Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (Harper Perennial Modern Classics)

Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. New York: HarperPerennial, 1997. ―――. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. New York: HarperPerennial, 1991.

Thus Flow will explore what is involved in reaching these aims. How is consciousness controlled? How is it ordered so as to make experience enjoyable? How is complexity achieved? And, last, how can meaning be created?

optimal experiences are reported to occur within sequences of activities that are goal-directed and bounded by rules—activities that require the investment of psychic energy, and that could not be done without the appropriate skills.

flow’s effects extend beyond profits turned and abilities enhanced. The data Csikszentmihalyi collected was clear. Flow is more than an optimal state of consciousness — one where we feel our best and perform our best — it also appears to be the only practical answer to the question: What is the meaning of life? Flow is what makes life worth living.

Flow is an optimal state of consciousness, a peak state where we both feel our best and perform our best.

When a person is able to organize his or her consciousness so as to experience flow as often as possible, the quality of life is inevitably going to improve,