Finding My T Flo State
Finding My T-Flo State
Photo Credit: Amanda Braughler
This week Joe Rogan had Steven Kotler on his podcast talking about the Flow Genome Project. There were many Keanu in the Matrix, woah moments…
I had heard the term flow state before when Josh Waitzkin has talked about it on the Tim Ferris podcast, and the CrossFit games athlete Brent Fikowski described his last event at the games of being completely in a state of flow. But this podcast delved into what is going on underneath the hood chemically, the benefits of the state, and how to better access.
First what exactly is a Flow State, From Wikipedia:
“In positive psychology, flow, also known as the zone, is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. In essence, flow is characterized by complete absorption in what one does.”
The premier scientist in this field Csíkszentmihályi describes flow as "being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you're using your skills to the utmost.”
So yes when sports announcers anoint an athlete as “being in the zone” this is actually a chemical state in the brain which scientists can now detect….woah. There are chemicals that are associated with this state: norepinepherine, dopamine, anandamide, endorphins, and serotonin are all found during a flow state. Neural imaging allows us to see that the brain switches from conscious decision to subconscious decision making, in a term called transient hypofrontality. Kotler makes the point that, “Essentially we shut down higher cognitive function, which is why time becomes irrelevant, the inner critic shuts down the nagging defeatist voice, we are free from ourselves and because that our creativity, decision making all increase.” And in my opinion the most powerful argument for flow, is it is they have deemed it the source code for intrinsic motivation and have found that people with the most flow in their lives are happiest.
So how do you enter a flow state? There are many different triggers, but here are some of Kotler’s Flow Hacks:
“Deep Embodiment – This means total physical awareness. When you can harness the power of your whole body paying attention to the task at hand, you will feel unstoppable. This also means paying attention to multiple sensory streams at once. Not only our 5 senses but also our proprioception and vestibular awareness.”
Meditation which I discussed in a previous post
Risk or High Consequences- “This doesn’t always mean physical danger, this can also be emotional, mental and social risk. You must be willing to take risks. It’s that sense of adventure and potential for failure that will drive you.”
And after listening and reflecting on my own life it made me realize why I am so obsessed with both CrossFit and Improv. These are times when I can really feel that sense of flow where I was completely in the moment, consumed with the task at hand, and was performing at my highest level. These moments are rare but I feel when the stakes are raised is when I have been able to get into the flow state which confirms the idea of risk or high consequence enabling flow. For instance, if you are not familiar with CrossFit, every year they have the CrossFit Open where they announce one workout a week for five weeks. At the end of the five weeks you are ranked based on how you performed. I still have moments within these workouts where I can look back and feel an almost outer body experience where I was just along for the ride. Or when I take an improv class at the end of the semester there is a class show and I can think back to certain skits where I don’t know how I said what I said.
Can you think back to a time when you were in the flow state now that you have a deeper understanding? Will you seek them out? Here is a youtube video of the Joe Rogan podcast with Steven Kotler.