How you show up in the world

The things you love doing—especially the ones that pull you into flow—are often clues to who you are becoming.

A guiding premise of Positive Youth Development (PYD) aims to ensure all youth have strengths, talents, and interests that help them thrive (Harvard Graduate School of Education, n.d.). Positive development can be understood from a developmental systems framework whereby person-in-context relationships promote wellbeing and flourishing (Coatsworth et al., 2006). Drane & Barber (2016) discuss the importance of responsive contexts with the ability to foster adolescence developmental needs. Environments that fail to afford opportunities geared to building competence and a sense of self are less likely to be adopted by adolescents, instead, they will be drawn to environments that respond to their interests and reflect their identities. In this section, I’ll introduce “self-defining activities” and their significance to adolescence.

Self-defining activities are those that adolescence see as central to who they are. For example, in the case of the 17-year-old kiteboarder, the comments from others fail to deter his alignment of self, identity and the sport of kiteboarding. In fact, in the case of most humans, expressive identity is noticed in terms of merchandise worn and teams supported (for example, a kiteboarder wearing t-shirts that reflect kiting brands and the sport of kiteboarding). What’s more, one’s expressive identity consists of three core components: 

• flow

• personal expressiveness

• goal-directed behaviour

Research by Coatsworth et al., (2006) found flow to be a central part of self-defining activities in adolescence. This makes sense, particularly because flow state is considered an autotelic experience experienced by intrinsically motivated individuals (Csikszentmihaly, 1997). As seen in the interview with Grant, adolescents feel greater alignment with their core values with in a flow state. For example, when talking about other people seeing him in a flow state, Grant reports “they would be able to see that my core values are self-centered around my family”. Furthermore, Grant introduces the listener to the idea of identity and self leading to flow experiences: “you brought yourself to them [friends] and then you achieve flow after…after you realize these people are your closest friends”. What’s more, in an interview with Jacob, the listener learns that feeling authentically himself is time spent with family and playing football. In this interview, Jacob introduces the listener to solo and group flow. Interestingly, group flow is typically reported with more depth and positive emotions, yet Jacob (14) reported greater positive experiences for solo flow (e.g. when swimming). In terms of the nature of the sport of swimming, audible and visual distractions are muted by the water. Could this explain Jacob’s greater enjoyment for solo activity despite being in a period of life where sensitivity to one’s social environment is high? Lastly, both Grant (17) and Jacob (14) echo Coatsworth et al., (2006) findings on type of activity: it’s not what the activity is (e.g. television, swimming), how personally expressive and immersive it feels.

🏝️ Task Break: Stuck on a Desert Island… What’s Your Flow Code?

You’ve been shipwrecked on Flowy Island for two days.

You have:

• No phone 📵

• No Wi-Fi 😱

• Just a backpack, a coconut, and your favorite flow activity.

Luckily, this island runs on personal vibes, not electricity. What's your:

1. 🌀 Flow Skill
   ➤ What activity are you bringing to the island that makes you lose track of time?
   (Examples: sketching in the sand, making playlists out loud, building tree forts, swimming like a mysterious lone dolphin)

2. 🧢 Island Identity
   ➤ Who are you on this island? What does this activity say about you?
   (e.g., “I’m the creative one,” “the strategist,” “the water weirdo,” “the quiet vibe curator”)

3. 🥥 Coconut Goal
   ➤ What are you secretly trying to get better at while you do this thing?
   (e.g., calming your brain, finding meaning, impressing the seagulls, making a nutritious meal, developing a new sport)

Let's take a deeper dive into sport!

Interviews with young adolescents (11-14) reveal a plethora of benefits for emotional wellbeing, confidence, and social identification with a group. In solo and group interviews, (Bennett, 2015) illuminates adolescent voice on the topic of flow and sport: 

“it’s awesome it feels so amazing…all those compliments”

“we’re doing good because of me”

“it’s like a brotherhood”

“teammates have a good bond together”

“you start pulling things out of your hat, like nobody knew you could do that”

Adolescence is a time of heightened sensitivity to social interactions (Bennett, 2015), meaning you start to spend more and more time around peers. In the interviews, adolescents typically felt all nine dimensions of flow state when playing sport, however the athlete’s perceived excellent performance and intrinsic motivation were particularly frequent. In peer-to-peer interviews (e.g. the interviewer was of the same developmental age), adolescents revealed experiences with richer descriptions which were more aligned to their authentic experiences and feelings towards flow. This is an important finding for further research on the stage of adolescence; interviews where participants are matched on age may reveal developmental nuances crucial to understanding the true meaning of flow capabilities in the adolescent years. 

You've read a lot now. Allow me to leave you with three developemental findings that could be useful for navigating the period of adoelscence:

1)    Adolescents typically experience flow in teams. Group sports provides adolescents with opportunities to make the executive decision and call the shots! This experience likely contributes to Lerner’s 5Cs of positive youth development—confidence, competence, character, connection, and caring. It could be argued that the cultivation of the 5Cs positively contribute to the strength of positive identities in adolescence.

Flow characteristic: goals.

2)    Some participants expressed being free from nervousness in a state of being “relaxed” or “calm”. This is particularly important given that the onset of anxiety related disorders starts in early adolescence and emerging adulthood. Specific cases of anxiety—separation anxiety disorder, specific phobia, and social phobia—develop before a person’s 15th birthday (Lijster et al., 2017). 

Flow characteristic: sense of control. 

3)    When in flow, people no longer have a concept of “the self”, that is, they are less consciously aware of the features usually representative of their true self. In this study, some participants experienced an unstoppable sensation, however, in general there was a lack of representation for this dimension. Arguably, this could be part due to the heightened sensitivity to peers and social situations in adolescence. This is just one way in which the nuances of flow expressed in adolescence differ from those in adulthood.

Flow characteristic: Loss of self-consciousness.