Finding Flow in Everyday Life: The Psychology of Everyday Life

Csikszentmihalyi's theories of flow, elucidated in his Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (1990), have been immensely influential for their ideas about an accessible, optimal, Zen-like state of being. In this useful, self-help follow-up to Flow, he extends some of those ideas, arguing that while our lives are shaped by age, gender and social position, our actions and attitudes, and consequently our emotions, are ours to choose. Csikszentmihalyi encourages readers to set goals, to be truly engaged in living. Believing that our technologically advanced society emphasizes individualism, he makes a convincing case for becoming deeply involved with other people and with everyday activities. It is this mundane immersion, according to Csikszentmihalyi, that can carry us beyond an ephemeral sense of happiness to a fundamental sense of flow. The author includes excellent notes and references. (May)