Flow Connects Us to Our True Selves
When we do something we absolutely love to do, we often discover aspects of our True Selves that can change how we see ourselves and how we live. What I love most about offering my free Flow Challenges, where we do something daily that brings us joy and has the potential to get us into flow, is the self-discovery that happens.
During these Flow Challenges, I often get emails with stories and photos from those who have been participating. This one came from Carrie. Carrie’s email reminded me that the greatest benefit of flow isn’t what changes on the outside of our lives. The benefit of flow is what happens on the inside–how we connect with our most creative selves, our True Selves, who we really are.
Your True Essence
After a flow experience, we often have a much stronger sense of self. This was a key finding in Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s original research on Flow. Our post-flow ah-has, insights, realizations and revelations that can shift everything. This is especially true when they unveil a side of our true essence ready to be reclaimed in new ways.
Here’s Carrie’s story. Enjoy!
Carrie’s Story ~ The Creative Dirt Diva
“I wanted to share with you some photos of some projects I had fun with during this current Flow Challenge. They’re portraits on canvas using a sharpie and plant material I collected and pressed and dried.
Over the past few years of Flow Challenges, I’ve tried numerous activities — from painting to writing to meditating to engaging with nature. I’ve discovered that the activities that always stick involve some kind of interaction with plants. Whether I’m working in the garden, experimenting with creating plant-based bath and body products for The Goodness Co., collecting seeds in the wild, or making art with plants, I always lose time and drop into flow.
‘I’m just going out to do a little 30 minute weeding,’ always turns into hours of weeding, pruning, watering, fertilizing, planning, arranging, adjusting, and just loving on my plants. And then catching a glimpse of the time, rushing indoors to quickly wash up, and (and admittedly, sometimes) shifting gears to attend to all that was neglected during my blissful time communing with plants. I guess I just have to embrace the fact that at this moment in time I am a bonafide Dirt Diva. I have the Flow Challenge to thank for this realization. 😊”
Art from the Earth
Thanks so much for sharing your story, Carrie, and these delightful ladies birthed through your love of the earth! Your creativity, openness to following where you’re being led, and willingness to share are so inspiring! 🥰
Flow Can Connect You With Your True Self
During our Flow Challenges together, I say over and over again that there is no “wrong” and no “right” way. This mantra isn’t just because I don’t want people to compare their journeys to each other or to have their flow blocked by the inner critic (who, as we all know, can be SO tricky).
In a flow state, we connect with that intuitive, creative self who just KNOWS what she wants to do, the unique gifts she has to share, and who she really is.
Our gifts and purpose often can’t be put into words like “gardener” or “artist.” We are so much bigger than that. Research shows that in flow, we connect with our egoless self, who can sometimes feel infinite, especially in the directions she wants us to take us and our lives.
Because our egoless self, what I call the creative self or True Self, doesn’t care what people think, her signal often broadcasts louder than others–that is, when we create the space to listen. Flow research shows our experiences of the egoless self in flow often feels like we lose ourselves or become one with the rest of the world.
Yet, what’s really interesting is what happens after flow. Research shows that following a flow experience, we often have a much stronger sense of who we are, a quiet confidence that comes from within.
Flow and the True Self
Flow helps us change our lives. Flow helps by quieting the outer voices that sometimes block truth’s broadcast.
The True Self knows that she is too big to fit into one little box.
She wanders after wonder.
The True Self is infinitely CREATIVE (and I mean that not just in how she helps US create, but in how she communicates to us and through us).
The True Self often guides us on circuitous paths that seem to be going nowhere until we discover that, like a labyrinth, she has actually led us back to ourselves. ❤️
I’d love to hear from YOU! Do you have a story to share about your Flow journeys and what you’ve discovered about creative flow in your life? Do you have a story about how you connect with your True Self? Email me at Laurie@LaurieSmith or use the form below.
If you’d like to join our next Flow Challenge (all are welcome!), or want information about a special Sacred Creative Community that is unfolding (coming in 2023!) email me at the link above. Everything here is about supporting you in connecting to your most intuitive, creative self.
Here are some other links you might be interested in:
How Did the Flow Challenge begin?
Join our Sacred Creative Community
Artwork photos shared with permission from the artist. 2022 Carrie Machleder. Copyright. All rights reserved.
