Bucky Group 35 - Flow

One of our Bucky member is a volunteer with the charity organisation, the Firefly Mission. Here, they are selling these packets of cashew nuts raising funds for the Myammar Cyclone Nurgis Rehabilitation.

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This week we listened to a TED talk by Mihaly Csikszentmi about creativity, fulfillment and 'Flow'. He asks, "What makes a life worth living?"

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Noting that money cannot make us happy, he looks to those who find pleasure and lasting satisfaction in activities that bring about a state of "flow."

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Discussion:
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Mihaly used the above chart to illustrate when the person is in the 'flow' as the activity enters a high challenge that requires high skills. While this may be so for most cases, it need not be the case if one has a keen interest in the activity and subject. For instance, with a keen interest, even when the skill level is low and the activity is high, the person in the activity will not feel anxiety, but instead could get into the 'flow' state.

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To experience 'flow', we had an exercise where we drew mandalas. Everyone was given a blank sheet of paper with colour pencils. We were told to draw anything that is bounded by a circle. It was very relaxing, drawing anything I want without constraints, mixing colours, images, graphics and images. It transported me into the time when I was a child - free and imaginative.

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This is a mandala from Kong. He said he drew this because he felt like a child when he drew his.

This one has many circles.

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This one tells a story, with the family and house on one side of the river with a bridge crossing over to nature on another side.

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This one is very similar to the one below. Incidentally, both of them had a similar state of mind, drawing mountains, whales, sea, famliy...etc.

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This one is mine. I started the mandala wanting to create a symmetry of designs and colours. Somehow, I wanted a structure and didn't think that I could also be telling a story within the circle.

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Here on, all the mandalas are symmetrical. I guess you can tell that some people are structured and others are the story telling type.

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This is Joo Hock's mandala. He didn't draw but just showed us this photo on his mobile phone. Though he captured the pix himself, he didn't draw or create it and therefore it is not really a mandala. A mandala is not just a product or destination, it is also the process of reaching there. The process where we go through the meditative thought process to reach a graphic design. After the design is done, we throw it away, just like why Tibetan monks sweep their mandalas (made of coloured sand) away after they have gone through their long meditative states of producing them.

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You too should get on to draw one. Looking at what others have produced do not give you the same effect. :)

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