Learn how to get into ‘flow’
I’m going to invite you to think about a time when you were just in the moment. You felt ease in what you were doing, time didn’t matter, and you felt some satisfaction with what you were doing. Maybe you experienced this while reading a book, hiking, writing a story, baking something, or ???
This feeling of being in the groove is often referred to as ‘flow’. Flow can seem like it happens by accident and we hope for it. But did you know we can cultivate it?
The first thing we have to do is understand why we’re in that flow state. The short answer is: we do not feel anxiety. When we are not anticipating the future or worrying about our ability to do the activity in front of us, we are in the moment and that is flow.
There are well documented conditions for finding our flow.
Having the right balance of skill and challenge. It’s hard to be in flow when you’re struggling to learn, but when you find that time when it clicks and you get it, that’s the sweet spot.
2. Clear outcomes. Being able to answer the questions: how will I know I’ve achieved it? How will I know it’s good enough? are really important (and some great coaching questions!)
3. Getting good at what you’re doing. This is called action-awareness merging. It’s when you trust your body or brain to do it without having to think through every step and that you’ll likely get it right, at least most of the time.
4. Your inner superhero shows up. You feel like you can do more or do anything. You feel unstoppable.5.Time doesn’t matter so much anymore. We’re not working against the clock, we’re doing the thing to just do the thing.
6.You do it for yourself. It stops being about achieving an external goal and you are just doing it to satisfy yourself.
The next time something feels hard, look at this list and see what you can adjust to help you get it into flow.