Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Quotes About Consciousness

Quotes about: Consciousness

• To know oneself is the first step toward making flow a part of one's entire life. But just as there is no free lunch in the material economy, nothing comes free in the psychic one. If one is not willing to invest psychic energy in the internal reality of consciousness, and instead squanders it in chasing external rewards, one loses mastery of one's life, and ends up becoming a puppet of circumstances.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Business, Reality, Psychics

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2004). “Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning”, p.143, Penguin

• Entropy is the normal state of consciousness - a condition that is neither useful nor enjoyable.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Normal, Consciousness, States

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2001). “Flow: the psychology of optimal experience”

• A person can make himself happy, or miserable, regardless of what is actually happening 'outside,' just by changing the contents of consciousness.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Consciousness, Miserable, Persons

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2001). “Flow: the psychology of optimal experience”

• Flow is the process of achieving happiness through control over one's inner life. The optimal state of inner experience is order in consciousness. This happens when we focus our attention (psychic energy) on realistic goals and when our skills match the challenges we face.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Order, Psychics, Skills

• The downside, of course, is that over time religions become encrusted with precepts and ideas that are the antithesis of soul, as each faith tries to protect its doctrines and institution instead of nurturing the evolution of consciousness. If one is not careful to distinguish the genuine insights of a religion from its irrelevant accretions, one can go through life following an inappropriate moral compass.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Faith, Business, Ideas

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2004). “Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning”, p.118, Penguin

• For original ideas to come about, you have to let them percolate under the level of consciousness in a place where we have no way to make them obey our own desires or our own direction. Their random combinations are driven by forces we don't know about.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Ideas, Intellectual, Intelligence

• Control of consciousness determines the quality of life.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Quality, Consciousness, Quality Of Life

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2009). “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience”, p.26, Harper Collins

• Pain and pleasure occur in consciousness and exist only there

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Pain, Consciousness, Pleasure

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2001). “Flow: the psychology of optimal experience”

• Control over consciousness cannot be institutionaliz ed. As soon as it becomes part of a set of social rules and norms, it ceases to be effective in the way it was originally intended to be.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Way, Consciousness, Social

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2001). “Flow: the psychology of optimal experience”

• We can transform reality to the extent that we influence what happens in consciousness and thus free ourselves from the threats and blandishments of the outside world.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Reality, World, Consciousness

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2001). “Flow: the psychology of optimal experience”

• Pleasure is an important component of the quality of life, but by itself it does not bring happiness. Pleasure helps to maintain order, but by itself cannot create a new order in consciousness.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Order, Important, Quality

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2013). “Flow: The Psychology of Happiness”, p.46, Random House

• Whatever the dictates of fashion, it seems that those who take the trouble to gain mastery over what happens in consciousness do lead a happier life.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Fashion, Mastery, Gains

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2001). “Flow: the psychology of optimal experience”

• But to change all existence into a flow experience, it is not sufficient to learn merely how to control moment-by-moment states of consciousness. It is also necessary to have an overall context of goals for the events of everyday life to make senseTo create harmony in whatever one does is the last task that the flow theory presents to whose who wish to attain optimal experience; it is a task that involves transforming the entirety of life into a single flow activity, with unified goals that provide constant purpose.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Goal, Everyday, Wish

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