[excerpted from, 9 Keys to Creativity: Positive Psychology ©2023]

Our next key to creativity must be flow, and this is an exciting and very rich key indeed. Engagement, as outlined in the PERMA model, refers to our deep connectedness — to a person, place, or object, but most of all, to an activity. The flow state is that deeply connected and rooted experience – so totally absorbed in what we’re doing that we ignore or even forget all else. The activity ‘flows’ through us, time flows around us, we’re in the flow, we’re part of the flow. This isn’t equated to those activities we may dislike; while we can get lost in the work that we’re doing at the office, and suddenly realize it’s 3 hours later, that’s a matter of concentration; however, we don’t necessarily feel that we’re part of the experience and that it’s part of us. Connectedness in addition to concentration is the key to this, well, key.

We’ve all had this experience: so totally engaged in what we’re doing that we ‘lose all track of time.’ This isn’t the same as distraction, such as when we read our social media newsfeeds and suddenly realize that hours have passed. In a sense, yes; we’re fully engaged in what we’re reading. But we’re usually passively, rather than actively, involved.

This is that loss of time because we’re creating something new. Or because our enjoyment of our activity is total. A child becomes so absorbed in what he or she is doing that the mother’s calls go not ignored but unregistered. This is the type of engagement we’re talking about in ‘flow’.

Flow is a liminal state – neither here nor there, but in-between – somewhere between conscious and unconscious states, and not unlike self-hypnosis, trance, or lucid dreaming. We’re drifting, but with a purpose, a finely tuned focus.

As mentioned in our introduction, flow is often compared to being ‘in the zone’, a common sports metaphor (and indeed, in playing a sport, we’re also in a flow state), or the ‘zen’ of Japanese Buddhism (any form of Buddhism in reality, though ‘zen’ is originally a Japanese term), achieved in deep meditation. In the latter state, a common experience is to feel ‘at one’ with everything else in the universe, or that we’ve expanded far beyond our own physical boundaries. If you’ve regularly engaged in a sport, you know what I’m talking about. In team sports particularly, you can’t stop to think about what you’re doing; you simply need to inherently know, a kinesthetic knowledge embedded in your body and separate from your conscious mind, and act instinctively in the moment.

In the study of mystical experience, of keen interest currently due to a resurgence in psychedelic research, this state of consciousness and its nuances are being studied as predictors of therapeutic outcome — that is, these altered states comparable to ‘flow’ may well have a benefit of their own, and/or predict whether the psychedelic or other therapeutic approach will be effective.

That feeling of being ‘at one with’ everything around us is termed ‘ universal interconnectedness’ in psychological research, and the sensation that we’ve expanded beyond our own boundaries, ‘oceanic boundlessness’. In addition, we have ‘ego dissolution’, the sense that I as an individual have (temporarily) ceased to exist.

The artist knows these phenomena intimately. Beyond a complete absorption and resultant loss of time, artists (musicians, composers, writers, or any other creative) report a sense of themselves as a ‘vessel’ — that the creative force flows through them (hence the term), but is not precisely generated by them. The creative as a distinct personality ‘steps aside’, while the creativity itself flows through them and onto the canvas, score, or page.

You, dear reader, may or may not be familiar with this sensation. It may be well known to you — or, if you don’t particularly identify as a creative, you may think it belongs to the realm of innate talent. If religious, one might believe that this is their deity working through them; humanistic psychology, developed in the 1960s and a ‘cousin’ to positive psychology, originally referred to this phenomenon as ‘transcendence’. And if you will recall, ‘transcendence’ was the final virtue in the virtues and characteristics model presented in our introduction, by which we live by a strengths-based approach which allows us a sense of accomplishment, meaning, and purpose.

If there’s anything magical about creativity, it is this: the flow state.

And what does the research say?

Flow is defined by Alameda et al. (2022) as the “subjective experience that people report when task performance is experienced as automatic, intrinsically rewarding, optimal and effortless.” These researchers attempted to determine what’s occurring in the brain when we’re in the flow state, from a neurobiological perspective. They identified structures of attention, in that our focus is solely on our task without distraction; the brain’s reward system, in that we’re given an endocrine response that stimulates pleasure centers of the brain; and, executive function, a skill set of focus, goal-setting, self-regulation, adaptability and flexibility, and related.

Schutte and Malouff (2020) found clear connections between creativity, curiosity, and flow. The greater the curiosity and desire to know and learn, the more creativity increased, which supports the findings of several previous studies. In their research, a flow state was significantly associated with the latter. They propose that this flow state may act as a mediator between the other two variables; that is, while the connection between curiosity and creativity has been established, and the association of flow to the creative act clear, it may well be that curiosity enhances our creativity precisely through this flow state.

Tse et al. (2021) identify the flow state as one of deep engagement and enjoyment, mediating the wellbeing of someone with an autotelic or self-directed personality, that is, one who isn’t easily distracted as their purpose comes from within and is not externally motivated. In other words, the person who does something for the satisfaction it brings them, rather than for the reaction of others, is more likely to engage in the flow state – and more likely to benefit from the wellbeing it brings, through engagement and achievement.

Flow can even be good for planetary health, as proposed by Isham and Jackson (2022), in that it’s a pleasurable state of wellbeing generated by activities of low material requirement (e.g., listening to music, creating art, jogging, writing). Flow is undermined by materialistic values, they conclude, as one’s ability to achieve a flow state is inhibited by both a lack of self-regulation and an evasion of unpleasant issues.

So how can we reach this state of flow, and how can we bring more of it into our daily lives, in order to enhance our creativity?

By now we understand that this flow state, ‘in the zone’ or ‘zen’, is achieved by repetitive yet challenging experiences. Painting, whether art on a canvas or a room in the house, or music, whether composing or just closely listening, are two such ways. Attention and focus are key; hence, exercise such as jogging, or playing a sport, also engender the flow state.

Certain types of meditation can also bring about flow, for meditation is above all a way to train our focus; mindfulness meditation, to be discussed in more detail later on, and in which one focuses on minute details and slow movement, is one such method.

For me, cooking is another; I enjoy a creative, complex, and gourmet style of cooking that keeps my full attention for long periods of time. Yet another for me, it may be apparent, is writing, and whether I’m writing a book or exploring my innermost thoughts in a journal, total absorption describes my mental state.

For each person, the pathways to achieving flow may differ; what they all have in common is pleasure, some measure of challenge (if it’s too easy, we have no need to focus), heightened attention, and a singular focus that simply shuts out all else.

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Exercises:

Identify an activity you love, that’s rhythmic yet also requires your focus, and find your best time of day, for 60-90 minutes once or twice a week, to engage in it. This helps to train your brain for the flow state; eventually, you’re likely to reach a point whereby you can deliberately call forth this state of consciousness without external stimulus. Like anything else, it’s a matter of training.

Play a sport. If you aren’t the team sport type, engage in an exercise routine that challenges you and requires complete focus. Or take up jogging, biking, trekking, swimming, yoga, or weight-lifting. Or go for a brisk walk. (Casual walking, while beneficial for creativity itself, may not require full attention, so for this purpose, brisk, rhythmic walking is more likely to engender flow – though certainly, experiment with both.)

Take up cooking, or baking. Or knitting, or crocheting. Don’t, however, simultaneously listen to a podcast, audiobook, television, or other distraction; instead, give the task your complete and undivided attention. Take up drawing, or learn a new instrument, if so inclined. Engage in gardening. Or reading a book, particularly a novel; we can lose ourselves in story. The book induces a flow state while a film does not; in the former, your brain is completely engaged in creating the visuals to accompany the words.

If you like to write, this is another exercise for increasing flow. In particular, personal writing such as that of a journal is best, for which you don’t need to worry about plot or character development, spelling, or anyone else reading it, for that matter; the last thing you want is for your inner critic to get involved. The personal and private writing, quickly and steadily with minimal pause, allows for flow of your thoughts onto paper as your brain is in a flow state – and what you find there just may surprise you.

The main thing, no matter the activity, is this: let it, and yourself, flow.

References:

Alameda C, Sanabria D, and Ciria LF (2022). The brain in flow: A systematic review on the neural basis of the flow state. Cortex 154, 348-364. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2022.06.005

Isham A and Jackson T (2022). Finding flow: exploring the potential for sustainable fulfilment. The Lancet Planetary Health, 6:1, e66-e74. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(21)00286-2

Schutte NS and Malouff JM (2020). Connections between curiosity, flow and creativity. Personality and Individual Differences 152:109555. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2019.109555

Tse DCK, Nakamura J, and Csíkszentmihályi M (2021). Living well by “flowing’ well: The indirect effect of autotelic personality on well-being through flow experience. Journal of Positive Psychology 16:3, 310-321. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2020.1716055