Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
(pronounced Me-High Chick-Sent-Me-High)
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| Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi ~ Positive Psychologist |
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is a stocky man. The beard is white, but his eyebrows are red enough to give you an idea of what he must have looked like when he was a boy in Hungary and Italy around the time of World War II. He recalls clearly his own early experiences with what he would come to call flow. After the war, as a 10-year-old, he was interned by the Italians along with the rest of his family until it could be determined that they weren't Fascists. There wasn't much he could do in the refugee camp to salve his worry. But he could play chess against the grown-ups, and he found that during the games he would ''forget about everything.''
Read more by NYT - Richard Flaste
Flow is a state of concentration that amounts to absolute absorption in an activity. In this state, action flows effortlessly from thought and you feel strong, alert and unself-conscious. Flow is that marvelous feeling that you are in command of the present and performing at the peak of your ability. Time stands still. A split second takes forever. You're a batter, say, and the baseball is coming toward you and it's suspended there, growing larger and larger; your body is in harmony with the moment and you swing, and connect! Dancers know they are in the flow when they seem to transcend themselves and experience a heightened awareness of their bodies. Painters know it when they enter into a private dialogue with the canvas. Some surgeons know it; some athletes and writers, too. In fact, research suggests that flow may be a common aspect of human existence. It is such a desirable feeling, this state of perfect, powerful absorption, that you want to get there again and again. If you are a painter, for instance, you may find yourself relinquishing the promise of money and comfort and perhaps even the rewards of conventional society. People will ask why you keep painting. Do you think you will be lucky or talented enough to be rich and famous one day? And you will patiently explain, no, you paint for its own sake.
The study of flow is linked to a broad psychological exploration of performance that has gained great favor in recent years. In sports, for example, psychologists have been trying to identify the emotional factors that separate winners from losers, since skill and talent alone clearly cannot account for success. They've found that the transcendent achievement of total absorption - ''reaching the zone'' - is frequently what makes the difference.
But the zone, as it is usually described, differs from flow in one fundamental way: the whole point of reaching the zone is to win. By contrast, flow psychologists are concerned with enjoyable absorption as an end in itself.
Read more by New York Times
Realize that change and downtime are important. I found that if a painter relates to objects only through vision, his work is much less original than a painter who walks up to the object, smells it, throws it in the air, and manipulates it. The variety of sensory inputs allows you to create a visual image that has all kinds of dimensions bubbling up inside it. We are still a multimedia organism. If we want to push the envelope of complexity further, we have to use all of our devices for accessing information - not all of which are rational.
Read more on Wired
Flow, the secret to happiness TED TALK
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has contributed pioneering work to our understanding of happiness, creativity, human fulfillment and the notion of "flow" — a state of heightened focus and immersion in activities such as art, play and work.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi says creativity is a central source of meaning in our lives. A leading researcher in positive psychology, he has devoted his life to studying what makes people truly happy: "When we are involved in [creativity], we feel that we are living more fully than during the rest of life." He is the architect of the notion of "flow" -- the creative moment when a person is completely involved in an activity for its own sake.
Read more on TED TALKS
The Quality of Life Research Center
Csikszentmihalyi teaches psychology and management at Claremont Graduate University, focusing on human strengths such as optimism, motivation and responsibility. He's the director the the Quality of Life Research Center there. He has written numerous books and papers about the search for joy and fulfillment.
FLOW is important.
The way to happiness lies not in mindless hedonism, but in mindful challenge.
Minister Balog presents Order of Merit to Professor Csíkszentmihályi
Hungarian Minister of Human Capacities Zoltán Balog presented the Grand Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit to renowned psychology professor Mihály Csíkszentmihályi in Los Angeles on 6 December.
Read more by Minister of Human Capacities
BOOKS
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is one of the greatest living psychologists of our age. He earned his fame by defining and providing a detailed description of the FLOW state. He has been seeking answer for the great question of our everyday life: finding happiness. No wonder that his lifetime research of the field and his justified answers made him famous today.
Professor Csikszentmihalyi is the author of a number of best selling books, the majors are among others:
• FLOW – The Psychology of Optimal Experience;
• Good Business – Leadership, Flow and the Making of Meaning;
• Creativity – Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention;
• The Evolving Self – A Psychology for the Third Millennium.
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