To experience the mental state of flow is to create ecstasy over actions, said Professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, of Claremont Graduate University who spoke to an audience of 100 in Herter Hall yesterday afternoon

Csikszentmihalyi said he and his students conducted interviews of musicians, composers, writers, poets, and figure skaters to determine aspects of flow. Csikszentmihalyi described the seven aspects to how it feels to be in flow:

Being completely involved in what you are doing - focused, concentrated; a sense of ecstasy-of being outside everyday reality; great inner clarity - knowing what needs to be done, and how well we are doing; knowing that the activity is doable - that our skills are adequate to the task; a sense of serenity - no worries about oneself, and a feeling of growing beyond the boundaries of the ego; timelessness - thoroughly focused on the present, hours seem to pass by in minutes; intrinsic motivation - whatever produces flow becomes its own reward.

"The goal has to come from the inside, and nobody can tell you whether it was the right goal," Csikszentmihalyi said.

The Massachusetts Daily Collegian - Visiting psychology professor speaks on attaining the mental state of flow