Find Your Creative Flow 🌊

Photo by Vackground on Unsplash

Sometimes I forget how formative it was for me to study photography in college.

I would spend hours, almost daily, in the darkroom trading chemical smells for deeply grainy documentation of what was happening in my life.

This was long before Instagram, smartphones, and even Flickr.

In my last year of school, I did an independent study to work out everything that had been percolating over the years.

My final project was a short film that mixed still photography and video, with layers upon layers of audio of the self-conscious things people say when you take a close-up photo of them (hint: a lot).

Trust me when I say, I never imagined that would be where I’d end up.

At the same time, I was learning that my film negatives could be scanned and turned into digital images, and I could build a website to share them with anyone in the world. So I did.

And it took me down a path that I would never have dreamed of.

It was all the result of finding creative flow 🌊

Have you ever gotten so absorbed in a project that you lost track of time? Like maybe you look outside, and whoa, it got dark.

Maybe you’ve had no idea where you are going with something, but you don’t feel fear; you feel curious, open, and adventurous. It’s playtime!

Perhaps you’ve had the experience that something is coming through you, and you are 100% in service to that energy. (Have you ever watched a musician perform?)

Either you have experienced it, or you have witnessed it.

It is available to all of us.

We just need to learn how to tap into it.

Some techniques I have picked up along the way:

Keep showing up. As often as you can. You will build a creative habit and create a body of work to expand on.

Ditch the distractions. Close apps, turn off notifications and find a time of the day with minimal interruptions. And put your phone away! (Mostly speaking to myself here 🙃)

Stay inspired. We are surrounded by creativity: the natural world, household objects, how others around us express themselves, the list goes on. Start noticing.

This, my friends, is just the tip of the iceberg. I’m sure you’ve got more ideas!

I’ll leave you with a few questions to ponder.

• What are your favorite ways to tap into creative flow?
• What are you currently incubating that is ready to come out into the world?
• What is currently distracting you?
• What has been one of your greatest surprises about yourself?
• What do you need to remember about who you are?

You are wildly creative. Yes, you.

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