Living an optimal experience

Professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi defined what he calls an ‘optimal experience’ as ‘a profound enchantment’: ‘It is what a sailor feels when the wind whips his face and the boat cleaves the waters – the sails, the hull, the wind and the sea create a harmony that vibrates in his veins.’ He even reports that concentration camp prisoners had similar inner experiences thanks to ‘the song of a bird, the accomplishment of a difficult task, the creation of a poem’. He points out that "these great moments occur when the body or mind is used to its limits in a voluntary effort to achieve something difficult and important. The optimal experience is therefore something that can be brought about." (Living, the psychology of happiness, Pocket, 1990, pp. 24-25).

His research, conducted over many years with artists, mystics, gardeners and manual workers, shows that this experience occurs when performing a complex task. It manifests itself in intense concentration, a feeling that time has stopped and a sense of deep peace, to the point of losing self-awareness: ‘the self does not feel threatened because the experience has a specific goal, clear rules and a challenge that matches our abilities. (...) It is rather the absence of concern about the self that we should think about, because the optimal experience involves a very active role for the self’ (p. 100).

What could be better than the ultimate experience to start a new year under new auspices?