How to Design Immersive Experiences in Your Life

Designing immersive experiences is a topic usually relegated to video game creation or business models for engaging customers. But we can use the idea of designing immersive experiences for ourselves so that we engage more with the life we’re living.

We’ve been talking about the PERMA(H) model of flourishing:

P – Positive emotions, like hope, joy, love, etc.

E – Engagement with the the world, work or hobbies

R – Relationships that are deep and meaningful

M – Meaning; finding purpose and meaning in life

A – Accomplishments; achieving goals through cultivating strengths and talents

H – Physical health

This week we’re looking at engagement. When we’re truly engaged, we’re giving full attention to what’s going on and to what we’re doing.

It’s the opposite of the experience that we’ve all had where we’re driving to a familiar place and we arrive without remembering the drive at all. Rather, we want to be immersed in our surroundings and activities, noticing and paying attention to what’s going on, so we can truly participate in our own life.

There are three categories we can use to build immersive experiences in our lives:

• Flow
• Fun
• Friction

Flow

Mihalyi  Csikszentmihalyi describes flow as the state of “being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.”

We can design and plan for times where we might experience flow. Think about projects, hobbies and pursuits that you can get lost in and are totally absorbing and enjoyable. We’re looking for an activity that allows us to sink in and let time slip away for a while.

You might have some ideas jump to mind already. According to Positive Psychology it’s easier to enter a flow state when we’re using our core character strengths.

For instance, my biggest character strength is love of learning. I find it very easy to get into a flow state when I’m researching something I’m interested in or when I wander a library or bookstore with the time to browse and read anything that catches my interest.

Two of my other character strengths are appreciation of beauty and curiosity. When I think about activities that I most often experience flow, such as writing, drawing and art, gardening, I can see how those three character strengths are at play.

If you’d like to explore your character strengths, here’s a list to get started. There’s also a free test linked in that article that might be of interest. 

Action to design immersive experiences:

Plan a time where you can pursue an activity that you enjoy and can experience flow. Too often we put this type of thing last in our lives, letting other responsibilities take precedence, but having time to sink into something enjoyable is important for flourishing.

Fun

While researching for the topic of engagement, I started wondering about flow vs fun. Flow isn’t always fun in the traditional sense. But it did seem that building times of fun into our lives would definitely enhance that immersive experience of engagement.

This question of flow vs fun led me to Catherine Price and her book The Power of Fun: How to Feel Alive Again. She also has an excellent Ted Talk on the topic. 

Catherine states that true fun includes playfulness, connection, and flow.

We’ve already talked about flow.

Playfulness is that quality of enjoying something, while not judging ourselves harshly. We want an activity where it’s not too hard, we’re not being perfectionistic and it’s not too competitive. Basically, we want to be able to enjoy the activity for its own sake.

True fun, according to Catherine Price also includes connection. She says that nearly always, when people describe times that were “so fun” for them, the stories include at least one other person. Even introverts experience more true fun with others.

Admittedly, fun is something that I struggle with. On the Life Compass activity I did as part of my goal setting for the year, the category Fun and Recreation was one of my lowest. It’s not something I’ve prioritized in the past, but I’m trying to add in more fun this year.

Action to design immersive experiences:

Plan for some true fun in your life. Think of someone or a group of people that you find fun to be with and plan a playful activity you all enjoy.

Friction

In the busyness of life and the mundaneness of our days, it’s easy to stop engaging with the world and just move through on autopilot. Building in a little friction or traction will help us slow down and pay attention.

One way to do this is to limit or stop your use of social media or screen time. It’s so easy to start scrolling or watching and let time slip away, but this is not the same as flow. Instead, this is a type of junk flow. It’s dopamine we didn’t earn and it’s detrimental to our attention span and more.

To this end, I removed the YouTube app from my phone this morning. I’ve developed a bit of an addiction to YouTube, because it makes me feel like I’m researching things. I do find relevant info there, but the addiction has become a problem and I’m committed to reigning it in.

Other ways to use friction to design immersive experiences in our lives is to play to your five senses to draw your attention to the details of your life.

Add interesting scents to your everyday life with essential oils, candles, a new scent for your dish soap etc. Anything to catch your attention in a new little way and remind you to be mindful in the moment.

Music is a good way to use sound to enhance activities. I like using playlists on Spotify to find the perfect music to listen to during dinner, while cleaning the house, etc. Matching the tunes to the mood I want to create is fun and helps me focus on the activity.

Action to design immersive experiences:

Try adding in some friction by limiting your screen time. Add in positive friction by playing to your senses. I’ve given a few examples above, but if you have other ideas for playing up the five sense, leave a comment below.

This idea of designing immersive experiences in our lives is really about fully living.

Using our strengths and interests to dive deep into an activity where we experience flow. Planning for some true fun and connection with others.

And playing to our five sense so that we begin to notice all the things around us, including the mundane, everyday stuff that we often let slide by us.

It’s been said that our life is what we pay attention to. By intentionally designing some immersive experiences for ourselves, we begin to pay closer attention to the things that will make a good life.