Flow- The Psychology of Optimal Experience

1. FLOWT H E P S Y C H O L O G Y O F O P T I M A L E X P E R I E N C E

2. BY MIHALY CSIKSZENTMIHALYI

3. WHAT SHOULD YOU KNOW AS WE
BEGIN?
• This book is not a “how to book,” or a
“recipe” for happiness.
• However, if taken to heart, the
information presented can have a
lasting change on how life is
experienced.
• The author challenges the reader to
take the work from theory into practice
in their own life.

4. CSIKSZENTMIHALYI’S CREDENTIALS
• Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1965
• B.A., University of Chicago, 1960
• Professor Csikszentmihalyi is the
founder and co-director of the Quality
of Life Research Center (QLRC). The
QLRC is a non-profit research institute
that studies "positive psychology"; that
is, human strengths such as optimism,
creativity, intrinsic motivation, and
responsibility.
• The author is currently a professor of
Psychology and Management at
Claremont Graduate University in
Claremont, California.

5. CHAPTER 1H A P P I N E S S R E V I S I T E D

6. WHY ARE WE SO DISCONTENT?

7. HAPPINESS IS…

8. RECLAIMING THE EXPERIENCE

9. CHAPTER 2T H E A N A T O M Y O F C O N C I O U S N E S S

10. THE LIMITS OF CONCIOUSNESS

11. THE SELF

12. DISORDER AND ORDER IN
CONCIOUSNESS

13. FLOW AND THE GROWTH OF THE SELF

14. CHAPTER 3T H E E N J O Y M E N T A N D T H E Q U A L I T Y O F L I F E

15. QUALITY OF LIFE
• “There are two main
strategies we can adopt to
improve the quality of
life. The first is to try making
external conditions match our
goals. The second is to
change how we experience
external conditions to make
them fit our goals better”
(Csikszentmihalyi, 1990, p.
43).

16. • “Pleasure is a feeling of
contentment” when either a
biological or socially
conditioned expectation is
met (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990,
p. 45).
• Taste of food
• Resting
• Experiencing an “exotic”
locale
• Pleasure does not bring
happiness, rather it helps
maintain order
PLEASURE

17. WHAT MAKES EXPERIENCE
ENJOYABLE?
• Eight major components to enjoyment
(Csikszentmihalyi, 1990, p. 49)
– Confronting a task one has “a chance of
completing.”
– Ability to concentrate on what one is
doing.
– There are clear goals.
– Task provides immediate feedback.
– During the task one get’s lost in the
process.
– One has a feeling of control over his or
her actions.
– “Concern for the self disappears.”
– One loses track of time.What makes
experience enjoyable?

18. THE AUTOTELIC EXPERIENCE
• A self-contained activity where the
doing is the reward.
• “When experience is intrinsically
rewarding life is justified in the
present, instead of being held hostage
to a hypothetical future gain”
(Csikszentmihalyi, 1990,p. 69)

19. CHAPTER 4T H E C O N D I T I O N S O F F L O W

20. FLOW ACTIVITIES
• Activities that were “designed to make
optimal experience easier to achieve”
(Csikszentmihalyi, 1990, p. 72).
• The Four Types of Activities:
• Agon - games feature competition
– Sports
– Athletic events
• Alea - games of chance
– Dice
– Bingo
• Ilinx or Vertigo - activities that alter
consciousness
– Merry-go-round
– Skydiving
• Mimicry - alternative realities are
created
– Dance
– Theater

21. FLOW AND CULTURE
• “Cultures are all-embracing;
they specify how a person
should be born, how she
should grow up, marry,
have children, and die”
(Csikszentmihalyi, 1990, p.
81)

22. THE AUTOTELIC
PERSONALITY
• “It is not easy to transform ordinary
experience into flow, but almost
everyone can improve his or her ability
to do so” (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990, p.
83).
• Obstacles to Achieving Flow
• Psychological disorders such as
schizophrenia and attention disorders
• Extreme self-consciousness
• Extreme self-centeredness
• Social conditions
• Influences on The Autotelic Personality
• Ability to focus attention
• Early childhood and family life

23. THE PEOPLE OF FLOW
• “When adversity threatens
to paralyze us, we need to
reassert control by finding a
new direction in which to
invest psychic energy, a
direction that lies outside
the reach of external
forces” (Csikszentmihalyi,
1990, p. 92).

24. CHAPTER 5T H E B O D Y I N F L O W

25. THE BODY IN FLOW
• “The easiest step toward
improving the quality of life
consists in simply learning
to control the body and its
senses” (Csikszentmihalyi,
1990, p. 94).

26. THE BODY AND THE SENSES IN FLOW
• Physical Activity
• We find joy in surpassing
what we thought were
limits in our own bodies.
–Athletics
–Sex
–Yoga and Martial Arts

27. THE BODY AND THE SENSES IN FLOW
• Flow Through the
Senses
• Sight
• Listening
• Taste

28. CREATING A FLOW ACTIVITY
• Set an overall goal
• Find ways to measure
progress
• Concentrate on what one is
doing
• Develop skills to create and
interact with opportunities
• Keep raising the stakes

29. CHAPTER 6T H E F L O W O F T H O U G H T

32. CHAPTER 7W O R K A S F L O W

34. CHAPTER 8E N J O Y I N G S O L I T U D E A N D O T H E R P E O P L E

36. CHAPTER 9C H E A T I N G C H A O S

37. CHEATING CHAOS
• Happiness does not come from good
health, an abundance of money, or
good looks!
• Transform your tragedies into
“lemonade.”

38. A MATURE DEFENSE TO STRESS
• Transform your tragedies into
“lemonade.”

39. TRANSFORMATIONAL COPING
• One enlists:
• Courage
• Resilience
• Perseverance
• & Mature Defense
• To move away from suffering.
• “The Autotelic Self….transforms potentially
entropic experience into flow.” (Csikszentmihalyi,
1990).
• · Set goals
• · Become immersed in your activities
• · Pay attention to what is going on
• · Learn to enjoy immediate experience

40. CHAPTER 10T H E M A K I N G O F M E A N I N G

41. THE MAKING OF MEANING
• · Bring Order to the Contents of the
Mind by Integrating Your Actions into
Flow
• · EXPRESS your intentions in your
actions
• · Cultivate a Purpose
• · Resolve yourself to be serious
about goals and get to know yourself so
inner conflicts can be sorted out and
allow energy to flow towards positive
activities and reflections.
• · RECOVER Harmony by knowing
when to rest, when to engage, and when
to plot a new course.
• · Make your life theme a powerful
movement towards flow consciously.

42. CONCLUSION
• YES! Recommend the book to friends,
BUT keep your copy and read it each
year.
• FLOW is progressively attainable, and
we, as humans, can benefit from
reading this book often!
Listen to those sad songs, cry, and then listen to:
Keep listening to the following songs...music heals!
Are you feeling a flow?

43. I GOT A FEELING