Transform your waking life into something intentional and empowering. Flow happens when you are fully present and engaged in what you are doing and timelessly committed to the activity. Applied to any type of art or work, it creates an efficiency and clarity of purpose that feel great and can also be applied to everyday activities like brushing teeth or walking to the mailbox. It can transform your waking life into something intentional and empowering. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi discovered that people find genuine satisfaction during a state of consciousness called Flow. In this state they are completely absorbed in an activity, especially an activity which involves their creative abilities. During this “optimal experience” they feel “strong, alert, in effortless control, unselfconscious, and at the peak of their abilities.” In the footsteps of Maslow, Csikszentmihalyi insists that happiness does not simply happen. It must be prepared for and cultivated by each person, by setting challenges that are neither too demanding nor too simple for ones abilities.
Mihaly Robert Csikszentmihalyi (1934 - 2021) was a Hungarian-American psychologist. He recognized and named the psychological concept of "flow", a highly focused mental state conducive to productivity. He was the Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Management at Claremont Graduate University. He is also the founder and co-director of the Quality of Life Research Center (QLRC). The QLRC is a nonprofit research institute that studies positive psychology, the study of human strengths such as optimism, creativity, intrinsic motivation, and responsibility.
From the Archives: This live interview was recorded on October 10, 1996 on the nationally syndicated radio program, hosted by Laura Lee . See more at www.lauralee.com
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