While studying the theories of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, I was asked by one of my teachers to set randomized reminders to my cell phone to measure the concept of "flow." When the reminders came at random, approximately four times a day for the past two weeks, I was asked to describe my mental state at that particular moment. Over the course of the past to weeks, I discovered that I never did get into "flow".
It didn't matter where I was, what time of day (or night) it was, or who I was with, my mind no matter what I was doing was always distracted with background thoughts. I expected last weekend to be more flow-friendly because I drove over to Eastern Washington with my parents to visit my sister and participate in thinkEastern (EWU's open house), but I seemed to be more stressed while I was there. In the back of my mind was this constant cycle of questions: What do I like/dislike about Eastern compared to other colleges I've visited? How do I feel about going to college at the same school as my sister? Can I really see myself as a student here? Is college right for me? Should I go do missionary work for a year and then make up my mind about college? How would my family react if I chose not to go to college? and the list goes on.
During the week, I found myself to be either constantly in a state of either boredom or frustration. The first morning of the study, I was eating a banana for breakfast and getting annoyed, as a conversation I had with a friend, the night before, re-played itself out in my head repeatedly. In classes, I was almost always bored as we reviewed the same things we've been working on for weeks. It is extremely difficult for me to get my thoughts to quiet down enough for me to ever truly get into flow because my brain always seems to be in five places at the same time.
