Caroline Rufo on Science of Creativity

This description of the state of flow resonates so much! I am curious about the difference between "being in the zone" and "zoning out". I think they are in fact different, and there's a whole taxonomy of substates and related states we could be identifying. For instance, when I paint in my studio, I enjoy listening to audio - podcasts, books, music with lyrics. It seems to engage my language centers so that I don't think in words while I paint. (I could never listen to them while writing.) I also teach an AP art. I often find my students with ADHD are the absolute best at generating ideas, and in critique they are great at finding connections in other students' work that those students didn't see at first. These students struggle to engage their PFC for executive function and time awareness. What I see in my ADHD students when they seem distracted, miss deadlines, and don't turn in work, seems like a glitch of sorts. They lose their executive function. When I meditate in the morning, I think that down-regulating my PFC actually helps it to function in other times of day. Meditation has also helped with interrupting thoughts, which feel to me like an over-active PFC. Anxiety also feels like a PFC which is using more metabolic resources than is helpful. I need to move those resources elsewhere, and meditation really helps to do that. Repetitive actions like crochet (Thanks Kathryn!) and meditation feel to me like they do something different than listening to audio while I paint, or "watching" tv. Distraction seems different than choosing to be in a different state. I don't know enough about the brain science, but I can't wait to check out some of the books and articles people have listed here. Thanks for a wonderful article!