is about having a deep sense of connectivity that everything is connected to one another. We voluntarily surrender to what is going on and let it all go in its own nature. Then it happens. We become one with everything around us and feel that we are going with an extraordinary flow. No matter how wild it may look from outside, it always has a feeling of calmness and awe.
It is the sense of acceptance, belonging, harmony, vanishing, and being home. It all starts with a sense of acceptance attenuated with a strong sense of belonging. Then a marvellous sense of harmony emerges and makes me vanish in all that’s happening. I am home.
Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi describes such moments as “ecstasic” moments and calls the mental state as “being in the flow”:
- Completely involved, focused, concentrating - with this either due to innate curiosity or as the result of training
- Sense of ecstasy - of being outside everyday reality
- Great inner clarity - knowing what needs to be done and how well it is going
- Knowing the activity is doable - that the skills are adequate, and neither anxious or bored
- Sense of serenity - no worries about self, feeling of growing beyond the boundaries of ego - afterwards feeling of transcending ego in ways not thought possible
- Timeliness - thoroughly focused on present, don't notice time passing
- Intrinsic motivation - whatever produces "flow" becomes its own reward
(Csikszentmihalyi, 1990)
I call this special feeling as connectedness and I am therefore interested to explore:
- What is it that we call connectedness? When do we feel connectedness?
- What is connectedness like? How do we feel or sense connectedness?
- Is it a momentary experience or can it be a constant state of being? How do we become aware that it exists?
- Does it exist in organisational context? If so, how does it take place in organizations?
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