The psychology of optimal experience

Happiness! is what we all are in search of everyday and every moment. To be contented is a challenge for all of us. With a good recommendation from my senior colleague and also from a friend, I started reading the book – Flow: The psychology of optimal experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Pronounced: “cheek-sent-me-high-ee”). Well, I should say, this is the best book I have ever read on Psychology. Not just because it gave me deeper insights, but also, it kept me in flow throughout my read. I would like to read this book again after 6 months.

I took a bit longer time in reading the book because it requires a lot of patience, understanding and great deal of thinking while you read. As Mihaly says early in the introductory chapter, to understand this book completely, one requires a lot of patience. After all, he has written it so well that all the readers will be in the state of flow for sure. Flow is a concept created by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a professor of psychology at the University of Chicago. The author has been extensively working on this concept since 30+ years. Flow is a state of mind of involved enchantment that lies between boredom and anxiety. It is the joy, creativity and the process of total involvement with life.

While I was reading this book, I even made a lot of notes on good number of interesting concepts. One can read them here. I enjoyed reading every page and every chapter. The book starts with a saying from Aristotle that ‘every person, more than anything else, they seek happiness’. Beating the phenomenon that reflects the irony in pursuit of happiness, many people make their mind unexciting and suppress its search for meaning.  In doing so, people give up those activities that gives them the deep satisfaction. In the book, there are stories of lot many people those were studied and interviewed on all the aspects. Each example opens up a new realm of possibility.  

We have always experienced joy and freedom in pursuing our hobbies; we have seen how musicians lose themselves in their tunes, how a painter becomes a painting herself; and how a poet enjoys playing with his words.  Even I used to ask myself some questions like: why am I enjoying what I am doing right now? Why is it that I find that particular job not challenging and hence not exciting? Why is it that people tend to do the activity that keeps them happy? What exactly is the satisfaction in doing any activity? Why are people attracted to new challenges? Why do people go on trekking? Why do I like taking a long vacation for my hiking trips?

The answer for all the questions raised above is Flow. A person in flow is mentally involved in the challenge and intrinsic pleasure of the activity, yet lacks self-consciousness and fear about performance. There are many stories of rock climbers, artists and musicians given as examples in the book that speaks about their state of mind. When exactly a person will be in flow? What exactly happens when a person is in flow? How can he or she enjoy so much in that state?

Flow involves a lot of energy and effort. The challenges one keep taking and the skills that requires pursuing the goal creates the path for the flow. As long as I am learning and growing in any activity, I am in full control and hence in flow.

Picture taken from the book

In the above figure, as I mentioned earlier, flow is a state where a person involves both Skills and Challenges. Here A1 and A4 are the states of a person in flow. A1 is still at the start where person is yet to take up a new challenge and yet to train himself on the required skill; A4 is at the much higher state of flow. A2 is a state of mind where person takes no challenges in spite of having skills and hence end up in boredom. And A3 is a state of mind where a person never trains himself on the required skill sets in spite of taking lot of challenges and hence ends up being anxious. Hence A2 and A3 do not qualify under the flow condition.  As I understand this figure well, I am getting more clarity on answers to my entire questions. Every activity will follow the states mentioned in the above figure.

Mr. Csikszentmihalyi says, most people spend their lives alternating between work they dislike but feel grateful to do (because of their own personal needs), and passive leisure activities that require no work but likewise offer no inspiration. ''As a result,'' he says, ''life passes in a sequence of boring and anxious experiences over which a person has little control.'' With flow, in contrast, ''Alienation gives way to involvement, enjoyment replaces boredom, helplessness turns into a feeling of control, and psychic energy works to reinforce the sense of self, instead of being lost in the service of external goals.''

I believe contentment is certainly a hard work and to achieve that, one has to control their consciousness. When a person is able to control his or her consciousness, they can succeed in achieving their goal without any distractions from the internal or the external factors.  The chapters Happiness Revisited, Enjoyment and Quality of life, the flow of thought, the body in flow, Enjoying solitude and other people, and finally the making of the meaning are an absolute pleasure to read. I was in flow and I learnt a great deal. The author has covered every aspect of one’s life that can contribute to the state of flow and hence to pursue their happiness.

The author says, “Flow doesn't require education, income, high intelligence, good health or a spouse. It requires a mind: one that is willing to set challenges for itself and make the effort to meet them”. The book ends with the chapter on making of meaning which gives a lot of insights on how to set a life theme that is in flow. It was magical to read and very truthful to believe. I strongly recommend this book to everyone.

Having read this book, my mind is revolving around the concept of flow. Everything that I see, every activity that I do, I know what exactly I need to look for to keep myself reach the optimal experience. And those hiking trips that I take are now even more exciting to think and plan!

It is better late than never; the book was first published in 1990. There are a lot of books on the concept of flow itself. The book Creativity by the same author is my next read. 

My rating: 9/10

Srik

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culture

Excerpts from the book flow by mihaly csikszentmihalyi


Describing the Indian tribes of British Columbia: 

The Shushwap region was and is considered by the Indian people to be a rich place: rich in salmon and game, rich in below-ground food resources such as tubers and roots - a plentiful land. In this region, the people would live in permanent village sites and exploit the environs for needed resources. They had elaborate technologies for very effectively using the resources of the environment, and perceived their lives as being good and rich. Yet, the elders said, at times the world became too predictable and the challenge began to go out of life. Without challenge, life had no meaning. 

So the elders, in their wisdom, would decide that the entire village should move, those moves occurring every 25 to 30 years. The entire population would move to a different part of the Shushwap land and there, they found challenge. There were new streams to figure out, new game trails to learn, new areas where the balsamroot would be plentiful. Now life would regain its meaning and be worth living. Everyone would feel rejuvenated and healthy. Incidentally, it also allowed exploited resources in one area to recover after years of harvesting...

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Well, I was thrilled reading this piece in the book flow. We always think about culture which has a major role to play in our lives to lead it meaningfully. It is so good to see the culture giving such an enrichment to the lives of the people. For them, without challenge, life has no meaning. And taking challenges often keeps us happy in whatever we do. 

Similarly there are so many cultures to quote; and the one I had experienced was the culture of the Tribes (called Soligas) of Chamarajanagar district. They plant a tree for every occasion; irrespective of whether it is good or bad. Their culture gives a complete meaning to what they contribute to the place they live in and they respect it. By doing so, they would reach the optimal experience in their lives. 

Such cultures have attained a good fit between the psychological needs of their people and the options available for their lives.

Srik

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a self

Excerpts from the book flow by mihaly csikszentmihalyi

"A self that is only differentiated - not integrated - may attain great individual accomplishments, but risks being mired in self-centered egotism. By the same token, a person whose self is based exclusively on integration will be connected and secure, but lack autonomous individuality. Only when a person invests equal amounts of psychic energy (attention) in these two processes and avoids both selfishness and conformity is the self likely to reflect complexity." - mihaly

a climber says "[there's] no place that more draws the best from human beings...[than] a mountaineering situation. No body hassles you to put your mind and body under tremendous stress to get to the top... Your comrades are there, but you all feel the same way anyway, you're all in it together. Who can you trust more in the twentieth century than these people? People after the same self-discipline as yourself, following the deeper commitment...A bond like that with other people is in itself is an ecstasy."

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as much as I agree to what the climber says, I can also feel the completeness in the self. It is the same  whenever I take risks in whatever I do. It is the equal amount of attention that I give to the differentiated self as 'me' and integrating with 'others' to stay connected. So there will be complete control over my consciousness which is unaltered by the external forces. 

and once I am out of this experience, of flow, 'I' feel more 'together' than before.

Srik

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experiencing the flow

Excerpts from the book flow by mihaly csikszentmihalyi

"Its exhilarating to come closer and closer to self-discipline. You make your body go and everything hurts; then you look back in awe at the self, at what you've done, it just blows your mind. It leads to ecstasy, to self-fulfillment. If you win these battles enough, that battle against yourself, at least for a moment, it becomes easier to win the battles in the world."

- a well known West Coast rock climber

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here, the battle is not really against the self, but against the entropy that brings disorder to my consciousness. As much as I establish control over my attention, so much I can experience the flow. It provides a deep enjoyment that requires equal degree of my disciplined concentration. I experience it many times - when I reach the top of a mountain, I ecstatically say, Is that all? and prepare for the next. 

I go with that flow!

Srik

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optimal experience

Excerpts from the book 'flow' by mihaly csikszentmihalyi

or happiness!

Our perceptions about our lives are the outcome of many forces that shape experience, each having an impact on whether we feel good or bad. Most of these forces are outside our control. There is not much we can do about our looks, our temperament, or our constitution. We cannot decide - at least so far - how tall will we grow, how smart we will get. We can choose neither parents nor time of birth, and it is not in your power or mine to decide whether there will be a war or a depression. The instructions contained in our genes, the pull of gravity, the pollen in the air, the historical period into which we are born - these and innumerable other conditions determine what we see, how we feel, what we do. It is not surprising that we should believe that our fate is primarily ordained by outside agencies.

Yet we have all experienced times when, instead of being buffeted by anonymous forces, we do feel in control of our actions, masters of our own fate. On the rare occasions that it happens, we feel a sense of exhilaration, a deep sense of enjoyment that is long cherished and that becomes a landmark in the memory for what life should be like. 

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I absolutely agree! 

It is that feel when I am in the woods, touching the mist, listening to the birds, and wondering at the silence of a flowing river.

It is that feel when I feel what I wanted to feel.

It is that, what I can make it happen!

and, that is happiness!

Srik

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