Two Sylvias' Weekly Muse: June 9, 2024

Issue 111

Hello, Creatives!

As writers, many of us have entered the “flow state”—words are pouring onto the page like magic. Suddenly, an hour has passed, and a completed poem (needing only light revision) sits before us. We might thank our muse for the inspiration as we wonder how the stars aligned, allowing us to enter such a creative and productive zone without a lot of effort.

What exactly is the flow state? In his groundbreaking book, Flow, pioneering psychologist and scientist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi defines flow as “a state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience is so enjoyable that people will continue to do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it.” In a recent study of this flow state, researchers at Drexel University's Creativity Research Lab focused on how the brain achieves “flow” by studying thirty-two jazz guitarists as they improvised music. Led by scientists John Kounios and David Rosen, the study used neuroim…