It started innocently enough. I made a reference to hue. Which in this case, because I was conversing with an artist, opened the flood gates. In hindsight, asking a professional, a talented and successful one at that, to define a term, one which most us hold an established understanding, is like asking a musician the definition of music, or, even more precise, how notes relate to sound. Begging the comparison, is hue is to color what notes are to sound?
Everyone has their notions, opinions and established understandings. On subjects as diverse as global warming to the categorical gradients of the dominant intensities of the color red. Or the frequency of 440 relating to the key of A. Or, dare I suggest, to our relationship with the term enjoyment. In reality these elements, ideas, frequencies, intensities and concepts are very much connected.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a flow and creativity scholar, suggests that enjoyment (as it differs from pleasure) arrives when “the mind and body are stretched to their limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult or worthwhile.”
Wow. That is so on the money dead-solid perfect. Consider your present understanding of why we exercise. Specifically, why we incorporate high-intensity intervals into our practice. See where this fits? Let’s break it down into more mentally digestible pieces.
Mind and body. Yes, we know that one of the reasons we exercise is to practice the synergy between the two, to harmoniously promote the practice of merging them into one balanced, flowing, dynamically moving system. Capable, upon demand, of speed, power and sustainability. I will (with humility) like to add an additional element to the mix that I labeled as dead-solid perfect just one paragraph ago, and suggest that there is a third component to this mind, body unification, and that is the idea of soul or spirit. I say idea became we can’t really point out where is exists in our frail anatomies. No surgeon has even preformed the delicate operation known as a soulectomy, nor even considered the possibility of a spirit transplant. But we know it exists. So add soul to the mind/body mix.
Stretched to the limit. Whoa. Again we see the possibilities play out before us (in colors and sounds) indicating that if this thing is to become reality, I am the cause of its fruition. If it is to be it is up to me. Included in our vision awaits the elements necessary to achieve this hinted intensity; Courage, stamina, will, focus, freedom, gratitude, calm, speed, power, desire, balance, flow and some combination of passion, joy, appreciation, fun or what Mihaly defines as enjoyment. In order to convert our effort from work to play, we need to find something that satisfies our soul and turns intensity to inspiration. We do this by a subtle shift of our definition of it.
Voluntary effort. One must want to do. One must volunteer, freely give up the fear, lethargy and procrastination keeping the goal from obtainment. This is the cousin of doing random acts of kindness. One steps up because it is the right thing to do. We expect nothing in return other than the satisfaction that only comes after it. We give without reservation, adding to the mix our personal characteristics and further strengthening the whole. As a footnote to this, it is often completely appropriate, sometimes even required, that we struggle at the onset. We recognize that the first days are the hardest, but with commitment and practice, our personal transformative trajectory requires struggle and reliance on others to hold our hand (or pat our back or kick our butt) along the way. All this voluntarily.
To accomplish something difficult or worthwhile. Key phraseology. Accomplishment refers to the goal. Doing something of value. Something that has meaning, The hard stuff. The work that the large majority of our population sees as something that others should do for them. You know what this means to you, these difficult things, things like education, language, achievement, community service, mentorship, compassion, temperance and forgiveness. Or, the more obvious difficult things like taking responsibility for our own good health and fitness, visiting the sick or assisting the needy. And here we segue into the things we define as worthwhile to complete the equation. We all have our own.
What is worthwhile to me may be nowhere near your definition. And this is as it should be. If we are a mature species we will work together to provide for common evolution. I have my strong points and you yours. The power and potential of these require us to merge them, mix them and continually re-define the dynamic of our expanding consciousness. We do that by asking questions of ourselves and of our tribe.
What is our definition of enjoyment?
What is my definition of music?
What is my understanding of hue?
How do they color my world?
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