The American psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced ‘cheeks-sent-me-high’) uses the term ‘flow’ to describe a deeply satisfying state of mind achieved by intense and prolonged concentration on difficult activities requiring a high level of skill. Eg, mountain climbing, writing a book, playing an instrument. Flow is characterised by effortlessness...

Time flies and you’re totally engaged in the activity. And best of all, you don’t feel drained. On the contrary, the activity gives you strength. You feel like you could do it forever.

When ‘cheeks-sent-me-high’ surveyed teenagers he discovered those with the least flow activity tended to be the ones who watched loads of TV and hung around in shopping malls. They also scored the lowest on life satisfaction.

Those young people who engaged in studying or music or sports scored significantly higher on every rating, except one. They believed that the mall rats and couch potatoes were having more fun. In short, they were too influenced by the tyranny of cool to realise that they themselves were the blessed.

And the learning? Encourage your kids to do stuff. Don’t overload them so they don’t have any free time but gentle encouragement and heaps of praise to get them through the first 6 months of violin practice will reap happiness in the end. I promise!

Until next time

A x