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Being ‘in the zone’ or in ‘flow’ is one of the best human experiences.

For me, I lose myself for hours in creative activities like painting, drawing and writing.

It also happens when I read a great book, scientific paper or article.

But what is being ‘in the zone’ or ‘flow’?

Flow is a state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience is so enjoyable that people will continue to do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

So why should we care about flow or getting into the zone?

Csikszentmihalyi studied flow amongst other psychological states for over 40 years.

Post Second World War, he noticed how some people struggled to rebuild their lives, whereas others developed ways to be more fulfilled.

He was inspired by the creatives he observed. Somehow they had found purpose and enjoyment by getting into these hyper-focused creative states.

The benefits of choosing creative flow

Wider society, leaders, influencers and online creators latched onto this concept too. They all talk about flow and how to get into the zone because it helps.

Flow is associated with subjective well-being, satisfaction with life and general happiness. At work, it’s linked to productivity, motivation and company loyalty.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Looking at this quote, it's a no-brainer about finding ways to get into flow every day.

Feeling better AND being more effective and motivated? Yes please!

You also get physiological benefits. Being in flow helps your breathing get deeper and slows down heart rate. This is a great counterbalance to our frazzled and overly stressed modern lifestyles.

Even facial muscles relax into a smile, and blood pressure reduces. Improving your cardiovascular state is important for physical flexibility and resilience in the face of challenges.

Although you can get into the zone or flow by doing a range of activities that interest you and are challenged by, e.g., video gaming, reading, sport etc, creative flow is particularly enjoyable and beneficial, e.g., writing, art, musical performance etc.

Creative flow is a state of consciousness where creativity unfolds with ease and enjoyment.

Neuroscience News

The difference between these types of activities suggests that creative tasks need more immediate subjective judgment in how the activity is going - there is a sense of an outcome but its not the same as with activities with an objective judgement and feedback i.e., getting to the next stage of a computer game versus creating a piece of art or writing.

I created porcelain ceramics as a creative hobby for years, and it was one of the highest creative flow activities for me. The goal and what I was aiming for was subjective to me, even if others could assess how it went in general terms.

I knew what ‘looked right’ to me as the creative process evolved, and adjusted accordingly.

Whichever stage of the process I was at, I would get lost for hours honing the skill and creating (or breaking!) a porcelain piece.

Troubles of the day melted away during these creative activities, and I returned to the real world in a different mood or with a different perspective - this is still the case when I paint, draw or write.

As an aside, my personal goal is to create a home ceramics studio so I can do it in my own time and pace, along with others.

I'm a third generation potter on my dad’s side - it's a family tradition that has deep connections across the oceans and generations.

Whilst processing complex grief at losing my dad a couple of years ago, exploring art, creative expression and creative flow brought real peace of mind during a devastating time.

It's the core reason I study and practice art-based coaching, as I witness the benefits and deeper understanding creative flow gives me AND my clients.

In our hectic and harried world, getting into creative flow like this offers sweet relief outside a timetable and task list.

It gives us timeless mental space to explore our skills, talent and curiosity, as well as unconscious emotional expression.

Creative flow in particular helps de-stress and builds confidence in our sense of achievement and ability at a much deeper level.

An alternative theory to boost creative flow

What piqued my interest this week was a new article about the neuroscience of getting into creative flow, and an alternative theory of how it occurs.

One theory from neuroscience research related to arithmetic or video-gaming studies suggests that flow state reduces activation in the brain’s Default Mode Network (DMN).

The DMN is a brain circuit of disparate regions that work together when a person is daydreaming, considering their past or planning the future, or generally recalling autobiographical memories.

There is also an increased activation in the Central Executive Network (CEN), a brain circuit of regions (with some located in the frontal lobes), that relates to decision-making, working memory and reducing distraction from external stimuli.

It’s more associated with conscious control over tasks or activities we undertake.

This is the ‘flow-is-hyperfocus’ theory, where distractions are shut out to improve performance of the task at hand.

An alternative theory, known as the ‘expertise-plus-release’ theory of creative flow suggests there is a greater influence from increased expertise in a task and the subjective personal experience of creative flow, as well as how this works in the brain.

This suggests that years of expertise in a certain task or activity lays down stable brain networks that can be activated more automatically and are resistant to distractions. The CEN control is released as less supervision of the task/process and performance is required (known as transient hypofrontality).

Well, colour me curious!

After studying neuroscience for over 20 years, it's clear that there isn't just one way our brains function.

There are many circuits and networks that exist and kick in to support key activities or functions.

This adds resilience into the system.

If there is a problem with one area, the activity or function still works because an alternative steps in or shares the load.

This might also influence why similar activities may differ in their sense and feel.

Expertise makes a difference to how creative flow feels

Let’s dive into this recent US neuroimaging study from Drexel University of 32 jazz guitar improvisers (Rosen et al., 2024). The researchers compared two groups of jazz musicians to investigate differences in the experience of creative flow and any associated brain changes using high-density electroencephalograms (EEGs) recordings.

Specifically, they compared novice jazz musicians vs experienced jazz musicians to test the above two flow theories and how expertise may differentiate or influence them.

Bring this back to your own life. You could get into flow or into the zone doing a variety of activities, but you likely get more enjoyment when it’s something you have done for a while and takes less conscious effort.

For me, this definitely leans into creative endeavours. I get into flow doing my day job activities such as redrafting a contract or analysing data, but it’s never as enjoyable as my creative flow activities, particularly the visually expressive ones.

It’s more intuitive, even if it becomes more challenging because of the goals you are aiming for. If the ‘expertise-plus-release’ theory is supported, as the researchers proposed, this would show up in the neuroimaging recordings and the self-reported experience of the jazz musicians.

It turns out they were right.

There were clear differences between the groups after recording the jazz improvisations from novice and experienced jazz musicians, which were assessed by jazz experts for the quality of the musical improvisation, and asking the musicians how they felt during the experience.

In summary,

1. High-flow states were associated with consciously 'letting go’ (i.e. CEN activation was reduced because transient hypofrontality was recorded by the EEGs)

2. Extensive activity experience supports the ability to consciously let go and allow creative ideas to be automatically generated, as suggested by increased activation in the brain’s left hemisphere and its auditory, visual and touch specialty regions (likely because the activity undertaken was a musical instrument-related one).

3. These results back the ‘expertise-plus-release’ theory of creative flow, where building up expertise in a specific activity or task-area deepens the creative flow experience.

4. Participants with less experience were less likely to get into deep creative flow versus the ones with higher experience, who got into deep creative flow with greater frequency and intensity.

Even though this was a small study, and relies on self-report of the subjective creative flow experience from the participants, it demonstrates that flow or getting into the zone is not a singular or uniform experience.

Depending on the type of task you’re doing and how long you’ve done it, the creative flow experience can be pretty different.

The great thing about that is there are some key elements you can take into your own life.

Steps you can take to maximise your creative flow

Now you’re convinced about the benefits of creative flow (I hope!), not just from a subjective experience perspective, but also from tangible physical and mental wellbeing aspects, what can you do to improve the creative flow experience?

Here are some tips to introduce into your week:

1. Learn the basics of the creative activity or task

   1. Perhaps you have natural talent but even if you don’t, learning the basics is a core activity for everyone

   2. Find people who inspire and energise you so you build internal motivation to get through the basics with curiosity

   3. Consider how you prefer to learn - in person, online, from text or videos

   4. Find a support group where you can safely ask questions, and learn from too

2. Practice the creative activity or task consistently

   1. Set aside time to practice, practice, practice - how do the best artists, musicians, and dancers look so effortless in what they do? They put in the hours and hone their craft

   2. Timeboxing or putting reminders into your calendar helps you remember that this is an important activity to you. Leaving it to chance in the early days means you’ll find ways to get out of this core effortful stage

3. Experiment with letting go and improvise your creative domain or task

   1. Start experimenting with the skills you’ve developed. Try using new materials you’ve been avoiding (e.g. watercolours or complicated music sheets etc), give yourself time restrictions (e.g. 5 minutes to create a sketch, 10 minutes to write a post or story etc)

   2. Give yourself and others challenges to try together e.g. let’s all create a short story about a frog in a pond within an hour.

   3. Notice how you feel as you get further along on the journey - are you creating ideas quicker, are you enjoying it more, what do you prefer vs dislike - use that information to stay curious and practice letting go when you create

If you’re stressed, distracted or just want to challenge yourself more, getting into deeper creative flow is an excellent option to add to your weekly schedule as a rewarding counterbalance.

You get to explore what interests you, and the more you do, the better and more enjoyable the experience will be.🚀

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What creative activity will you do more of to increase and enjoy creative flow?

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Stop daydreaming and focus instead! Did you get told this as a child? I know I did.

However, daydreaming is fundamental to how our brains innovate and find solutions - ignore that and you’ll be stuck repeating the same, boring patterns for years.

We daydream way more than we think.

A 2020 study asking people to self-report their activities at different points during the day, found that people spontaneously mind-wander 47% a day.

That’s a lot of time allowing our minds to wander!

Next time you think you’re being super focused, step back and consider how many times your mind wandered off down tangents and you got distracted.

Be honest with yourself.

It’s going to be more than you think.

The Shower Effect doesn’t just happen in the shower

It was whilst reading an article about attention and focus that I noticed the ‘Shower Effect’ and why we end up being more creative in the shower or doing basic activities.

Ironically, I lost focus and started daydreaming about:

• where I’d heard about the Shower Effect before?

• whether I get more ideas in the shower?

• what could be going on in the brain to make it happen?

• whether I could improve how I create ideas?

Eventually I got back to the attention and focus article but the Shower Effect idea lingered.

What is going on when we get those creative moments at seemingly random times of the day, and on autopilot?

The ‘Shower Effect’ describes:

…the effect that people seem to generate creative ideas during moderately engaging activities such as showering and walking.

Irvine et al., 2022

Now it made sense why all the massive online writers keep going on about taking a 30m to 4 hour walk a day (would love to be able to do this consistently!).

They’ve tapped into the benefits of the Shower Effect and how a relaxing or moderately engaging walk gets ideas flowing into their content creation empires.

Your brain is built to daydream

Positron emission tomography (PET) studies of the brain show that certain brain networks or circuits become active when we aren’t totally engaged in a task and are daydreaming or mind-wandering.

The key circuit involved is the Default Mode Network (DMN), connecting about a dozen different brain regions.

The DMN activates when we’re doing passive tasks but also when we remember past events or have self-referential thoughts and experiences.

How do you think the world works? The DMN is involved in your knowledge of the world as well.

It’s not the only network you need for innovation but it’s key to generating ideas. You still need the Central Executive Network (CEN), other brain regions connected in a circuit during task-positive and decision-making activities.

The CEN kicks in to assess the validity, usefulness and practicality of the ideas you’ve generated. It’s the manager that tells you 97% of your ideas are rubbish, but the other 3% might be passable.

As a new online writer, I still struggle with coming up with content ideas and topics to write about.

When I’m sat there with my phone or notebook and pen, I’m wracking my brain to work out what you might want to read and what I want to write about that week.

Typically, when I’m making a coffee, looking out at the garden and watching the foxes play, that’s when a curious idea appears out of nowhere.

I get excited, but often forget to write or note it down. I’m still working on my system...

I started to think about what would boost my idea generation and problem-solving opportunities more effectively to meet my creative goals.

Protect your boundaries, fiercely

I put an experiment into action. It was a glorious winter day and I had a gap in my diary.

I went on a walk to daydream, let my mind wander and create different ideas and solutions for articles I wanted to write and how to approach them.

I picked a local route, a bit longer than my usual short during-the-day-jaunt so I could deepen the experience.

I made sure I wasn’t listening to music or a podcast or YouTube video to keep me occupied. I’d read that you need to keep things as natural and simple as possible for it to work better.

I immersed myself in the environment. I noticed the colour of the sky. Sun on my face. First blush of Spring in the gardens as I walked past.

Then I got distracted and started taking pictures on my phone. Uh-oh.

I get easily overwhelmed by beauty and awe at nature. I wanted to capture the moment so I allowed myself some short device time.

I shared them with a friend and merrily carried on along my walk realising my mind was starting to make abstract connections.

It was happening!

To be in the moment gave me the space needed to reflect and contemplate on what I wanted to explore, what worked and areas to improve.

RINNNNGGG. RIIINNGGGG. RRIIINNNGGG.

Gah, daydreaming zone broken! My friend was calling me.

I thought to myself, “oh no - why did I send them those photos; they think I’m available”!

I answered and immediately felt resentful. They’d broken my enjoyable escape from DOING just as I deepened my daydreaming experience.

I realised it wasn’t their fault. I’d answered the phone, after all.

I half-listened but the moment was gone. I got grumpy.

Then I got another call at the same time. I dropped the first one and answered the second in case it was urgent. It wasn’t!

I shuffled off home, trying to bring back the lovely day dreaming experience I’d had.

It wasn’t working. I tried to force it but there was too much resistance.

It wasn’t the outcome I wanted, but taught me the importance of protecting boundaries for this process to work.

Create the right conditions to get ideas flowing

Walking or showering works because they give time for mind-wandering with a moderate level engagement but also some mental constraints.

The ideas bounce around but also create new connections and forms within those constraints.

Structure these conditions to tap into your daydreaming genius:

1. Pick the Goldilocks of activities - not too engaging and needing effort and attention, but not so dull you’re catatonic.

2. Look for boring tasks that are more habitual, so you’re moderately engaged but almost on auto-pilot. Boring tasks help you generate quite different and abstract types of ideas, and the longer you allow yourself to be in that state, the more problem-solving time you give yourself.

3. Don’t use devices, movies, music, podcasts, or other sounds etc. Allow your inner experience to create the space it needs to explore and create, rather than overload it with more input.

4. Get good quality sleep. This supports memory formation, taking them from fragile to more stable ones during the sleep process, so you can recall them better during daydreaming.

5. Protect your boundaries! Distance yourself from devices and demands from others. This is your space to be creative and you need it to reach your goals, not everyone else’s.

6. Find ways to introduce nature, experience awe and promote relaxation. If you’re going for a walk, pick a safe and familiar route so you go into mind-wandering mode and not threat-detection, alert mode.

7. If you choose the shower to foster the Shower Effect, keep a waterproof whiteboard handy to jot down your ideas!

Enjoy the process, but remember to filter and assess if your ideas are decent.

Create the right environment to support natural daydreaming and mind-wandering, and you’ll be amazed at how many ideas and connections you make.🚀

What helps you generate innovative ideas and solutions? Tell me in the comments!

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This is your space too, so let's enjoy it together.

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I’ve been writing daily in public for 143 days. For a socially anxious introvert, this is mind-blowing to me. I credit this to joining the Badassery Academy’s Write 4/28 in September 2023, and it’s honestly changed my life.

I was dubious that I’d get into writing. Although I’ve always preferred visual arts for creative expression, I’ve always loved reading and admired writers.

However, decades in corporate and academic life meant my writing was functional and personality-free.

I even had a job interviewer tell me he was glad he met me on a call, as my personality was nothing like it came across in my CV. I actually had one when talking in real time. Yikes...??!!

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I struggled to express myself in words that sounded like the way I speak or think. I’d write something, read it and think ‘that’s so boring and bland’, or ‘what are you even trying to say?’.

Whilst building my online coaching business, I realised the ability to write online is a key skill I needed to access business opportunities and connect with a community. I’ve always wanted to share my knowledge, insights and ideas to help others benefit from what I’ve learnt, and vice-versa.

The belief that I would become an online writer was pretty shaky though, as I didn’t think I’d get past my mental and anxiety blocks. Yet somehow, the Badassery challenge and ethos resonated and worked.

Being part of a compassionate community has really helped - we learn from each other, are cheerleaders and soundboards, and offer support when we experiment with new things.

Learning writing basics has been a massive shift as well. The penny dropped when I realised I’d never been taught how to write what was on my mind and without an exam or presentation as the goal.

Having access to good writing - and why it’s good - has been incredibly eye-opening. I felt silly once I realised writing was a technical skill like any other.

This sounds obvious, but so many people seem to jump online and make writing and content generation look straight-forward and easy.

That mistaken perspective gave me a near-impossible performance standard to meet without understanding the rules of the game. Writing was a skill I had to learn, try, fail and try again to improve.

Now, I’m nowhere near as good as I’d love to be. But, I’m taking an iterative approach to be a writer, and improve my technique and output:

1. Build a daily writing habit

2. Commit to publishing online written content every day (yay, external accountability)

3. Write for different platforms every week (X/Substack/Email Newsletter)

4. Establish a weekly writing routine to increase efficiency, and quality based on weekly skills sessions

5. Create a writing/content calendar per month to build structure

6. Keep improving writing approach and style each week

Now, I’ve tried writing online and content creation for my business before. I had a small blog and even posted daily on LinkedIn for a period. Yet I couldn’t stick to it as I wasn’t as aligned to what I created and didn’t establish the wider habit and community.

The steps above show how important the incremental structure is. The daily habit is there, but is supported by a community and weekly writing skills sessions.

I reduced the performance standard requirements that were often the blocker and focused on the process (read my other article about focusing on the process and not the outcome). The incremental process goals help me stay motivated by continual improvements.

As a recovering perfectionist, growing and sharing the journey publicly has been a challenge, but it’s a great learning and humbling experience. I’ve had to get past my social anxiety fears and just do it - again, focus on the process and not the outcome.

I gave myself permission to write something that would help someone, because it either helped me or my coaching clients. I didn’t realise how rewarding this would be.

2. Benefits of personal writing

The last few months have been some of the busiest I’ve had. I’m happy the daily writing remained in spite of my heavy work and personal load, including:

• a super busy head of function, global day job

• pivoting and developing my online coaching business

• studying for a Diploma in Art-based Coaching

• working through complex grief after losing my father during the pandemic

• a never-ending viral illness from mid-November to mid-January

I noticed that even if I was exhausted trying to fit everything in (note to self - don’t pick all the goals at the same time this year!), I always felt better after a writing session.

I had a sense of calm, flow and achievement. The concerns of the day lifted and I learned more about myself and my areas of interest.

I am more comfortable expressing my vulnerabilities and self-reflection experiments.

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When looking for topics for this post, I was excited to find an article on Scientific American by Christina Gelitz about how writing helps you get to know yourself better if you write what appears.1 It validated my experience of daily writing.

Gelitz writes about Silke Heimes, a physician and author who helps groups share their thoughts and feelings on paper using therapeutic writing. exercises.

Heimes links the benefits seen in people that use music or art therapy as forms of creative expression, to the process of uncensored emotional and personal writing activities.

She uses a great term - mental hygiene - where daily personal writing can reduce stress, increase self-confidence and improve health.

This description is accurate. After a writing session, my mind feels clearer, tension releases and I know I’ve let go of a mental burden I didn’t realise I was carrying.

Heimes admits that the blank page can be overwhelming when you want to develop a daily writing habit, but suggests a simple free writing exercise to get going.

Similarly, Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way leverages daily Morning Pages as a way to cultivate an uncensored stream of consciousness, with an incredibly low performance standard.

Both approaches reduce friction by minimising the barrier to completion - this is key to starting and maintaining the habit.

Whether you use time (5-20 minutes) or number of pages (3) as your aim, find a comfortable place with no distractions and just write until you’ve reached the target.

Write whatever comes up in your mind.

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Your thoughts, ideas, babbling, waffling etc - it all comes out, uncensored, unfiltered and takes its space on the page.

This could be what you did last week, today, what you’ll do tomorrow, what other people are doing, concepts you’re playing with - literally anything.

Cameron calls the daily Morning Pages “one of the pivotal tools to cultivating a creative awakening”. It doesn’t matter what or how you write - as long as you don’t stop until you’ve filled the pages and cleared out your brain.

I haven’t started The Artist’s Way 12-week approach fully yet, but it’s on my list to kick off this Quarter. It’ll form part of improving my weekly system, and needs about an hour daily commitment.

You can also use structured journals with question prompts to complete as a daily writing approach. I’ve used this before and found it helpful initially. It started to become a bit repetitive after a while, and I lost the habit after losing my dad.

Unfortunately this happened with other activities, as often occurs with grief, so I’m slowly bringing those back into my life.

Daily writing adds an important tool to my mental hygiene toolkit.

3. Don’t censor yourself

We spend so much of our time watching what we say or do. It’s needed as part of cultural and social norms, but if you’re not in an environment that accepts you, your inner self will feel crushed and unseen.

A daily personal writing process entirely for you can become so valuable - a safe harbour.

Perhaps you have conflicting ideas or negative thoughts you don’t want to share with others, but are curious about. Expressing these to yourself can be liberating as they have been given space to exist.

Unexpressed thoughts and feelings are like a hungry toddler - they constantly nag until they get what they want - your attention.

Even if you feel sad or upset in the moment, you’ve allowed yourself to accept this moment. You can get curious about it, find solutions or move on.

It’s progress.

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Does it matter if you use handwriting or type into a computer/device?

Heimes is an advocate of handwriting as it’s a fuller sensory experience and uses more of the brain, such as the sensorimotor cortex regions to coordinate muscle movement. You might also notice changes in your handwriting depending on mood, breathing or focus shifts.

Typing offers other valuable insights - you get your thoughts down quicker and fly with a sense of urgency if it exists.

FYI - I did both for this article - handwritten and then typing - as an experiment. They felt different. Handwriting was more personal but typing was a bit more satisfying.

Who knew?

4. Conclusion

To clear your mind and get to know yourself better, a daily creative habit is the ideal way to start.

Although I love artistic expression with paints or other media, writing has the lowest barrier to entry - almost everyone can grab a piece of paper and pen, or a device and note taking app.

Try this:

1. Pick a time when you’ll be undisturbed and commit to the lowest metric that works for you - either 5-20m or 3 pages of writing

2. Free write whatever comes into your zone of attention - don’t censor yourself or try to make sense of it in the moment - this happens later

3. Reflect on how you feel after you’re done:

   • What still needs to be expressed?

   • What surprised you?

   • What did you have to get down first or last?

   • What did you resist to explore?

   • What needs more space and time to be understood?

4. Commit to this approach every day. Experiment with approaches, time, formats etc if you want to - but do it

You’ll notice a clarity of mind and creative expression. Your mood may change and abstract connections and solutions can appear.

Most importantly, you’ll get to know the real you if you don’t censor yourself during the process. Far better than you did before.

That’s the key to progress in life. 🚀

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Let me know what you're keen to learn or talk about in the comments or on chat.

This is your space too, so let's enjoy it together.

Take care,

Sabrina Ahmed

Burnout Coach | Neuroscientist | Art-based Practitioner