report#2

In the second segment of Flow,Csikszentmihalyi explores the idea of using the developed understanding of “self” to control attention.  The author says, “Attention shapes the self, and in turn is shaped by it.”(71)  In the development of Flow, it becomes essential to develop an understanding of self. Self is not simply comprised of physical attributes and mannerisms; it is the complete compilation of behaviors and attitudes that we pack into our “being”.  Every day, as a being, we develop our notion of self. With each experience we have, our “self” emerges evermore.  As we begin to get to know our “self”, we begin to recognize our interests and our tendencies. For instance, many students experience the feeling of not knowing exactly what they want to pursue Post College. Perhaps one of these students takes a trip or has an experience with something new to them. That experience could trigger a new interest, an interest that seeds itself in our “self”. Suddenly the student begins to take classes related to this experience and the student surrounds himself with things that remind him of the experience. By integrating these new behaviors into his routines, he has allowed his “self” to direct and focus his attention on the development of this new interest. Suddenly the experience has gone from random occurrence, to life changing incident, and perhaps the student will direct a significant portion of the rest of his life towards focusing attention on the experience. 

People who are fortunate enough to recognize their “self” early on in life can, in theory spend the entirety of their lives tuning and developing the self. These people will find themselves in situations that continuously benefit them, ever furthering their development of self. The author suggests that by having a defined understanding of self, people are able to obtain flow, or optimal experience in more cases than most. By understanding ourselves we are more apt to placing ourselves in fulfilling situations. Perhaps we are faced with a daunting task, a person who experiences a great relationship with his/her, “self”, will most certainly approach this task with a different focus than, a person with a limited relationship with his self.  This suggests that a person with better self-identification may have a better life, but it is more important to show that a person with better self-identification will have a more fulfilling interpretation of the experiences he has.

The interpretation of life through the eyes of a developed self is described by the author as psychic energy. The author does not suggest that we have psychic abilities, in the sense of being able to predict thoughts, but we have the ability to organize our consciousness in such a way that provides optimal experience in day to day life. We have spoken about heuristics, and in a way developing an understanding of self, is the development of heuristics that explain us. Different than any heuristic though, flow and psychic energy emerge from certainly positive experiences. Flow cannot be described as prediction of events to come, or the enjoyment of predicting upcoming events based on prior knowledge; flow is dependent upon feeling, a crossroads in our thought process where we let go of conscious efforts and allow our certainty in “self” to take control and lead us to and through optimal experience.