Forget yourself and find happiness with flow

Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi turned our ideas about happiness on their heads. If you’ve ever caught yourself thinking, if only I had loads of money/so and so loved me/I was taller/shorter/thinner/fatter I’d be happy, then try and get hold of his book, Flow. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi travelled all over the world and talked to people in boardrooms and on factory floors and made the astonishing discovery that we are happiest when we are so absorbed in doing something that we literally forget where we are – or that we are. It doesn’t matter whether it’s icing a cake or running a marathon. What important lessons can we take from this? Rather than if-onlying happiness, which turns it into something dim and distant, transform your energy by doing something that absorbs you. You will likely feel the happiness you thought could only be delivered by whatever it is you are waiting for. But the rewards don’t stop there – happiness raises your vibration and means you’re more likely to attract what you want. So find what makes you happy and do more of it.