Week 5 Can I Make Homemade Fragrance Oil?

 Candle Update

For those visiting the first time, in my first week of candle making I attempted to make homemade lemon and orange scented fragrance oil. Basically I have had jars of olive oil and shavings of lemon and orange peels sitting on my counter for four weeks. I decided to finally try them out, and I'm still hoping for the best. The oils themselves aren't super strong, but they do have a very sharp citrus smell. We will know more as the candles cure. 

Last week's candle was scented with all natural apple scented oil and I was able to light it today to test it out. It seems to be doing pretty well. It is not quite as strong as I would like, but it is a pretty small candle. So I will call this a success. I've been pretty disappointed in previous candles, so I never lit them a second time, but maybe I will try this one out a few more times and see if anything changes. 

Flow

When I first learned about flow early in my undergad, I was really intrigued by the idea and I came up with several examples of my experiences with flow. However, while reflecting on flow this week, I seemed to fall short. I hadn't really thought of it until now, but I think I've spent so much time multitasking, being distracted, worrying about other things, and so on, that I don't always let myself focus on something enough to get into flow. So, while it has been a while, I remember experiencing flow while playing volleyball, while reading books, and sometimes working on craft projects.

Can Candles Flow?

Right now candle making is too difficult for it to be flow. The physical processes of stirring and pouring is not hard, but I have to focus to make sure I get measurements right, keep the temperature right, etc. I'm also doing a lot of experimenting trying to fine tune my "recipe." 

Making candles could potentially become a flow state after I am more confident in my process and after I get some more practice. It also takes less than 10 minutes to make one candle, so I would probably have to be making a bunch of candles for it to be a flow state. 

Autotelic Personalities

I feel like I fit the description of the personality type. I definitely am motivated to try challenging things and enjoy the process of doing things. However, as I have mentioned, there are certain barriers to my experiencing flow. I don't know if these are personality traits or just habits I've gotten into, but I think if I starting practicing more mindfulness and relaxation, and not multitask during potential flow activities, I could improve my ability to experience it. My LTD group discussed how flow isn't like an emotion that we just experience, it is more of a skill that we have to develop and practice.