How Do You Find Your Flow State? ~ Part 1 in this creative series!

Recently I wrote about the importance of finding your flow state, specifically – Why Finding Your Flow State Leads To Success.

Let’s quickly recap –

• A flow state is a moment of deep focus where we conduct our peak performance
• We’ve witnessed flow states in elite athletes, artists who create masterful thought-provoking pieces of art and successful business owners and professionals
• Flow states can lead to success through new opportunities and success in all your goals

So how do you find your flow state?

A flow state happens when you are completely immersed in a challenging task which forces you to rise up against it and create growth. As Paulina Larocca says in her book – The Holey Bible, "To enter flow, loosen your attachment to the present – to become fully present. It means letting go and protecting your focus."

Before we find our flow state, we need to set the scene to allow a flow state to happen. This means protecting ourselves from triggering distractions.

There are two forms of triggers –

External – Your phone’s ability to create constant notifications, the infinite amount of content on the internet and endless scrolling. That annoying co-worker who visits your desk preventing any work from being done, distractions from meaningless work and unacceptable levels of noise.

Internal – Your own racing thoughts, tension and stress, fighting your own distractibility.

You need to be able to shield yourself from meaningless distractions. Your phone is probably the biggest culprit. Ways to prevent the distraction from occurring in the first place includes updating your notification settings, blocking sites from sending you notifications or utilising flight mode. Alternatively, just hide your phone for a set period of time to completely remove the distraction. The key aspect is – The harder it is distractions to reach you, the less likely you’ll get distracted.

Understandably, our brains gravitate towards these distractions because they offer the most stimulation and is the path of least resistance. We need to train ourselves to choose delayed gratification over instant gratification.

The other side of distractions is internally – Your mind. We are constantly thinking, random thoughts pop up all the time whether it helps us with ideas and breakthroughs, or menial aspects like what’s for dinner, what’s the weekend plans or what to watch on TV next. The mind is always racing, and if we don’t get control of it, we’ll lose sight of our goals and what actually needs to be done.

Here are two key methods for you to explore to get control of your mind and reclaim your focus –

1.??????Meditation – Studies have shown that meditation practitioners have better mental fortitude as they have better control over their thoughts and can slow things down if it gets racing. Meditation needs to be a regular practice to see a difference. I undertook a 30 day, daily meditation challenge and I found that afterwards, my mind felt calmer with much more clarity and most importantly – focused, a key for finding the flow state.

2.??????Journaling – Our brains are designed to generate ideas, not store them. Yes we can memorise things, but it’s better focused at utilising the ideas it has than keep them. Journaling is a way to capture the ideas and thoughts that we have. By writing them down, it effectively releases the lingering thought from our mind. Whether it’s your to-do list, an important upcoming date or if you’re writing about something that is bothering you or stressed about, writing down your thoughts will free your mind from the burden of having to remember it. Effectively this sharpens your mind onto the other aspects it needs to focus on.

We’ve now covered on protecting your focus which sets the scene for a flow state to happen. Stay tuned for part 2 on how to get started on your work and building your flow state! Consider subscribing to The Creative Catalyst so you don’t miss out on the next part of this series, plus read more tips on creativity, productivity and finding joy in our day to day lives.

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Stay creative, always.