How to Tap into the Power of Flow

When Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s book “Flow” hit the national bestseller list in the 1990’s, everyone was talking about the power of “Flow,” which the author described as, “The positive aspects of human experience – joy, creativity, and the total involvement with life.”

Everyone was trying to “tap into” the power of “flow” and take it for a ride, including me! My personal experience found “flow” to be a bit more fleeting than I would have liked, until an unexpected trip to the movies trapped me into the “flow” groove for two weeks.

A friend of mine invited me to go with her to see a new movie. I had no idea what to expect. I had heard some very strange comments about the movie, but, nevertheless, wanted to check it out for myself.

The movie? Baz Luhrmann’s “Moulin Rouge.” I was totally blown away by the movie. I liken it to jumping on a horse I thought was tame and suddenly out of the blue the horse takes off and gallops away into oblivion! I’m still on board (barely) but completely surprised and bewildered by the sudden turn of events!

The movie, to me, was a complete immersion into music, song and dance, all at once! Set in Paris in 1899, the Moulin Rouge in Montmartre became the entertainment center of highbrow and lowbrow society representing a kind of cultural and social revolution, where the Bohemian anti-establishment movement thrived. Artists, like Toulouse Lautrec, poets, musicians, and students flocked to Montmartre looking for artistic inspiration, shunning the bourgeois world of their parent’s generation. A bitter green alcohol called Absinthe had a cult following amongst the Bohemians. The Bohemian motto was, “Truth, beauty, freedom and love.”

Being an artist, this utterly ridiculous love story captured my heart in a way that I still can’t describe! It took me by surprise and threw me into two weeks of listening to the sound track every day and creating my “Moulin Rouge” painting with complete abandon. I lived in “flow” the entire duration, listening to the soundtrack and painting. Painting and listening to the soundtrack.

What was it like living in a heightened state of joy, creativity and total immersion for two weeks? When I paint, I’m in the moment 100%. In this particular situation, not only was I painting in the moment 100%, I was listening in the moment 100%. I added another layer to my senses intensifying my experience!

I could see and hear the painting coming together! It was totally amazing! The combination of the art and the music together pushed my painting to a whole new level!

I displayed my “Moulin Rouge” painting in the studio I shared with 2 fellow artists, inside a co-op art gallery. My studio mate mentioned to me she really liked the painting. My friend is an accomplished artist and I was completely taken aback that she would actually like this very strange painting of mine – a complete departure from the type of artwork she usually paints, (or I paint, for that matter)! I was so miffed, I had to ask her, “Why do you like this painting? What specifically do you like about it?”

I’ll never forget her simple comment, “It makes me happy.”

Moulin Rouge forever changed the way I paint. Now I paint to my favorite music. If you want to experience a heightened sense of flow, try layering your experiences!

Csikszentmihalyi explains in “Flow,” “It is an experience in which there is order in consciousness.” He continues, “The pursuit of a goal brings order in awareness because a person must concentrate attention on the task at hand and momentarily forget everything else. These periods of struggling to overcome challenges are what people find to be the most enjoyable times of their lives.”