Joachim Lee's Flow State through Creative Expression
Published on 7.19.25
Psychotherapist Joachim Lee suggests that engaging in creative hobbies can quiet the prefrontal cortex, reducing self-criticism and judgment, and inducing a state of "flow" where stress melts away. This is accompanied by physical sensations such as the rhythm of hands moving during activities like stitching or brushing, which activates sensorimotor systems and brings a sense of grounding. Dr. Tan from The Therapy Room notes that creative arts, like photography and writing poetry, can provide a channel for organizing internal experiences and promoting insight into oneself. For example, writer and poet uses metaphors and imagery to capture feelings more vividly than verbal expression, and finds solace in re-reading poems that evoke memories of their grandmother's past and present states.