![]() It doesn’t have to be grandiose - you could be playing a video game or coloring a picture. ![]() To trigger flow, the activity has to have some point to it. Too challenging, and you won’t be able to get into it. Too easy, and it won’t be absorbing enough. The activity has to be the right amount of difficult. Someone would have to work to get your attention or to interrupt you from the task at hand. ![]() In flow, whatever you’re working on has your complete attention. But the more factors are present, the more likely you are to experience flow. It could happen while you’re reading, writing, painting, running, or gardening.Īlthough there’s no one activity guaranteed to create flow, there are some common characteristics of flow state that people experience. There’s no one experience that leads to flow. In flow, you feel as if you could keep doing whatever you’re doing forever. You generally lose sense of time, self-consciousness, and anything that doesn’t have to do with the task at hand. Plus, effortlessness in a flow state doesn’t come forth by thinking-up perfection… it’s effortless after all.The flow state is the experience of being so absorbed by an engaging, enjoyable task that your attention is competely held by it. Our society is driven by what we don’t have, when what we do have can be just as motivating. If you think of your session as a metaphor for your life, what would you want to create? An easy way to set an intention is to feel what inspires you – not necessarily about what you want more or less of. Once you’ve connected to your breath and let your mental chatter run its course, you can create an intention symbiotically with your workout. The connection of your breath to your heart is a very powerful tool, which you can access anywhere, and at any time, to reduce anxiety and get back into a flow state. The ebb and flow of the breath with your heart is one of the incredible benefits of a moving flow state, which isn’t always accessible while sitting in stillness. While you’re letting mental chatter run it’s course, deep breathing can be used to slow your heart rate and reduce some of the natural anxiety associated with a high intensity workout. After a while, if you decide you’re not interested in a particular topic (or your gossiping friend), the best part is, you can choose different thoughts or direct your social energy elsewhere. If giving patience to your thoughts sounds a bit abstract to you, think of your brain like a friend who enjoys gossiping about office politics – like your friend, your brain is seeking validation for it’s existence, which can be accomplished just by listening for a few minutes. The more patience you can give your thoughts, the more you’ll start to notice them dissipating throughout the workout. Contrary to popular belief, mental chatter isn’t a bad thing at all. Many times you’ve likely arrived at the studio with buckets of mental problem-solving ready to be unleashed on your workout. Once you’ve given your mind a dose of patience, given your breath some notice, and set an intention for class, you’ll find flow is a state you can access more often and with more ease. Sounds easy, right? Well, not so much, because many times setting an intention in class can get mixed up in the everyday thoughts you came to class with, and the monkey mind creates a murky soup with the natural anxiety of a very intense workout. If you set an intention before class, you can put your flow state into gear when you partner the mind with the body. During a workout, being in flow helps you during the session and while practicing gratitude throughout the day, in not sweating the small stuff, and in being more creative. ![]() A flow state is a mindset or a mood of effortless and inspired action.
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