Creative Flow: How To Power Shower Yourself With Maximum Creative Flow!

[Dan Goodwin]

In creating, flow is everything.

You will, I’m sure, be able to recall times when you were able to create without even thinking. Ideas flooded to you, everything fell easily into place, you were on a creative high that meant hours passed in what seemed like minutes, while you were completely lost in your own creative world.

How recently have you experienced these kind of feelings of flow when creating? Do you experience them as often as you would like to?

My guess is that it was longer ago than you would like to admit, and that yes of course you want to find your full creative flow more often, as often as possible!

So where do you start? How can you switch your creativity on and let it flow whenever you need it to?

The short answer is: you can’t, not instantly. But, there are many things you CAN do to ensure that your creativity flows many times more easily than it does right now.

The key is to allow yourself to be in a constant state of creativity, to open those creative channels and portals within you all the time, not just occasionally.

Imagine taking a shower as an analogy.

What if you hop in the shower, get the water temperature just right, just reach for the soap, and suddenly the shower splutters to a halt. So you switch it off and on again, adjust the temperature again and start to relax. You begin to lather up, then just as suddenly, again the water just stops flowing, so you’re left semi-blind and dripping in bubbles, trying to fumble at the shower controls and get them started again. You wipe the soap from your eyes enough to switch the shower on and off again, adjust the temperature again, and begin to rinse off.

Then it happens again, barely thirty seconds later, the shower coughs and stalls and you’re all soaped up and hacked off!

Now, as you can imagine by now, this isn’t a very relaxing showering experience! The water never reaches a decent flow, it keeps stopping and starting, meaning it takes you time to find the right temperature each time, and then try to relax into.

So what if instead you stepped into that shower, adjusted the temperature once, then enjoy a powerful flow of water to wash away your aches and pains, for as long as you wished? Without interruptions or fluctuations in the flow of soothing hot water? Would be a vastly different experience would it not?

This is the difference between being in creative flow or not.

It’s vital to not just consider how you can get into flow at any given time on any given day. It’s more about nurturing that underlying level of creativity, so that when you come to create (when you want a long hot shower) your creativity (the water) flows freely.

How can you do this? By making sure your shower and pipework is in good order, regularly used and serviced!

The best way to do this is to create regularly. Every single day.

When you create every day, especially at the same time every day, you send your inner creativity a very strong message that it’s ok to create. You’re making the space in your schedule and in your life to be creative. You’re giving yourself permission to be creative. As creative as you know you can be.

So, how can you start? How can you put place the first seeds that will see your creative flow flood your life?

Create today for 15 minutes. Pick a time, write it down, stick to it. Then do the same tomorrow. And the next day. Make it a daily appointment with your creativity. Imagine your creativity is a very important dinner guest, someone you value and respect highly and wouldn’t ever dream of postponing of or cancelling on.

Within just a few weeks, creating every day becomes a very powerful habit. And the secret to you being able to power shower yourself with creativity whenever you wish!

Share your thoughts on creative flow below. How would you describe what creative flow means to you? How often do you experience it?

[image credit: Water play - John Wardell (Netinho) ]

[nancy]

I have been blessed with a fairly steady flow of creativity, but... (there is always a but!) I struggle with the creative flow for the specific project I am working on and a complete lack of organizational creativity. Some people appear to be able to regulate their lives to some sort of planned pattern.... not me.....I seem to go with the flow, create random things while desperately trying to complete a time crunch design. The constant flow coming into my head and my oh so easily distracted self works against my getting things done in a gentle flow. More frantic at the last minute sort of flow. I can't complain though, because I have also been blessed with the ability to live this crazy life and the random flow.

[Dan Goodwin]

Well you're on board with the Thirty Days of Creating for October Franchi, get your soap and sponge ready!

[abstract4art]

Can't wait for that long hot shower to begin again!

[Susan Hosken]

Dan, I guess I get into comparing too much I love the big waves and the wild surf. I love catching all the great waves like a surfer when I am up. When the water goes still and calm and I'm just sitting around on my board I find it challenging to settle into that mode although it is a wonderful time of rest, peace, tranquillity, gentle beauty and contrast.
lots of love from susan in australia

[Susan Hosken]

Wendy, I get like you and every time I go into a quiet time I forget that the creativity is still there but being quiet. I don't know why I forget like you do. Must be our brains. Isn't it great when the creativity returns. I always keep my art table set up and in view and sometimes it seems so alien to me.
lots of love from susan in australia

[Susan Hosken]

Dan, I find my quiet times a real challenge as I love creating productively and seeing results. I agree with you that my quiet time is a time to regroup and regather energy. It also shows me the gifts of peace, stillness, gentle appreciation of beauty and creation. In my quiet times I always email and view others creating. I always write every day but writing is like breathing I forget to value it!!
Looking forward to sharing the 30 days in October with you.
lots of love from susan in australia

[Susan Hosken]

Wendy, Thanks as always for your love and support. Are you going to do the 30 day challenge for October?
lots of love from susan in australia

[Dan Goodwin]

Wendy that is such an important point. You know it flows in different ways for different types of creating too. For example say you're writing a novel, and you write a few hundred words a day, then for a few days nothing really comes, you're at an awkward juncture in the plot, or you're not sure a character is as interesting as you first thought. It's ok to rest for a few days and let the ideas simmer away in your head. What I would suggest though is to keep creating, maybe take a few photos, or do some sketches, or write a few short stories or poems, just to keep your creativity loose and flowing. I believe in some way that everything we create influences everything else we create. So getting going with that novel again might come after creating something completely different that gives you a new idea or outlook. Keep creating something, however gentle or small, and your creativity will always flow, then return in larger waves.

[Wendy]

Dan, you bring up really good points. I usually get so worried during my quiet times. I fear that creativity is gone, that I couldn't hold onto it and that it might not return. Lately, I've been trying to relax and understand that my creativity must "perculate" - that's it's building and bubbling beneath the surface until its ready to rise again.

[Dan Goodwin]

Susan, you're as creative as anyone I've met! I think you're very aware of what works for you, and your various cycles. Think of this too: When you're in your quiet times, could it be you're creating calm and space for your creativity to gush into when you hit a more creative mood again? We all need quiet and restful times.