"How do adults recapture that feeling of joy that children get from play?"
This is what psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934 - 2021) wanted to know. He was a Croation-born professor of American psychology at the Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, CA and was the director of the Quality of Life Research Center there. He spent years studying the state of being that he called "flow."
‘Flow’ is what we feel when we are totally absorbed in an activity for its own sake. This does not refer to watching a game.
"You don't get much out of the passive consumption of pleasure," Csikszentmihalyi* said, "compared to enjoyment which is much more active and creative and self-directive."
Csikszentmihalyi believed creativity is a central source of meaning in our lives. "When we are involved in [creativity], we feel that we are living more fully than during the rest of life." He said, “when we choose a goal and invest ourselves in it to the limits of our concentration whatever we do will be enjoyable.”
Gardening is an activity that is creative, self directed and gets you into the flow.
You lose yourself when outdoors and are planting, deadheading, weeding, edging watering or even raking the gravel (!?). Well, maybe you don't actually rake gravel but you get the idea.
Flow is what I call 'stop time'...sometimes time stops when you are absorbed in an activity or in experiencing a special place. Intuitive thoughts and insights come to you when you are in such a state.
Gardening encourages stillness - the chatter in your mind quiets down. Your attention is more focused. This is the flow state. You listen deeply to the sounds around you. And you feel the sun and the breeze more intensely.
So get in the flow and spend some time outdoors today....
* Csikszentmihalyi’s books include his bestseller Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
Yes, flow is a wonderful state. Pure happiness. I remember once, when I was at a large nursery, shopping for trees for a client, a salesman came up to me and said, "I have never seen anyone so happy". The odd thing is that I was not, as far as I know, smiling; not exhibiting any of the accepted indications of happiness. But I was undoubtedly in flow. And he apparently saw in my face the deep happiness that flow is. Isn't that interesting?
exactly. I thought my career would be in the corner office of a Manhattan sky rise. I had weekly manicures! In school, architecture was a career option for creatives, but there was never a mention of landscape architecture. It was like a secret calling that wasn't discussed. I have a feeling we have quite a lot in common!