One thing to keep in mind about flow is that it is growth oriented.
This is because as we engage in an activity, our skills strengthen, and
what used to seem like a challenge now seems humdrum.
So the challenge must be increased to keep us in flow.
But if the challenge is increased too much,
we begin to feel anxious until we can increase our skills and
get back into the flow channel between boredom and anxiety.
This is why video games, for example,
typically get harder the more you advance through them.
Initially, we need the game to be fairly each to match our low level of skill.
But the more we play, the better we get and
the greater we need the challenge to be if we are to stay engaged.
Second, flow experiences tend to be completely absorbing.
When we are not completely absorbed in an activity, we may find our minds
wandering and our attention distracted by other things in our environment.
When reading a textbook for a class we're not that interested in, for
example, we may suddenly realize that we missed an entire page of information.
Because of instead of concentrating on what we were reading,
we were thinking of the last conversation we had with our best friend.