Finding flow state

Why does reaching flow state matter? Because accessing flow state allows intuition to overtake you - this is key when it comes to creating your best work. Studies have shown flow state needs certain elements to come together in order to be reached. The task cannot be too difficult, otherwise it leads to stress/overthinking. It can’t be too easy otherwise we end up bored. It therefore needs to be something we have experience doing, enjoy, and believe we can achieve. When I hit flow state, I make my best work. I have shocked myself seeing how effortlessly a work of art can come to fruition when I am in flow state. There are no barriers. Nothing slows me down, my hand knows where to go, what colour to grab, and where to place it intuitively and instantly. If I am overthinking, worried, bored, or frustrated the same work takes a lot longer and lacks pure enjoyment.

I was fortunate enough to experience flow state as a child through my studies in classical piano. I had no idea that’s what it was at the time, but I knew that if I was in the ‘right’ headspace I could become enveloped in the act of making the music - my fingers would know what to do. It always felt like a state of euphoria, my body was quiet, my mind was quiet and I was completely absorbed in the one task. This state of flow never happened when first learning a piece. It would take months of practice before I would play it ‘by heart’, my fingers knowing what to do without my conscious mind. Interestingly, only once did I achieve flow state in performance, as the performance anxiety prohibited my relaxation and overthinking intruded the process.

I knew all of this about flow state intuitively and through personal experience and I describe it above in my laymans terms. But recently I came across the work of people that have actually studied the phenomena both philosophically and scientifically and it’s a very fascinating rabbit hole to go down.

I stumbled across a TED talk by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and he described the exact phenomena I have been experiencing since a child - the very thing that I think all artists experience and love to return to for the pure joy it brings us.

In the study of flow state it has been determined that this experience of flow occurs when the brain is predominately producing low alpha or theta waves.

Image sourced from: https://www.diygenius.com/hacking-the-flow-state/

These same brain waves are those we experience when doing tasks that are repetitive and that we are familiar with such as driving on a highway or taking a shower. Hence the lovely phenomenon of the best ideas coming to us when we are in the shower! So even if you are not an artist please know this very beautiful state of being is totally achievable in any task you enjoy and can achieve.

Here are the methods I follow to ‘set up’ the environment for flow to occur in my creative practice. Because in my experience, this state of being can be learnt and you can develop your own unique pathways to get there faster and more frequently.

So, the first step is mind-fullness. We have to enter the task with awareness.

My quick fire way to achieve mindfulness when I sit down to paint, is with music and routine. Distractions like others talking, or busyness around you needs to leave, and your mind must come to the present task. You may think I’m crazy (I probably am) but I have formed a sort of connection with the Rachmaninov 3rd Piano Concerto. This relationship with the music was formed for me as a child and with this I can turn this piece of music on and it almost reminds my mind of a place of focus, passion, and otherwordlyness that I tap in to during painting. This I then couple with routine, which is scraping old paint off the palette and laying my new paint out on the palette. I find it is usually at this point that the concept of time leaves.

So in terms of your own practice try and set up a routine you play out every time you sit down to paint. As for the music, it may not be classical music for you. Music is deeply personal and you will know what pieces create certain feelings within you. If music is too distracting or seems to pull your focus too much, try a sound, such as rain, or bird song on repeat.

Next, the task must be not too hard and not too easy

This part we obviously have less control over. Some paintings are just harder than others and when we are learning we are in beta frequency. I’ve discovered a little hack here though is to mix my paint colours before I begin painting. Especially if I am working on a single flower or object for example. This takes away the more thinking aspect of painting and allows the act of placing brush on paper to happen with much more freedom.

So prepare your work space in the same or similar way each time. Even if you are fairly messy, have tubes of blue paint thrown to the right, the tubes of red to the left for example. So you can build muscle memory and eliminate the need for thinking and having to stop the process to find a particular colour.

With these systems in place you can create the environment so to speak for flow state to occur more easily in your creative practice.

Some days though, despite all these practices you simply won’t reach flow. Too much thinking or stress comes in to my mind and in those moments I either choose to push through (thanks deadlines) or I stop. This is one of the main reasons my painting practice includes various different projects on the go at once. It allows me to follow my energy on any particular day and this freedom is very important to me.

So let me know how you go! When have you found yourself in flow? Do you achieve flow state easily in your practice or is it something you are working on? I love nerding out on this stuff and would love to hear your experience.

Sarah x