How To Enter A State Of Flow?

[Visionary]

Hi guys,

Any tips and experiences on how to enter a state of flow? From what I know this is a highly intuitive state where "you" completely disappear and you're completely absorbed into your activities. If you know anything, please share. This can be fundamental for not only reaching, but really DESTROYING your goals.



Peace

[Arman]

I can't remember where I heard it, but supposedly flow states occur when the situation requires a certain degree of challenge or possibility to move beyond - like a baseline of challenge that pushes you. If there's too little 'challenge', then the flow state doesn't occur, but if the challenge, circumstance or stimuli is too far beyond your abilities, then you're overwhelmed and also can't enter the flow state.

So if you are a chess player, you're best bet at entering the flow is playing someone who is slightly above your skill level. If you are a writer, you are more likely to enter a flow state writing something that excites and pushes you, rather than the same kind of content that is already second nature to you. 

[ctro]

Entering a flow state is usually a by-product of some kind of deliberate practice. Suppose that I am trying to understand a deep mathematical concept. It starts with curiosity, reading definitions and doing simple examples. Soon I get stuck, confused and frustrated and remain like this for a long time. When you break out of this frustration (i.e, when you have a small eureka moment) then you will usually spend time in a 'flow state'. This usually means that you interpret your insight and work out details.

It is a good point to realize that flow should not be the goal when practicing deliberately. The feeling of confusion and frustration should be the goal, flow is merely the reward at the end. For example, you might spend hours practicing a piano piece, note by note, bar by bar, and this will not produce flow. However, the actual playing of a piece you know well does produce flow. (c.f. http://calnewport.com/blog/2011/12/23/flow-is-the-opiate-of-the-medicore-advice-on-getting-better-from-an-accomplished-piano-player/)

19 minutes ago, Visionary said:

This can be fundamental for not only reaching, but really DESTROYING your goals.

This highly depends on what your goals are. If your goals require you to do a lot of repetitive work, then flow state is definitely your friend. If your goals require you to absorb abstract and technical concepts, then you should be careful about this. Deep work is not easy and will almost always produce a sense of frustration.

[Socrates]

This graph says it all. if you need more info study Csikszentmihalyi.

[philosogi]

1. Do something interesting.
2. Commit to yourself to not giving into distractions.
3. Let go.
4. Like orgasm, don't expect it to happen every time and you'll have a better time.

[AprilA]

For some of you who have not yet known, Flow state is the state of feeling where you're fully immersed on the task at hand. Your attention is focused on the movement and angles of your body, your breathing, and feeling is one. You lose yourself in the moment, so much that before you know it, time has flown by. You are in the present, in the NOW.

Your question is how to enter the flow state. This article explains the 17 flow triggers to hack into the flow state https://www.cwilsonmeloncelli.com/17-flow-triggers-to-hack-into-the-flow-state/

It is basically the ff:
1. Find a Challenge - Choose something that you enjoy doing and challenge yourself.
2. Have clear goals - You should be very clear on what you want to achieve and how you'll know you're succeeding.
3. Avoid interruptions - Focus completely on the task at hand and eradicate all other distractions.
4. Focus on the process and not the end state - While having a goal is important, enjoying the journey is also essential. Allow yourself to simply live in the present moment without worrying too much about the ultimate result.
5. Perform Mindfulness Meditation or the Flow State Training program - Remember that your body and mind is your instrument for expressing your skill, sport or profession so you must effectively work on both aspects to keep your instrument in perfect tune.

[TJ Reeves]

@AprilA has great notes. I have only one tiny thing to add:

Get immediate feed back on whatever it is you're doing. The faster, the better.

For example, I'm studying for the Medical Schools admissions exam and the best way to study is to do practice problems. These problems are difficult to master and none of them are solely based on previous knowledge, so its not enough for me to enter a flow state based off of knowledge/mastery alone. 

The practice sets come in packages of about 120 problems and I have a few options for how to tackle these packages:

- I could do all the problems at once, and then check my answers.

- I could do about half of the problems, and then check my answers

- Or I could do each problem and then immediately check my answers afterwards.

After a few months of experimentation, it definitely works best to go one by one, checking each answer. Doing that, time seems to fly by, even if I'm working on a subject that's difficult for me.

This lines up with what Mihaly Csiksgentmihalyi's original notes on flow states and it goes for anything, really.

If you were learning how to play song sections on a guitar, I would recommend you play each verse, record that verse, and listen to the feedback for how you did ASAP.

Immediate Feedback is also why video games can suck you in so easily.

TL;DR: The faster the feedback, the higher the chance for flow. 

Edited April 24, 2017 by Treeves4u

[Nahm]

play guitar and sing.   learn dyaphramic breath control.   

[pluto]

Find something you love to do where you get so immersed in the activity that you get lost yet found. They also call this "In the zone" where you can perform the activity or whatever you are doing flawlessly without fail or fear of fail.

[Arkandeus]

notice that you are in the zone regularly, notice those moments when you are already in the zone. 

do you have any fear of falling when you walk? do you have any fear of failing to walk? when we walk we are in the zone, and walking is no easy or ''simple'' feat.
It is a complicated string of physical calculations and balance, but because it is the first thing we learned and mastered we sort of gloss over it and think its just a natural occurrence. 
Same with reading, most people are very confident in their reading abilities , they read in a ''flow' state yet reading is not something simple at all. 
 
You can find your own personal flow states in many of your daily activities where you act with full confidence and grace. 

To recognize that you already have flow states gives you the ability to investigate how to achieve a flow state. 
How did you achieve a flow state while walking? how did you achieve a flow state with reading? 

You'll see that before you could walk with full confidence, you were crawling, you tried hard for many months, you desired to walk, you fell many times yet you pushed through with amazing dedication. 

No baby goes after falling a dozen times :  ''well that's it : I'm tired of trying to learn walk, I give up, it's too hard'' 
A baby doesn't doubt for a second its determination, yet it fails many times before it can finally walk properly into a flow state. 

this process is amazing, and there's a lot to learn from it. 
so for me to get into a flow state is to have the determination of a baby to set to do what you want to do, and no matter how many times you fail or ''fall'', get back up and keep striving to set out your desires, till you don't notice when you fall, till the idea of failing doesn't seem ridiculous, it never even enters your mind to begin with,and then before you notice it will the come state with zero doubt, the state where you act with your full intent and will power and confidence, because winning and setting out to do what you want is your only reality. 

 

[Visionary]

Thank you all for your wonderful advice! 

Love