Week 5: Finding Flow
Hey everybody! This past week was a crazy one; our school load was heavier than usual and I had to cover a lot of closing shifts for another manager who got covid. Nevertheless, I still somehow managed to stick to my meatless diet and make some homemade dishes. One of my favorites this week didn't involve much actual cooking, but it was a new venture that turned out well (and I thought it was a pretty picture too). I basically made a Greek version of avocado toast with cream cheese, hummus, hot honey, and red pepper flakes on a toasted pita-- and it was amazing.
I have definitely felt flow at many points in my life and it was fun to look back and see what has brought me to that state in different stages of my life. For example, in high school I played basketball and could easily get into flow while practicing, specifically when doing solo drills or in the gym by myself. Recently, I've noticed that I can engage in flow easier when I am listening to music while I do an activity. The two biggest examples I found where music has a big influence were cleaning and driving, but I almost would consider these microflow activities since you still have to have some level of awareness, especially when driving. I don't necessarily think my occupation of a new diet adaptation is going to induce flow on its own, but I think flow could be founds in the components of it such as the cooking process which also would probably be personally increased with music as I mentioned above.
At first, I was pretty confused on whether or not I was an autotelic person, but after re-reading the flow article and doing some self-reflection I came to the conclusion that I am probably more autotelic than not. I feel like I truly do choose to do things that make me happy or that I know I need to accomplish to better myself, AKA intrinsic motivation. The text talked about the autotelic's natural lean into flow, and I think in my past and present I have been able to have many different flow experiences and I can reach that state fairly easily. As I was writing, I was also curious if my experience with meditation has had any influence on me building up this ability as well. Overall, I think I have found ways that personally help me reach me flow and benefit from it.
Hey Libby! Your avocado toast looks so good. I just got a little hungry after looking at your picture and reading your post. I guess it's time to eat! Last week was a busy week for all of us but it sounds like you have us beat by working extra shifts. I'm so sorry! I hope you weren't too stressed out by the tests and presentation we did last week. I know I would've been. How is it trying to stick to your diet? Do you get a lot of pressure from people when they find out you don't eat meat? I feel like the social pressures of a new diet would be hard. You get people saying "I can't believe you're doing that" or going places where the food is already prepared for you and you can't eat it because it has meat. I'm just curious are there are any social barriers that are hard to get through and how do you manage them?
ReplyDelete-Tim
Tim, I haven't felt too many societal pressures or persuasion with my new occupation. However, I saw it all the time when my older sister went vegetarian back in 2008 or something; it was before vegetarian/began diets were more normalized and we grew up in the dairy/agriculture industry, so she got a lot of comments and ridicule. It's definitely a struggle to find places to eat out that have more than a single option for me, so I'm finding that home cooking is usually the answer. It's always fun to go visit my sister in Austin, TX because they have an abundance of food options that are super inclusive of diets like this.
ReplyDelete