Reflection: When Do I Experance Flow?

I would have to say that I say that I tend to experience flow when I'm reading a good book just for the sake of reading.  There have been many times when I have sat down and started reading only to look up and it has been 2 hrs and I have read half of the book.  Most of the time I would say I am doing it escapism from my world and I delve into another world and become lost in the story and characters.  Up until this past month I would go through a book or two a week.

This past week I have gotten back into swimming and I realized and I also experience flow when I swim long distances.  I don't really experience a total loss of time since swimming is kind of focused on tracking time and distance but it does make me feel so much better.  Take yesterday for example, I was nervous over some things and swimming totally calmed me down and I was able to refocus on what I needed to do.  Keep in mind I swam competitively for 10 years but I have been out of it for about 10 years now so having that ah-ha moment was a nice thing.

The New Hampshire - Swasey Indoor pool receives a

The New Hampshire - Swasey Indoor pool receives a "green" facelift

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Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Chapter 1: Happiness Revisited

•  Introduction
• People seek happiness sought for its own sake
• All other goals are to support happiness: health, beauty, money, power
• Happiness is how we interpret events
• Overview
• Optimal state of inner experiences in which there is order in consciousness
• Psychic energy invested in realistic goals
• The Roots of Discontent
• Happiness is hard to achieve because the universe was not designed with comfort of human being in mind
•  Humans always trying to adapt and protect themselves thus causing more obstacles (weapons and natural forces including illnesses)
• Chaos is one of the oldest concepts in myth and religion
• Paradox of rising expectations suggest that improving the quality of life might be an insurmountable task
• The Shields of Culture
• Every culture tries to shield members from chaos, to reassure them of their importance and ultimate success
• All cultures take for granted that they live at the center of the universe, without this it would be difficult to face the odds of existence (cultural hubris)
• Cultural hubris tends to lead to trouble
• Religion is an attempt to cope with the lack of meaning in life
• Often temporary
•  Hard in era of scientific rationality
• Trends in violence and decline in cultural standards often tends to make people jaded
• Past 30 years increase in violent crime, lower standardized test scores, more people living below poverty line
• Reclaiming Experience
• If values and institutions no longer provide supportive framework each person must use whatever tools available to carve out a meaningful, enjoyable life
• Working towards goals focusing on biological needs and genetic conditioning
• Seeking pleasure is a reflex response built into our genes for preservation of species not for personal advantage
• The only authority many people trust today is instinct
• Paths of Liberation
• Control of consciousness determines the quality of life
• Knowledge needed for emancipation consciousness cannot be put into a formula, cannot be taken from one culture into another with the same meanings

Reflection: Serious and Casual Leisure

Author Robert Stebbins has defined two types of leisure. In his 1997 paper on casual leisure in six types: play, relaxation, passive entertainment, active entertainment, social conversation and sensory stimulation. In 2001 he defined serious leisure as a way to help a person identity themselves in three areas: amateurs, hobbyist and career volunteers.

With all of these attempts to classify leisure you think that for the most part everything is covered right? I don't know, it just seems like the labels are attempts to put things in boxes. I realize that to more analytical and scholarly about subjects it helps to have defined areas. I'm not a big on putting things in boxes, I like to know where they are so I know how much to push them. I think having general classifications like serious and casual leisure are valuable but once we get into all of the sub-categories I just start getting annoyed.

I feel that many of the articles that we have been reading for class just seem like attempts to justify our filed. Article after article seems to mainly be quotes from other articles. Newsflash, if I wanted to know their option I would be reading their work not yours. I know the value of recreation you don’t have to argue its value with me. Sorry for ranting.

Anniversary

So now fall is in full swing and the year has come full circle from when I came to this position. Yesterday was my one year anniversary with the university. With the passing of this date (and the busy past few weeks) I have had little time think let alone reflect but as the walrus said to the carpenter "the time has come to talk of other things..." (impute Disney reference here).

When I think back on my time here thus far I think that it is entirely fitting that the facility that I manage should re-open this past week after a massive renovation. Today was the first day it was open to the public and I have to say that I am enjoying the response thus far. Had anyone told me a year ago I would be taking a graduate classes (and enjoying them), and going through a huge renovation I would have thought "yeah, right."

There are so many people that have impacted my life since I came here and I feel that I am better for it. So as the leaves turn colors and the air begins to chill I look forward to what the changing of the seasons will bring.

Plans and Reality

So this blog is for a class project but I'm feeling the need to talk about something so I thought I would start early.

I'm the "oldest" one in my grad class (of 7) and most of the others are about 5 years younger then I am. This has gotten me thinking of what I have been doing in the past few years, where I am and where I thought I would be. Needless to say things have not gone according to plan.

Where I thought I would be:
I thought that after I graduated with my BAA I would get a job with an organization that I had been with since I was 16 (we shall call them X), get promoted, love what I was doing most of the time, feel like a valued employee, meet a guy, get married and have a kid by now. And then rule the world of course :)

What really happened:
During the mandatory 30 week internship my degree required I looked into applying for jobs with X and was down to the 2 final candidates and turned down since I was still technically in college. Bummer.

Once again I continued to apply for jobs with X, this time it was for a job I was doing for my internship, and once again I was turned down saying I did not have enough experience (while doing the SAME job for my internship, remember).

Disillusioned, I looked into going abroad. Not that I went very far, the program I ended up going with was one with the same organization just a different branch. So I looked at my options, and for a December grad there are not that many, chose the only English speaking options Scotland and Australia. Since my heritage is mainly Irish and Scottish Scotland was my first pick. New Years Eve I found out that I did not get Scotland. Again Bummer. Then 3 days later I found out that I was going to Australia. Considering I never really thought about going there I decided to roll with it and thought "Scottish winter or Australian summer?" and got excited. About 3 or 4 weeks later I was off to a land down under and faced with the odd question of "what do I want to do?" Yes, I know it is a simple question, but still a hard one. Even things like going and seeing Melbourne I was catching myself thinking "I done with this activity, I think I shall go see something else. Wow, really? I can just do what I feel like doing? I don't have to consult with others to see what they feel like doing? Ok then turn around and head out, boy this is easy." Of all the things I did there what was the biggest realization that I had.

Then when I had been home about 3 weeks my old boss called me up and asked me to met with her. It turns out that the guy they hired to do the job I had been doing and just quit and walked out (no notice, just placed a letter on her desk, took his stuff and left) and with the biggest program of the year starting 4 days later they needed someone ASAP. So I took the job. Boy was that a learning process. Not the job, but working with the people who were "under" me. I really had forgotten that people can hate you until I had that job.

Anyway, along with me learning what it was like to be a salaried employee in my first full time job all of my college friends were getting married. Everyone goes through this but this is my tail, 5 wedding in 5 month and I was the Maid of Honer in 2 of them. Oh and the wedding were 1 month apart and I had to buy the same dress in 2 different colors (at least I looked good in both of them). Mean while I had not dated a guy seriously in about 2 years at this point. Let's just say that the feeling of "Did I miss that memo? Was I supposed to be issued someone?" was something that came across my mind more then a few times.

Meanwhile, life went on. I responded to all of the weddings by buying a condo (6 months after I came back from Australia). I had NO money in the bank, paying off my credit cards from going abroad (since I left on such short notice I had no money saved up for the trip), and my parents told me not to do it. But being the young adult I was I said "paa-sht I know better then them" and got into a deal with my uncle (who really ended up messing up some of my other family members lives later).

A year later I was unhappy with my job and it was starting to take a toll on me and my work and I ended up leaving. So then I was with out a job for 5 months, with credit card bills, car payment and a mortgage. Fun stuff. At the same time the economy started to turn downward, especially where I was living. I was applying for jobs in different fields, jobs above what I had been doing, jobs below what I had been doing. Nothing....n-o-t-h-i-n-g. So then I broadened my search to different states. Again parents not happy but more understanding. And I got a job 16hrs and a ferry ride away from home for a hotel.

After not working for 5 months I was VERY happy to be working again, in my field no less. This was a very different beast than what I had know in the past and it was a chance to start a new program up from scratch. An exciting and daunting task. I put my nose to the grind stone and got through the busy season and thought I did a good job. Then the off season hit. Talk about feeling powerless over my own life. Everything was different and I did not adjust well. I put in another busy season and was told that my job would not be an option during the off season. So again I started with the search.

This time I went with an university. It was in my field again but in an area that I had first started off in but had fought to get out of. This time it was different. Different organization, responsibilities and new challenges. So far it has been a year and I still like what I'm doing.
Along with the opportunity to work for a university there are perks that go with it like great benefits and free classes.

I was encouraged by my supervisor to take some grad classes and since I had been out of the classroom about 5 years I thought it was a good idea. So here I am taking this class with the blog requirement and still trying to find out what do I want to do. Now many of my friends have babies and I have taken a path I NEVER would have thought of.

I'm learning the bag pipes (and I still have not made it to Scotland or Ireland for that matter), working on myself and seeing what will happen next. What choice will I make?