Creative Flow

The four stages of Flow:

Struggle – Overloading the brain with information
Release – Taking your mind off the problem
The Zone
Recovery

(Steven Kotler)

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Fragments from imaginary dialogues

“Do they also apply to Creative Flow?”

“They do.

You can think of the Struggle stage as the On, and of the Release stage as the Off.”

“Like an oscillation.”

“Yes.

The On stage corresponds to focused thinking in Barbara Oakley’s terminology.

You can start with a Creative Focus, the primary constraint, and explore from there. Viewed as a mind-map, the Creative Focus is the center of the map from which you expand in all directions.

Or you can start with Creative Exploration, as a means to discover your Creative Focus. Viewed as a mind-map, you start anywhere – Improv style –, with multiple centers from which you expand in all directions, making connections between these mini-maps.

After that, you let go, and engage in a diffuse thinking activity, like walking, making sure to have a notebook with or around you.”

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