7 Stories to Tap into Your Creative Flow

Think back to how you played as a child. Remember how it felt to create your own stories and scenarios and games? In the middle of creative flow, there is a feeling of elation, and the world takes on a magical quality in which anything feels possible.

As busy adults with to-do lists and responsibilities, many of us have forgotten the extreme pleasure that comes with free creative expression. We tend to believe that getting back into that creative mindset is harder than it actually is. But if we can silence the inner critic and just go with the flow, being creative becomes easy once again. As Ernest Hemingway once said, “My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way.” So get started today!

Get your creative juices flowing with 7 of our favorite articles from Spirituality & Health:

1. Creative Flow: How Yoga Can Spark Your Creativity When you practice yoga, your brain chemistry changes—transitioning from Beta brain waves to Alpha waves (a state of deep focus and creativity).
   
2. Channeling Depression Into a Powerful Tool for Creativity Did you know that depressive symptoms are common in highly creative people? Learning to listen to and work with depression may result in unique and soulful works of art. It may also help with the healing process—the body releases natural opiates during the creative process.
   
3. Writing and the Art of Observation So you think you’re not a writer? More than anything, writers are observers of life. If you have strong powers of observation, there may be a writer in you.

4. Want to Be More Creative? Tap Into Your Circadian Rhythm A recent study found that morning people are actually more creative at night, and vice versa for night owls.
   
5. An Invitation: Practicing Wonder Feeling bored by what feels like a stagnant life? Dawna Markova proclaims, “Reclaim what may have become a dusty and numb habit and transform it into a practice of breaking open into a new aliveness.”
   
6. The Art Inside You A relaxed mind is a creative mind. By combining kundalini yoga and art, you will gain a heightened sense of perception and an ongoing awakening of creativity.
   
7. Poet Jane Hirshfield on the Mystery of Existence Jane Hirshfield talks about poetry as a lifestyle. She says, “When I start to write, I’m not a guide or teacher; I’m not even a poet. I’m a person far out at sea, and the poem is a raft made of whatever floats past in the water.”