Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

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For decades we have been seeking the answer to happiness, and have been looking for ways to create happiness. Yet, in today’s world filled with fabulous gadgets and new ideas everyday, it seems that we are finding it harder and harder to decide what exactly it is that makes us happy. In this fascinating, groundbreaking bestseller, author Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi, renowned University of Chicago psychologist, reasons that “happiness is not attained through any external condition that may come through ease of living or material possessions, but instead through… “optimal experience” – an internal controllable state that is not left to chance”. By drawing upon decades of research on the psychology of such ‘optimal experiences’, Mihaly shows how we can create these what he calls “flow” experiences in our everyday lives, thus also improving the quality of our lives. Written in a clear easy-to-read style, this book is unlike any other book that discusses such psychological studies; instead of giving us a step-by-step guide to happiness, Mihaly seeks to show just how human performance operates and how optimal experiences are created. By being fully focused on the task and situation at hand, you can enter the ‘flow’, where you are “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”. A must-read for anyone trying to better understand how we derive and create meaning in life.

r. Lynn K. Jones is a Certified Personal and Executive Coach based in Santa Barbara, California and a sought after coach and consultant for organizations and individuals across the US.   Her doctoral work completed at the Wurzweiler School of Social Work, Yeshiva University concerned organizational culture; she coaches, consults and trains organizations on what they need to do to create organizational cultures that are aligned with their vision and values using a process of Appreciative Inquiry.  She coaches individual on achieving their reflected best selves.  An MSW@USC faculty member, Dr. Lynn K. Jones, MSW, DSW, CSWM, teaches Human Behavior and Social Environment.