AHHHHssignment :(

As you can tell from the title, today's colouring-in was not great. I think it was not great due to general stress but also stress about this actual assignment. Corresponding to how I felt, below my PANAS scores show hardly any difference before and after colouring-in. Getting into flow was also difficult today, sometimes I felt like I went into a flow-like state but I quickly got out of it. I think what prevented me from experiencing flow was that I was overthinking about the current assignment. Since the colouring-in activity is part of the assignment, it did not distract me from these thoughts. Another reason I was not able to experience flow could be because the activity of colouring-in felt forced because of the deadline of the assignment. Lyubomirsky (2008) elaborates on this issue by saying that once an activity becomes extrinsically rewarding rather than intrinsically rewarding it is harder to experience flow.

Before:

Positive Affect: 20

Negative Affect: 26

After:

Positive Affect: 21

Negative Affect: 25

Stressful Day

Today was stressful to say the least, however I do believe colouring-in helped! My PANAS score below does reflects how I felt before and after colouring-in; a moderate increase in my positive affect and a major decrease in negative affect. Specifically, my highest scoring negative affect items Distressed, Guilty, Hostile, Irritable and Nervous, all reduced by two points. With regards to flow I really felt the features Sense of Control and Autoletic Experience to be most noticeable. Jackson and Marsh clarify Sense of Control as having an experience of exercising control without actively trying to exert control (1996, p.19). I certainly felt this when picking which colours to use, as I did not strictly try and control what colours I was using, but felt like I had control. Autoletic Experience is defined as an intrinsically rewarding experience and is interpreted as the end result of being in flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990; Jackson & Marsh; 1996, p. 20). I experienced this after finishing the colouring-in as it felt rewarding completing the drawing. Perhaps finishing colouring-in the drawing is more important to flow than I previously thought. My PANAS scores are below:

Before:

Positive Affect: 12

Negative Affect: 35

After:

Positive Affect: 16

Negative Affect: 19

A Different(ish) Design

Today the design I coloured-in was a little bit different to the others I've done, nonetheless, I still enjoyed myself. My Negative Affect PANAS score definitely reflects the drop in negative affect I felt after the 40 mins of colouring in. I really felt engaged in the activity despite not being able to finish it in the time frame. It is interesting to note the no difference in my Positive Affect score. This seems to be a reoccurring pattern. In terms of flow I really felt like my brains thinking shut off and was completely in the present moment. Within the dimensions of flow I believe that Action-Awareness Merging and Loss of Self Consciousness were most prominent to me. Jackson and Marsh explain Action-Awareness Merging as being involved in the flow activity so deeply that it becomes spontaneous or automatic (1996, p. 18). The authors define Loss of Self Consciousness as an individual experiencing the absence of preoccupation with self (1996, p. 19). Below are my calculated PANAS scores.

Before:
Positive Affect: 16
Negative Affect: 25

After:
Positive Affect: 17
Negative Affect: 15

Noisy Bus Stop; the enemy of flow

Today was my second day of implementing my happiness activity! I attempted to do my 40 minutes of colouring-in whilst waiting at a bus stop. Although I still did enjoy the activity a lot, getting into flow proved to be more difficult. I think this is due to the amount of noise and distractions that were at the bus stop, specifically having to keep an eye out for my bus to arrive. Despite this, I did eventually get into flow when I continued to colour-in on the bus. I experienced flow so much so that I nearly missed my stop to get off! Usually on my way home I feel like it takes forever, but this time I really felt that time went super quickly as I was so absorbed in the colouring-in. This relates to the dimension of flow called Transformation of Time (Jackson & Marsh, 1996, p. 19-20). Even though I really enjoyed the activity and experienced some flow, my positive and negative affect scores did not seem to change much after colouring-in. I am unsure why colouring-in today did not improve my mood, perhaps it was because I got interrupted quite a bit? My PANAS scores are below.

Before:
Positive Affect: 20
Negative Affect: 22

After:
Positive Affect: 20
Negative Affect: 21

First Day

Today I did 40 mins of colouring-in. At first it was irritating and I was being overly critical at the colours I was picking, but once I got "in the zone" I really enjoyed the process and end result. Getting "in the zone" relates to flow, specifically the Action-Awareness Merging aspect. Jackson and Marsh explain Action-Awareness Merging as being involved in the flow activity so deeply that it becomes spontaneous or automatic (1996, p. 18).

I wanted to finish colouring-in but thought I would keep to the time-limit I set myself so I didn't become bored or fatigued. I measured my positive and negative affect before and after the activity (PANAS; Watson, Clark & Tellegen, 1988). My results are as follows:

Before:
Positive Affect = 24
Negative Affect = 27

After:
Positive Affect = 25
Negative Affect = 15

My results show nearly no difference in positive affect, however my negative affect reduced by 12 points. I really do feel that these scores relate to how the colouring-in affected me. I had a stressful day and I think colouring-in helped ease my negative affect. It is interesting to note the almost no difference in positive affect. Perhaps colouring-in eases negative affect rather than enhancing positive affect? I wonder if this will be a pattern in the weeks to come.

My First Colouring-in Session.

Person-Activity Fit Diagnostic

Today marks the first day of implementing a happiness activity into my everyday life. To clarify, when I say "happiness activity" I am referring to an activity which research suggests increases personal happiness. In order to do this, I first had to decide what happiness-boosting activity would suit me best. So I conducted the Person-Activity Fit Diagnostic (Lyubomirsky, 2007) which is an empirical, self-diagnostic test for assisting in determining what kind of happiness activities are the most valuable for you as an individual. The test measures fit in terms of your weaknesses, strengths, goals, needs and lifestyle.

My results suggested I would fit well with activities that involve savouring life's joys, doing more activities that truly engage me, and developing strategies for coping. Although I already partake in several "flow" activities (i.e. activities that truly engage me), I would like to experiment with the possibility of finding a new activity. I have been reading some literature on the effect of colouring-in on mood and enjoyment (Forkosh & Drake, 2017), and am very intrigued if this activity would boost my happiness. I already paint and draw which may seem like a reason for me not to engage in colouring-in (due to bias), however I think structured sessions of colouring-in is very different. The main differences I can point out are:

1. Structure: Whenever I paint or draw it is completely unstructured, I never force myself or plan a regular routine. Whereas, I am going to organise the colouring-in activity to happen on the same days at roughly the same hour, every week for 5 weeks.
2. Content: There is a huge difference between having a drawing already there but not coloured in, and having to draw the drawing yourself. I frequently come up with designs, but I have not coloured-in a pre-made picture for years.
3. Materials: I frequently use watercolours and graphite which feel and look very different to coloured pencils and crayons which I will be using.

Tomorrow I will be colouring-in for one hour in a colouring-in book called "365 Ways to Fight Daily Stress" published by White Star (2015). 

References

365 Ways to Fight Daily Stress. White Star. (2015)

Forkosh, J., & Drake, J. E. (2017). Coloring Versus Drawing: Effects of Cognitive Demand on Mood Repair, Flow, and Enjoyment. Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association, 34(2), 75–82. https://doi-org.ezproxy.uow.edu.au/10.1080/07421656.2017.1327272

Lyubomirsky, S. (2008). The how of happiness: A scientific approach to getting the life you want. Penguin.