Flow

My Thoughts on Flow (Overall)

• Cool blend of science (biology, psychology, etc.) and philosophy
• Defines happiness and guides readers through the journey of the pursuit of happiness

Notes

8 Elements of Enjoyment

1. Confront challenging but completable tasks
2. Concentration
3. Clear goals
4. Immediate feedback
5. Deep, effortless environment (lack of awareness of worries and frustrations)
6. Sense of control over our actions
7. Concern for self/self-awareness disappears (paradoxically, awareness of self is heightened immediately after flow)
8. Sense of duration of time is altered

5 Elements of a Happy Teenage Life

1. Clarity
2. Centering: parents’ interest in the child in that moment
3. Choice
4. Commitment
5. Challenge: parents provide appropriate challenges for their children (sports, academics, music, art, etc.)

Quadrants of Flow:

1. Goal: high challenge, high skill
   1. (but again, not excessively challenging so as to be impossible to be completed)
2. Boredom: low challenge, high skill
3. Anxiety: high challenge, low skill

The Autotelic Self

”Autotelic” = (of an activity or a creative work) having an end or purpose in itself

Turning Any Activity Autotelic

1. Set goals
2. Become immersed in the activity
3. Pay attention to what’s happening
4. Learn to enjoy the immediate experience

The Autotelic Personality

1. Curiosity
2. Persistence
3. Low self-centeredness
4. A desire to perform activities for intrinsic reasons only