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In ‘Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and
Invention” Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi talks about the
period of incubation being perhaps the most important
and essential aspect of creative process. Out of the
stillness of this ‘mysterious time’ flow the connections
and relationships which when fused, will lead suddenly
to the eureka moment, clarity as if out of nothing, when
least expected.
Effectively this means that what we perceive as being
the work of creativity, the brainstorming, research and
experimentation which occur as we explore or invent the
problem in hand is merely the start of the process at a
conscious level, whilst the real magic happens as the
problem goes underground, into our subconscious and
becomes creative alchemy.
So how does this work in reality? Incubation means
different things to different people. It may be doing
nothing, or it may be doing something completely
different and unrelated to the problem at hand. It can
take seconds, minutes, hours, days or weeks, be a
five-minute break for coffee or a trip to the Ecuadorian
rainforests. The only thing we can do is raise our
awareness of our natural working rhythms and learn to
create space when we come to a natural break in the
process.
If we trust that the creative process can never be
entirely controlled or contained by deliberate focus we
open up new worlds and possibilities of discovery where
we allow our conscious and unconscious minds to
collaborate.
To do this on a day-to-day level you might:
Do something differently: walk or drive a different
route to work or the gym.
Take a shower.
Take your coffee outside (ideally not in a
rainstorm).
Read a completely unrelated book.
Take a nap (seriously, it can work).
The most important thing is to take a break and do
something else, for as long as it takes.
