Reflection Title: The Magic of Flow!
Book – Flow: The Psychology of Human Performance by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Book Description:
Legendary psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's famous investigations of "optimal experience" have revealed that what makes an experience genuinely satisfying is a state of consciousness called flow. During flow, people typically experience deep enjoyment, creativity, and a total involvement with life. In this new edition of his groundbreaking classic work, Csikszentmihalyi ("the leading researcher into ‘flow states’" —Newsweek) demonstrates the ways this positive state can be controlled, not just left to chance. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience teaches how, by ordering the information that enters our consciousness, we can discover true happiness, unlock our potential, and greatly improve the quality of our lives.
Reflection:
What is flow? In my words – flow is that feeling you experience during those magical minutes when you are actively doing the stuff you love, with the people you love, in the environments that best support those activities!
The year of magical learning is a project that is dedicated to helping myself to live daily life in a never-ending extended flow state!
As the author mentions, flow is a form of escapism from your current reality, in a good way toward the life you want.
The day that Emilia passed away, April 22, 2020, is the day that YOML un-officially began. As one would expect after having to bury a child, my reality was pure hell. I wanted nothing to do with it and the life forward without Emilia physically here with me. I still don’t know why to this day, but on that very first day after she passed away, I somehow was able to summon enough energy into finding ways to keep moving forward in life. I think it was Emilia subconsciously nudging me forward and allowing me to channel her strength. Whatever it was, I began a life of daily action immediately following her passing and haven’t stop since.
Initially, that daily action had no plan, no vision, no nothing. The idea was literally, if Emilia can fight and endure, then I can do it to. So, I kept pushing forward day by day as I was slowly processing all that had happened to our family. Somewhere along the way, those daily activities began to transform into something magical that changed the course of my life.
I can’t pinpoint an exact transition point, maybe around 3-4 months after Emilia passed away, all this action started to finally begin to make some sense to me. Through my daily reading, writing, and exercise activities, I started to discover things that I loved again, and it is like my mind came back online. I began to enjoy life just a little bit, my curiosity slowly returned, my imagination reawakened from its slumber, and life didn’t suck as much (by the smallest of margins).
As I kept going, that is when things began to get wild. I discovered that by doing those same things that I loved to do each day and those little moments of flow that were unlocked in the sea of shit that was my life, I found Emilia there waiting for me to jump in and enjoy those activities with me. I realized that it was in these flow state moments each day that I would always find a way to connect with my daughter.
Once that lightbulb went off, from there…it was game on. Nothing on this planet would prevent me from finding flow for as much of my life as possible if I had any say in it.
I’ve come to realize what this idea of flow is more and more these days as this journey has evolved. For me, flow state are those magical moments during the day when I get to bring my values to life and nothing else matters until the activity is over. Most importantly for me, flow is where I find my daughter and can still spend time with her. Flow state is living for 2 in my mind, which is my life’s purpose.
Now that I understand this, nothing will keep me from finding this magical time during my day because I can’t lose her again.
Question: What do you find when you are performing activities where you find flow?
Links:
What is The Year of Magical Learning? - An Introduction
YOML Podcast Discussion - Coming Soon
YOML Bookstore - Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
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