What do you create?

4 min readFeb 10, 2021

Do you think every human is happiest when creating?

I do.

I am convinced that one reason rates of depression are skyrocketing is that we are spending less and less time consciously creating.

Convenience products like ready meals, pre-baked bread, cheap clothes, cheap furniture, cheap art, cheap ceramics, music streaming, TV streaming and more mean we don’t need to do any of those things ourselves anymore.

We don’t need to cook or bake.

We don’t need to sew or knit or weave.

We don’t need to build things with our hands.

We don’t need to paint.

We don’t need to make music.

We don’t have to potter.

We can have all those things without creating. But has it made us happier?

Read on to learn the research behind why it’s important to keep creating even though you don’t need to.

The ‘Flow State’:

The flow state is a psychological concept referring to the experience of utter absorption (to the exclusion of other stimuli like time or physical sensation) which occurs when we are engaged in certain tasks.

It might for example describe the state an artist is in when he spends all day painting and suddenly realises it is dark. Or it might describe the state you are in when you are totally absorbed in writing a report for work.

What does flow do?

Flow is described as ‘ the optimal experience’. This means that if you get into flow you are more likely to feel good about how you spent your time.

Not only does it feel better, the outcomes also tend to be better when we’ve been in flow. This may be because flow motivates perseverance.

Research shows that experiences of flow as a result of an active activity (not passive like scrolling on Facebook) is important for preventing poor mental health.

How do we get into flow?

Studies show that flow is highly linked with your perception of being creative.

This means that if you feel the task you are engaged in is challenging you creatively then you are more likely to experience flow.

A personal example:

Much of my work involves creating. I develop recipes, make food photography, write blog posts and design materials for my clients. When I connect with the fact that this is being creative (instead of ‘just my work’) I am much more likely to experience flow and positive emotions whilst working.

The second aspect that is important to get into flow is the perception that what you are doing is meaningful.

This is perhaps why many of us choose to buy ready meals instead of cooking our own. It doesn’t seem meaningful to spend time on cooking when we don’t need to.

But this logic only makes sense if we end up doing something that is more likely to get us into flow than the cooking would have.

Activities to help you get into flow:

Below are some ideas of activities that may help you create more:

Bake bread (perhaps even sourdough)
Cook from scratch
Pickle or ferment
Knit
Crochet
Embroider
Build furniture (even small items)
Garden
Potter
Paint
Sew (for your kids, for yourself, for your dog)
Sing
Play an instrument
Move your body (particularly rhythmically)

What are your experiences of flow?

Comment on this post to share how you get into flow and how you feel when you do. Do you get into a flow state at least once every day?

Summary:

Purposeful, meaningful and creative activities promote the experience of flow or ‘being in the zone’. This is linked with having a better (in fact optimal) experience, being more motivated, having better results and reduced risk of poor mental health.

Would you like to encourage someone to keep creating or maybe even create more? Then share this post. It makes me happy and I hope it makes them happy too.

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LINKS AND REFERENCES:

Freire, T., Gissubel, K., Tavares, D. and Teixeira, A. (2021). Flow Experience in Human Development: Understanding Optimal Functioning Along the Lifespan. Advances in Flow Research, [online] pp.323–349. Available at: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-030-53468-4_12 [Accessed 26 Jan. 2021].

Cognition and Emotion. (2015). Flow, affect and visual creativity. [online] Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02699931.2014.913553 [Accessed 26 Jan. 2021].

Priest, D.-L. and Karageorghis, C.I. (2008). A qualitative investigation into the characteristics and effects of music accompanying exercise. European Physical Education Review, [online] 14(3), pp.347–366. Available at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1356336x08095670 [Accessed 26 Jan. 2021].

van Heerden (2020). Creativity, the flow state and brain function | South African Journal of Art History. [online] Available at: https://journals.co.za/doi/10.10520/EJC94097 [Accessed 26 Jan. 2021].

McHugh, M. (2016). Experiencing Flow: Creativity and Meaningful Task Engagement for Senior Women. [online] Women & Therapy.Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02703149.2016.1116862 [Accessed 26 Jan. 2021].

Holzfurtner, R. (2019). Creative habits : flow state, wellbeing and finding your creative force. [online] DIVA. Available at: https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A1355521&dswid=2156 [Accessed 26 Jan. 2021].

‌Journal of Mental Health. (2021). The experience of creative activity as a treatment medium. [online] Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09638230701506242 [Accessed 26 Jan. 2021].

Images from www.canva.com

Learn more about me at www.efiaskitchen.com‌

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Originally published at https://minuteforyourhealth.substack.com.