Getting into the zone

So, enough of the silence. It's a valuable thing but a bit too much of it and people start to poke you in the ribs in case that glazed look is actually a bit more serious than they first thought.

An essential part of my personal comfort blanket is the various 'hobbies' and 'interests' that I am ... well, quite frankly obsessed with. I have put 'hobbies' and 'interests' because as soon as I typed them I realised how much those words have acquired such a lame and tame reputation, a patina of amateur dabbling. I'm sure there's a place too for such dalliances, but I'm thinking of something far more intense.

Many visitors to this blog have probably arrived via my other blog, which records my progress through a City & Guilds course in textile art. Give me anything to do with art, especially textile art and I can find my way into that zone. I can lose myself so completely that nothing else seems to exist. The rest of the world is a distant blur and time disappears.

Many psychologists believe that having a "thing", a subject, a hobby that can totally absorb you is a very valuable and healthy thing. The pyschologist "Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi studied those states in which people report feelings of concentration and deep enjoyment. His studies revealed that what makes experience genuinely satisfying is 'flow' - a state of concentration so focused that it amounts to complete absorption in an activity and results in the achievement of a perfect state of happiness" (quote from a review of his book "Flow"). He then extended this to taking that feeling of absorption and finding it in or applying it to other parts of your life, and thereby finding true happiness.

It seems to be a fascinating mix of finding complete immersion in something - almost as if you were underwater and could no longer breath ordinary air, but can only breath your activity - and finding a zen like state of mindful concentration. Being mindful seems primarily to be giving your concentration to something and giving that activity (however ordinary or however complex) the honour and respect of your undivided focus. It's also about being in the present moment and living your experience rather than forever experiencing everything as either memory or intention.

In order to feel happiness we need to have things we can affect and have an impact on. We need to be able to make choices and have an element of control. Without this we feel helpless and give up, feeling that nothing we do is going to make any difference. We really need interests to give us a focus rather than leaving our minds to endlessly drift without purpose. We need to be able to see ourselves making some progress and have new targets to aim for.

Being able to immerse yourself in something you love seems to build a synergy where one thing builds on another and sometimes the results seem far beyond anything you thought you could ever achieve. If you add to that mix some phases of apparently aimless daydreaming then you start to get a potent ferment where new ideas can just erupt like lava. It's interesting that the intensity of being in the zone somehow improves by being complimented with its opposite. Periods of intense focus somehow need the balance of times when you let your head do its own thing. Apparently then neural connections can happen that you would not have consciously thought of, and perhaps an element of one obsession suddenly illuminates part of another.

So, I hope your comfort blanket includes a hobby you really love. If you forever push it to one side, thinking it is selfish or self indulgent, then maybe think again. Your happiness may depend on it!

Comments

[Jez]

I finally found my way to your blog!

This is the first post I have read - very enjoyable. I couldn't agree more about the need to have a "thing" (hobby or whatever) to focus on and also about the need for balance - in all areas of life.

I don't think we need to be concerned about the word "amateur" though - the root of it comes not from the idea of "being a bit rubbish at" but rather from the Latin word "to love" - i.e. it is about doing something for the sheer love of it, rather than as a profession or to pay the bills. Which has to be a good thing, right? :)

Hope to catch up soon