How To Enter Flow State In 11 Minutes (Step by Step)

most people think that flow States work like a light switch we are either in the zone or you're not but in reality flow is cyclical it's one stage in a four-stage cycle and if you don't understand this cycle each of its stages and how to move through them then flow States and the Deep profound performance they bring will remain elusive to you now I'm Maria Doris co-founder and CEO the flow research Collective along with my partner Stephen Cutler we have taught thousands of professionals and their teams to access these states of deep performance and productivity

at will now the flow cycle is your ticket to accessing Flow State consistently I'm going to share and teach each step of the flow cycle with you and how to avoid the biggest mistake that blocks people from accessing flow every day the first step of the flow cycle began with the son of a Russian immigrant back in 1935 Dr Herbert Benson a Harvard trained physician was fascinated by the mind's influence on the body and he started with studying the physiological effects of meditation at the time meditation was considered a mystical practice falling far outside the

scope of Western medicine but through his research he discovered that when the subjects meditated blood pressure heart rate and metabolic rate all cropped now you're likely well aware of the stress response which includes increased blood pressure heart rate and metabolic rate well Benson observed that meditators experienced the exact opposite effects so instead of a stress response he called this physiological State the body's relaxation response and upon further research Benson discovered that no meditation is actually needed to unlock the relaxation response there's all kinds of triggers for this response like deep breathing prayer even showering during

these lightly stimulating activities the prefrontal cortex the forebrain quietens down a little bit and the Brain makes unique connections among disparate pieces of information which lead to Aha insights like Eureka moments now Meanwhile my partner flow research Collective Stephen Cutler was studying extreme athletes who were achieving seemingly impossible Feats in record time Time After Time After Time Again in the surfing world the 30-foot wave used to be the gold standard then in 2002 Laird Hamilton wrote a 70-footer of Jaws and a decade later 80 foot waves became the new Norm it took years before pro

skateboarder Tony Hawk pulled off the first 900 degree aerial spin something few people thought was ever going to be possible and then three months later Tom Shar took it further with a 1080 and he was 12 years old Stephen identified the key pattern to each physical feat every athlete that were pulling off these crazy elevations of what was possible in each respective sport claimed to be experiencing a mental state called flow characterized by razor-sharp Focus and performance and Stephen collated all this Research into the book The Rise of Superman and along with Jamie wheel filled

in the missing pieces and mapped the flow cycle that herb Benson's research was pointing at struggle release flow and Recovery what was previously attributed to magic or chats can now be attributed to method to the flow cycle humans have unknowingly used the flow cycle from Millennia to access Peak States Of Consciousness and performance to be able to harness the flow cycle for your own work here's how you can use it intentionally to drive yourself into the Zone every day with consistency first thing is struggle this is the first phase of the flow cycle it feels

like pushing a boulder up a hill it involves hard work pushing your cognitive and physical limits grappling with a problem or a task this stage is characterized by a high level of stress the release of norepinephrine and cortisol and these stress neurochemicals make a squirm the itch to stop working and to do something else for a squirt but feel good dopamine that soothes our system and heightens pleasure is at an all-time high as Stephen Cutler put it in struggle our problems seem unsolvable our efforts unsustainable and the whole situation feels as far from flow as

one could get but here's the key if you interrupt the struggle phase you reset the cycle to the beginning that means you once again must struggle to acclimate to the task at hand and this time since it will take up to 23 minutes to regain Focus based on the research it requires even more willpower to get back into the struggle the sad thing is many people spend their entire careers dipping in and out of the struggle phase never getting to experience flow it's like surfing but never catching the perfect wave you paddle out struggling against

the ocean but the Wave Always breaks before you can ride it you have less and less energy for each subsequent Chase you're left craving The Thrill of the ride but never experiencing it and just stuck in the grind but if you persist through the struggle you'll be aptly rewarded with flow indeed it's counter-intuitive but the feeling of struggle is a sure sign that you're on track for flow the more you can link struggle to the reward of flow the easier the struggle becomes we might even start to Crave the struggle when you see a hill

Sprint that's the motto now number two in the cycle is release this phase occurs when you step back from the problem or task providing a period of relaxation that allows the subconscious mind to take over from any conscious effort you are exerting during struggle it's like adding the boulder to the top of the hill you can finally take a breath and see the full view it's in this stage that the brainwave patterns shift from beta wave frequency associated with normal waking consciousness to the alpha wave frequency associated with relaxation and daydreaming to trigger Benson's relaxation

response and release into flow take a boring break spend five to ten minutes doing nothing but paying attention to your surroundings or doing something simple like drinking a cup of tea or staring at a wall now the third phase is flow the main event the Flow State itself this is when the boulder you've been pushing up the hill starts rolling down the other side of the hill on its own accelerating rapidly with compounding speed during this phase the brain produces a high Theta wave pattern generally associated with increased creativity and insight there's also a release

of a cocktail of neurochemicals including dopamine serotonin and nandamide often associated with the runner's eye and endorphins these chemicals further amplify focus and endurance and heightened pattern recognition the basis of creativity now the last stage of the flow cycle the fourth one is recovery after the exertion of the Flow State the body and the mind need time to recuperate neurochemically the body replenishes the neurotransmitters expanded in Flow State you also clear the allostatic load which is the cumulative wear and tear on the body and the brain that comes from stress and exertion recovery is the

phase when the boulder has reached the bottom of the hill the victory the memory consolidation that occurs after flow can't happen unless you dislodge attention and ensure that recovery is active rather than passive there's a difference between relaxation what feels relaxing at a subjective level and recovering what objectively recuperates your physiology and brain that means Netflix won't do instead treat recovery as seriously as work active recovery remains ice bath sauna and sleep these all reduce our static load which returns you to Baseline faster and boosts resilience and when you do this you feel a sense

of satisfying fatigue what we call the flow Afterglow which is this deeply satisfying emptied out feeling of accomplishment that only comes after riding the wave of flow and the neurochemistry that it brings for an extended period of time with the flow after glow the body shifts to a parasympathetic State your emotions steer toward this state of calm Equanimity and contentment and you're able to relax into deep sleep that night clearing the metabolic waste from the brain through the glymphatic system as you learn to recognize and relish the flow Afterglow it becomes a self-reinforcing cycle the

more you experience it the more you want it the more you push yourself to reach new levels of productivity to attain it so think of the flow cycle like this struggle is paddling hard against the waves to get to the right spot to ride that perfect wave in release is waiting for that perfect wave flow is right in the wave with Precision Grace and deep absorption and Recovery as the chilling on the beach afterward that well-earned relaxation where you lie out in the shavasana position as they call it in yoga reflecting on the beauty of

the ride if you know where you are in the flow cycle you know where you need to go next in order to get into flow again and again and again however there is a catch in working with thousands of professionals we've discovered there's a challenge that happens right before the struggle phase before the cycle has even begun and that is starting to struggle in the first place one of two things happens in the gap between inaction and struggle and that is avoidance or engagement you know how this goes you're doing task a scrolling your phone

and you know you need to start Task B maybe it's creating a slide deck of work transitioning from task A to B either happens or it doesn't if it does you engage the flow cycle like spinning a wheel the process of struggle begins and you're on your path to release into flow and hopefully recovery afterwards but if it doesn't it's avoidance and you'll never get into flow in the first place so engaging in the first place in the struggle is the hardest part of the flow cycle to master but once mastered it makes moving through

the rest of the cycle repeatedly easier from here you can struggle gracefully persisting through the discomfort knowing that if you sustain the persistence flow will be on the other side of release and then releasing rapidly by dislodging your attention allowing subconscious information processing an effortless effort to take over and then you want to flow deeply by blocking distractions maintaining impulse control and ensuring not to squander the Deep state of flow you're in true self-destructing and then you want to recover aggressively by clearing allostatic load from your system rapidly and here's a pro tip if you

want to make it easier to engage the flow cycle in the first place and shorten the struggle phase you can watch this video which we call caffeine Mastery I'll show you how to use caffeine to get it to float faster and to stay and flow for longer so you can rapidly move through the entire cycle with these [Music]