Well-Being from Intentionality
Meaning, Purpose and Intentionality
Organizations espouse written and narrative on the value of participation. Social clubs, Fine Arts and Athletics have been at the forefront for decades justifying their platforms. The March, 2020 sudden stoppage of activities illuminated the value of organizations. My fundamental belief in the positive multi-factorial outcomes of participation has been deepened during these times.
“A VITAL AND HEALING ROLE”
I have become familiar with the essays of James M. Lang in the Chronicle of Higher Education. He has written frequently on attention and distraction in the college classroom, and presenting practical strategies for cultivating students’ attention. But recently Lang stepped back from the details and made a broader point that resonated loudly with me: “During this difficult time in higher education and in our country, our efforts to hold students’ attention and focus it on an intellectually absorbing topic can play a vital and healing role in their lives”.
Years ago my good friend Chris Carr, PhD, sports and performance psychologist for the Green Bay Packers introduced me to the robust writings of psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Of particular interest was his highly acclaimed book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.
Csikszentmihalyi studied human response to the journey of life and in particular how people perceived being happy. Most of us expect that we will be happiest when we have nothing to do — a day off, no schedule to follow, when ‘that one thing’ is completed. But the results of Csikszentmihalyi’s experiment showed something quite different: “Optimal experiences” for humans, he wrote, “Usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile.”
“Accomplish something difficult and worthwhile.”
In his book Flow, he labeled those moments of deep and full attention as “flow states.” When we are in flow states, he wrote, we “are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter.” We block out time and distractions voluntarily, so absorbed are we in the task. The more time we spend in these flow states, he argued, with our attention fully captured and directed, and the more likely we are to lead a thriving and happy life.
“the new normal”
The pandemic took away our ‘normal’ and the kinds of flow states that Csikszentmihalyi documented have been increasingly difficult to achieve. I spoke to many student-athletes, coaches, administrators and family members who struggled and are struggling with the new normal.
Student-athletes were provided online meetings to replace in-person team meetings. Team meals were replaced with isolated food in a box. Casual rhetoric and socialization was lost.
Zoom meetings provided one half of the formula for happiness. The online meetings defined the goals of the individual and or team, but there was no means to activate the physical intentional skills, practices and games for the student-athlete.
While the important discussions were occurring on how to allow sports at the collegiate level, the reality was that the emotional toll of the loss of normal was huge.
What is the meaning of life?
The answer is astonishing simple, the meaning of life is meaning: whatever it is, wherever it comes from, a unified purpose is what gives meaning to life. Csikszentmihalyi wrote extensively on the two factors of meaning, that of having purpose and intentionality. It is not enough to find a purpose that brings focus to your goals; one must also carry through and meet the challenges of the goals.
I have seen the oppression of isolation. I have felt the loss of purpose in discussions with student-athletes. Knowing very well the public health concerns and the transmission of the virus, the opportunity to provide the intentional manifestation of one’s purpose is a positive for all Public Health.
