Entropy & the Link to Happiness and Success

While happiness itself is sought for its own sake, every goal --- health, beauty, money, or power --- is valued only because we expect that it will make us happy (Csikszentmihalyi 1998, p. 1).

In his book, "Flow: The Psychology of Happiness", Csikszentmihalyi reports his findings, based on years of methodological research, into what makes people happy. The essence of his research is summarized thus:

Contrary to what we usually believe...the best moments of our lives are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times --- although such experiences can also be enjoyable, if we worked hard to attain them. The best moments usually occur when a person's body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile. Optimal experience is thus something we make happen.

The key words/statements in the above quote are "voluntary" and "something we make happen", but I'll come back to their importance later. Firstly, "Entropy" is mentioned in the title of this article, not an everyday term, so let's define it:

ENTROPY: A measure of disorder of a system, used in thermodynamics. Thus a solid has less entropy than a liquid because the constituent particles are in a more ordered state (The Macmillan Encyclopaedia).

The concept of entropy was originally developed as part of the field of thermodynamics. However, today the concept is used by mechanical engineers, biologists, neuro-scientists, social scientists, and the like. In fact anyone developing a model for understanding the behaviour of a dynamic system.

As already stated, the concept of entropy emerged from the study of thermodynamics, to be precise, it is a key concept of the Second Law of Thermodynamics - now, because of the realization of its universal application, it is frequently referred to as the Entropy Law. In 1980 Rifkin said somewhat prophetically:

...the Entropy Law will preside as the ruling paradigm over the next period of history. Albert Einstein said that it is the premier law of all science; Sir Arthur Eddington referred to it as the supreme metaphysical law of the entire universe. (Rifkin & Howard 1985, p. 16)

It is now becoming clear that an understanding of the flow of entropy in our brain is a key component in understanding human behaviour and why we feel the way we do when we do.

• Csikszentmihalyi has found that the reducing the entropy in one's brain (i.e. creating more ordered thinking patterns) is a key component to creating the feeling of happiness.
• Both Csikszentmihalyi and Lowen have found that there are defined meta-processes that apply universally to all humans as to how to go about reducing the entropy in our brain.
• Lowen describes how the process of reducing entropy in the brain is an essential component of creativity. However, the specific process for an individual to follow depends on an understanding of their personal brain-preference profile. [click here for a case example of this creative process for one particular brain-preference profile]
• Lowen has developed an entropy flow diagram which he describes as a key link between knowing a person's brain-preference profile and understanding its implications for their behaviour.
• We have developed a process of using the AVI (A Values Inventory) to determine a person's brain-preference profile. From this profile were are then able to guide people through the entropy flow diagram to gain an understanding of the appropriate strategy for them to engender the feeling of happiness in their life more often and to unlock their creativity.

The Entropy Law as applied to an understanding of the link between the workings of the human brain and human behaviour goes much wider than just helping people tap into their creative juices and feel happy more often. It has profound implications for how we approach our relationships with others, organise our families and work, and our society and our politics.

References

Csikszentmihalyi, M. 1998, Flow: The Psychology of Happiness, Rider, London.

Freeman, W. 1999, How Brains Make Up Their Mind, Phoenix, London.

Lowen, W. & Miike, L. 1982, Dichotomies of the Mind: A systems Science Model of the Mind and Personality, John Wiley & Sons, New York.

Rifkin, J. & Howard, T. 1985, Entropy a New World View, Paladin, London.