Hello Creative QB’s,

Does the phrase ‘follow your bliss’,  make you feel a bit cringy?  Like it is fake or made-up. I have also experienced feeling like this. 

Let’s re-discovery our bliss, together.

8 min read or 8 min listen

When life is not flowing in all the right places it has a roadblock effect on your creative life force.

Being out of flow can mean the difference between surviving or thriving. There are so many ways our natural flow in life is often de-railed, I think we are long overdue to check-in on flow. It’s time to stop and ask, am I in the natural flow of my life? Then, the next question to ask yourself is, how do I know when I am flow?  

Here is a tip – you are in flow when you glow.

Being in a flow state is the expansion of possibility. It is when your natural creative potential meets your natural state of being. 

Here are some examples of how you experienced creative flow in everyday moments and in deep creative practice – remember creative flow is a deep river within you. 

The experience of being in flow is:

• you feel most like yourself, alive and passionate
• your heart rate is regular, your breathing is steady
• you don’t notice great chunks of time click by
• your body is buzzing but has the energy of calmness, of being grounded
• you naturally know the next step to take within a situation 
• you experience the joy of complete wholeness 
• you feel happy, connected and positive

In other words, you experience bliss. In a creative setting it is when you are in your zone; writing, making, painting, drawing, dancing, cooking, stitching, speaking, presenting, designing, learning. 

You are in creative flow when there is no resistance to your blissness.

For me, the phrase ‘follow your bliss’, is used in ways that make me feel a bit cringy, like it is fake or made-up. I have also experienced feeling like everyone else was invited to the bliss party, but me. It is so easy to make ourselves the wrong kind of person to experience bliss.

Let’s re-discovery our bliss, together. Over the past little while, I have surprised myself with how much fun I can have while being in flow, experiencing bliss and it has had a positive impact on my emotions and general wellbeing.  

Towards the end of lockdown, I spent hours in the studio drawing and painting watercolours on paper. This is not unusual. What is unusual about this is, I painted for the fun, for the pleasure and it felt very different – it felt blissful. Normally, flow in the context of work means productive flow that is attached to an outcome, like I’m leveling up my skills or working on an exhibition, a series, an art commission or a design brief. 

This kind of productive flow is great and essential, there is still much joy and gratitude in doing what you love as your job. However, the flow I experienced painting for pleasure was different. At first, it felt a bit indulgent like I was wasting time should be doing something more productive. Once I recognised those feelings as my autopilot response, I was able to let that go and lean into the flow, follow its lead and listen more intuitively, it felt very safe and comforting. This is a big learning for me and filtered back into my productive creative practice, but most importantly being in this mindful creative flow quietened the anxiety and uncertainty I was experiencing during lockdown – for me, being in blissful flow was an experience of happiness and wholeness.

On the level of my professional life, it enriched my creative growth in terms of trusting my creative spirit, re-igniting the joy and passion I have for my work. It loosened the expectations and outcomes I place upon myself and others and taught me so much more about trust. 

Now I have this little mantra, “follow the flow, it knows where to go”.

Here are some other (very rhyming, cause it’s fun) positive affirmations that I penned for you:

• Love grows where my creativity flows
• I glow in creative flow
• I know I am in the flow
• I follow my bliss, instead of my list
• I never miss, when I am in my bliss

Write them down, use them regularly and I guarantee within days you will find yourself moving into a state of blissful flow. 

On a closing note, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a professor of psychology, author, and father of the concept of flow for happiness and creativity died the week I wrote this blog post, his contribution to the well-being of the world is the legacy he leaves with us.

“A joyful life is an individual creation that cannot be copied from a recipe.”

― Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Much happiness, health and creativity to you.

Amanda ♥

More creativity coming your way

> Tasty Bliss Ball recipe to keep your creative energy high. FIND HEALTHY HERE

> What is your creative personality style? FIND YOURS HERE

> How to unlock the power of RE energy. UNLOCK HERE 

> My book Daily Acts Of Creativity