Sometimes when I begin to write, the words flow out onto the computer screen as if I had no control over them. During the subsequent editing process I tell myself that I can have more control, but usually the editing is only in the service of clarity of expression. When the words are flowing, I experience unimaginable joy, what Csikszentmihalyi in the 1990’s called optimal experience or flow. Out of the chaos of thought emerges imprecise words that are attempts to describe experience. The reservoir of thoughts and images available to me become ordered in a way that enlivens hopefully the points I am trying to make.
We are continually writing the story of our lives in the way we think. We may not be able to determine the origin of the thoughts or images that create our stories, but we can allow them to flow freely, without the need to control them or become attached to them. Any attempt to constrict our thoughts -censoring them or evaluating them — renders them shallow and troublesome. But a thought that flows freely through our mind can be a spark that ignites the flame of creativity.
Our spiritual experience is the only “real” experience. When we lean into that experience and just be, we flow and reveal the passion to create that lives and breathes within us. We are creative beings. Spirit is our home. When we settle into an awareness of our spiritual reality, we realize that we can always experience flow.