The Self Care Creative

What is the Flow State & how do I achieve it?

January 25, 2021Rabea

I already named quite a few perks to practicing mindfulness in the 3rd episode of the podcast. It is a big part of stable mental health and a clear mind. Especially meditation creates a lot of benefits when done 20 minutes a day.

But how can it improve creativity?

Have you ever heard of a flow state? What is the flow state? That‘s the feeling when the task at hand has your undivided attention and you forget everything around you and it just flows. We actually lose self-consciousness while being in that state and like doing the task for the task and not for the future benefit of doing the task.

Flow states can be found in a lot of places.

Listening to music or playing an instrument can create that feeling. Being hyper focused on playing a sport that state is triggered. Being immersed in playing a game can create that flow state too. Even when learning something and studying that state can be reached. But you‘ll mostly know it from whatever hobby you are doing. From writing, over painting to acting.

Believe it or not, but doing new things outside of your comfort zone can create a flow state too, because you are extra concentrated on building that new skill. It‘s placed between boredom & anxiety, so unless you struggle with anxiety a lot it won‘t be super hard to achieve that state from time to time, especially when you train yourself to.

Activities triggering that flow state:

Hiking
cooking
swimming
running
climbing
moving meditation
any work that has a level of precision

You know what also helps to achieve it when working?

The Pomodoro time management method. You concentrate on a task for 25 minutes without distractions and then take five minute breaks in between. Others do it in 50 minute work and 10 minute break intervals. It‘s especially helpful when studying or researching new things.

Since we all know this state we also know how good it feels to be in it. Us creatives tend to be easily stressed by all our ideas and tasks and sometimes sitting down with a coloring book and being laser focused helps us not think about the fire going on in our brain for a while. Things like this keep us sane. They help our brain work through things and if we try it can even help us figure out thought patterns crossing our mind while we‘re on that task since they are so filtered through our deep focus.