Flow Book Review: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi - The psychology of optimal experience

Today I talk about Flow in this Flow book review. This is an idea and book by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi about the psychology of optimal experience.

I break down the concept into easy to understand bites and give you examples of how it works. I also explain how you can start using flow to start enjoying your life more and becoming happier.

Flow truly is the secret to happiness.

[mabakilaalmasi]

Thank u. Great presentation. U have made easy for me to digest this concept.

[IanSuRealtor]

You explain better than the original! Thank you for making this video.

[ajmarr]

Flow Experience Explained in 2 minutes

It has recently been demonstrated (link below) that reward uncertainty or novelty can enhance the sensory experience of high value reward. In other words, popcorn actually tastes better when we are watching exciting movies, and tastes worse when we are watching paint dry. This is due to what are called dopamine-opioid interactions, or the fact that dopamine activity (elicited by positive novel events, and responsible for a state of arousal, but not pleasure) interacts with our pleasures (as reflected by opioid release), and can actually stimulate opioid activity, which is reflected in self-reports of greater pleasure.

Opioid release occurs when we are consuming food and drink, but it also occurs when our musculature is in a state of inactivity or rest, which is why relaxation feels good. Thus it follows that any behaviors which have a lot of positive reward uncertainty (creating art, climbing mountains, etc.) will stimulate naturally occurring opioid activity in concurrent resting states, with subsequent self-reports of high arousal and pleasure, which precisely describes all flow experiences. In other words, flow is simply opioid-dopamine interactions due to pursuing positive novel events during a state of rest. Furthermore, as dopamine release scales with the salience of the activity, so will the resulting flow experience. We also see this for flow experiences, where the pleasure and arousal scales with the importance of the task. Thus a rock climber who is risking his life would have a more intense experience than if he were attached to a tether that would break his fall.

A longer explanation from affective neuroscience is provided on pp. 80-85 in the open-source book on the neuro-psychology of rest linked below, as well as a simple procedure on pp. 48-50 to induce and sustain the positive affect characteristic of flow. The book is based on the work of the distinguished affective neuroscientist Kent Berridge, who was kind to review for accuracy and endorse the work.

Rauwolf, P., et al. (2021) Reward uncertainty - as a 'psychological salt'- can alter the sensory experience and consumption of high-value rewards in young healthy adults. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General (prepub)