MELISSA LARA CLISSOLD
  • Home
  • Portfolio
    • Voiceovers
    • Music
    • Art
    • AI
    • Indie Game Development
    • Random Creations
  • Offerings
  • Media
    • Videos
    • Gallery
    • Press
  • Blog

Blog

'Flow'

22/4/2014

1 Comment

 

The other day, my friend sent me a Ted Talk by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (leading researcher in positive psychology) about 'Flow, The Secret to Happiness'. 

My opinion was that 'Flow' is a state that we also enter in meditation, so the process that Csikszentmihalyi discusses in his video is similar to the idea of 'being' not 'thinking'. This is the flow we capture during any moment of creativity when we are completely present. No judgement whatsoever. 

 For example I feel that whilst making music  there is indeed a moment that you are simply watching the music pour out of you and you become an observer. A composer mentions this state of 'flow' in the video as well. 

My friend and I also discussed how there is a difference between entering the state of 'flow' consciously - through meditation or just simply finding yourself in it - whilst acting, making music, dancing, painting, cooking etc. Or even simply whilst at work and extremely focused on a particular task.

What is flow?

It is simply sitting silently, witnessing the thoughts, passing before you. Just witnessing, not interfering not even judging, because the moment you judge you have lost the pure witness. The moment you say “this is good, this is bad,” you have already jumped onto the thought process. 

It takes a little time to create a gap between the witness and the mind. Once the gap is there, you are in for a great surprise, that you are not the mind, that you are the witness, a watcher. 

And this process of watching is the very alchemy of real religion. Because as you become more and more deeply rooted in witnessing, thoughts start disappearing. You are, but the mind is utterly empty.

That’s the moment of enlightenment. That is the moment that you become for the first time an unconditioned, sane, really free human being.” 

FLOW IN THE OFFICE - A short train of thought:

"You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop."

 “Merge with others, if you stay in self, you are a grain, you are a drop. If you merge with others, you are an ocean, you are a mine.” 

~Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi~

“Everything flows, nothing stands still’’

“Change is the only constant”

 ~Heraclitus~

Life truly is like a river. It flows constantly and it never stops flowing... It opens up into the vast ocean to join all the other rivers. We are all a part of this flow. Change is the only constant. We are not static beings. We are constantly changing, evolving, dying, being born, re-born. We are evolving and flowing beings. Life is the here and now. In-between the small cracks of the past and the future. It is here where life resides and where everything takes part, where everything happens. In this present moment. Everything is the moment. The moment is everything. 

I sometimes sit at my office desk and in-between listening to Icelandic post-rock, American thrash metal, Indian meditation music or Jamaican reggae I enter a trance like state as I type away, write emails, translate documents or simply organise my desktop folders. It’s during this trance like state that I have a sudden deep realisation that whatever I’m doing at that very moment is completely and utterly meaningless. I feel my hands melting into the keyboard, my fingers automatically pushing down on the keys before me. I lose complete interest in whatever I’m doing and time stands completely still. Or should I say time doesn’t seem to exist. I am time and time is nothing. Flashbacks of memories appear in front of my eyes. Or at least that’s where they seem to accumulate. How do we ‘see’ memories I wonder? They are strange. Memories appear on the screen before my eyes, my remote control brain switching channels accordingly. Different memories, different frequencies. At times I can control the channels, other times I let the memories flow. When I let them flow I sometimes lose control and I return to the time of the memory, that particular moment in its entirety. I experience the memory as if it was happening right now. The thing is...it IS right now. The past is present. As is the future. The memories sometimes pour out, sometimes trickle and other times I am flooded by these strange tableaux’s that used to be me. Or are me? Or aren’t. What are they? 

These internal home-videos show me that time is meaningless, superfluous... I realise that I am nothing but this moment. 

And suddenly the moment is gone... 

‘Dear Sir, thank you for your email. I am writing with regards to....’


1 Comment
Chimney Cleaning Rapid City link
22/8/2022 10:11:14 am

Hello nice blog.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Categories

    All
    2014
    8 Bit
    A Class Divided
    Activism
    Activist
    Adele
    Adventure
    Adventure Games
    Africa
    Anti Racist
    Asmr
    Band Aid
    Bandaid30
    Banking
    Bitsy
    Blog
    Blue Eye
    Bob Geldof
    Book
    Brown Eye
    Ceo
    Chickpea
    Chickpea Flour
    Coaching
    Consciousness
    Conscious Revolution
    Corporate Watch
    Creativity
    Culture
    Cure
    Dambisa Moyo
    Damon Albarn
    Dark Continent
    Datça
    Dead Aid
    Detox
    Development
    Devlog
    Did You Know Video
    Dissent
    Dithering
    Diy
    Documentary
    Do They Know It's Christmas?
    Ebola
    Economic
    Economy
    Environment
    Environmentally Friendly
    Ethical
    Ethical Banking
    Ethiopian Famine
    Evian
    Experiment
    Extremism
    Eye Of The Storm
    Facts
    Flatbread
    Future
    Gamedev
    Gamejam
    Gandhi
    Gender Equality
    Gif
    Gluten Free
    Grassroots
    H20
    Harmony
    Human History
    IGE
    Ignorance
    Impact Measures
    Indie Game
    Indiegamedev
    Intaward
    Interactive Fiction
    Itch.io
    Jane Elliott
    Kofi Annan
    Leadership
    Lifestyle
    Live 8
    Live Aid
    Local
    Love
    Love Music Hate Racism
    Martin Luther King Jr
    Ma Thesis
    Meditation
    Melissa Clissold
    Melissa Lara Clissold
    Monkey Island
    Mos Def
    Movie
    Music
    Natural Life
    Nature
    Nestle
    New Site
    New World Water
    New Year
    Notetaking
    Obsidian
    Open Letter
    Origins
    Peace
    Pixelart
    Pixel Art
    Pixil Art
    Point And Click
    Policy
    Pornography Of Poverty
    Poverty
    Prejudice
    Productivity
    Questions
    Racism
    Radicalism
    Review
    Sadface_rl
    Sanitisation
    Shells
    Shunmyo Masuno
    Soas
    Social Dissent
    Society
    South Korea
    Stones
    Sugar
    Sustainable
    Tapped
    Team
    Technology
    Ted Blog
    Ted Talks
    The Art Of Simple Living
    The Duke Of Edinburgh's International Award
    Third Culture Kid
    Unesco
    Vegan
    Water
    Wateraid
    What Are We Teaching Our Children
    Whistleblowing
    World Peace
    World Vision
    Xfactor
    X Factor
    Zambia Project
    Zen
    Zen Garden

    Author

    Interested in international development, humanitarian work and activism through art, literature and music. Singer/Song-writer/Guitarist.

    Archives

    January 2025
    November 2024
    October 2024
    July 2024
    April 2023
    October 2022
    May 2022
    February 2022
    November 2021
    September 2016
    July 2016
    March 2016
    November 2014
    July 2014
    April 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014

    RSS Feed

  • Home
  • Portfolio
    • Voiceovers
    • Music
    • Art
    • AI
    • Indie Game Development
    • Random Creations
  • Offerings
  • Media
    • Videos
    • Gallery
    • Press
  • Blog