Finding Your Flow State: A Psychological Theory for Happiness

In order to maximize your happiness I will firstly propose two simple statements to explore that most of us would likely agree on:

1. Our free-time, we would hope, is spent on the things that make us happy.
2. We spend our free-time on television, video-games, and surfing the internet.

Evidently, these activities do calm our consciousness after our needlessly draining work and family life. Certainly, they are pleasurable. After being told what to do at every hour of the day, sinking our hands into some Doritos and scrolling through YouTube is finally an activity that allows us to be the driver behind the wheel. However do they make us happy? Are our happiest moments spent binging Netflix?

We all know what makes us happy…sort of. Specifically, when people look back to the moments where they’re happiest, they generally conjure up nostalgic memories of time spent with family and friends, deep immersion in physical or mental activities, and the overcoming of obstacles. Not only do we derive pleasure from these activities but, more significantly, most of us would assert that these golden moments are much more than simply pleasurable excursions. No, they’re enjoyable experiences.