Uncommon Measures

 Uncommon Measures, by Natalie Hodges, 224 pgs, 2022

A great piece of memoir writing that tracks the author's failed dreams of becoming a first-rate, solo violinist alongside some of the most recent scientific breakthroughs as they apply to music and our perception of time. Hodges recounts her struggle with performance anxiety, practicing difficult classical pieces over and over again, only to miss notes during the execution. She also touches on her Asian-American heritage growing up with a "tiger" mom, dancing Tango to unlearn her fear of performance, and ultimately accepting that the grand musician's dream she once held for herself must go unrealized. Along the way, she introduces us to several scientific studies regarding how the musicians brain operates during times of improvisation, how entrainment works to help us move to a beat and how unburdening your mind from the physics of time allows people to enter a "flow state." Of interest to anyone inclined towards classical music, performance, or even sports--a heartfelt and vulnerable work that covers an often unviewed aspect of the artist life. 

Listen to this playlist of all of the music mentioned throughout the book.

Flow

 Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, 303 pgs. 

At the heart of this book is a very simple idea: attention is a finite block of mental energy and in order to create positive growth in our lives, we must learn to control our consciousness--or, enter a flow state of mind. 

To do this, we must protect our awareness of the world around us and learn to control our consciousness. In doing so, we can improve our skills, our mental health, our relationships--our entire lives. "The flow experience is typically described...as lacking the sense of worry about losing control." Throughout the book, the author works to illustrate different states of flow, in work, family and our creative endeavors. 

The biggest takeaway for me was the author's description of flow activities. Typically, a person will begin some new skill, like a sport or a craft and as they begin at an easy level, they enter a flow state; it's fun, they're learning and succeeding. But eventually, the person will get bored with their current skill level and need to challenge themselves. This takes them out of the flow state. At that point, they are are learning new skills or improving on current skills, in order to return to the flow state at a higher skill level. 

This diagram illustrates the thinking behind this concept:

So whenever you're doing something and your anxiety is up and the task seems too difficult, just tell yourself you are working towards a flow state 😊

I liked this book overall, though it feels a little dated reading it in 2023 and I wonder if there are similarly-styled works on the same topic. While it is not light on scientific references, it tends to feel that way because of Csikszentmihalyi's writing style--the book reads less like a well-researched psychology text and more like a professor's ongoing lecture. As a result, occasionally it feels like Csikszentmihalyi starts to lose the book's overall message in his own descriptive language and penchant for analogies. But the overall thread remains the same throughout--"attention shapes the self, and is in turn shaped by it." 

Recommended for adults.