Creativity This Emotional Life on PBS

Visit Your Local PBS Station PBS Home PBS Home Programs A-Z TV Schedules Watch Video Donate Shop PBS Search PBS

Creativity and Flow

See all content

Topics That May Interest You

We use creativity—the capacity to generate new ideas and solve problems—every day in our work and hobbies.

Most of us from time to time experience a state of flow—being completely absorbed in what we’re doing. Researchers are finding that in addition to contributing to our work satisfaction, creativity and flow are connected to positive emotions and our overall happiness.

Blogs, Articles & Videos (Recent - Older)

See more:

Are You Spiritual or Psychotic?

  • By: Therese Borchard

    • In his bestselling book, “Strong at the Broken Places,” Richard Cohen profiles, among five persons living with chronic illness, mental health ...

Topics

A "Little Thing" (Very Little) That Makes Me Happy: the Gift Bag

  • By: Gretchen Rubin

    • Samuel Johnson wrote, “It is by studying little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery, and as much happiness as possible," and I’m ...

Topics

Happiness Exercise: Writing

  • By: Senia Maymin, MAPP

    • The Leonardo da Vinci exhibit at the Museum of Science in Boston was full of intriguing items, from a blue metal sculpture symbolizing bird flight to the ...

Topics

Flow

Topics

Additional Resources

  1. Epstein Creativity Competencies Inventory

    Psychologist Robert Epstein, a leading researcher in creativity, has a short, free online test where you can assess your creativity skills and learn how to boost them at this Web site.

  2. Finding Flow

    For more about flow, read this article by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in Psychology Today.

Five things you should know about Creativity

  1. Everyone has the capacity for creativity—and our creativity can be nurtured

  2. About 20% of people say they experience a state of “flow” often

  3. Studies have found that roughly one-third of the people in any given occupation feel that their work is a “calling”—work that is meaningful in and of itself

  4. Creativity can be expressed throughout our lives—it's not age dependent

  5. The expression of creativity depends on some basic skills — skills that anyone can learn

This Emotional Life is a co-production of the NOVA/WGBH Science Unit and Vulcan Productions, Inc. A Film by Kunhardt McGee Productions. ©/™ 2009 WGBH Educational Foundation and Vulcan Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

This Web site was produced for PBS Online by elephants & ants.

Funding for This Emotional Life is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Public Television Viewers. Additional funding provided by the University of Phoenix and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Find Help

Locate mental health and well-being support organizations in your area.

Close

Register

Registering allows you to comment on blogs and suggest and review resources on the This Emotional Life website.*Required Fields

  1. Spaces are allowed; punctuation is not allowed except for periods, hyphens, and underscores.
  2. A valid e-mail address. All e-mails from the system will be sent to this address. The e-mail address is not made public and will only be used if you wish to receive a new password or wish to receive certain news or notifications by e-mail.
  3. Please re-type your e-mail address to confirm it is accurate.
  6. Enter your zipcode. The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
Close

Login

  1. Forgot?
  2. Forgot?
Close

Forgot Username or Password?

Close

This Emotional Life: Premieres January 4, 2010