Fourth Post: Getting out of your own way

This week we spoke a bit about the notion of flow. Flow is a concept coined by a psychologist named Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihaly (I told you his name was hard to pronounce). Flow, also known as the "zone" is the mental state in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus and full involvement. Happiness for Csikszentimhaly is not a static state but rather, the experience of being in flow. In short, flow is characterized by complete absorption in what one is doing in the present moment.

Here is an image of his Performance Flow Chart. To summarize what we said on Tuesday, when one's skill is greater than the challenge, the result is boredom. When the challenge is greater than the skill, the result is anxiety. When the activity provides little challenge and requires little skill, the result is apathy.



This idea of happiness is very much in line with Zen. Shunryu Susuki for instance, in his great book Zen Mind Beginner's Mind, says: "When you do something, you should burn yourself up completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself."

Questions:

Video 1 - Playing the Game of Life, by Alan Watts

Note: Alan Watts was a scholar and speaker who wrote extensively on Zen back in the 60's and 70's.

1. What does our society tell children?

2. What is our society's "preparation for life?"

3. When one arrives, Watts claims that he or she often feels cheated. Why?

4. What is the final goal of our society?

5. What is the problem with living ever for the future?

Video 2: The Secret of Life 

1. What is the Chinese word for nature? What does it mean?

2. According to Watts, you stop the spontaneous flowering of nature if you do what to it?

3. According to Watts, what are human beings?

4. What is the secret of life according to Watts?

Video 3: You're Already Awesome

Note: Dr. Judson Brewer is a professor at Yale University's department of psychiatry.

1. What was Dr. Brewer's experience of flow?

2. According to the Harvard study mentioned by Brewer, what percentage of time do we get caught of up thinking?

3. Finish the sentence: "A wandering mind is a  _____"

4. What happens to the brain during meditation?

5. In nine minutes, the test subject mentioned by Brewer learned the difference between what?

Reflection Question:

Reflection question: How does all of this relate to our yoga practice? How does it relate to killer ball? To performing? Was there an idea in any of these talks that stood out to you? If so, what was it and why?

(If you think that all of this is nonsense, please share those thoughts too! Don't feel like you ought to say things simply to get a good grade. I love it when students say, "I think this is a bunch of crap." Feel free to speak your mind!)