To the question "Are you happy?" most people are unlikely to answer unambiguously. For each person, the concept of happiness includes a number of certain factors. This suggests that the state of well-being is subjective. But is there happiness that will possess the characteristics of inherent and transcendence? The psychologist Mihai Chiksentmihayi answers this question.
Theory of Streaming Experience and Modern Psychological Knowledge
Most of the psychologists in the development of their theories relied on material obtained from unhealthy patients - neurotics. For example, Freud’s well-known psychoanalysis is such.
The work that Mihai Chiksentmihayli created - “Stream. Psychology of optimal experience ”- reflects one of the most authoritative concepts in modern psychological science. Chiksentmihayli, like Maslow, is the scientist who put a healthy person at the forefront. Flow theory finds application in many fields. This is clinical psychotherapy, increasing efficiency in educational processes, correctional work with juvenile delinquents.
What is lost by reasonable man?
Nowadays, many, not without reason, predict the end of European civilization. On the other hand, we often forget about the scale of the progress that we have been able to achieve. Chiksentmihayli emphasizes: our capabilities are incommensurably greater than those that people had, for example, during the time of Ancient Rome. What could not man achieve? The answer is simple: he did not manage to become happy. And moreover, no progress is even being observed in this regard.
Merciless statistics show: in civilized countries, starting from the nineteenth century, there is a gradual increase in the number of suicides.
Well-being and modern culture
In his book, the scientist concludes that happiness is a subjective concept. Satisfying certain needs, a person inevitably faces the fact that new ones come in their place. Well-being always eludes me. Each culture sought in its own way to solve this problem. For example, by faith in God. But how many people do we know that she made happy? When beliefs are defeated, their place is so desired by wealth: material wealth, power, sex. But they do not bring peace.
So, we have learned to satisfy our physical needs, but not mental ones. Obviously, happiness is largely determined by the conditions that life presents to us. A person without a roof over his head is unlikely to feel satisfied. People living in an unstable political environment will not be particularly enthusiastic. And, of course, those who have problems in family life cannot be fully happy.
What is the state of the stream and its features
But then, in this way, people a priori can not find peace? God gives each his own cross, most often, seeming overwhelming.
Chiksentmihayli managed to answer this question. What a person needs to catch a bird of subjective happiness is not at all a greenhouse existence with a complete absence of problems. And not even a state of relaxation. What can I say, if 1.4% of those committing suicide do it because of ... satiety with life.
Not. Happiness brings something completely different; the scientist gives this state the name "stream." The book (Mihai Chiksentmihayi claims that it is the result of twenty-five years of research) is devoted to how anyone can achieve it. Paradoxically, it is even akin to pain. It is a striving for a goal.
Should we feel comfortable getting it? And the answer to this question is also negative. It is unlikely that the runner, who is approaching the finish line with all his might, feels like in a home chair.
The state of control and power over the events of his own life is described by Mihai Chiksentmihayli. The flow is the point at which a person surpasses his strength; the point where you can find true happiness.
How does human consciousness work
The truth of our being is the fact that we can never achieve complete security and fulfillment of all desires, says Mihai Chiksentmihayi. The flow differs from the state of temporary satisfaction in that the latter is due to external factors. For some, obstacles are something that can completely destroy them. For others, an incentive that provokes maximum concentration and control of perception.
Consciousness behaves selectively in relation to the whole variety of surrounding information. It “snatches” from it those pieces that correspond to its internal content. Concentration on the negative leads only to its growth. As a result of this, a person comes into a state of internal disorder or entropy, which is the opposite of happiness.
How to enter a stream state?
The condition for creating the flow is immersion in activity, says Mihai Chiksentmihayli. In the search for flow, a person needs to be able to identify for himself those activities that simultaneously correspond to his abilities and constitute a challenge. The types of such activities are innumerable. It can be anything: competitions in various sports, honing skills in the fine arts, work in the field of entrepreneurship, says Mihai Chiksentmihayi. The psychology of flow has an important aspect: a state of true happiness is impossible without strenuous efforts.
Although it can occur spontaneously, in most cases, efforts can not be avoided, Mihai Chiksentmihaii warns us. The flow is not favorable to those who are lazy.
So, satisfying basic human needs is an important part of life, but inner well-being is in a completely different area. “Stream” is a book (Mihai Chiksentmihaii emphasizes its versatility), which can teach everyone to be happy: from a cleaning lady to shareholders of multinational companies.