The Psychology of a Creative Practice

Do you ever notice that time spent creating seems to fly by? Do you ever feel like you lose yourself in the creative process? Why is creating so fulfilling? The answer may be Flow.

Flow was coined by a Hungarian-American psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, and if you’ve seen the Pixar movie Soul, you can liken it to how the film describes being “in the zone’. When a person finds a task that is challenging but they are well-skilled for it, that allows them to enter into a state where time feels suspended, you are completely enveloped by the task at hand, and you feel like your work is simply flowing out of you without any effort needed.

Research shows that the more often we can experience flow, the better off our well-being is. That is how I would describe the creative process. Time passes so quickly in the afternoons and weekends I spend working creatively and I know my well-being is increased anytime I can fit painting into my regular schedule. Whether it is art or music, mathematics or architecture, finding flow in either a career or a hobby is extraordinarily fulfilling.

So whether you are a fellow artist or creative, it doesn’t matter where you find flow - maybe it’s music, or writing, filming YouTube tutorials, or even exercise, I hope you can find time in your day to find flow and feel fulfilled.