flow

'flow' diagram

Yesterday I started writing a presentation for a workshop I am doing next week, called 'Creative Activities for Mindful Therapists'. It will be the first time I facilitate a workshop which combines art therapy (the creative part) and acceptance and commitment therapy, or ACT,  (the mindful part). I have been looking forward to it, and am hoping that despite the flood chaos, we can still go ahead.

During my preparation, I came across a You Tube film clip of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi talking about the concept of 'flow'. He describes how he first got interested in psychology, after 'accidentally' going to a talk in Zurich on flying saucers (!) by Carl Jung, after the second world war. The clip is called Creativity, Fulfilment and Flow, and its worth looking up.

Csikszentmihalyi interviewed many creative people, such as writers, musicians and artists, and discovered that they all experienced going into this optimum and ecstatic state of creativity. He called it 'flow', as this is the term many of them used to describe it. Basically, it means becoming totally engrossed in a particular activity, so that the passing of time, and other everyday events, go unnoticed. Csikszentmihalyi  noted that 'ecstasy' originally (in the ancient Greek) meant 'standing outside yourself' or as he explained it, in an alternative reality.

This is very similar to the concept of mindfulness, but flow also involves activity, whereas we often think of mindfulness in terms of meditation, or sitting still and not doing anything physically. In ACT, mindfulness in everyday activities is emphasised. Paradoxically, mindfulness is about being fully present, rather than 'outside yourself'. The part that we need to try to stand apart from, is our everyday mind, which is not always helpful. In fact, I can see now how the mind is very similar to that endless tv coverage I wrote about the other day. Repetitive, negative, sensationalist, with the occasional snippet of helpful information.

Another example of an unhelpful thought, inspired by wordle.net:

i'm no good!

Flow seems like a good word for today for more immediate reasons. The river continues its relentless flow to Moreton Bay, and its power is gradually waning, as the waters recede. The after effects will be far-reaching, however. Last night, the supermarket fresh fruit and vegetable shelves were bare: it made me think of food shortages under communism, but this is Australia in 2011... Much of the top soil from the Lockyer Valley, which is where many of Queensland's vegetables are grown, is now being washed into Moreton Bay, so its not just a short term crisis. The flow on effect is going to be huge...excuse the pun!

We had a very quick Thai fish curry from the freezer last night: I found a salmon fillet, a piece of snapper, a small bag of scallops, and some fish balls in the freezer, I made a Thai red curry sauce with paste from a jar and coconut milk, added a few vegetables (onions, capsicum and snow peas) and put in the chunks of still frozen fish at the end. It was delicious.  Incidentally I have been back to the gym, and found the routines reassuring.

There is a strange disconnect between the ongoing emergency, and moments of normality.
Now I have to go help a work mate clean up, who's house got inundated. More later.

'Red leaves' - the finished journal, with quilted covers