Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi And The Psychology Of Optimal Experiences

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is one of the most successful contemporary psychologists and his name enjoys a certain fame despite how difficult it is to pronounce. His has been called the “psychology of optimal experiences” because of the emphasis this author places on moments of “flow” or fulfillment.

This psychologist was born in a small Italian town that was formerly called Fiume, but today it belongs to Croatia and is called Rijeka. His family was of Hungarian origin and had to live very harsh conditions during World War II. This led Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi to emigrate to the United States in 1956, with just a few pennies in her pocket.

In the North American country, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi entered the faculty of psychology at the University of Chicago. In 1965 he obtained his doctorate in this discipline and shortly afterwards he published his work Flow , which became a true reference for contemporary psychology. He is currently considered one of the most relevant figures in the so-called “positive psychology”.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and the concept of “flow”

What Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi proposes is that people are much happier when they manage to place themselves in a state of “flow”. This occurs when we perform an activity that completely captures our attention. For many it is what is known as “being cool”, that is, completely absorbed in something and happy at the same time.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi described the flow state as follows: [it is] “ the fact that you feel fully engaged in the activity on your own. The ego disappears. Time flies . Every action, movement or thought inevitably arises from the previous action, movement and thought, it is as if we were playing jazz. Your whole being is there, and you are applying your faculties to the maximum ”.

It is then a state in which all attention is focused on the task or activity that is being developed. Added to that attention is deep motivation. That is, wanting to be there and do what is being done. The result of this is harmony, balance and, at the same time, a feeling of happiness. The state of flow is also called “optimal experience.”

Factors that lead to an optimal experience

Csikszentmihalyi carried out a 12-year investigation in which thousands of people around the world were consulted. He found that regardless of age, nationality, or conditions each lived, almost everyone described optimal experiences in much the same way. All of the above made it possible to define some factors present in these flow experiences. They would be the following:

• There is a challenge that requires putting skills into play. If the challenge makes demands, but is proportional to the skills, the probability that we will start to flow greatly increases.
• Focus and concentration. In the flow state, the attention is so focused that the world and the ego disappear. Everything is focused towards one point and then a high degree of concentration appears.
• Defined goals. Csikszentmihalyi found that there is more enjoyment when goals are clearer. If these are fuzzy, the attention is also blurred.
• Direct and immediate feedback. People need short-term feedback to reinforce them. Feeling that you are getting it right increases the intensity of the experience.
• Exclusion of other information. In the flow state there is no place to receive information that is not associated with the activity.

• Feeling of control. When it flows, the person feels that they have a high degree of control over what happens. It is she who sets the pace of events.
• The sense of self-awareness is lost. In these types of states, everything is perceived as if the self has disappeared. This has the effect of a kind of “release.”
• Change in perception of time. Living one of these experiences creates the feeling that time is being compressed. Three hours feels like 30 seconds.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s theses have been applied in countless fields. From education, through psychotherapy, to the business world. Surely almost all of us have lived one of those optimal or flow experiences at some time. And perhaps we could live them more frequently by working in detail what this author proposes.