How To Achieve Creative Flow

It’s easy to romanticize and idealize the creative process. To view others successful endeavors, even past endeavors of your own in this kind of dreamy perfection state of mind and being working harmoniously together in phantasmal synchronicity. In fact Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (author of Flow: The Psychology of the Optimal Experience) describes creative flow as just that:

The optimal state of consciousness where we feel our best and perform our best.

This tends to become the pinnacle of the creative process, and though I would not have you diminish this light in your mind’s eye I would also not have you alienate yourself from the “magic” of something that is very doable, achievable, and most importantly repeatable.

No, this is not the lead-in for Dr. Seuss’ big book of creative flow, but rather a reality check. I do not want to rain on the creative ideals parade but the truth of the matter is that creative is never quite as “ideal” as we want to remember it, or as the end product can make it seem.

We tend to focus on creative endeavors in terms of invention, innovation and achievement. This creates a shroud of majesty and genius that can in turn prevent others ability to try. It’s a pedestal effect that seems to make either the attempt at repeating or attempt at trying unintentionally untouchable.

The truth is that creative can and does come easy, but we are programmed to compare and hold ourselves to standards where only the end product or perfect flow conception is taken into consideration. In reality the end product and creative “zone” usually comes with its own brand of “suffering”.

Not to the effect that one first has to suffer in order to create, understand, or invoke greatness, but creative, the creative process of anything is about one’s own ability and desire to go with and trust in their own more natural ebb and flow.

What is Creative Flow?

At peak it is what one experiences when in the “zone” when fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of activity.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, famed psychologist, most noted for his work in the study of happiness and creativity and research on positive psychology, was the first to name and identify flow and describe its nine characteristics:

1. There are clear goals every step of the way: Stated clear and detailed goals.
2. There is immediate feedback to your actions: Clear about how well you are doing, adjusting each task for optimum performance.
3. There is a balance between challenges and skills: Optimum balance between our abilities and the task in hand is reached, keeping us alert, focused and effective.
4. Action and awareness are merged: Completely focused on what and where we are in the moment.
5. Distractions are excluded from consciousness: Free to be absorbed in the task at hand.
6. There is no worry of failure: Not simultaneously judging our performance or worrying about things going wrong.
7. Self-consciousness disappears: Unconcerned with self-image or how we are being perceived.
8. Sense of time becomes distorted: Hours pass us by and moments can see like forever.
9. The activity becomes ‘autotelic’ — meaning it is an end in itself: The activity becomes enjoyable for its own sake.

Sounds euphoric doesn’t it? Well that’s because it actually is. You see a lot changes in your brain’s function when you hit that sweet space where natural skills align with the challenges they face. Large quantities of norepinephrine and dopamine — which amp up focus and boost imaginative possibilities aiding our ability to link ideas together in new ways — anandamide — expands the size of the database searched by the pattern recognition system — flood our systems. Along with endorphins and serotonin all are pleasure-inducing and performance-enhancing chemicals so we feel confident, capable and in the zone.

It is all sparked by transient hypofrontality, in other words when your prefrontal cortex is temporarily deactivated. This is why your sense of self seems to disappear. The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex also goes temporarily quiet. When it does so too does your inner critic and doubt, that’s because this part of your brain is where self-monitoring and impulse control call home.

How To Harness Creative Flow

Life is messy, difficult, and complicated. Nothing ever comes easy, and timing is rarely on your side. If you find yourself waiting for the perfect time or circumstances to make a change, you’ll never be able to move forward. You have to get comfortable taking risks, both big and small if you want to find your perfect state of flow.
–Chris Myers CEO BodeTree

It’s true, creative flow comes the most naturally and organically when we are intrinsically excited, motivated and curious about what it is we are doing. It doesn’t matter what career or life path it is you are walking, flow is not exclusive to the creative arts. Creativity is a life skill and flow is what helps you harness its awesome powers.

You can’t control, push or fight your way into achieving flow, it happens when you stop controlling and start encouraging. This too applies to a multitude of applications. Really anything you are involved with is highly likely to have something in it which intrigues you.

Again it’s about reframing and looking at all perspectives and sides to the task at hand. To sculpting it towards your own skill set so your own flow engine can go into hyperdrive. For we can only achieve true creative flow when our skills match the task. When our skills are otherwise outclassed we tend to experience anxiety and stress while on the flip-side when our skill set outclasses the task, boredom and apathy quickly set in. Neither is conducive to true flow so it is best to be honest with yourself, understand your capabilities, but do so with style. Your honesty is about recognizing where your strengths, not your doubts, lie.

That being said it isn’t about staying in your comfort zone but expanding upon that which is your strength. If you were preparing and training for a marathon why would you waste time in a body building contest? Different skill sets apply, different applications. Instead you would keep increasing your running challenges to better your achievements.

And just like with a marathon, flow is also about training, after all you can’t run that marathon to your fullest potential without practice first. It is oh so important to remember always that Information + Inspiration = Creation. This is where your honesty will pay off because it is so important to know and understand what fulfills, excites and makes you happy so that you can then dedicate yourself with a degree of passion to encouraging your specific creative.

Dedication is the part that no one really likes to talk about, the part before flow and before creation and achievement. The road to flow, the part that tends to fuel our doubt and insecurities, that tests our resolve and push our limits. Unfortunately all too often it is here where the want can lead to desperation which can then lead to giving up. The proverbial creative block where we sit in the memory of creation and worse the comparison, whether it be to ourselves or to others.

It is important when committing to anything to not dwell or make imposing, to except that there will be roadblocks, there will be internal and external resistance. I know personally I dread the time I’m not working on something, that between projects place where you feel adrift, lost in a sea of too many ideas yet not enough, but this is where the dedication and identification to our specific skills and interest comes into play with habits and rituals. Where we force ourselves to work, to show up and pay attention. Because, guess what, hard is where breakthroughs happen. Where inspiration takes hold and creative flow can begin.

Now here to is where deadlines can be your friend and motivator, when you have a specific task and end goal it is easier for your mind to focus. You see when our subconscious mind doesn’t know when we will complete a task it will often interrupt our flow state with intrusive reminders about what else we need to do. Research shows that our unconscious isn’t actually nagging us to do the task at hand but rather to make a plan to get it done.

It is crucial to note that when you are getting started to work, that distraction is the mortal enemy of flow. Interruptions pull us from it and quicken our brainwaves to beta state making almost impossible to get back in the zone, so limit them. Take a minute to anticipate your needs and take care of them before you sit down rather than having them break your state of concentration.

It is also good to be specific, as specific as you can be. Ask yourself these key questions:

· What is the goal I am aiming for? It’s good to know what you are ultimately aiming for in anything you are about to dedicate your time and effort to, whether it is specific like a deadline project or more elusive like wanting to write your novel. You have to begin with a goal.

However it is also important to make clear:

· What am I hoping to achieve in the time allotted? Not bottom line all over project objectives or end goal, but end of this specific work session. Yes you can lose time when you hit that zone, but to have a clear picture of what you expect to come of your time helps your mind from obsessing over time in the first place allowing for flow to more easily take over.

· What am I doing? Okay, so this one is really rather obvious, but the truth is that if you state it clearly, especially before you go to task, it helps to laser hone your focus allowing ideas that pertain to your objective to come flying. So say “today I am going to write three chapters” or “research and source the first three sub-topics of my dissertation.” So expectations stay in and of the moment.

· How am I doing it? Of course this one comes with a little creative leeway for you never know where creativity will take you, but when you’re starting to work it’s important that you know how you are going to start. This could be anything from mind mapping to old school pad and pen. Remember it’s best to be specific and limit distractions. Too many choices/options can be emotionally and mindfully distracting.

Then your can get to work free to lose yourself in the flow state of being…

However before you do there is something that I can’t stress enough when it comes to flow: you can’t let expectations prevent you from achieving something unexpected. Your inspiration may lead you to make something very different from what you first envisioned, and that’s okay. When we tear ourselves up constantly comparing what we/others are doing with what we have done, or with any concept or outline we have in our head we’re less likely to create something truly authentic, let alone better than anything done when in the state of true creative flow. You have to let go of preconceived notions.

This may ring as contradictory considering the questions above, but it’s also crucial to keep in mind that those are just supposed to be guidelines, starting points to jump off of, not set in stone rules of order. The first rule of creativity, after all is that there are no rules.

That’s why being aware and able to be in and of the moment is the ultimate goal of any creative lifestyle. Conscious awareness is the key to everyday flow, for if we are present in and of the moment we absorb the things around us more easily and our minds are quick to process the information in terms of how we can best apply it to skill. Mihaly even said that constant awareness of what is next is what keeps you focused, that’s where the engagement comes from.

So set aside those dorsolateral prefrontal cortex habits! Have a notebook or recorder handy at all times. Allow for unexpected inspiration; let yourself be interrupted for once you open yourself up to your creative potential it get’s harder to just schedule flow. So keep in mind that part of living your flow also means getting comfortable with things that aren’t happening due to new opportunities and interests developing out of your awesome mindfulness.

So be truly honest with yourself, take full and total responsibility for who you are and where you life is in this moment then you give yourself permission to pursue the things that are of interest to you and that make you happy.

This, this is when things on any and all paths become effortless. For far too many the allure of comfort and the fear of the unconventional prevent them from ever making a positive change and embracing their true path.

“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them — that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.”
— Lao Tzu

Keep creating even if and when it’s hard, keep learning, keep doing and most of all keep experiencing things from your place of skill, interest and curiosity. Seek out that which thrills you, for alone or in a group this is where the magic truly exists.