The Curious Connection Between Flow and Happiness
- The Flow Channel
- Apr 18, 2021
- 1 min read
Updated: May 9, 2021
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 like how the article talks about the ENERGY out into finding happiness, and that it can be exhausting if you aren't trying to actively build a life of happiness, which although it seems like more effort- will pay off way more than searching for happiness in small bursts.
This post is really interesting. It made me to see how happiness isn't something that people can go and find out there, but happiness it self is something that comes from loving and enjoying that you are doing..
I thought this post was really interesting because it made me realize that happiness isn’t something you can just go out and find, it comes from being fully engaged in what you’re doing. I liked how the article emphasized that focusing on authentic experiences and challenges can actually help us discover what matters to us and what makes us feel alive. The idea that chasing happiness directly can backfire really stood out to me, especially in a world with so many distractions. It made me think about how even small moments of focus or doing something meaningful can have a big impact on how happy we feel.
While reading this post, I loved how the article effectively highlighted how happiness is less about chasing a specific goal or outcome, rather engaging in meaningful activities through the state of flow. Chasing happiness can actually distract us from experiencing it as a whole especially with the world we live in with hundreds of distractions. I found the idea of emphasizing focused attention and authentic experiences allows to people to discover their true talents and their pillars to happiness. Overall, the article has opened a new lens for me when considering happiness through challenging encounters in life.
I thought this post was really interesting. It made me think about how happiness isn’t something you can just go out and search for, but something that comes from being engaged in what you’re doing. I liked the reminder that focusing on meaningful experiences and paying attention to what actually makes us feel alive can matter more than trying to chase happiness directly.