Once my brother Jeff took me rock climbing to Moab’s famous “wall street.” I was in my twenties, had never rock climbed, but had strong arms and a skinny frame.
My brother taught me rock climbing essentials, and I strapped in the harness and started moving up. Jeff belayed and kept calling from the ground. “You’re doing awesome.”
I easily climbed three quarters up the mountain until I reached a point where I was sure I wouldn’t be able to keep my three points of contact. I’d gone as far as I could, there was no where to put my hands or feet. I called that I was done and wanted to come down.
Jeff yelled, “Just hang out there for a minute and see what happens. Try to relax,” he said.
Well that was the last thing I wanted to do, wait on a hot rock that I obviously couldn’t climb.
But I did begin to relax. I lost sense of time and forgot that there was a crew of people below me. I just observed the rock around me. My brain entered a creative state, and it became clear what I needed to do, and that I had the strength to do it. It was as if I had always been a rock climber, and at the same time felt like someone else was doing the climbing—that’s how easy it was. I used my hip to shimmy up a jutting slab, with the slight rise there was a place for my foot that I hadn’t noticed. Next was the biggest strength pull of the climb that ended up being surprisingly easy. Each move made sense. And pretty soon I was at the top of the rock.
When my mind shifted states, I was easily able to climb.
I’ve entered a similar state doing all sorts of creative endeavors. While writing, art-journaling, decorating, creating curriculum, mountain biking and hiking.
Scientists, psychologists, monks and gurus have all noticed a mental phenomenon: It is an artistic state of mind where creativity is active, you are driven by passion, you lose sense of time, and your worries disappear. Your creative work so encompasses you that you could do it all day, you may forget to eat or sleep and it is enjoyable. Many artists say that it is as if someone else is doing the work, as if the work comes from outside of themselves. This mental state has been observed in all types of artists, athletes, and creators.
This mental phenomenon has been coined “The Flow State” by Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi who refers to it as the secret to happiness in his TED TALK. Separately, brain scientists notice that the state of losing a sense of time is “intimately bound up with creativity, beauty, and rapture” (Nautilus). Brain chemistry alters “during musical improvisation, in jazz or freestyle rap, [and] studies show a distinctive increase in medial prefrontal cortex activation” (Nautilus).
Artists refer to this state as being outside of conscious thought, the art just happens, as if someone else is directing it. Of course this sounds a lot like the cry at the beginning of The Illiad: “Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story of that man skilled in all ways of contending…” Homer cries for divine inspiration during his storytelling. And when he says “through me” it’s a lot like what both neuroscientists and psychologists have discovered about the flow state–you’ve entered a transcendent space where art is created effortlessly.
So how can we call upon the muse? Can we consciously enter this amazing state of artistic creativity? Can we choose to enter the flow state … or is it something that just happens?
I don’t think we can force this state, but we can encourage it. We can set up the conditions. And yes, it is going to take a little brain work.
- The flow state is free of self doubt, self criticism, worry, distractions
- The flow state is high concentration and focus
- The flow state is best achieved when something is neither too hard or too easy
- The flow state is not too self aware
MEDIDATE:
Meditation trains you to free your mind of burdensome negative thoughts–the same thoughts that hinder the flow state like self doubt, worries, and distractions. Training your mind is a great start to call upon the muse.
GIVE YOURSELF AMPLE TIME:
Because the flow state is ignorant of time, give yourself plenty of it in case you land in an inspired flow state.
RELEASE SELF DOUBT/ SELF CONSCIOUSNESS:
Do the work of letting go of your self doubt. This may mean writing in your journal to discover when self doubt entered (you weren’t born with it) and replacing those thoughts with affirmations like “I am a brilliant artist”
STRIKE THE BALANCE BETWEEN HARD AND EASY:
The flow state is most likely occur when things are a little hard, but not too hard. So try to do something that makes you a bit uncomfortable or uneasy, but not so terrible that you break your pencil and throw things on your desk.
ALLOW THE FLOW STATE TO TAKE PLACE:
Show up for your creative work over and over again, and when the flow state strikes, enjoy the rapture.
