There are a couple brief mentions of Stoic philosophy in Flow, but this weekend, when I read Seneca's Letters from a Stoic, I was really struck by how much Seneca's brand of Stoicism overlaps with Csikszenmihalyi's idea of flow, the Buddhist concept of mindfulness (both of which I think are very similar). This line in particular jumped out at me:

The philosopher Attalus used to say that it was more of a pleasure to make a friend than to have one, ‘in the same way as an artist derives more pleasure from painting than from having completed a picture.’ When his whole attention is absorbed in concentration on the work he is engaged on, a tremendous sense of satisfaction is created in him by his very absorption. There is never quite the same gratification after he has lifted his hand from the finished work. From then on what he is enjoying is the art’s end product, whereas it was the art itself that he enjoyed while he was actually painting. So with our children, their growing up brings wider fruits but their infancy was sweeter. (letter IX)

Compare this with Flow, which is

a sense that one’s skills are adequate to cope with the challenges at hand, in a goal-directed, rule-bound action system that provides clear clues as to how well one is performing. Concentration is so intense that there is no attention left over to think about anything irrelevant, or to worry about problems. Self-conciousness disappears, and the sense of time becomes distorted. An activity that produces such experiences is so gratifying that people are willing to do it for its own sake, with little concern for what they will get out of it, even when it is difficult, or dangerous. (p. 71)

Likewise, compare Csikszentmihalyi on happiness, and Seneca:

Happiness is not something that happens…. It is a condition that must be prepared for, cultivated, and defended privately by each person. People who learn to control inner experience will be able to determine the quality of their lives, which is as close as any of us can come to being happy. (p. 2)

Do you think such [modest] fare can do no more than fill a person up? It can fill him with pleasure as well, and not the kind of insubstantial fleeting pleasure than needs constant renewal but a pleasure which is sure and lasting. Barley porridge, or a crust of barley bread, and water do not make a very cheerful diet, but nothing gives one keener pleasure than having the ability to derive pleasure even from that– and the feeling of having arrived at something which one cannot be deprived of by any unjust stroke of fortune. (XVIII, 68)