Week 5- ENGAGED, but not in making pottery!

Hey everyone! This week was not a great week for engaging in my new occupation. But I do have exciting news to share that I got engaged on Wednesday!! This week has been busy with beginning to plan a wedding on top of rest of the demands of school and life. Although I wasn't able to get into the craft shop this week, I have found some really helpful videos that have given me a good idea of how to improve and fun ways I can shape and glaze my mug. 

On the subject of flow, I realized through our reading last week that I have experienced "flow" state without even knowing it. As mentioned, flow happens with high attention, skill, and challenge. I experience this frequently when I create music because it requires skill that I've gained over 15 years of practice, and I attempt to learn increasingly difficult music. I can also see myself getting into flow occasionally with school work, especially active work as the article mentioned. 

I think that the challenges of pottery is sometimes still slightly above my skill level, which can hinder flow. However, I have definitely experienced flow as I've done pottery, especially when I take some time before I begin to watch videos and learn techniques of what I'll work on that day. I think that I am right on the verge of more frequent flow experiences. I believe it will happen more once I have a bit more experience and feel more comfortable. 

I am really attracted to flow experiences and really enjoy doing things for their own sake. I think I generally find a lot of joy and interest in life and am persistent in what I do. With these descriptions of the autotelic person in mind, I think that I am similar to this personality type. However, I can relate to what the author described in finding joy in flow experiences but sometimes showing preference to relaxation over flow experiences.