ACTIVATING FLOW STATE
What Is Flow State?
You may have experienced flow state at some point in your life. Flow state is when you:
- Are deeply focused on something beyond the point of distraction.
- Find yourself losing awareness of time. Hours pass like minutes. Some people describe the feeling as being ‘in the zone.’
- Are fully consumed by something, and those feelings that would normally consume you under normal circumstances, like fatigue or your normal aches and pains kind of melt away.
Flow state is accessible to everyone, whether you’re engaged in a physical activity, a creative activity, or even just simply day to day tasks.
There was a report published by Harvard Medical School on positive psychology, when they looked at flow experiences for people who are engaged in challenging physical pursuits, they found that they had common characteristics where you lose awareness of time, where the hours can pass like minutes, and you aren’t thinking about yourself.
Can Any Activity Activate Flow State?
The flow mental state is generally less common during periods of relaxation, and mostly makes itself present during challenging and engaging activities.
So when you’re watching TV, that’s seen as a passive activity, and it wouldn’t be considered a flow state activity. However, one of the passive flow state activities that researchers are looking at is driving in a car, because your brain is still engaged, and a lot of people actually say that they feel those things while driving.
The key to really achieve flow state is to look for engagement and concentration.
Why Is Flow State Important?
For decades, research was done exploring people’s satisfaction and their everyday activities. Initially, they weren’t looking for flow state, or what we call flow state today.
They found that people report greater satisfaction when they are totally immersed in and concentrating on what they’re doing, they feel more life satisfaction.
A lot of people are experiencing stress, heightened anxiety, and depression to this day all across the globe.
In this research, they also found that flow experiences lead to positive emotions in the short term, and over the long term people who more frequently experienced flow were generally happier.
Recognizing how flow occurs or doesn’t in your life, and creating opportunities for more flow experiences can be a really potent route to increase positive feelings and life satisfaction.
How Can You Achieve Flow State?
The good news about flow is that you can increase the amount of flow experiences in your life and reap the benefits. Although it does take a certain amount of effort and comes more naturally to some people than others.
So how do you increase your opportunities to reach flow state?
There are three key components that you are looking forward to increase opportunities for flow state in your life.
Three Components To Increasing Flow Opportunities
Mindfulness is the first one, you want to practice being present, and to learn to focus and engage more easily to get rid of outside distractions. Put the phone away, be only present with that one activity at a time and not trying to multitask to do something that matters. So you need to care about the task at hand.
Do something that you’re passionate about, for example, if you’re at work and you’re feeling disconnected from the task, because we won’t love everything we do at work, ask for feedback from your peers or your customers or from your managers on how your work impacts them. You want to see how your work is making a difference, which will increase your level of caring about that task or project.
Master something, matching your skill level to the challenge is really important here. When you’re thinking about mastering something, you don’t have to perfect it right from the beginning. In 2015, Kendra Till and I started surfing and we had zero skill level. We have been trying to surf for a couple of years, and it just wasn’t working out. We were able to master it by breaking it down into small steps. It’s all about making progress, not about perfection.
We did this by working with one of our friends, Alice Mackinnon, who is a surf instructor in Australia. She started us on land, just learning the basics, and then we got into the whitewater, and then eventually made our way out into the green waves, which are what they call the waves that break in Australia, and eventually made our way out to the lineup. It’s breaking it down in small steps, making it easy and achievable, but also a challenge. It’s knowing what your next step is, and learning from that last experience so that you can continue to master it to keep your brain engaged.
What Does Flow Look Like In My Life?
For me, it’s when I surf.
I was describing how breaking down the activity is important to make it challenging, but achievable. When I moved back to South Carolina, learning to surf here and learning the waves created a new challenge for me. It’s now also a flow state activity for me again.
Also, when:
- I work on activities that I absolutely love. When I do tasks, projects, and activities that are a hell yes for me.
- Focus on one priority at a time. When I’m clear about what my one goal is for the week and one task that I will complete within each 90-minute interval.
- I set up my schedule in 90 minute intervals to complete one task at a time.
- I don’t multitask.
- I put my phone at least 4 feet away from my computer. If it’s out of sight, it’s out of mind. A lot of people think they need to be available 24/7. Unless you’re ‘on call’ as a physician, doctor, or a nurse there are times when you can be non-contactable.
How Can I Create Better Conditions For Flow State?
You can’t force flow, but you can invite it more often in your life by
- Doing things that you love, aiming to really surprise yourself and discover new things about your abilities in your activity.
- Trying new activities or choosing an activity that can provide you with new feelings, experiences, and insights, and allowing your feelings and awareness to flow without attempting to interfere or critique them.
- You’re likely to be at your best when you focus on what you want to accomplish or experience and don’t allow mistakes to be distracting. It’s good to reflect and learn from your mistakes, but do not let them stop you from continuing moving forward.
- Meditation and mindfulness support flow state. A big part of achieving flow state is being able to concentrate and filter out distractions, and meditation sharpens your mind to do just that. It can also help you accept that physical symptoms of nervousness are normal and will naturally ease off once you get going.
How Can I Create More Opportunity For Flow Experiences?
So for me when it comes to distractions when I’m working, I often time use Focusmate, which I absolutely love. It allows you to schedule 25 or 50-minute work sessions with a buddy via video conferencing on your computer. You spend 30 seconds checking in with each other and say the exact activities and tasks you’re going to complete within that time bracket. Then you can mute your mic if you want or keep it on depending and get started with your work.
- Then at the end, you check in for 30 seconds to say what you completed. It gives you all the elements you need for flow state with:
- accountability when you state your work tasks.
- body double- This is great for ADHD people or neurodiverse people to have a body double when you’re completing an activity. You don’t necessarily have to be working on the same task but you’re there together working in the same space on different tasks.
- distraction-free work time- You agree to not have your phone near you unless your task for that session is to make a phone call.
I also use this other device called Apollo Neuro. This is a wearable device, and it artificially simulates human touch, which actually regulates your heart rate variability, and can allow you to focus and get into flow state more easily. If you use the link provided for Apollo Neuro, you will receive 10% off the initial price.
Flow
I offer a five-week course that is fully self-paced and online. You can access it now to help you build the habits to have a regular mindfulness practice and strategies to support you to emotionally regulate, which allows you to set the optimal life conditions for flow. It will give you the skills to prioritize and set boundaries to help you reduce that mental clutter.
Click HERE to learn more about my course Flow
Link to research article:
