At My Most Creative, I Feel...

[Dan Goodwin]

[image: slaqua]

How do you feel when you're at your most creative?

When you're lost in creating, and at peak flow, what's it like?

How does it look and sound and feel to you?

Share your experiences of being at your most creative below...

[Dan Goodwin]

So, to start us off...

At my most creative, I feel like I'm in a state of flow. The most obvious signs are I lose track of time, and even of where I am. It's as if my world shrinks to the size of me, plus about a foot all around me, like there's a protective force field surrounding me.

The two main flow experiences I have, creative wise, are writing and dancing.

In writing, it's very insular, just me and the page, and I guess it's like having a conversation with yourself where you're both really excited and engaged and up for it. The words just tumble out. I'm not one to edit as I go, whether it's poetic/ creative writing, or writing articles and blog posts on creativity. Spill it all out first, let it gush, then edit later, if at all.

If I write a batch of articles, I work best by setting time aside to just write them out in one go, two or three (I think my record of consecutive articles is about seven) and then return later to edit, proofread, and submit for publishing.

In writing poems, it's like a water chute. You're at the top then push yourself down with all the energy your arms can muster. On the way down you now and again scoot yourself along a bit faster to maintain the momentum. In the poem this is usually where words rhyme or there's a kind of rhythm at least that gives the poem a certain kinetic energy and cadence. It's not regular, like rhyming the last word of alternate lines, but I just know where those little extra pushes need to be to keep the poem flowing.

Poems I get more lost in visually, as I tend to write very visually ans sensually, often romantically, so my head is very full and on a sort of internal sensory overload I guess, I'm recalling/preparing/creating the visuals and scenes I need in my head as I go, then writing about them before they escape.

In writing articles, it's more technical, less visual, less colour, more like a process, more measured. Having said that, some of the most enjoyable articles to write, and some of the best received, have been descriptive, story based ones.

In dancing it's surprisingly very similar, how I feel when I'm at my most creative. Again it's a flow state, a step out of, or above, reality, a sort of elated detachment. Again, time gets warped, when dancing I'm very aware of the rhythm of the music and staying on beat, but also time speeds up and slows down, sometimes it feels when I'm REALLY in the flow dancing that I'm dancing at three times normal speed and a third of normal speed at the same time.

(You know like when you're a kid and you ride your bike down a hill really fast and your little legs are pedaling like crazy and it feels like you're going to take off, but then sometimes you crash, and when you do, it's over in an instant, but that instant feels like minutes, and somehow the world slows down? Kind of like that, fast and slow...)

Again with the dancing the world shrinks super close and my whole awareness becomes me, my partner, everything between us and a couple of inches all around us, nothing else. The force field again, in an invincible bubble... It means your senses are more focused and heightened, more concentrated in a smaller space.

So those are some first thoughts about how I feel when I'm at my most creative, what about everyone else?

[Lori George Alexander]

When I am at my most creative, time slows down and yet speeds up. Maybe it can be said at least for me that time ceases or changes. I slide into another dimension and the words and ideas come easily and effortlessly onto the screen or on the paper. All of a sudden, things that I did not understand clearly become understandable. Stories seem to write themselves and the characters take over. I learned a long time ago not to try and control them but especially when the creative powers are at their highest. Poems just spread their wings and fly and I usually love the ones that result from it . Essays click into place. Ah, that is when I am at the zenith of creativity.

However, if I can be so bold, most of the time I am not there. It is getting up in the morning, choosing the theme of my Google Page (which is fun for me), the computer wallpaper and just getting the bread and butter stuff done in the journal and working on the book that I am currently writing and looking at what I am going to do in my classes that day that gets me going.

I like to think that the creative high is the Tao of writing (or whatever artistic vein we happen to use) and it is the " pause that refreshes" and gives us the zest to continue what we do best. I suppose there are people who live in it. I don't but it is wonderful when I do visit and it does give me the strength and power to keep going.

[Dan Goodwin]

"poems just spread their wings and fly..." I love that Lori.

Yes I don't think we can live in a constant creative high, just like we can't fo that with any part of life. But putting in the groundwork and maintaining that underlying creativity a little each day (exactly like those ways you talked about with your journal and so on) means we can stay creative and sometimes hit those peaks.

[Susan Hosken]

Dan, as you know i have super creative highs each month and then have my quiet times. I am going to try and be a little creative each day in my quiet times. I am going to try and be a little more disciplined about it. I don't need discipline in my high times but certainly in my quiet times.
lots of love from susan in australia

[Dan Goodwin]

It's great that you're aware of your ebbs and flows Susan, and make the best of them to be as creative as you can. Creating every day is an excellent habit to have, it doesn't mean we need to create for hours on end and produce some masterpiece every day. Just a few minutes journaling or preparing a meal all helps towards us staying creative.

[Susan Hosken]

Dan, I am trying to create a little in my artist journal each day when I get ready for breakfast. Just a little step forward....a splash of paint, an image, some writing
lots of love from susan in australia

[Dan Goodwin]

Sounds a great idea Susan, little steps can get us anywhere we want when we're patient. : )

[Susan Hosken]

Just did my creativity for today with one simple image and already have tomorrows sorted as well. Baby steps is good sometimes. Big steps are good other times.
lots of love from susan in australia

[Dan Goodwin]

Yes, what you said Susan makes me think of a long jumper at the Olympics. They don't make a huge leap from standing, they run up, step by step, building that momentum, then propel themselves into the stratosphere! Well, into a big sandpit anyway... : ) You're so right about baby and big steps.

[Rosetta Leda]

I feel..like a blossom in the sun..sunshine of love,singing loud..to the one I love above..

I feel connected.
To my very deepest inner universe to the very outer most point of our galaxy.
Connected.
Not alone.

It sounds like Mozart..feels like warm hug.

And when I am not creating I am "paused".
Holding my breath.
Waiting to die.

[Lori George Alexander]

You are right. I had forgotten. Yes, when I am most creative I also feel the most connected to my Spiritual Center and the Cosmos and not alone.

[Dan Goodwin]

I like that idea of being connected. Like going back to something that's always that but we got parted from, or at least the signal gets lost in the noise of day to day. It does feel like something is channeling through me from somewhere, maybe somewhere deep within me, maybe somewhere out there in the universe. But definitely a connection and channeling of some kind of energy.