Happiness Revisited

Here you find my responses to the questions which go with the article with the above name.

1. When do you feel most happy?
This is very easy to answer. Contrary to popular belief, I am a happy person. Some people who know me think I am a frigid bitch who doesn't know the meaning of the word happiness, but this is because I am really only happy when I am by myself, and no one else is around (with a very few exceptions according to mood). Within that, my best place is, hands down, at the rink, on the ice. That endorphin high is like the nectar of the gods. I'm also pretty happy when I'm creating things, e.g. ceramic eggs. I am addicted to closure and I love finished products. In baking, drawing, pottery, origami, gardening - all the down-home crafts that I enjoy, being a crafty person - my favorite time is when all the ingredients have been put away and the work space cleaned and all that's left is the final product, the cake or vase or drawing or crane or flower bed or whatever, looking as though it sprang spontaneously into being. Seeing that makes me truly content.

Also, lying on beaches or tramping through rainforests works pretty well. Probably the happiest I ever was in my life was when I was in the place I showed you in my first-ever entry.

2. React/respond to the article.
I believe that it is true that, as the author says, "optimal experience" is something that we cause to happen. We do things because we believe that they will make us happy. Even things we do that don't bring immediate happiness, like eating spinach, we do because we believe, if subconsciously, that they will make us happy in the long run. I also wholeheartedly believe in the concept of flow, as laid down in the diagram below. I am partly amused and partly appalled that it took an army of philosophers many centuries to discover its existence, but that is nothing new.

3. Where are you on the flow chart? (Below.)

I am in flow, at least for the moment. This year I have generally been pretty high up in the flow channel. I have skills and I have challenges. When I overstep the bounds of the flow channel, it is almost always in the anxiety direction, where my challenges exceed my skills. But this passes. 

4. How has this changed/remained the same throughout your project?

I chose, if I say it myself, a near-perfect project for me, one pretty much guaranteed to keep me in flow. I have challenged myself more than in any of my previous efforts in the studio, and found that my skills were up to the task.

5. How can you achieve flow?

I have achieved it. Had I not, I would say, by periodically introducing new challenges into one's life, and taking the time to master the skills required to confront said challenges before introducing new challenges.