The Holy Grail of the human condition is Happiness. We all want to know how to “find” it. We think that passion and purpose are keys to it, but as we parcel our attention out in a hundred directions in an increasingly chaotic world, what energy is left for passion or purpose? As Viktor Frankl reminded the world, “The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it.”
As it turns out, building a life for happiness and meaning takes far less energy than randomly searching for it. Through authentic experience, focused attention, and encounters with challenge, we can prove to ourselves what we are capable of, what matters to us, what engages us and makes us feel most alive. Click the link below to hear "Finding Happiness and Achieving Flow," a conversation with
Gary Gute, PhD, co-founder of TheFlowChannel.com with Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Associate Professor of Applied Human Sciences at the University of Northern Iowa. Gary researches flow and creativity and teaches the courses Creativity and the Evolution of Culture and Foundations of Positive Psychology, and the MBA course Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning.
Benjamin Hunnicutt, PhD, professor of health and human physiology, University of Iowa. Ben teaches a course called Happiness for Health, has written for The Wall Street Journal, Politico, and the Huffington Post, and is the author of The Age of Experiences: Harnessing Happiness to Build a New Economy (2020).
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I find that kindness and happiness are very interconnected. I found that in a class with Gary Gute, that social connection is a huge part of happiness as well. I think that flow, and happiness are easier when we are secure in our social means, in our position in the world.
so many people push to be more than they are, to force happiness instead of creating the circumstances to be happy. I think happiness is more than just work, that it takes a lot of reflection.
as someone who has literally said "all i want is to be happy," this is really eye opening. it really is so important to just take every day as it is and to simply enjoy what you have. yes, its important to work hard, but that shouldnt be your entire life. its okay to just be.
People tend to be so obsessed with trying to find happiness that they forget to live in the moment . If they were to slow down they’d see that true happiness can be found anywhere. Trying to force something to work in your favorite is usually not the right way to go about it and trying to force happiness into your life will not work. For some, it might take a long time to achieve happiness because to do it you have to find out what you truly want from yourself. You have to be able to be connected to yourself in more than just the physical form. Find a way to guide yourself towards something that makes you feel,…
I believe it's so important to share the concept of not actively chasing happiness but allowing it to unfold naturally. When people let happiness develop organically, they’re more likely to flourish in their own lives. I really appreciated the discussion because it offered fresh perspectives on how to maintain happiness once it’s found and deepened my understanding of the complexity of happiness. It’s not as straightforward as many might initially assume, and that realization has truly reshaped the way I think about it.
I think that so many people get caught up in the idea of finding happiness, that they miss out on all the opportunities that can actually make them happy. Flow can help us engage more fully with ourselves, our lives, and find more happiness.