Put A Little Flow In Your Life

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Put A Little Flow In Your Life

• PRC Workshop 6
• 7 May 2009
• May 7, 2009

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(No Transcript)
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RELAXED AWARENESSBRAIN GYM

• Sit upright or stand
• Roll neck slowly all the way around
• Do it with your eyes closed or open
• Do it in both directions

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ACTIVITY
1-Minute Pause What images come to mind when
you hear the word flow?
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CONNECT - PAST
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CONNECT - FUTURE

• You can improve the quality of your life by
  making sure that the conditions of flow are
  present each day.

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BIG PICTURE
The best moments usually occur when a persons
body or mind is stretched to its limits in a
voluntary effort to accomplish something
difficult and worthwhile. Mihaly
Csikszentmihalyi
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GOALS

• Define flow
• List the components of flow
• List 2 - 3 ways to help your children get into
  flow over the end-of-year holiday

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RELAXED AWARENESSBRAIN GYM
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WHAT IS FLOW?

• Mental state of operation in which you are fully
  immersed in what you are doing by a feeling of
  energized focus, full involvement, and success in
  how the activity is going
• Optimal experience

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PLEASURE

• Experience
• Lacks a sense of achievement
• Lacks active contribution to the result

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SIMILAR TERMS

• In the zone
• On the ball
• In the groove
• Being at one with things
• Ecstacy (religion)
• Aesthetic rapture (arts)

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HAPPINESS FLOW

• It is the full involvement of flow, rather than
  happiness, that makes for excellence in life. We
  can be happy experiencing the passive pleasure of
  a rested body, warm sunshine, or the contentment
  of a serene relationship, but this kind of
  happiness is dependent on favorable external
  circumstances. The happiness that follows flow is
  of our own making, and it leads to increasing
  complexity and growth in consciousness.

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RESEARCH

• ESM
• gt 250,000 surveys
• Results
• Unhappy when doing nothing
• Happy when doing things

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RESEARCH

• Results
• Universal
• 15 - never been in flow
• 20 - experience flow often
• 40 - experience flow sometimes
• 25 - experience flow rarely
• Experience flow doing favourite activities
• Rare in passive leisure activities

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HOW to Get Into FLOW
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CHALLENGES

• We encounter many challenges in our lives. The
  way we interact with those challenges determines
  our happiness.

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LOW CHALLENGE
Too little challenge
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HIGH CHALLENGE
Too much challenge
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CHALLENGE/SKILLMATCH
Just enough challenge
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OBSTACLES

• Preference for relaxation
• Paradox of work and play
• gt time spent in high-challenge/high-skill at work
  (felt efficacy)
• gt time spent in low-challenge/low-skill at
  leisure (felt apathy)

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HOW DOES FLOW FEEL?

• Completely involved, focused, concentrating
• Sense of ecstasy outside everyday reality
• Inner clarity
• Sense of serenity

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HOW TO GET INTO FLOW

• Engage in a task
• Challenging
• Have prerequisite skills
• Control of consciousness

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The PATH to FLOW
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READING

• Flow in reading
• Texts for pleasure reading or interest provided gt
  flow
• Fiction produced more flow than nonfiction

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FLOW AT WORK

• gt flow at work than in free time
• Work can be like a game
• Clear goals
• Feedback
• Encourages concentration
• Matches skills with levels of difficulty

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FLOW in FREE TIME

• Activities require an initial investment of
  attention before becoming enjoyable
• Relaxing leisure is not bad in small doses
• Active leisure that helps you grow takes
  ingenuity and attention

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SPORTS PSYCHOLOGY

• Flow is allowed to develop, not forced
• Attention is practiced and trained
• Techniques
• Muscle relaxation/meditation
• Interference
• Lack of ability to manage distraction
• Stress
• Poor mood control

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USES OF FLOW

• Education - overlearning
• Reduce stress
• Museum exhibits
• Senior citizens
• Improve quality of life

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FLOW ACTIVITIES

• Sports
• Arts
• Literary
• Mind/body
• Work/friends
• Routines
• Adversity

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WHY FLOW IS IMPORTANT?

• "How to live life as a work of art, rather than
  as a chaotic response to external events..."

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(No Transcript)
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BENEFITS OF FLOW

• Feelings of enjoyment
• Encourages you to persist at return to an
  activity - fosters the growth of skills over time
• Time spent in flow is related to increased
  self-esteem
• lt delinquency with high adversity at home or
  school

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RESEARCH

• Dopamine
• Neurotransmitter
• Regulates concentration, attention, and
  inhibition
• Controls emotions, movement, and the ability to
  experience pain pleasure
• People with ADHD have less dopamine in their
  prefrontal lobes
• Sustained dopamine release is associated with
  feelings of elation

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RELAXED AWARENESSBRAIN GYM

• Grip shoulder and look over it as you breathe in
• Turn head slowly to the other shoulder as you
  breathe out
• Change hands

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ACTIVITY

• Think-Pair-Share
• How can you help your children and family get
  into FLOW this holiday?

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And the world will be a better place, And the
world will be a better place, For you and me You
just wait and see.
Think of your fellow man Flowing across the
land Put a little flow in your life. You see
its getting late So please dont hesitate Put a
little flow in your life.
Another day flows by, We know the reason why, Put
a little flow in your life. If you want the
world to know Youre going to let it flow, Put a
little flow in your life.
Take a good look around, And if youre feelin
down Put a little flow in your life. I hope when
you decide Gladness will be your guide Put a
little flow in your life.
And the world will be a better place,And the
world will be a better place,For you and meYou
just wait and see. Put a little flow in your
life.Put a little flow in your life.
And the world will be a better place, And the
world will be a better place, For you, and
me Just wait and see.
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QUESTIONS
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CONTACT INFORMATION
William Reed Rhodes, Ph.D. ES Learning Support
Teacher Beijing City International School 77
Baiziwan Nan Er Road Beijing 100022 8771 7171
(ext 1218) reed.rhodes_at_bcis.cn