Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: Flow, the secret to happiness
什么样的人生才是幸福的？ 并不是物质，当物质水平高于平均值一定水平时，它就不是主要因素了。 调查表明，flow 这个状态会让人们感到幸福，主要由 Challenge 和 Skill 的水平决定。
下面这个图不错，纵轴是challenge，横轴是skill，level大小，黄色是最幸福的区域叫做flow，其他区域有各自的名字，想要达到的状态就是flow，看现在自己在哪个区域，就相应地行动去走入flow区域。 我现在感觉自己处在 worry 和 anxiety区域，所以我要提高skill，这样就可以进入 flow 区域。 不要着急，任何领域的 “即兴流动” 都需要10年的专注训练，既然已经知道自己在worry区域内，那么只要进行专注地训练，就一定可以达到flow的状态的。
Words
what contributed to a life that was worth living.什么元素的注入可以丰富人们的生活 flying saucers ，飞碟 psyche of the Europeans had been traumatized by the war，欧洲人的心灵如何因为 二战而受到了创伤 mandalas of ancient Hindu religion ，古代印度的曼荼罗 regain some sense of order after the chaos of war，以此来重新建立一种秩序
30 percent of the people surveyed in the United States since 1956 say that their life is very happy. 自1956年有调查记录以来 有30%的美国受访公民 说他们的生活非常快乐
on a scale that has been held constant to accommodate for inflation, 这一统计已经是把通货膨胀算进去了
after a certain basic point -- which corresponds more or less to just a few 1,000 dollars above the minimum poverty level -- increases in material well-being don't seem to affect how happy people are. In fact, you can find that the lack of basic resources, material resources, contributes to unhappiness, but the increase in material resources does not increase happiness. 到了温饱线之上1000美元之后的某个点 收入的增加不会影响人们的幸福值 而基本生活物资之匮乏 则会导致不幸福 但持续的物质财富之增长并不会带来更大的幸福
where -- in everyday life, in our normal experience -- do we feel really happy? 在正常的日常生活中 我们怎么才会感到幸福
began to look at creative people -- first artists and scientists，
what made them feel that it was worth essentially spending their life doing things for which many of them didn't expect either fame or fortune,but which made their life meaningful and worth doing. 是什么让他们感觉自己的一生是值得的 他们做的很多事情都不能带来荣誉和财富 但那样的事情使得他们的人生充满意义
excerpt 摘抄 ecstatic state. 一种狂喜的状态 "ecstasy" in Greek meant simply to stand to the side of something. 狂喜一词在希腊语里的意思是 站在某个东西的边上 a mental state where you feel that you are not doing your ordinary everyday routines. ecstasy is essentially a stepping into an alternative reality，狂喜就是一种超越寻常的感觉 pinnacles of human achievement -- whether it's China, Greece, the Hindu civilization, or the Mayas, or Egyptians。 人类文明之巅峰的文明时 不管是在中国、希腊或者是印度 或玛雅、或埃及 to experience life in a more concentrated, more ordered form.更加紧凑 更具节奏的生活 Greek amphitheatre, 古希腊的斗兽场 our nervous system is incapable of processing more than about 110 bits of information per second. 我们的神经系统是无法 在一秒的时间里同时处理超过110比特的信息 And in order to hear me and understand what I'm saying, you need to process about 60 bits per second. 你在听我说话 并且尝试去理解其中的意思 这就相当于处理60比特的信息 You can't understand more than two people talking to you.
when you are really involved in this completely engaging process of creating something new, as this man is, he doesn't have enough attention left over to monitor how his body feels, or his problems at home.
existence is temporarily suspended. 他的存在被暂时遗忘了
this automatic, spontaneous process that he's describing can only happen to someone who is very well trained and who has developed technique. 这样一个自动的、自发的过程只有可能 发生在一个受过严格训练以及培养了良好的钢琴技艺的人身上
you can't be creating anything with less than 10 years of technical-knowledge immersion in a particular field. 在创造力研究这一领域 有一个接近真理的说法是 没有10年时间的积累 是不可能产生出这类的奇迹的
many of the people described this as a spontaneous flow that I called this type of experience the "flow experience." 很多人将此称为“即兴的流动”
This poet describes it as opening a door that floats in the sky 那就有如打开了通往天际之窗 You don't think; it goes automatically, if you merge yourself with the music, and so forth. 你也许会认为那样的事情要自然的发生是不可能的 但只要当你将自己与音乐融为一体之时 就发现那是可能的 CEOs define success as something that helps others and at the same time makes you feel happy as you are working at it. It's kind of a passion that comes from doing the best and having flow while you're working. 这正是一种热情 它源自一个人对最高价值的追求 并且在工作中体会到一种“流动” be aware of their mission to society and work to their heart's content. 意识到自身对于社会的使命 以最大的热情工作 直到自己内心满意为止
regardless of the culture, regardless of education or whatever, there are these seven conditions that seem to be there when a person is in flow.
There's this focus that, once it becomes intense, leads to a sense of ecstasy, a sense of clarity: you know exactly what you want to do from one moment to the other; you get immediate feedback. You know that what you need to do is possible to do, even though difficult, and sense of time disappears, you forget yourself, you feel part of something larger. And once the conditions are present, what you are doing becomes worth doing for its own sake. 首先是精神的集中 集中到一定程度 就会走向狂喜 清醒 可以很清楚的知道自己下一刻该做什么 因为你能够得到即时的反馈 你知道自己将要做的 是可以做的 尽管会遇到不少困难 时间感也消失了 你甚至忘却了自我 似乎能感到自己属于某个更大的整体 而一旦有了那样的征兆 你做的事情本身也会变得有意义
everyday ask：what you're doing, how you feel, where you are, what you're thinking about.
when you will be in flow, and it will be when your challenges are higher than average and skills are higher than average. 能大致预测出你何时会走进“流动”的状态 那就是挑战大于平均值 技能熟练程度也大于平均值的时候
Arousal is still good because you are over-challenged there. Your skills are not quite as high as they should be, but you can move into flow fairly easily by just developing a little more skill. So, arousal is the area where most people learn from, because that's where they're pushed beyond their comfort zone and to enter that -- going back to flow -- then they develop higher skills. Control is also a good place to be, because there you feel comfortable, but not very excited. It's not very challenging any more. And if you want to enter flow from control, you have to increase the challenges. So those two are ideal and complementary areas from which flow is easy to go into. 觉醒还是好的，因为你在那一点上还是有较大的挑战 尽管你的技能熟悉程度不是很高 但是可以很容易的进入“流动” 只要增强一下技能就行了 觉醒是大多数人学习的地方 他们在那样的区域就被迫走出舒适圈 而后走进流动 学会更高级的技能 “控制”也是一个不错的地方 因为你能感到舒服 虽然不是很激动 挑战也不是很强烈 假如要从那里走进“流动” 就要增强挑战的程度 这两者是理想化的、相互补充的区域 从这些地方可以很容易的进入“流动” Relaxation is fine -- you still feel OK. Boredom begins to be very aversive and apathy becomes very negative:
Unfortunately, a lot of people's experience is in apathy. The largest single contributor to that experience is watching television; the next one is being in the bathroom, sitting. Even though sometimes watching television about seven to eight percent of the time is in flow, but that's when you choose a program you really want to watch and you get feedback from it.
how to put more and more of everyday life in that flow channel. And that is the kind of challenge that we're trying to understand. And some of you obviously know how to do that spontaneously without any advice,
