The Secret To Creativity (It’s In the Flow)

Have you ever been engaged in a creative pastime, completely enjoying yourself and then looked up and been amazed that a large amount of time had past when it felt like only minutes?  And when you where engaged in that creative pastime and you where unaware that time was flying by, did you also have amazing creative ideas percolate up into your consciousness from out of no where? You were in the flow.

When you are in the flow, your concentration becomes so focused on what you are doing that everything else falls away. You are in the zone. You are unable to pay attention to anything else. The thinking part of the brain goes into neutral and instead the part that sends commands to the nervous system to move the body takes over and your body becomes a highly functioning unconscious machine.

If you are a crafter, you know this state. Anytime you are doing a repetitive motion like knitting or piecing fabric pieces together in quilting you can reach this state of flow. Thinking disengages and rote movement of the body takes over. Your minds gets full of other amazing creative crafting ideas. The more you work on your craft the more incredible ideas fill your head. Soon there are more ideas to try than time to try them.

Being in the flow works well with other forms of activities too. I get amazing ideas, even epiphanies’ of wisdom when I engage in repetitive types of work such as sweeping the floor or raking leaves. My conscious mind disengages, my ego goes for a walk and the ideas flow.

Living a creative life is a big buzz topic in the media right now. Big businesses are starting to recognise that employees with creative minds are their best performers and problem solver. You want that on your resume. But being creative is really a spiritual aspect which you need in order to be a fully holistic, well grounded person.

When you are in the creative flow you are really open to the flow of allowing. The practise of meditation is another form of being in the flow of creativity because when we connect to our higher self (the universe) during meditation by grounding our energies, become present and focusing on our breath, our sense of self and our sense of self consciousness completely disappears allowing our soul, our essence, to merges with the big universal flow where all things are possible and abstract ideas make sense. This is where creative ideas are born.

If you are wrestling with a problem that requires a creative solution, here is a simple but effective way to get into a state of creative flow that can allow a unique solution to download.

It’s no secret that going for a walk is a great way to get your thoughts in order when you have a problem but if you really want to get into a creative flow during a walk in order to allow for an outside of the box kind of solution, you need repetitive, unconscious action. Find a running track or playfield that is level and in a quite area. Keep an even walking pace, arms swinging freely, head down concentrating on your foot steps and begin walking around the track or circumference of the field. Breath deeply and continue walking around and around as you get into the zone where you can let the ideas flow.

Walking labyrinths, which are a continuous circular maze that flow from the outer circle into the middle and then back out again work in a similar way. They allow the conscious brain to focus on a path allowing thought to disengage to allow creative flow. If there is one available in your area, give it a try.

Here’s the secret part that everyone needs to know about creativity. We all have access to it. We all are creative beings, no exceptions. Creativity is as individual and as unique to every person as your fingerprint is to only you. All that you need to do to become aware of your creative gifts is find your flow and allow it to come. Once you understand how it works for you, you will find that the more you allow,  the more that your creativity will flow.