I’ve spent a fair amount of time during the December working with my hands building things in Meatspace. We’ve been renovating the house and besides the wet works, we’ve done everything ourselves. I’ve also built a hydroponic NFT (Nutrient Film Technique) system to grow my own veggies. We also built a fence to ensure the new puppy doesn’t run out into the road when we drive out in the mornings. This has been remarkably therapeutic and satisfying. There is definitely something to be said about the merits of physical work. Your actions and exertions result in something being created or changed in the real world. A lot of my creative energies have been spent in the virtual world, creating music using computers or writing software and although there are elements of of these virtual pursuits that manifest physically – you can hear the music you write and you can see the interfaces of the software you’ve coded – it’s not the same as building kitchen cupboards.

During the process I’d often stand back and remark how great I felt. I realise it was because it was stimulating many different parts of me. You have to be creative to make something that wasn’t there before, after all, you are creating. You also have to learn new skills or hone existing ones. Some of the tasks are repetitive, but what better way to get better at\ them than to challenge yourself to get better every time? You must also be flexible. You plan doesn’t always work out. Sometimes the parts you wanted aren’t available and you have to use something else. Sometimes you simply forget something or don’t think it through correctly. Patience and perseverance are handy in these moments. But probably the most satisfying part of it all is the way that you can get lost in the zone for hours on end without even realising it. Before you know it you’ve spent the whole day bringing your idea to life and you don’t feel tired. In fact, you feel energised. You’ve managed to find the Flow.

You can find the Flow in anything. You should try to find the Flow in everything.