Blog Post 5

Update: 

    This week I decided I needed to put a little more work into my blanket to make up from the previous week. I ended up finishing my second skein of yarn and started with my third, it's starting to finally look like something other than some yarn. I am getting less frustrated with myself then I had been in previous weeks and I have found that it has become easier the more that I am engaging in this occupation. I'm still working on my tension, I had to restart a row or two because I started to get too tight as some point. I'm hoping that the more I practice I won't have to think to much about my tension and it will become natural. 

Heres an updated picture of where I am currently at 

Flow: 

    After reading more about flow I found it a lot easier to understand than my prior knowledge. I have definitely experienced flow quite a few times, I think its because when I am doing something I try to put all my focus into it and forget about what's going on around me. The biggest one I've noticed looking back would be when I was at dance practice, I would lose time and when I finally noticed I realized that hours had gone by. I think it was the majority of those practices that it would happen we would go from 4 to 10 and no one would realize it until our parents walked in. Another time that I have experienced for would be when I was playing pickle ball a few weeks ago. It wasn't only because of what I was doing I think it was because of the people I was with. We ended up playing for a few hour with only the intention of staying one. We weren't really focused on the time and the next thing we knew we had already been playing for a few hours. I feel that I experience flow at least once a week and I find it nice because I'm not worried about the time, what else needs to be done for the day, or worrying about other things.   

Potential for flow: 

    This week was very beneficial for me regarding flow, I feel that I was able to get into flow for a little while while engaging in my occupation. I ended up working on my blanket for about 4 hours on Saturday without even realizing it, I only noticed when I decided to take a break for a minute after I had saw my tension getting tighter and needed to fix that area. I think that any occupation has the potential to create an experience of flow no matter how challenging it may be. I feel that the more I practice and work on my tension, the better I will become and the chances of flow occurring will be more likely. Once I get it down I won't be worried whether or not I need to restart a row to fix the problem. 

Autotelic Personalities: 

    Looking at autotelic personalities, people do things for their own sake rather than to achieve a goal, it's for the experience. I personally think it depends on what I am doing somethings I only do because there is an end goal that I am trying to reach I'm not doing it for my own experience. There are things that I do just to experience it instead of reaching towards a goal, but I think it depends on the situation when you're trying to "attract" flow. I think that autotelic personalities have the potential to reach the state of flow especially if they are enjoying it and they are doing it for the experience. I think in my experience if I am doing something for the experience and I am enjoying myself I find it easy to experience flow. Using flow as a motivator I believe that by choosing the occupations that I enjoy will allow me to fully experience flow and not worry about the end goal if there  is one.