Entering Flow State
Everything else disappears and there’s just what’s right in front of you.
This is flow state. It’s an actual state that can be measured in your brain. This state is also called transient hyper-frontality which is a neuroscientific term meaning your prefrontal cortex is temporarily quietened while you allow your creative self to take over.
The pioneer of flow state was a Hungarian researcher called Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi who identified four triggers to help generate more flow:
Complete concentration in the present moment
Immediate feedback
Clear goals
The challenge-skills ratio (this is when the challenge you’re facing pushes your skills to the maximum).
We’re in a culture that is REACTIONARY. No wonder we are in overwhelm - our nervous systems are on constant high alert and the stress response is taking us away from flow.
If you’ve ever had an anxiety attack, that is your nervous system alerting you to what it thinks is a dangerous situation. When someone has a “nervous breakdown” it is literally their “nervous system breaking down”, trying to make sense of what is happening. It’s a state of overwhelm which is in the opposite direction of flow state. So how do you break free of overwhelm and stress and get back into creative mode or flow state?
You need to get out of your head and into your heart. Seriously, you need to STOP all the overthinking and go EXERCISE. Connect back into nature, go for a walk, do yoga, go to the gym, run, cycle or raise your heart rate to create the chemical states of norepinephrine and BDNF (brain derived neurotrophic factor) which lead to transient hyper-frontality, and will help you focus, improve memory and aid in helping your brain create better neuroplasticity. Essentially, over time, if you regularly exercise to the point of sweating, you will be allowing your nervous system to take a bit of a break. When this happens your brain will be helping you create solutions to the stress you are experiencing.
Here’s a couple of practical suggestions:
Create a health team around you. This might include employing a personal trainer, massage therapist and nutritionist (consult your doctor before taking on anything too rigid - particularly if you haven’t exercised in a while).
Review your sleep and eating habits to create a plan that will help your body and brain thrive.
Set up an environment to enter flow state. Close the door to your office and create a tight bubble of total focus by turning off dings, pings and access to social media. Do this regularly (at least once per week) so that you build up the brain’s focus chemicals of acetylcholine and dopamine.
Anyone can create a state of flow. It’s something you can cultivate over time and re-examine to get the most from. The more you do it the easier it becomes.
Flow state allows you to get more done in a shorter space of time and produce your best work.
Research tells us that happiness lays on the other side of progress.
When we feel like we are making headway such as mastering a new skill, completing a project or starting a new task, we feel more content and happier. If we are happier we want to get more done. It's a perpetual cycle.
Unfortunately it goes the other way too. If we feel frustrated, we lack motivation, we have resistance to getting things done and we thereby don't want to start the project, let alone complete the old one. Motivation and happiness are linked, just like flow state and joy are linked.
So what are you waiting for? Go exercise, enter flow state, get more done, produce your best work! Simple!
