Quality of life depends not only on happiness, but also on what you do to be happy, if we do not develop goals that give meaning to our own existence, if we do not use the full capacity of our mind, good feelings will only fulfill a small fraction of the potential we have.
After decades of studying states where people reach their full potential, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has concluded that people are happier when they reach a state of high concentration, what the author calls “fluid”.
- This condition is reached when we experience positive emotions such as happiness.
- Strength.
- And a positive attitude.
- Which are states known as ‘psychic negentropy’.
- When we don’t think negative thoughts or feel sorry for ourselves.
- Psychic energy can flow freely into whatever thought or task we decide to focus our attention on.
On the other hand, negative emotions such as sadness, fear, anxiety or boredom produce “psychic entropy”; that is, a state in which we cannot use care effectively to perform external tasks, because we need it to restore an internal subjective order.
“Happiness depends on us. ” ? Aristotle?
To better understand what a flow state is, it may be convenient to first analyze the opposite state: the state where there is no order in consciousness, in which thoughts appear and disappear capriciously without being able to control them. Very unpleasant condition that can be linked to other problems, such as insecurity, depression or anxiety and that, if very common, can make us very unhappy.
The flow state is a state in which the mind flows, the person feels completely conscious and in control of himself, without worries and with the pleasant feeling of doing the right thing. Everything makes sense and the problems seem like exciting challenges that we face with pleasure, not threats to our well-being or personal safety.
Several studies suggest that factors such as money play a relative role in our happiness, for example, it is very important when you are young, just as food is very important when you are hungry, however, the more money we have, the less influence it has on our happiness.
Depending on the purchasing power levels of the most developed countries, there are much more important factors than the money that determine our happiness. Taking advantage of states of change makes a person feel safer, less anxious, and happier.
“Art or sport are cultural forms whose sole purpose is to provide the state of change. “? Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi?
Mondays are often the worst days of the week, almost an “important word” for many people, because it means going back to work, but Csikszentmihalyi, professor of neuroscience at Stanford University, has detected a paradox: working is more appropriate than free time to achieve what he calls a “flow state,” which could be interpreted as happiness.
The problem is that for many people leisure is a waste of time and work is the exact opposite, having clear goals, managing them and receiving feedback is the key to flowing. and attention to the planes and objectives we choose, believing that it is worth achieving because we choose this kind of life in which every moment is fully appreciated.
“Achieving the plans and objectives of our choice is critical to sinking. “Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi?