Photo of Joanna Newsom by ezola
Imagine performing at your best in front of thousands – full of confidence and joy. This is what former Boston star Bill Russell experienced frequently. He said,
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“This is when everything goes so perfectly that you slip into a gear that you didn’t even know was there.”
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We all have that secret gear. That’s what psychologist Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced “chick-sent-me high”) found. His research showed that optimal experience occurs when body and mind are stretched to their limits in order to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile. He called it being ‘in the flow’. Csikszentmihalyi said:
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“Such experiences are not necessarily pleasant at the time they occur. The swimmer’s muscles might have ached during his most memorable race, his lungs might have felt like exploding, and he might have been dizzy with fatigue — yet these could have been the best moments of his or her life.”
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Here are seven characteristics of flow or zone according to Mental Training Consultant Karlene Sugarman:
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•Relaxed: The best performances occur when you are just slightly above your normal state of arousal, not at the extreme end of the spectrum. You feel relaxed, but you are able to move with great strength and ease.
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•Confident: You exude confidence and pride, and it is evident in your performance. There is no fear. You don’t let a lapse in performance undermine your belief in your overall abilities.
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•Focused: You are totally absorbed in the moment. The only thing you are concentrating on is the task at hand. You have no real sense of time.
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•Effortless: You are in a state where you can accomplish great things with little or no effort. Your mind and body are working with one another in perfect unison. That sort of connectedness and moment of greatness is an awesome thing both to witness and take part in.
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•Automatic: There is no interference from your thoughts or emotions.. You are on auto pilot-just reacting to whatever comes your way. Your body just seems to know what to do.
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•Fun: When you’re in the flow, the enjoyment is incomparable to anything else.
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•In Control: You feel that no matter what, you are in control. You own your own destiny. The authority is yours, and no one else’s. You have a feeling of mastery.
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When I read these characteristics, it seems impossible for an ordinary human being to have such experiences. And yet I remember strange moments years ago when I was a professional flutist. It seemed like I suddenly became the flute, and music just poured out of me without effort.
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We all have the capacity for being in the zone. The good new is that we can train ourselves to experience it. The following seven steps show how to develop the capacity for being in the zone.
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7 steps to being in the zone
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The key to being in the zone lies in the mental attitude that we bring to our activity. That’s why good mental preparation is important. You’ll see that all seven steps are aimed at the mind.
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Step 1: Affirmations
It’s important to expect to be successful, not to hope or wish for success. A confident, winning attitude can be shaped by affirmations. Affirmations work best when they are couched in the present tense. You might say to yourself, for example, ‘I am a talented basketball player,’ or, ‘I am a great runner.” Write notes with such slogans and stick them to walls and mirrors in your home.
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Step 2: Visualization
All great athletes use visualisations as training for excellence. They imagine the perfect golf swing or the perfect running motion. When we imagine movements, our muscles contract and relax ever so slightly in accordance with the image. You can see by this that visualisations not only train the mind, they train the body as well. A good time to practise visualizations is just before you go to sleep. Imagine that you are performing at your best. Hear the crowd cheer and clap.
Step 3: Meditation
The ancient Japanese Samurai developed sophisticated training systems that taught warriors how to be in the flow. Through martial art and Zen meditation, they developed mushin, the ‘mind of no-mind’. Mushin is the mind that’s clear like water and untroubled by thoughts about oneself.
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In order to clear the mind, start your activity with a short meditation. It doesn’t need to be formal. Just sit upright, and quietly focus on your breathing for a few minutes. When you find your mind drifting away, gently bring it back to the present moment.
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Step 4: Choose a task that is neither too easy nor too difficult
When we chose a task that is too easy, we can get bored. Whereas if we chose a task that’s too difficult, we tend to be consumed by anxiety. Neither boredom nor anxiety lead to a good mental focus.
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Step 5: Focus
Keep your focus on the task. At first you may find that your mind tends to drift away. When you notice that, gently bring your mind back to the taks at hand. You may also be beset by self-critical thoughts. Let go of them and refocus on the task.
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Step 6: Surrender to the Process
As you start moving into flow, surrender to the process. Let it take you where it wants to. As you surrender, you will begin to experience periods of timelessness.
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Setp 7: Embrace Ecstasy
When you are in the flow, you will be filled with a sense of ecstasy. As the surfer in the zone catches the wave, or the snowboarder launches into powder snow, or the runner feels the second wind, he or she will feel a sense of tremendous exhileration and even ecstasy. Embrace it!
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It’s good to keep in mind that at a healthy lifestyle supports optimal performance. Here are three lifestyle choices that help you to be in the zone:
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- Good nutrition
Balanced, healthy nutrition and plenty of water supports high performance.
- Sleep
For top performance we need to sleep for 7 to 8 hours per night for optimal functioning.
- Combating fatigue
Ongoing fatigue can be debilitating. Research has identified low-intensity exercise as a powerful way to decrease fatigue and build up energy and resilience.
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It is possible for each of us to experience moments of flow. I think my most memorable moment was stepping onto my snowboard after a long trudge up a ridge. And then feeling the ecstacy of riding down a slope of deep virgin powder!
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We all have that hidden gear that brings us into high performance. All we have to do is to follow these 7 steps, and live a healthy lifestyle.
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Have you experienced flow? I’d love to hear what it was like. Please share your thoughts and experiences in the comments.
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Hi Mary – flow has something that has always intrigued me. It seems so much like zen. It’s not quite the same, but the need to prevent the conscious mind from being *aware* of the state is an important requirement that both share.
Al at 7Ps last blog post..The Hidden Water of Life
I remember catching a wave while surfing in Indonesia last year, huge and long and somehow I just had the perfect timing to really surf it at my best.. It wasn’t until coming off the end of it perhaps 15 or 20 seconds later that I recalled such things as who I am, where I was, even what I was doing! And I noticed that my mouth was pulled up in an enormous goofy grin!
That flow is just an absolute buzz, nothing else I’ve ever done comes close to it, even skiing or playing guitar for me have always been accompanied by a lot more self-consciousness than surfing a wave. Perhaps it has to do with the brevity of a wave, one has no time to think about other things and so gets utterly absorbed in the task!
I remember performing guitar at a school concert after I had been playing for a short while and experiencing something similar although I don’t think it is what you are describing.
During the performance I had a short solo which I had been practicing for months. I was nervous before hand and I noticed things going wrong during the performance (like the drum kit slowly moving away from the drummer as he played). But I could only laugh, it was fun playing and felt good. Maybe this was ‘flow’ I don’t know.
However it was nothing compared to the sensation after playing. My mind had become totally silent and it was like everything and nothing existed, the world collapsed and expanded. Everything looked absolutely awesome.
Ironically I felt something similar yesterday when walking through the freezing city and seeing a leaf fall through the air. But this time I also felt incredibly happy, forcing a smile on my face.
Jarrod – Warrior Developments last blog post..How to Not Hate your Job
@Al at 7P
I’m not so sure about the importance of not being aware of flow for it to work. When you’re in it, it’s difficult to fall out of it, even if you notice what’s happening for a fleeting moment.
@Mete
It’s interesting that surfing produces the most flow for you. Do you think it’s because you are feeling at one with nature and therefor self-consciousness is eliminated or lessend?
@Jarrod – Warrior Development
Your comment makes me wonder how ‘being in the moment’ relates to ‘being in the flow’. What’s your sense of this?
Being in the zone is a very interesting topic. To me it is not as much a physical thing as a mental state. It happens to me but not as often as I wish it would.
Flow for me has occurred in coaching situations as well as in problem solving.
@Bengt
Come to think of it, I have flow experiences when I’m teaching. I just love seeing people find and inhabit their potential. The thrill of it often triggers flow.
Thank you for making that important point, Bengt.
This whole idea really clicked with me, Mary. During all of my best races, the running itself felt effortless, like the only thing stopping me from running at light speed was pure physics.
The hardest part for me is choosing the right task in terms of difficulty. All in all, I think this a great argument to challenge ourselves–you never know how well you may do!
Sara at On Simplicitys last blog post..Quick and Dirty Pantry Clean-up
@Sara at On Simplicity
The point you are making is important. Choosing the right task is not so easy. I suppose each of us tends to inhabit a different area on the continuum between easy and difficult.
I tend to live in the upper reaches of challenge – which makes for an interesting but rather stressful life.
Interesting that you noted that fatigue could be helped by low intensity exercise. Basically, that’s how I got over chronic fatigue syndrome, that and the Sedona Method. The exercise was key. A retired doctor friend scoured the medical literature for me, and found exercise was the only consistently effective treatment for chronic fatigue. So, I started walking.
Between the walking and the dropping of mental baggage, I recovered. Both were essential.
A nice post. Keep up the good work!
Tom Stine | Living from Consciousnesss last blog post..Those Who Awaken Never Rest in One Place – The Buddha
I have always loved the twilight zone, it’s the area where everybody creates. Weird things can happen there. You can find the garbage rose as well as a completely new point of view.
@Tom Stine
Oh, it’s good news that you’ve been able to overcome Chronic Fatique Syndrome through exercise!
There are so many people who suffer from CFS and stay away from exercise because they think it’ll make them feel worse – when it could be the one thing that helps long-term recovery
@Amazingmess
I wonder if you could please write a bit more about the ‘twilight zone’. It sounds interesting but I don’t quite understand it.
Reflexes and skill, really come from the subconscious mind, not the conscious and analytical mind. Your athletic ability would be poor if it came from anywhere but the subconscious. At least, much of it comes from there, much of the time.
When I think of being in “the zone” what comes to mind is ones mind and spirit being at their most fused. And with this, whatever skill one has, expresses itself to its absolute fullest.
Bamboo Forests last blog post..Be Embarrassed about Nothing
@Bamboo Forest
I like how you say that being in the flow is ‘mind and spirit being at their most fused.’
I would add body to that as well. When we’re totally fused, so to speak, the part of ourselves that stands outside and views our actions with a sneer disappears.
When I was young, I noticed that I experience pretty much of the “flow” when I was doing art. I would be in that zone; fully absorbed and happy. Creativity just poured out from me. I wouldn’t say that my art pieces were world class but the joy that I derived were phenomenal!
Evelyn Lim | Attraction Mind Maps last blog post..Draw Inspiration From Never-Give-Up Success Stories
@Evelyn Lim
That sounds wonderful! For me writing is like that. I’m totally absorbed and happy.
Are you still doing art? I know that you do a lot of work with mindmaps.
Do you have an image of one of your maps on your blog? If so, could you please link to it in another comment, so that we can all admire your work
Being in the zone is a saying that originates in the area of sports. As a painter I call this the twilight zone. All things come together here, cause the egoself steps aside, thus creating openings for fresh water to come in. Motivation, attention and the situation fall together and there is a dancing balance between what I want to paint and my skills. I am there and not there so to speak. In this state it often happens that I get presents. Painting starts to happen and there appear ideas colours, forms, strokes that I could not have thought of or painted if I was in complete control of my idea of what to paint and how to paint it. I experience it as a twilight state of mind, inbetween the visible and invisible.
amazingmesss last blog post..on the road
@AmazingMess
I’m glad I asked you for clarification. “Twilight Zone” turns out to be something very interesting.
I sometimes get that when writing. It’s like a creative ‘don’t know’ mind. It was like that this morning. Day was breaking, the birds started to sing, and I fell deeply into the moment.
When I emerged from that silence, words poured onto the page.
Some human beings feel they control everything. Other human beings believe they control nothing. Still other human beings ask themselves why control or outcomes even matter. Its a human desire to identify, experience and learn. How you do it can vary widely.
@Liara
I think there has to be a balance in life between trust and control. I grew up in Germany (we moved there when I was 2 years old). That a country focussed on control. There is a German saying:
“Trust is good; control is better.” Try saying that with a gutteral accent and you’ll get the feeling! It’s taken me a long time to learn that I can allow things to take their course – without trying to impose control.
@Mary
Whether its due to feeling at one with nature or not is a good question. I definitely get a real feeling of unity of body and mind when I’m immersed in nature – something which makes me feel very homesick for kiwiland!
However, I also get the feeling its more to do with the dynamics of the sport that make it impossible to escape that zone whilst on a wave.
Well, when I think about skateboarding on a concrete half-pipe in the middle of a city, I get the same feeling of flow. However it doesn’t quite have the same feeling of sparkle that I get on a mountain of water racing in from the infinite horizon towards an empty beach.
So my answer is, I think being close to nature certainly increases the experience of joy in the flow once entered, however is not necessary or even important for the art of entering the flow
@Mete
Thanks for your answer!
I’ve only had 2 significant experiences with waves. One was the first time I did some body boarding. I really went for it and caught the very first wave. Everyone looked on in astonishment as I thundered towards the shore.
Suddenly it occurred to me that nobody had told me how to get off a wave! I hung on grimly as the shore rushed towards me, and I finally splatted onto the rocky beach.
The other time was when I tried surfing. Some windsurfing mates took me out with them. It was winter and the water was freeeeeezing. Waves were few and far between and we bobbed around in icy water for hours looking at the snowy mountains in the distance. Sparkle and flow? Not quite…
I like that formulation, the creative ‘don’t know mind’. Something not very uncommon in arts. You also mentioned your experience in playing the flute. Maybe we are talking about the same thing, but even so, also this is very tricky stuff. Being in the zone in sports, always seems to have a fysical, bodily experience too, which seems not to be that important in visual arts. Maybe that part is there in the dance, in dancing.
amazingmesss last blog post..on the road
I think ‘flow’ is the key. Once I get into a rhythm, my productivity skyrockets. Finding this rhythm is the hard part… and that’s where the rest of your points come into play.
Marc and Angel Hack Lifes last blog post..101 Dirt Cheap Ways to Enjoy Yourself
@AmazingMess
Your comment made me think anew about flow and how we experience it. I think you’re right that the experience is strongest when the body is involved. For example, when I experience flow while writing, it’s not as strong as when I’ve experienced flow while snowboarding.
@Mark and Angel Hack Life
I think the word ‘rhythm’ is really good. Somehow flow means being in tune with the rhythm of the universe.
thank you so much for this. i remember a number of times playing hockey and being in the zone. they are the greatest moments of my life. everything slows down and just opens up. all the best…
@Zenator
It’s interesting how flow changes our perception of time. I remember a performance as a flautis. I was playing a favourite piece of mine. Normally, as a musician, you keep a sense of the whole piece in your awareness. You knit together beginning, middle and end, so to speak. But this time I was only aware for the present moment. Each note was in a spacious bubble, although I was playing at normal speed. It was a wonderful experience! For me and for the audience.
This is great & used to happen suddenly I am no artist, just somebody retired in a little european town. Sometimes when I was younger this state simply occured. Some time back, because of depression & all sorts of health problems, it disappeared and I was afraid it would never come back. Now Walking fast down the street, for good reasons of mine, is often enough for Joy to surge up. I jus wish then and now to share it with you.
This article and discussion has been very instrumental in my studies as an actress. My Coach Clay Banks has been teaching this month on the Zone and I am finding everything you are saying to be very familiar! I strongly believe that this “Zone” is a supernatural phenomenon in which miracles and things beyond our own ability can occur. Even actors work in the Zone, and that is what makes their work so intriguing! We strive to be in the zone and watching someone in the zone makes for an amazing enjoyment of a film or television show as well.
=)