Flow

My aerial yoga instructor was sick this week so unfortunately class was cancelled. L However, the last few weeks I have also been attending Liz H.’s restorative yoga class, so I figured I could blog about that this week! I really enjoy this kind of yoga because it’s totally on the opposite end of the spectrum compared to my aerial yoga class, allowing me to get the best of both yoga worlds! This class is a lot more slow-paced and a time for lots of reflective thinking. It’s a great way to end a busy/stressful week!

I learned about the concept of flow in a previous psychology course and because I liked the thought of it, I have tried to be mindful of the concept ever since. I feel like I experience flow often (mostly with school work), but it’s always with things that require being a bit artsy and creative though- like making a poster board or sometimes if I really enjoy the topic it happens when writing papers. I feel like flow is a lot like spirituality in that it’s very subjective and therefore hard to determine what exactly constitutes the “feeling” of flow. The only reason I question this is because in the reading it talked about how many people claim they have never actually experienced flow at all, which seems so strange to me because I feel like at some point everyone has had to! Even though I understand what flow is, I begin to wonder if maybe I don’t experience flow as much as I think I do because it seems to be that uncommon? Or maybe other people experience flow and just don’t realize it?

Part of the reason that I chose aerial yoga is because it really peaked my interest and I felt like it’s something that I would naturally be really good at. Due to the fact it’s something that I already have the basic skills for, I believe it’s the perfect amount of challenge for me. Each new pose is innately scary just because falling out of the silk is always a possibility! However, I have yet to see a pose that I feel like I don’t have the skills to accomplish. For that reason, I think it’s definitely something I could experience flow doing. The class does go by quick, but I don’t feel like I have really experienced flow yet because of the overall nature of the class. It’s open to conversation and somewhat slow paced, which isn’t an ideal flow environment for me.

Even though I was aware that I’d experienced flow before, after reading the Nakamura & Csikszentmihalyi article, I realize that I fit the characteristics of an autotelic personality pretty well, which is kind of cool! I have always felt like a very intrinsically motivated person and I enjoy doing things simply for the reward that I get it done. It’s something that I’ve always felt, especially in school. Because I enjoy high challenge, high skill situations I like to choose occupations that are challenging for me because I find that I get bored otherwise. However, if something is too challenging, then I get frustrated and discouraged. That’s why I chose aerial yoga- something that I had the skills for, but still challenging enough to keep me interested and motivated!