So I learned this really interesting term in one of my Personality Theory class this semester. I learned this phrase called “Optimal Experiences.” These are your hobbies; these are activities that you enjoy doing, you turn to these activities when you are in any kind of mood and to you it may help reduce stress and just shut the world out for a bit. You are so “in the zone” of what you are doing. These kinds of “experiences” is you doing something you love, maybe its art, crafting, reading, writing, anything you truly enjoy. It could even be physical activities like dance, singing, working out. Anything that makes you truly lose track of the time around you because you are so invested in it. They call it optimal because you optimistically loosing track of time for yourself, you are doing something that truly makes you happy. Finding something you consider an optimal experience is helpful for raising happiness.
My kind of optimal experience is practicing my makeup skills. Personally I love just sitting in front of my mirror with all my clean makeup brushes and sponges, look up a new look I never tried before or want to improve on and just go to work. I get so lost in the colors, so lost in the glitter that before I know it 15 minutes will go by and I JUST finished my eyebrows. As time goes on and as my collection of makeup grew I realized how important it is for people to have this kind of optimal experience. Whether you only have one or you have more than one, having optimal experiences is such a self-fulfilling feeling and actually does increase your happiness. Maybe that is where that old saying comes from “time goes by fast when you’re having fun.” When you are putting your attention on one thing truly no matter what it is your sense of time vanishes and your investment into whatever you’re doing increases. I do not want people to lose that sense to them. Everyone deserves to have something they are passionate about in their life, even though I will not pursue makeup as a career choice the idea that it is a fun (yet expensive) hobby is just what I need for some small balance in my life. I know this world is huge, I know not everyone may have found their optimal experience. But I am here to tell you to go out into the big scary world and find it, I was not expecting to find it in makeup but when I saw the creativity and the art behind it all, I knew I wanted to be able to do that too. So go out there and find your optimal experience I will be cheering you on (and maybe thinking about what kind of makeup look I can do on you)!
