the encouragement lounge: Intro to the experience of flow

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Intro to the experience of flow

Hi All, Are you familiar with the concept and experience of "flow"? This is when you are so immersed in an activity that you awareness and action blend, you are unaware of time passing, you are not self-conscious but rather completely present to what you are doing.

One of the elements that creates flow experience is that the activity is neither too easy nor too hard, there is a balance between one's capacity and the task at hand. I think this further illuminates the idea that yes, graduate school is challenging... this sometimes creates anxiety for students, but I also believe that if it were less challenging, it would be less engaging.

Here's an intro to FLOW, a concept developed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi:

FLOW

Cheering you on in your work,

Harriet

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Working adult students, on my mind...

I hope this blog will be helpful to friends and others involved in a variety of endeavors. However, I created the blog with students in mind and continue to develop it with that specific group as my focus.

I believe that with the increase in evening, weekend, and low-residency programs, students are working more and more in isolation. If we were all full-time students on campus, we would have the informal support that comes with being able to go down the hall and talk with a colleague, etc. But instead, we are working late nights and weekends at home in front of the laptop.

With that in mind, I hope the encouragement lounge provides brief moments of respite and energizing connection. This does not at all replace valuable face-to-face contact. Many aspects of the academic journey can only be addressed via in-depth conversations with colleagues and teachers. And I would always rather sit down and talk with someone than to communicate online. Nonetheless, my aim is to give you one more channel for quick hits of support.