Quotes from Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Los mejores momentos suelen suceder cuando el cuerpo o la mente de una persona han llegado hasta su límite en un esfuerzo voluntario para conseguir algo difícil y que valiera la pena.

It is precisely because the unknowns are so great and dangerous that we require some manner of faith to choose our path and to give us courage.

The normal condition of the mind is chaos. Only when involved in a goal-directed activity does it acquire order and positive moods.

Purpose gives direction to one's efforts, but it does not necessarily make life easier. Goals can lead into all sorts of trouble, at which point one gets tempted to give them up and find some less demanding script by which to order one's actions. The price one pays for changing goals whenever opposition threatens is that while one may achieve a more pleasant and comfortable life, it is likely that it will end up empty and void of meaning. The

la civilización se construye sobre la represión de los deseos individuales.

Narcissistic individuals, who are mainly concerned with protecting their self, fall apart when the external conditions turn threatening. The ensuing panic prevents them from doing what they must do; their attention turns inward in an effort to restore order in consciousness, and not enough remains to negotiate outside reality.

But it seems clear that an increasing majority are not being helped by traditional religions and belief systems. Many are unable to separate the truth in the old doctrines from the distortions and degradations that time has added, and since they cannot accept error, they reject the truth as well. Others are so desperate for some order that they cling rigidly to whatever belief happens to be at hand—warts and all—and become fundamentalist Christians, or Muslims, or communists.

The essence of socialization is to make people dependent on social controls, to have them respond predictably to rewards and punishments. And

This fact brings us to the second condition that affects whether an optimal experience will occur or not: an individual's ability to restructure consciousness so as to make flow possible.

The best moments usually occur when a person's body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile. Optimal experience is thus something that we make happen.

Agon includes games that have competition as their main feature, such as most sports and athletic events;

Such individuals lead vigorous lives, are open to a variety of experiences, keep on learning until the day they die, and have strong ties and commitments to other people and to the environment in which they live. They enjoy whatever they do, even if tedious or difficult; they are hardly ever bored

alea is the class that includes all games of chance, from dice to bingo;

Much of what we label juvenile delinquency—car theft, vandalism, rowdy behavior 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.

concepto del flujo, el estado en el cual las personas se hallan tan involucradas en la actividad que nada más parece importarles;

psychic entropy, a disorganization of the self that impairs its effectiveness. Prolonged experiences of this kind can weaken the self to the point that it is no longer able to invest attention and pursue its goals.

When a person is able to organize his or her consciousness so as to experience flow as often as possible, the quality of life is inevitably going to improve, because, as in the case of Rico and Pam, even the usually boring routines of work become purposeful and enjoyable. In flow we are in control of our psychic energy, and everything we do adds order to consciousness.

La persona que no puede resistirse a la comida o al alcohol, o cuya mente está siempre pensando en el sexo, no es libre para dirigir su energía psíquica.

Part of the answer probably has to do with innate genetic causes.

To most people, the sheer wall of El Capitan in Yosemite valley is just a huge chunk of featureless rock. But to the climber it is an arena offering an endlessly complex symphony of mental and physical challenges.

Each biblical parable, for instance, tries to encode the hard-won experience of many individuals over unknown eons of time.

Esta paradoja de las expectativas en alza sugiere que mejorar la calidad de vida es una tarea inacabable.

Enjoyable events occur when a person has not only met some prior expectation or satisfied a need or a desire but also gone beyond what he or she has been programmed to do and achieved something unexpected, perhaps something even unimagined before.

Involvement is greatly facilitated by the ability to concentrate. People who suffer from attentional disorders, who cannot keep their minds from wandering, always feel left out of the flow of life.