Is there anything that makes you lose track of time?

This might be sudden, but have you had a moment recently where you thought, 'Wait, is it already this late?'

You realized an hour had passed. You forgot you were hungry. Even though you should have been tired, you felt somehow fulfilled.

I am writing this today because I would like to think about those moments with you for a little while.

What a psychologist noticed in the ruins after the war

There is a psychologist named Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

In post-World War II Europe, faced with people who had lost their homes, their possessions, and even their loved ones, he reportedly spent a long time thinking.

'What exactly is human happiness?'

It is not money. It is not status. It is not material things. That was clear.

After long years of research, what he realized was this:

He called this state of immersion 'flow'.

Flow is not something difficult

When you hear the word 'flow,' it might sound like something special.

But in reality, it exists quietly everywhere in our daily lives.

You forgot the time while doing your favorite craft. You were writing in your diary and realized the page was full. You were concentrating on cooking and your mind felt suddenly clear.

All those moments are flow.

According to Csikszentmihalyi, there is one condition that makes it easy to enter a state of flow:

'A task that is not too difficult, not too easy, but just within reach if you stretch yourself'

When working on such a task, people naturally become immersed.

The day my 'happiness stacking' connected with flow theory

I have been continuing something called 'happiness stacking' every day for a long time.

It is a habit of writing down the small joys and gratitudes of the day in a notebook.

Honestly, at first, I didn't think about 'having to write well.' But there are days when once I start writing, I can't stop.

There are even times when I realize 30 minutes have passed.

One day, I suddenly remembered that and realized, 'Oh, isn't this flow?'

I'm not trying to write perfect sentences. I'm not trying to show them to anyone. There is no right answer.

That's why I think I was able to immerse myself naturally.

What Csikszentmihalyi tried to prove with science, I was doing on my notebook every morning.

Somehow, that made me feel warmly happy.

'People are born to be happy,' I believe.

This is a phrase I have always cherished.

Happiness is not something that exists somewhere far away. It is not something to chase, either.

Today, there was a moment I was absorbed. Today, I was able to focus on something until I lost track of time. Today, I found myself smiling.

I think happiness has always been there, in the accumulation of those moments.

You surely have them too.

You don't need special talent to enter a flow state.

You just need to make time to carefully face the things you naturally get absorbed in.

Why don't you try just one thing today?

'What was something today that I got so absorbed in that I lost track of time?'

Try writing just one line about it in a notebook.

That might be the beginning of your own personal accumulation of happiness.

Thank you for reading until the end.

May your days be filled with small moments of immersion and happiness.

Love & Peace