“Most of us spend many hours each week watching celebrated athletes playing in enormous stadiums. Instead of making music, we listen to platinum records cut by millionaire musicians. Instead of making art, we go to admire paintings that brought in the highest bids at the latest auction. We do not run risks acting on our beliefs, but occupy hours each day watching actors who pretend to have adventures, engaged in mock-meaningful action.
This vicarious participation is able to mask, at least temporarily, the underlying emptiness of wasted time. But it is a very pale substitute for attention invested in real challenges. The flow experience that results from the use of skills leads to growth; passive entertainment leads nowhere. Collectively we are wasting each year the equivalent of millions of years of human consciousness. The energy that could be used to focus on complex goals, to provide enjoyable growth, is squandered on patterns of stimulation that only mimic reality.”
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Excerpt from Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
Spent time this week clearing out the things that get in the way of play, imagination, creativity and peace of mind. Now we have the room find flow through engaging in activities that bring us joy and challenge us.
Good to catch up! Love your post and it comes at a perfect time for me, which is often the way. Thank you!
Posted by: Rose | November 10, 2014 at 06:56 AM