Editorial Review:Product Description:Explains how to attain inner fulfillment and improve satisfaction and control through a total absorption and involvement in the activities, events, and emotions of life. Read by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Book available.
Amazon.com Review:You have heard about how a musician loses herself in her music, how a painter becomes one with the process of painting. In work, sport, conversation or hobby, you have experienced, yourself, the suspension of time, the freedom of complete absorption in activity. This is 'flow,' an experience that is at once demanding and rewarding--an experience that Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi demonstrates is one of the most enjoyable and valuable experiences a person can have. The exhaustive case studies, controlled experiments and innumerable references to historical figures, philosophers and scientists through the ages prove Csikszentmihalyi's point that flow is a singularly productive and desirable state. But the implications for its application to society are what make the book revolutionary.
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
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Insights that are contrary to common thought
One of my very favorite books.
Written for a popular audience, the author describes the fascinating results of his academic career of researching exactly what makes people happy.
His findings are surprising. Most people don't know what makes them happy. For example, most people don't realize that they are happiest at work or why; they believe they would be happier with more leisure time. I found most facsinating the studies of people who had lost limbs. The book explains why, although parapalegics would rather still have their limbs, for many, the loss of their limbs actually made them happier.
The ideas presented explain why so many people are unhappy when enjoying historically unprecedented levels of physical comfort. The book is also uplifting in that it points out that we truly can be happy in any situation.
Although the book does ramble at times, this is one of the best books I have ever read. I am more than willing to put up with less than perfect writing to gain the remarkable insights that are clearly laid out in the book. Not surprisingly, the book does not provide a recipe to make you happy. But it does provide general concepts that can be applied to your particular situation and preferences.
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Fascinating book that will held you understand how to get into the flow of things
I first discovered the concept of flow several years ago when
I was working at home on a grievance matter that I was
handling for my teacher's union . . . all of a sudden, I was
interrupted by a call from my massage therapist . . . she
was asking why I wasn't in her office for my appointment.
Now massages are one of the things I REALLY look forward
to . . . yet I had been so "into" what I was doing that the
appointment completely skipped my mind.
Sometime thereafter, I became acquainted with the work
of esteemed psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and his
work on this subject . . . so when I just got the chance to hear
FLOW: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF OPTIMAL EXPERIENCE--written
by and featuring the author--I jumped at the opportunity to learn
even more.
And learn I did in this fascinating book . . . most of all, I became
acquainted with the following major components of the flow experience:
* There's clarity of goals.
* Feedback is immediate. You know moment-by-moment how well
you're doing.
* The challenges of the activity are matched with the skills of the person.
* There's a feeling of focus on what you're doing.
* Everyday frustrations are removed from your attention.
* You feel that you can be control of your life.
* You also lose a sense of self-consciousness.
* And as I previously observed, a sense of time is transformed.
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Flow
Interesting book, explains how and why you are the way you act! Difficult to understand some times.
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Welcome to the Flow!
I stumbled upon Flow and was pleasantly surprised. The book, based on extensive research into the nature of happiness and man's most fulfilling moments, promises to provide steps towards enhancing the quality of life. With many examples and concrete suggestions, I found that it delivered to an impressive degree.
From the appreciation of art and science, the deepening of friendships and romance, the establishment of a long-term life goal, and the continuous challenge of one's intellect - I found almost all of the book's suggestions to be based on sound reasoning.
The single most important factor in achieving happiness in life is, according to Csikszentmihalyi, actively taking charge of one's attention and creating order in the conscious mind. Csikszentmihalyi recommends a life of continuous challenge, learning, and focus; and provides many useful guidelines for doing so successfully. The reward? Enjoying the "flow" experience often, which he describes as: "...a state of concentration so focused that it amounts to absolute absorption in an activity. People typically feel strong, alert, in effortless control, unselfconscious, and at the peak of their abilities. Both the sense of time and emotional problems seem to disappear, and there is an exhilarating sense of transcendence."
While some of the above may seem self-evident, I found many principles in the book to be accurate and non-trivial. Especially in its description of the conditions for "optimal experience," including clear goals and rules that provide constant feedback, matching the levels of skill and challenge, unselfconscious absorption, and the expenditure of mental effort as a prerequisite for enjoyment. Perhaps even more useful was a review of common reasons why most people don't experience "flow," or enjoyment, very often.
Despite some disagreements I have, such as with mechanistic or genetic explanations for chosen values, and an exaggerated stress on experience over fact, I found this book overall to be a well-reasoned and useful guide to improving daily experience.
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A superb book
An very perceptive piece of work that helps you grasp what contentment and a sense of well-being means, and how you can endeavour to achieve this. I wouldn't tag it as a self-help book, rather it's an illumination of what it means to be a human being, and how it's possible to find contentment in many ways and very importantly to be at peace with yourself.
Diesel vehicles have nearly a 50-percent market share in Europe, thanks to tax incentives and diesel-friendly legislation across the EU. Diesels are so passé there that you can buy a BMW 730d and no one will think it odd that your luxury car burns oil. Pull up in a diesel 7-Series in America and people would leer at you like you've alighted from an amphibious vehicle reeking of saltwater and dead trout.