Flow: Enhance Your Personal Creativity
What can transport you to another dimension, where the concept of time and even yourself disappear? All you’re left with is a deep sense of satisfaction.
That’s Flow. And I’m an addict.
“A state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience is so enjoyable that people will continue to do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it.”
The concept of 'Flow' is enjoying a resurgence of popularity at the moment in our overly distracted, multi-tasking, digital age where our attention has become a commodity. Hungarian-American psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi defined the concept of Flow in the 1990’s.
Since discovering the concept in the early 2000s, it was a revelation to me and explained why I felt compelled to commit myself to creative work.
Many people cite his seminal book 'Flow'. However, there are other works, and one book I have enjoyed re-reading is 'Creativity: the psychology of discovery and invention."
Enhancing Personal Creativity
In this book, Csikszentmihalyi explores the foundations of creativity and how it can enrich our lives. What's more, and significantly in my post-Instagram addicted frame of mind, he lays out the foundations of how to enhance one's personal creativity:
““Even though personal creativity may not lead to fame and fortune, it can do something that from the individual’s point of view is even more important: make day-to-day experiences more vivid, more enjoyable, more rewarding. When we live creatively, boredom is banished and every moment holds the promise of a fresh discovery. Whether or not these discoveries enrich the world beyond our personal lives, living creatively links us with the process of evolution.
To free up creative energy, we need to let go and divert some attention from the pursuit of the predictable goals that genes and memes have programmed in our minds and use it instead to explore the world around us on its own terms.””
The Acquisition of Creative Energy
I plan to add some 'meat the bones' to this concept in the next few weeks, but here's Csikszentmihaly’s outline of how to enhance your personal creativity from the book:
Curiosity and Interest
Try to be surprised by something every day
Try to surprise at least one person every day
Write down each day what surprised you and how you surprised others
When something strikes a spark of interest, follow it.
Cultivating Flow in Everyday Life
Wake up in the morning with a specific goal
If you do anything well, it becomes enjoyable
To keep enjoying something, you need to increase its complexity
Habits of Strength
Take charge of your schedule
Make time for reflection and relaxation
Shape your space
Find out what you like and what you hate about life
Start doing more of what you love and less of what you hate
Internal Traits
Develop what you lack
Shift often from openness to closure
Aim for complexity
The Application of Creative Energy
Problem finding
Find a way to express what moves you
Look at problems from as many viewpoints as possible
Figure out the implications of the problem
Implement the solution
Divergent Thinking
Produce as many ideas as possible
Have as many different ideas as possible
Try to produce unlikely ideas
The Creative Exercises
Looking for some creative exercises to reclaim your brain? Why not try these screen-free activities inspired by great artists, thinkers, and research. My creative mindfulness exercises give you time to think, create and help you reevaluate your relationship with digital devices. And have fun along the way too.
Further Resources
Mihaly Csiksgentmihalyi’s 2004 TED Talk: Flow, the secret to happiness
Creativity: The Psychology of Discovery and Invention by Mihaly Csiksgentmihalyi, 2013