I like chess. When I play chess, I think of nothing else in that moment. On my iPhone is a free application called Chess With Friends. It is nice because when I have a moment between sessions, my mind can take a respite from my to-do list to concentrate and use my puzzle-solving abilities. It is also nice because it is a leisurely game. I need not carve out a block of time. I can just move when I have a moment. It is a nice break. Chess was what inspired Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi to conceptualize the Happiness Habit (according to Sonja Lyubomirsky’s The How of Happiness) of Flow. Of course when he realized that time had passed without notice, I’m sure he was engrossed in a (traditional) game, not the Chess with Friends version 😉 Chess with Friends is also on Facebook

Frank Clayton, the Happy Therapist