Valuing Peak Experience in Everyday Lives

Valuing Peak Experience in Everyday Lives takes Abraham Maslow’s concept of peak experience and compares how people have encountered transcendent peak experiences and related phenomena, such as flow and peak performance, in their everyday lives. By examining existing research and sharing people’s actual encounters in different contexts, such as music, education, sport, creative arts, and nature, the importance and value of peak experiences and self-transcendence in our lives can be better understood and fostered.

The book explores the challenges, benefits, and opportunities presented by understanding peak experience in contemporary contexts. Drawing on research from positive and transpersonal psychology, each of the 12 chapters reports on a work or leisure context where peak experiences have been generated and studied. The chapters are introduced by drawing on relevant theory and research, and then expanded via accounts, vignettes, and examples from people immersed in those activities or contexts to provide a blend of case stories and theoretical foundations.

The book is valuable reading for professional practitioners such as psychologists, educators, coaches, psychotherapists, and those interested in personal development. Also, it will be relevant for students of transpersonal and positive psychology, as well as humanism and human development, interested in understanding transcendent peak experiences and related concepts, such as flow.