Flow - Chapter 3

Wealth , status, possessions and power, have become in our culture, all too powerful symbols of happiness. But symbols can be deceptive. They have a tendency to distract from the reality they are supposed to represent. ( page 44)

PLEASURE : Pleasure is an important component of the quality of life, but by itself, it does not bring happiness. Sleep, rest, food, and sex provide restorative homeostatic experiences that return the consciousness to order , after the needs of the body intrude and cause Psychic Entropy to occur. But they do not produce psychological growth. They do not add complexity to the Self. Pleasure helps to maintain order, but by itself, cannot create new order in consciousness. ( page 46 )

To gain personal control over quality of experience, one needs to learn how to build enjoyment into what happens day in, day out. ( page 48)

PHENOMENOLOGY OF ENJOYMENT : has at least 8 components.

1.Enjoyable experience usually occurs , when we confront tasks , we have a chance of completing.
2. WE must be able to concentrate on what we are doing.
3 & 4. Concentration is usually possible , when the task we undertake has clear goals and provides immediate feed back.
5.One acts with deep but effortless involvement that removes from awareness the worries and frustrations of everyday life.
6. Enjoyable experience allow people to exercise control over their actions.
7.Concern for the self disappears, yet, paradoxically, the sense of self emerges stronger after the flow experience is over.
8. Finally, the sense of duration of time is altered ; hours pass by in minutes, the minutes can stretch ot to seem like hours.
(page 49)

COMPETING : The challenges of competition can be stimulating and enjoyable. But when, beating the opponent takes precedence over performing as well as possible, enjoyment tends to disappear. Competition is enjoyable only when it is a means to perfect one’s skills ; when it becomes an end in itself, it ceases to be fun.

In a conquest, you don’t conquer anything except things in yourself.

Objective and Subjective dangers : Objective dangers are outside dangers that are beyond our control ; such as sudden storm, floods, earth quakes etc. Subjective dangers arise out of our own lack of skill.

Loss of consciousness does not mean loss of Self. Being able to forget who we are, seems to be very enjoyable. When not preoccupied with ourselves, we have a chance to expand the concept of who we are. Loss of self-consciousness leads to self transcendence, to a feeling that, the boundaries of our Being are pushed forward.

Afterwards, when the self-consciousness has a chance to resume, the self that the person reflects upon, is not the same as the self that existed before the FLOW experience. Now it is enriched by new skills and fresh achievements. ( page 66)

AUTOTELIC EXPERIENCE : The key element in optimal experience is that, it is an end in itself. Although initially undertaken for other reasons, the activity that consumes us becomes intrinsically rewarding. ( page 67)

Most things that we do are neither purely Autotelic nor Exotelic ( activity undertaken for purely external reasons and goals and rewards) but are the combination of the two.
Some things that we are initially forced to do against our will, eventually turn out to be intrinsically rewarding. ( page 68)

Much of what we label as ‘ Juvenile Delinquency – car theft, vandalism, rowdy behaviour in general – is motivated by the same need to have flow experiences not available in ordinary life. As long as a significant segment of society has few opportunities to encounter meaningful challenges, and few chances to develop the skills necessary to benefit from them, we must expect that, violence and crime will attract those who cannot find their way to more complex autotelic experiences. ( page70)