According to Csikszentmihalyi, flow is the mental state of operation in which the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing, characterized by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?
The fundamental characteristics of flow are the following:
1. Completely involved, focused, concentrating - with this either due to innate curiosity or as the result of training.
2. Sense of ecstasy - of being outside everyday reality.
3. Great inner clarity - knowing what needs to be done and how well it is going.
4. Knowing the activity is doable - that the skills are adequate, and neither anxious or bored.
5. Sense of serenity - no worries about self, feeling of growing beyond the boundaries of ego - afterwards feeling of transcending ego in ways not thought possible.
6. Timeliness - thoroughly focused on present, don't notice time passing.
7. Intrinsic motivation - whatever produces "flow" becomes its own reward.
Csikszentmihalyi based most of his research empirical data drawn from surveying people spontaneously about what the activities they were undertaking and the way they were feeling at the time. He used a watch which beeped at random times during each day and required his subjects to immediately complete a standard survey. For many subjects he followed them for one week a year for several years. The research has been undertaken and confirmed in several countries, and now reaches 250,000 surveys.
In simple terms, the research showed that people were generally unhappy "doing nothing", were generally happy doing things, and generally knew very little about what made them happy.
In one answer, Csikszentmihalyi summarized it as all about having to learn to control our consciousness. This might come from practicing certain disciplines such as arts, sports or religions.
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