Wuwei and Flow | Adrien Stoloff | TEDxBrownU

When we get so involved in an activity that we forget everything else we are doing, it enables us to be "in the zone.” This feeling of being totally absorbed in an activity is known by positive psychologists as “flow.” In this talk, Adrien discusses the concept of flow and puts it into dialog with the ancient Chinese idea of wuwei, or effortless action. Adrien discusses flow and wuwei, and how recent research in cognitive neuroscience suggests what may be happening in the brain when we experience flow or wuwei. Adrien Stoloff is a doctoral candidate in Asian Religious Traditions. He is interested in Chinese religious beliefs and practices from the late Warring States period to the Early Han Dynasty (approximately 5th-2nd centuries BCE). Specifically, Adrien's research focuses on the Classical Daoist phenomenon of wuwei. Translated as "effortless action," wuwei is a state of being in which one acts effortlessly yet efficiently in a given situation. His dissertation project uses an approach informed by tools in the field of religious studies - textual and historical analysis - as well as by the fields of philosophy and cognitive science. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx