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How To Know You’re In Flow: Maslow’s 16 Aspects of Peak-Experience
In our obsession with material pursuits, are we denying ourselves the one thing that could provide a route to fulfilment and happiness?
Abraham H. Maslow, in his paper, A Theory of Human Motivation (1), said that man [the human being] is a perpetually wanting animal. There seems to be no denying this, and, in fact, it appears to be a fundamental basis for the growth of the species. In this mode of wanting, in our desire for more, and our need to fill the psychological void, there is potential for material success or failure. There is also the prospect of Peak Experience — the seldom reached place where we may experience euphoria and complete assimilation of the self in the act.
Material gain is short-lived because although we may believe we know what we want, the fulfilled need is transient and never truly satisfies. In contrast, Peak Experience is a desireless state where all needs are met.
As Maslow states;
“The average member of our society is most often partially satisfied and partially unsatisfied in all of their wants”.
What is difficult for many of us, perhaps, is that we possess a certain degree of unawareness of our desirous state — we know we want something, but we don’t know what it is. In this, we are fundamentally disturbed by our dissatisfaction, only partially relieved by moments of idle indulgence or indeed, a chance peak experience.
It seems that we humans are in constant search for ourselves in every walk of life, in every engagement and every relationship. That in of itself is not necessarily remarkable, but what is remarkable is that most of us don’t realise it. For example, most of us work because we have to, and not because we want to or because we love the work. We have become conditioned and socialised towards work that has little value to us other than a means to pay off debt and buy stuff we don’t need. If the truth were known, it would surely prove that we’d rather be doing something else.
Unfortunately, that something else is usually frivolous and of low complexity, leaning us not towards growth, but decline. We seem to follow the rules of…
