{"id":5233,"date":"2026-04-14T19:40:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T02:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionmatters\/?p=5233"},"modified":"2026-04-14T19:40:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T02:40:17","slug":"flow-state-creativity-why-i-do-my-best-work-when-not-thinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionmatters\/2026\/04\/flow-state-creativity-why-i-do-my-best-work-when-not-thinking\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I Do My Best Work When Not Thinking: On Instinct & Flow"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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{Photo by Erin Schmerr for Scopio}<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

My Best Work Happens When My Mind Feels Quiet<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Over the past two years, I increasingly notice something: I do much of my best work when I\u2019m not really thinking. Or rather, since the mind is a thinking machine that rarely stops, I should say I do my best work when my mind feels<\/em> like I\u2019m not really thinking. When my mind feels quiet.<\/p>\n

The Difference Between Quiet Mind and Mental Noise<\/h4>\n

This is what I don\u2019t<\/em> mean by \u201cnot really thinking.\u201d I don\u2019t mean the distracting, ruminative cacophony I sometimes have in my head, so noisy I can\u2019t separate out the strands. This sort of \u201cnot thinking\u201d is like a knotted skein. When I\u2019m in that state, I have no idea what on God\u2019s earth I\u2019ve been thinking.<\/p>\n

What Productive Non-Thinking Actually Feels Like<\/h4>\n

The \u201cnot-thinking\u201d to which I refer is more like a gentle stream going by, untroubling and non-distracting\u2014and somehow it serves me. In these moments, thought is happening\u2014but it\u2019s off somewhere alongside me. And it seems to serve me without effort.<\/p>\n

Remarkably, I\u2019m often in this state while doing the things I do best. Art-creating, editing, and gardening are high on the list. When I\u2019m creating an art quilt, piecing fabrics abstractly\u2014layer upon layer, texture upon texture, combining color and pattern, I often pay attention to an audiobook or even daydream, and the art-creation happens much more by instinct than thought. On occasion, I notice something isn\u2019t quite working, so I step back and seriously think through the problem, making adjustments. But these moments of concentrated thought are the exception.<\/p>\n

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Kaleidoscope\u201448\u201dx48\u2033, by Tricia Gates Brown<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Flow State Creativity, Practice, and Letting Instinct Lead<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I can say the same for creating with clay, or \u201cpainting with plants,\u201d which I often do in the garden. Getting to this flow state of instinct likely happens because of years of practice\u2014hits and misses\u2014and studying the techniques of others, which is thought-full. But now when I\u2019m creating in a familiar medium, it feels best to let instinct override thought. I am not an athlete and have never been, but I wonder if athletes perform similarly, by instinct, and if in their process, thought becomes a quiet stream alongside them. I know people who actually run for<\/em> this experience, for the way it quiets ruminative thinking.<\/p>\n

Most surprising to me is how, while editing, my mind is operating instinctively. I\u2019m not consciously thinking Oh, a comma would make this better<\/em>, or This block quote is not formatted properly<\/em>. I just make the changes. At times a conundrum presents itself and requires more conscious thinking. But again, these moments are the exception.<\/p>\n

Why Creating Works Better for Me Than Meditation<\/h3>\n

As I\u2019ve said, productive not-thinking doesn\u2019t happen because of effort. On the other hand, meditating, for me, has always felt effort-full. But what I experience in the act of creating, or the act of instinctual productivity, feels meditative. Meditation as a practice I\u2019ve mostly found grueling and troublesome, though I have close friends who achieve peace and clarity through it. Meditation serves them well, while art serves me. Gardening serves me. Walking aimlessly serves me.<\/p>\n

Michael Pollan on Daydreaming<\/strong><\/p>\n

While pondering these experiences, I happened onto a conversation between the writer Michael Pollan and Ezra Klein<\/a> about Pollan\u2019s new book on consciousness<\/a>. In the part that piqued my interest, they discussed daydreaming. I share snippets of the conversation here:<\/p>\n

\n

Pollan: There\u2019s a meditation teacher named Michael Taft, whom I really like and whose meditations are on YouTube. His attitude is: Look, the machinery of the mind is going to go on, but just put it down the way you\u2019d put down your phone. Just let it do its thing. You can just ignore it.<\/p>\n

I find that very helpful. I have this sense of a little buzzing going on in this corner of thoughts that I\u2019m not paying attention to.<\/p>\n

\u2026I talk a lot about how psychedelics inspired this book. But meditation did, too. Because as soon as you stop to examine what\u2019s going on in your mind \u2026 you realize how strange our minds are, and how little volition is involved. We think we\u2019re calling the shots as conscious human beings, but to a remarkable extent, we\u2019re not.<\/p>\n

\u2026 the wandering mind is what\u2019s happening when you\u2019re bored. That\u2019s the precondition, in a way, for a wandering mind: I\u2019ve got nothing to do. \u2026 And suddenly we\u2019re off and daydreaming, or mind wandering. They\u2019re very similar things. \u2026 So they just think this is a space of creativity, and that a lot of creative thinking comes out of mind wandering and daydreaming.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s something novelists do all the time, right? They get pretty good at daydreaming.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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{Photo by Maksim Chernyshev for Scopio}<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Daydreamers Are Not Lost \u2014 We Are Found\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I have always been a daydreamer, in a most productive way. But being a daydreamer has not always been lauded. Commonly, daydreamers are described as \u201clost in thought.\u201d But what if we daydreamers are actually quite found? I am also highly perceptive, and it\u2019s strange how the two things work together: the wandering mind and the highly-perceptive mind. I notice a thousand things my husband\u2014very differently wired than I am\u2014never notices. How could I be lost and yet so very awake to sensation and detail and what is happening around me? \u2026<\/span>Thanks, Michael Pollan, for calling attention to this paradox.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you liked this article, please leave me a comment below; I am interested in your perspective. To support my writing, please subscribe<\/a> and share with a friend!<\/span>
\n<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Wren, winner of a 2022 Independent Publishers Award Bronze Medal<\/a><\/p>\n

Winner of the 2022 Independent Publisher Awards Bronze Medal for Regional Fiction; Finalist for the 2022 National Indie Excellence Awards.\u00a0<\/em>(2021) Paperback publication of\u00a0Wren<\/a>\u00a0,\u00a0<\/em>a novel. \u201cInsightful novel tackles questions of parenthood, marriage, and friendship with finesse and empathy \u2026 with striking descriptions of Oregon topography.\u201d \u2014Kirkus Reviews\u00a0<\/em>(2018) Audiobook publication of\u00a0Wren<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My Best Work Happens When My Mind Feels Quiet Over the past two years, I increasingly notice something: I do much of my best work when I\u2019m not really thinking. Or rather, since the mind is a thinking machine that rarely stops, I should say I do my best work when my mind feels like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4674,"featured_media":5242,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1157,1435,1441,24,1438,397],"class_list":["post-5233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay","tag-creativity","tag-daydreaming","tag-flow-state","tag-hope","tag-intuition","tag-mindfulness"],"yoast_head":"\nFlow State Creativity: Why I Do My Best Work When Not Thinking<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What if daydreaming is actually your most creative state? 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