Okay, so it’s all good and fine to have a website, with a blog, and a link to a shop over at Etsy, but how about taking things to the next level? My daughter is a fan of Mika and has got me hooked on his music. She just showed me this. Now that young man is about to build himself an empire. Anyone else inspired?

A study posted at LiveScience tells us that although happiness is on the rise worldwide, the baby-boomers are a gloomy bunch. I’m so glad I’m a Gen X’er at heart.

A survey released last week found one reason America doesn’t top the list: Baby Boomers are generally miserable compared to other generations. Further, a public opinion poll released by the Pew Research Center in April found that 81 percent of Americans say they believe the country is on the “wrong track.” The response is the most negative in the 25 years pollsters have asked the question.

 What can we do to get happy? According to Robin Lloyd at LiveScience

One route to more happiness is called “flow,” an engrossing state that comes during creative or playful activity, psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has found. Athletes, musicians, writers, gamers, and religious adherents know the feeling. It comes less from what you’re doing than from how you do it….

According to Csikzentmihalyi (prounounced chicks-send-me-high) the flow makes us feel - completely involved, focused, concentrating - with this eighter due to innate curiosity or as the result of training; a sense of ecstasy - of being outside everyday reality; great inner clarity - knowing what needs to be done and how well it is going; knowing the activity is doable - that the skills are adequate, and neither anxious or bored; sense of serenity - no worries about self, feeling of growing beyond the boundaries of ego - afterwards feeling of transcending ego in ways not thought possible; timeliness - thoroughly focused on present, don’t notice time passing; and intrinsic motivation - whatever produces “flow” becomes its own reward.

Are you in the flow?

With thirty-years of on-and-off piano teaching experience behind me, I’ve had my fair share of overly cautious and perfectionist adult piano students. Now, as I’m looking forward to taking a new career path (or paths) I can understand just what sort of baggage those adult students were bringing to their lessons each week and just how difficult a decision it must have been for them to begin piano lessons midlife.  Matthew Harre has a wonderful article posted on his website, Musical Fossils, where he talks about what he learned about teaching children from teaching adults, information I will certainly bring with me this afternoon when I head out the door to my studio.