Kite Flying and "Flow"

[ahofer]

Rich and I were discussing this at LSP some days ago. After posting it on Facebook, Simon Crafts mentioned that Kiting Magazine had covered it, so I apologize for exploring old ground. It is one of the reasons I fly - I find it pretty easy to achieve a sense of flow, enjoying the outdoors while improving my mad skillz (LOL).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)

"Flow is the mental state of operation in which a person in an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity. Proposed byMihály Csíkszentmihályi, the positive psychology concept has been widely referenced across a variety of fields.^[1]"

^{Flow is an innately positive experience; it is known to "produce intense feelings of enjoyment[7] and its improvement of performance results in satisfying achievement.[30]}

^{Flow has a strong, documented correlation with performance enhancement. Researchers have found that achieving a flow state is positively correlated with optimal performance in the fields of artistic and scientific creativity (Perry, 1999; Sawyer, 1992), teaching (Csíkszentmihályi, 1996), learning (Csíkszentmihályi et al., 1993), and sports (Jackson, Thomas, Marsh, & Smethurst, 2002; Stein, Kimiecik, Daniels, & Jackson, 1995).[9]}

^{Flow also has a strong correlation with the further development of skills and personal growth. When one is in a flow state, he or she is working to master the activity at hand. To maintain that flow state, one must seek increasingly greater challenges. Attempting these new, difficult challenges stretches one's skills. One emerges from such a flow experience with a bit of personal growth and great "feelings of competence and efficacy".[9]}

^{Further, flow is positively correlated with a higher subsequent motivation to perform and to perform well.[9]}

[lylenc]

Zen disrupts my Flow.

[pwmeek]

I have achieved 'flow' in only two places: playing pinball (although I call it the zone - usually when pretty well lit), and repairing televisions or other electronics. Fixing TVs, I used to mentally visualize juggling everything I knew about what the various voltages and currents were supposed to be and what they actually were. If I could keep enough of them 'in the air' while studying the schematics, they usually fell into place, and the offending component (on the schematic) would almost glow. I was rarely wrong if I could get into that frame of mind. I quit repairing TVs when the manufacturers began to require replacing entire boards rather than actually finding out what was wrong and repairing the individual component. It essentially made my skills useless. Now I just play pinball. And fly kites occasionally, although I can't recall ever achieving flow while flying.

[Aerochic]

I'm so glad that you posted this! Not everyone may have seen that Kiting article!

When I first read this I thought it had described Rev Flying perfectly, because isn't it really ALL about the Flow???!