Chapter 15: Teaching About Optimal Experience or Flow

As Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi (1990) tells the story, while observing art students in the 1970s, he was struck by their deep engagement. Their focus on the artistic process was so intense that they would often lose track of time, spending hours in the studio working on a painting, neglecting breaks even for food, drink, or to attend to other responsibilities. Interestingly, once the painting or sculpture was complete, the artists seemed to lose interest, putting the work to the side to focus on the next project. Csikszentmihalyi referred to these experiences as “autotelic,” signifying that the goal (telos) was partic-ipation itself (auto), as opposed to the production of some final product. This experience of losing one’s self in deep engagement was described by research participants as “flowing:” Hence, this experience of deep engagement has come to be known as flow. Because the experience is affectively positive and facilitates growth, it is also referred to as optimal experience.