Making Life Choices
Making Life Choices
As I am sure you have heard it said, the fable goes, that over two thousand years ago Aristotle concluded that what a person wants above all else is to be happy.
In 1961 the American psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi concluded that: “While happiness itself is sought for its own sake, every other goal – health, beauty, money or power – is valued only because we expect that it will make us happy.” He describes the state of feeling happy as ‘flow’.
Now, you hear of flow quite often and every week in my yoga classes we practice flows which unblock our chakra energies leaving us happy, healthy and balanced.
According to Csikszentmihalyi happiness occurs when we are:
a. Intensely focused on an activity…
b. Of our own choosing, that is…
c. Neither under challenging, nor over challenging, that has…
d. A clear objective, and that receives…
e. Immediate feedback.
During this time of lockdown we are all challenged by looking at the world in a different way and for many of us we have to think about work in a different way. I know that I am always at my happiest when I have a really good project to get my teeth stuck into, even if that is exhausting, it is extremely satisfying for me.
Students all over the world, despite having been out of school for some time, are having to make life changing decisions at this time. Choosing the right subjects for next year, choosing whether to eventually go off to college, University or get a job. When you are so young – how do you make those kinds of decisions? If you could go back in time, what would you tell your 15 year old selves?
I know that I was in a permanent state of confusion at high school. My good friends left school at 16 and although I knew I wanted to stay on, I wasn’t entirely sure what for. I knew I was good at language studies but that was about it. So I opted to go on and study languages. but nobody in my family had been a ‘student’ and we come from a place where going off to travel and study foreign languages was quite ‘out there’! There were not as many choices in those days as there are now though and if I had been able to study more practical subjects and /or taken an interest in business studies earlier, then perhaps I would have found out more about myself sooner. The fact was, I really didn’t know that much about myself.
As a teenager can you understand ‘Flow’ fully?
Do you know what over and under challenges you? I am sure there are many things that make you happy, but how practical are those things and can you make a career from them? How much do parents factor in these decisions? These are all questions that need to be asked when chatting about making these kinds of life decisions.
I will be running some sessions over the coming weeks which will focus on ‘Flow’ and conquering these crossroads. If you are interested in a free consultation, get in touch and during this time of uncertainty we are offering 50% off all packages.
Be Happy & Go with the Flow!