Flow – The End

My daughter asked me, “How do you know when a painting’s done.”  I thought about it and, at least, for this portrait I completed today, I decided it was finished because I couldn’t see anywhere I needed to make it better.

I promised in my last post I would share what I’ve come to understand for myself about how I experience flow in my life.  The example I’m going to use couldn’t be more perfect to illustrate how flow is as necessary in our everyday life as it is as we create.

Like so many others, I’ve been reeling from all of the unprecedented surprising laws Trump’s been enacting since becoming President.  I’ve never followed politics, so my becoming addicted to following all the news relating to the past few days is abnormal for me.

I noticed symptoms coming from this new obsession;  insomnia, anxiety, fear, and inability to concentrate, all disastrous emotions for creatives.  We can’t know what we want until we know what we don’t want.  I didn’t want to feel these things that had taken residency in my mind.  I want what feels good–all the emotions that help me to let go and allow my creativity to flow.

I wanted to feel love, joy, happiness, peace, contentment.  I wanted to be compassionate with myself and the world that is undergoing reactions from all these radical changes.  I wanted to be in the flow.

Again, we creatives know when we’re in the flow while we’re focused on doing what we love to do, whether it’s writing, painting, dancing, singing, etc.  We are feeling alive and vital.  We’re feeling in harmony with all that is around us.

So, now I know that anything that pulls me away from feeling my flow in my regular life,  is what I need to turn away from.  I love feeling good, so now I’m no longer going to subject myself to anything that takes me away from flowing in my life.

That doesn’t mean I don’t care what’s happening.  I do.  And I care enough to begin to trust that I, in my connection to flow, will be led to ideas and inspiration to make a difference.  It’s only in our state of the higher energy that we are able to be in harmony with something else that we’re a part of.  I’ll know when there isn’t anywhere  I need to make better anymore.