Mindfulness and Health
5 Tips to Enter a Flow State and Improve Work, Joy, and Health.
The flow state can change the content of consciousness at a specific time to an optimally functioning mental and physical performance.
Purpose of the Article
Readers seeing the frequent mention of the flow state in my health stories, displayed interest in learning more about this concept and requested practical steps to achieve this unique state.
I aim to make this post an informative and practical piece step by step in simple language to satisfy the needs of readers interested in this valuable mindfulness practice.
First, let me give a brief background of the concept and its benefits so that the methods I introduce make sense.
What is a flow state, and why does it matter?
Like meditation, a flow state is a mindfulness practice. I see the flow state as an essential tool for creativity, productivity, health improvement, happiness, and overall well-being, as I have experienced it for three decades.
A flow state is a psychological concept that can be practiced by following mindfulness principles such as living in the moment, clearing mental clutter, self-compassion, focusing, paying attention to one thing at a time, and smoothly switching tasks.
The flow state changes the content of our consciousness at a specific time to an optimally functioning mental and physical performance. Thus, the flow state brings numerous health and well-being benefits by aligning our physical and mental energy.
The most significant benefits are stress relief, cognitive flexibility, and emotional regulation. However, people usually want to go to the flow state to create better, produce more with less effort, and perform well to achieve desired results.
The flow state is ideal for work and study as this state is directly related to our cognitive capabilities, such as focus, attention, task switching, memory, and problem-solving.
Specialists, scientists, doctors, musicians, actors, athletes, inventors, and many other professionals use the flow state to perform at a peak state, produce better results, stay healthy, and be happy.
The flow state has been part of our evolution. When reviewing people’s lives from history, it is noticeable that high achievers and inventors used this state well.
Since the introduction of the concept, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, in 1990, many people have benefited from living and working in the flow state intentionally and by design.
In addition to my three decades of experience, I read many articles, papers, book chapters, and blogs about people sharing their testimonials on the advantages of this state. I also observed people using it effectively.
Apart from work and study, the main reason for regularly getting into a flow state is to improve physical and mental health. You can also enter a flow state during daily chores, exercise, eating, resting, and social activities.
A flow state can reduce your emotional stress. When emotional stress is low, your energies flow better and get balanced. Health is all about the balance of our physical and mental resources.
Intuition and intellect work together in a flow state. We can usually solve problems with reasoning. However, some complex issues require intuitive input. A flow state can enhance our intuition.
For example, inventors, artists, and thought leaders use flow states to improve intuition and gain better mental vision.
The body and mind connect well in the flow state. Neurochemicals and hormones operate in a more balanced way in a flow state. Therefore, we can create more with less stress. The pressure of work is replaced with satisfaction in a flow state.
After this background information, I’d like to summarize key points to quickly enter and maintain a flow state as much as desired in the following sections.
1 — Activate the various brain regions.
A practical way of using the whole brain is to connect our thoughts with feelings and sensations from multiple brain parts. This concept represents a mindset shift from a fixed to a growth state.
While we can tap into the thinking brain through cognitive functions such as focus, attention, and planning, we can access the limbic system and primitive brain parts by tuning our emotions and using our senses, such as touch, smell, taste, and sound.
When we activate multiple brain regions, entering the flow state can be easy. For beginners, it takes time and requires more effort in the beginning.
However, after a while, starting various brain regions within the control of the thinking brain can be a habitual act. The following activities can help.
2 — Live in the moment.
The fastest way of entering the flow state is to forget about the past and stop thinking about the future. Paradoxically, the sense of time gets pleasantly distorted in the flow state.
Activating multiple brain regions can make it easier to live in the moment. Living in the past or future might make it difficult to enter the flow state due to its effects on brain energy consumption.
When we worry about the future or regret the past, the primitive part of the brain takes over, amplifies the messages via the limbic system, and might shut down the thinking brain parts.
Activating the neocortex is critical to enter a flow state. When the thinking part of the brain is more active, the other regions get more silenced. Therefore, our concerns and worries diminish.
A practical way to enter the flow state is by doing a few minutes of breathing and stretching exercises and performing a short meditation session to quiet the mind. This helps us to clear the mental clutter.
3 — Clear the mental and physical clutter.
Mental clutter is usually generated by the primitive parts of the brain and the limbic system, creating worries and concerns to keep us safe. This is a default survival system.
One of the best ways of clearing mental clutter is to observe our thoughts and feelings. This can be achieved by sitting quietly and not judging our thoughts and feelings. It is called meditation.
A short meditation session, like five to ten minutes, can calm the mind and enable us to enter a flow state for work, study, chores, or other planned activities by removing distractions.
Clearing physical clutter from the environment is also essential. It is because clutter might cause mental chaos, lead to distractions like initiating urges and impulses to do different things, and prevent us from entering a flow state.
Asking questions when dealing with an object or case can be valuable. For example, you might ask these two questions: do I really need this item? Can I do my job without this object? These simple questions contribute to an uncluttered lifestyle.
Mindfulness practices like meditation and visualization can significantly contribute to achieving a flow state. Thus, living in the moment is the primary requirement of mindful living.
We might initially have discomfort when clearing the mind, but once we are aware of thoughts and sensations and keep bringing our attention to the moment, the uncomfortable feeling might disappear gradually and allow us to enter the flow state.
4 — Focus on and pay attention to a single task at a given time but learn smooth task switching.
The easiest way to enter the flow state and stay in it as long as we want is to focus on and pay attention to a single task.
Unfortunately, multitasking can stress the brain and even shut down the neocortex if we get overwhelmed by the pressure. Thus the survival system kicks in and takes us out of the flow state.
Of course, we need to do multiple tasks to achieve a goal. But the critical point is to focus on a single task until it is complete, and we perform graceful task switching without stressing the brain too much.
People confuse multitasking and task switching, which are two different concepts. Task switching is essential to achieve our goals, but multitasking is not. If we can plan appropriately before starting an activity, task switching can be much easier and more effective.
When we look realistically and closely, multitasking is not more than extremely quick task switching. But we don’t need to act at extreme speed to achieve our goals and be successful. We need to flow like a river rather than a flood or a thunderous shower.
The human body and the brain are not designed to cope with extreme stress. However, we can gradually improve task-switching speed as we improve our mental and physical muscles.
When you focus on a single task at a given moment, neurochemicals, hormones, enzymes, and other bodily fluids respond and flow more efficiently. First, however, the chosen task must be essential and serve our goal, as I cover in the next section.
5 — Set self-chosen priorities and own them.
The points in the previous sections are to establish fundamentals to enter a flow state. However, to be able to remain in this state, you need to set your priorities. I specifically use the term “self-chosen” because people don’t enjoy tasks assigned by others as much as those given by themselves.
You might ask how about people who work for others. This is a valid question and an important point. We can get assignments from a boss, a supervisor, a manager, or a coordinator, but it is up to us how to prioritize the small tasks to complete the assignment.
This a mental trick that we set our priority of tasks to complete an assignment. When we do that intentionally, the brain responds more favorably, allowing us to focus and pay better attention to chosen tasks.
For example, when a task is assigned to you, you might create a quick mental plan and prioritize the sub-tasks in order of importance and urgency.
Your to-do lists might include multiple items, such as urgent, important, trivial, and not urgent. Some tasks might be both urgent and vital. It is up to you to choose the tasks that bring the best value for achieving your goal.
Since you set the priority for these tasks, you might feel that you own the task and forget about the notion imposed by others. When concentrating on your priorities, the remaining activities are dimmed temporarily, and they stay in the background.
Another important point, rather than following a task list, you create and follow a priority list and start with the best value-generating ones.
When you achieve small results, each achievement can create small dopamine spikes, motivating you to get into the next task. This is the critical success factor for maintaining the flow state.
Conclusions and Takeaways
The essential aspect of the flow state is finding the middle ground between extreme challenges and too-easy stuff. Two ends of the spectrum cannot initiate and maintain a flow state.
If the mind sees a task as too complicated, it creates a feeling of anxiety. Likewise, if it perceives a task as too easy, it creates apathy and boredom. So the flow state can occur in between.
A mindful approach to your tasks is the fastest way of going into the flow state. Focusing and paying attention to the task at hand can be an excellent start.
Refraining from multitasking and concentrating on a single task can enhance the flow state experience. To immerse in the task, you can trick the brain that you possess and choose the task at hand.
This gimmick can also improve your personal responsibility at work and can make you a leader in your field.
Apart from the fundamentals that I covered under five headings, entering and maintaining a flow state can be achieved by improving cognitive skills, including focus, attention, working memory, task switching, and problem-solving.
Purposefully activating our cognitive system can tame the primitive and emotional parts of the brain. When the neocortex takeover entering and maintaining the flow state can be a breeze.
Flow state is a valuable tool for creating desired results with less time and effort because it can balance your energies and reduce stress when working, studying, undertaking chores, resting, or conversing.
Once you can wire your brain for the flow state, everything becomes effortless, and you lose time concept in the process. In fact, the flow state is an altered state of mind, but it is controlled as the neocortex leads the way.
You can quickly cease the state during an emergency, unlike other altered states of mind, such as those caused by drugs.
While tasting the joy even in the middle of a perceived crisis at work, you can also be more creative and productive since this state can significantly improve your desired outcomes.
A practical approach to improving the flow state is gradually improving your skills by increasing each challenge step by step and notch by notch.
The brain, as a biological organ and mind psychological entity, needs time and conditioning to create new neural pathways and psychological connections manifesting as skills to meet specific challenges.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.
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