How To Find, Feel And Follow Your Natural Creative Flow

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By Dan Goodwin

The more I've studied creativity, the more I've heard from my readers and creativity coaching clients, and the more I've observed my own patterns of creating, the more I've seen that being as creative as you can be is all about flow.

In basic terms this means you can't not create for weeks then go and expect to be instantly be at your creative peak and produce the most amazing artwork for 10 hours solid, before going into another extended "creative hibernation".

Finding a base level of creative flow, then nurturing and building upon this is essential. So here are the 3 keys to creative flow, why they're important, and how you can use them to help YOU be more creative:

1. Find The Flow. Many of us hold the belief that only a few are blessed with creative talent, and that we can't do anything to increase the ideas or inspiration we have. We feel we just have to sit around helplessly, waiting for some thunderbolt of creative inspiration to hit us and provide us with all we need for the next amazing masterpiece. It simply doesn't work like that, and believing that it does renders you impotent to changing your creative life for the better.

Creative ideas, energy and inspiration are out there in abundance, more than you can ever develop into creative projects. It's like a radio station that plays 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, broadcasting endless creative ideas. You can't turn it off! You just need to find ways to let yourself tune in, to hear that flow and welcome into your life. What this means in practical terms is opening your mind, and your senses to the world around you, then capturing ideas as soon as they appear.

2. Feel The Flow. Once you've opened yourself to finding that flow - or rather once you've allowed that creative flow to find you - it's time to feel it at its fullest. Again this about being open and aware. Imagine having two perfectly good eyes, then walking around with one closed and a patch over the other. You're not going to see much! But that's what many of us do in effect, when we don't open our senses to experiencing the world around us.

We engage with the world through our 5 senses - sight, sound, scent, taste and touch. As artists, it's even more vital to appreciate each of these, as they're exactly the same senses we use to connect with others through what we create. The greater your awareness of your senses, the greater the potential for ideas to flow, and the richer and more stimulating your creative projects will be - both for you and your audience.

3. Follow The Flow. Listening to where your creative energy and passion is strongest is an art in itself. If you have a book full of creative ideas to develop, then go through them one by one trying to force yourself to come up with something wonderful for each, you're likely to get stuck pretty quickly.

Instead, follow the natural flow of your creative passions. Scan your ideas until you find one that leaps out at you and excites you to the point of wanting to dive straight in and create. Don't obsess about the outcome and planning a "perfect" project from start to finish. Go with the flow of your creativity, create what you enjoy, how you enjoy it, and let your creativity have the freedom it needs to produce its most amazing and enjoyable artwork possible.

Use this outline to find, feel and follow YOUR natural creative flow, and you'll find yourself far more creative, and most importantly youl'll ENJOY your creativity far more.

I invite you to take the next positive step to increase your creativity today by downloading your free copy of the powerful and practical "Explode Your Creativity!" Action Workbook at http://www.CoachCreative.com.

From Creativity Coach Dan Goodwin

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