To tap into the flow state, your skill level and the challenge of the task you’re working on should be in perfect balance. This is one of the eight principles of flow, first described by the Hungarian scientist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. He coined the term ‘flow’ in 1990 after decades of scientific work about what surgeons, painters, dancers, writers, scientists, martial artists, musicians and other creatives have in common – a curious, all-absorbing state of mind where we feel amazing and are incredibly productive and creative at the same time.

Modern neuroscience distinguishes between two mental states: one of striving, where a surge of dopamine keeps us laser-focused on external goals like winning, perfection or achievement – and another of serene presence, where we hover in the moment, simply being. In this latter state, our neural chemistry shifts; endogenous opioids and endocannabinoids fill the brain, bringing feelings of deep satisfaction, fulfilment and joy in the now.

Motivation psychologists distinguish these two states as extrinsic and intrinsic motivation for what we’re doing. The former takes hard work and discipline to keep us going. The latter propels us forward, as by magic: flow. Research even shows that those more prone to enter the flow state might have lower risk of mental health problems and cardiovascular disease.

The more we read about flow or hear people describe what it feels like, the more we want to be in this state regularly. And we should – according to science! However, for most people, flow is something they might remember from childhood, when they were lost in play. Or it is something that may happen by chance but is incredibly hard to tap into at will.

The Romantic myth of the creatively engrossed genius also doesn’t help us. The human mind loves a hero’s story, and most of us seem to know what we were doing and why, in retrospect. Clearly, the thought leaders and architects of human history just ‘had it’, that creative ability to flow. Gutenberg’s printing press started off exponential literacy development. Electricity, vaccines and antibiotics brought about unparalleled social changes and health and wellbeing enhancements. The Lumière brothers moved people in 1895 with the first-ever movie. Fairy-tales, paintings, musical pieces and dances by known and unknown artists keep enthusing brains all over the world. Accounts of how one person’s creative flow leads to excellence, societal impact and Nobel prizes wow us.

It seems there’s nothing left for the rest of us mere mortals but to be bystanders to others’ brilliance. The more we read about the gifted, the more we feel blocked and barred from heightened creativity and the promise of the flow state ourselves. Who could ever keep up with Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity? Yet Einstein failed his university entrance exams in language and history, and he’d been broke and unemployed. The myth of the genius is that these individuals woke up one morning and excelled. As a result, too many people are convinced that either you’re creative and you just happen to be able to find flow, or you’re not and you don’t.

Once you grasp what sharpens our talent for brilliance, you’ll realise that flow is for everyone

What is never mentioned about the grand inventors, artists, scientists and doctors of our world who have done amazing deeds for humanity with their minds and hands is that they all failed in their attempts before they made it.

Besides failure, the second mysterious ingredient that made them brilliant in the first place and allowed them to wake up one morning and let their intuitive mind make ‘the splash’ is also never mentioned. Once you grasp what sharpens our talent for brilliance, and how to get it, you’ll realise that flow and creativity is for everyone.

But beware – the path to flow is paved with more bad advice.

‘You just have to feel it,’ our drawing teacher Carlo used to tell us, over and again.

It looked easy when he let his charcoal slide over the textured surface of the cold-pressed paper, his trace revealing shapes, intentions and emotions in 3D. It looked so effortless, and he looked so pretty, immersed as he was. Then he’d resurface and his facial expression would transform into an exhausted frown at our botched attempts to feel with a pen on paper. No matter how hard I’d tried, the feeling somehow didn’t stick to my pencil – and, after a while, I didn’t stick to the drawing classes either.

Flow is a fleeting, immersive state in which time and space seem to compress or expand, accompanied by a delicious fusion of movement and awareness – where you don’t just move: you are the movement. You have a very clear goal of what you’re trying to achieve. You know what you’re doing. You’re receiving clear feedback from the task itself about how it’s going, and you know when you’re doing it right. You’re also feeling intrinsically motivated to keep going, and the noise of uncertainty fades, leaving you feeling in control of your life and free from ruminative thought loops. All the while, Csikszentmihalyi’s core principle of matching the challenge to your skill makes you hover in this sweet spot,........

© Aeon