Jessica
Next Saturday, I begin my second class (and first elective) in my master of leadership program. I chose to take a class on Positive Psychology. In a nutshell, positive psychology studies “what goes right” in people’s lives and how to replicate those experiences on an individual and organizational level.
After watching the below video, required for class, I know that I have chosen a good class. I think that this class will really help me to reflect on how my creative practice fulfills me. Expect a lot of blogging on positive psychology over the next few months.
In this video, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi describes a bit of research into flow experiences. People experience flow when they are engaged in an activity that they enjoy, that challenges them, and allows them to lose themselves for a moment. I would say that writing poetry or collaging, for me, can be flow experiences.
A few things struck me while watching this video:
- First, Csikszentmihalyi traces the word “ecstatic” to its Greek roots, where it means to place outside. I often feel that my creative practice is a space outside of daily life, so this definition of when creation induces an ecstatic state resonates with me. However, because I place it outside of daily life, I don’t connect with it as much as I should. Perhaps I should be thinking of writing and art-making instead as a way to create a space outside of life, rather an already existing space.
- He shows an excellent quote regarding the flow experience of poetry, at approximately 11:27 in the video. (It’s a long video.)
- Elements of flow activity (as described by Csikszentmihalyi here) include: complete involvement, ecstasy, inner clarity, a sense that the task is achievable, serenity, timelessness and intrinsic motivation. When describing intrinsic motivation, he says that whatever task produces the flow experience is its own reward. I’m thinking of posting that phrase above my writing space.
- Flow experiences are most often experienced when the task is more challenging than average and the skills used to complete the task are higher than average. He has a great graphic around 16:40-ish (again long video), which illustrates the other types of experiences and how they relate to skill and task level.
- Apathy is the opposite of flow and it is something we all experience more often than not. Television (and sitting in the bathroom) typically produce apathy.
This video is exactly what I need to see a few days before plunging back into the busy work world. I hope that you take the time to watch it, as its very illuminating. Enjoy!
Note: This is may be my very first embedded video on a blog and I am so flipping glad that it works. Yay for learning a new skill.
