“The best moments in our lives are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times… The best moments usually occur if a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile.” ~ Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
The best writing occurs in flow states, I believe. It is as if you go away somewhere, and then come back with the text.
The main thesis of Csikszentmihalyi’s most popular book, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, is that happiness can be developed as we learn to create flow in our lives. The key aspect to flow is control: in the flow-like state, we exercise control over the contents of our consciousness rather than allowing ourselves to be passively determined by external forces. As he writes, “Optimal experience is thus something we make happen.”
To achieve flow, he suggested a number of factors be present:
- There are clear goals every step of the way.
- There is immediate feedback to one’s actions.
- There is a balance between challenges and skills.
- Action and awareness are merged.
- Distractions are excluded from consciousness.
- There is no worry of failure.
- Self-consciousness disappears.
- The sense of time becomes distorted.
- The activity becomes an end in itself.