Flow

You don't really know what you're capable of because you can only find out inside a flow.

I'm curious how you would define flow.

Flow is a scientific definition.

And Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is the one who came up with that definition.

But it's technically defined as an optimal state of consciousness where we feel our best and perform our best.

So if you're trying to figure out, am I in flow? By team and flow, those are the six characteristics you're looking for.

So many people feel like they're not reaching their potential, like they're capable of doing more, but they don't quite understand that.

Is flow that key? Flow is

So when you're in

Flow.

This is flow state.

This is exactly what Steven Kotler talked about.

Yeah.

Flow in life.

Flow in the bike, flow in life.

They're both elusive, but we can get them both.

Yeah.

He's like, there's something there about us as people.

And when he did the research, did the interviews and all that, he's the guy who came up with the word flow.

He named his book Flow.

Sort of the seminal work on this is Flow.

And let me say it again, Flow, right? But I'll say this.

I think he explained it in a really great way.

He said...

I have no idea when I'll use this.

It reminds you that You can love life and that the possibility space is a lot bigger because you're capable of more than you know.

Flow is optimal performance.

So it's not only just, oh, wow, I've got pain relief.

I've got a bunch of feel good neurochemistry.

oh wow, maybe I'm a little safer here on this planet, which is really big for the nervous system.

And maybe there's a bigger world I can explore.

That's what Flow reboots.

If I were to put this medically, what I would tell you is this is one of the reasons we know, and this underpins a lot of the work we're currently doing at Flow Research Collective, which is now a nonprofit.

I'm really focused on the flow task itself, not my own in- inner monologue.

There's also a feeling that you're in control.

Flow feels incredibly in control.

We know what we need to be doing while we're experiencing flow, and we're doing it quite successfully.

Number four is that when you're in the flow state, it doesn't feel physically or mentally taxing.

Just like the runner's high, uh, flow feels incredible.

You can feel exhilarated, elated.

Flow is a highly rewarding experience that we often do for itself.

I have read a lot of Martin Seligman.

I've read Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi with Flow.

I've read Kahneman, uh, Thinking Fast and Slow, Amos Tversky.

Yeah.

So it's important we have both of these two things.

Flow state, to simplify it, is mesocortical so slow time dopamine system activation and the whole point of it is it doesn't arrive immediately when you start doing a task you know when you first start reading a book no matter how engaging the book is you're not in flow state immediately but flow state is a state you reach when you've been doing it for like 15 or so minutes you push through the kind of initial desire to stop doing that thing and then you keep doing it for a while and the reason it's so profound in running is because obviously when you're doing long distance training know if you're doing a marathon training you've got to do 30ks at some point you've got to do multiple half marathons it's just a lot of time on your feet and one of the reasons it supercharges that flow state process is because you also have you have your dopamine curve but you also have endorphins in there as well and endorphins are kind of a biological um they're a painkiller they come in when your body's obviously running is a very painful activity to do and no matter how many times i go out running the first one two kilometers always very uncomfortable i've never ever felt fantastic for the first one or two k But after you kind of tell your brain, I'm going to continue doing this run, you're going to have to just deal with it, it releases endorphins and it also starts, that dopamine curve starts rising in your mesocortical system, which allows you to get into flow state, which is where you lose yourself in the music you're listening to, the audio book you're listening to, the podcast, or just the chat that you're having with the people you're on your long run with.

And I just find that such a freeing place to be.

And it's one of my favorite things about running is the ability to access that flow state regularly.