How meditation can help get you into a flow state
You’ve probably heard about getting into the “flow” or being “in the zone.” This state is commonly attributed to athletes, but whether you do sports or not, I can almost guarantee you’ve been in a flow state before.
In his research around happiness, psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi was one of the first people to identify and research flow. He formulated a theory on flow state and in his bestselling book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, he describes flow as, “a state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience is so enjoyable that people will continue to do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it.”
Csikszentmihalyi pinpoints 8 characteristics of flow:
Clarity of goals and immediate feedback
A high level of concentration on the task
Balance between skills and challenge
Effortlessness
Feeling on control over the task
Perception of time is altered (fast/slow)
Action and awareness are merged
Intrinsic reward
From a neurological perspective what researchers have found is that when your brain goes into a flow state your prefrontal cortex rests, as outlined in this 2020 review from the NIH. Your prefrontal cortex is considered your “higher” brain function, which is the part of your brain that helps you plan, make decisions and critically think.
As a writer, getting into this state of flow can be critical to getting a project done. I’m currently working on writing a novel (book #1 I had to set aside) and have some pretty aggressive targets to finish my first draft, not to mention not a lot of time to devote to this project daily. I might have a consecutive hour or two to write if I’m lucky, so getting into a flow state to actually get words on a page is critical.
In a post by Headspace, they liken a flow state to “a very active, moving meditation.” It’s important to note that meditation is a distinct mental state from flow, but by cultivating mindfulness through meditation, you can increase your chances of experiencing flow.
There are also other key conditions that will help prime you to get into a flow state which include:
Eliminating distractions. This includes things like your phone, the TV, screaming children and for some people, music. Consider using website blockers, putting your phone on “do not disturb,” or even writing with pen and paper. Distractions impact our focus, which takes you out of flow.
Creating a ritual. Like athletes who have rituals before an event or competition to prime them for performance, creating a writing ritual, like lighting a candle or making a cup of tea, can prepare you for a state of flow.
Working during peak creativity. In a perfect world, you could test various times and write when you know you’re functioning at your most productive hours of the day. If you can adjust your schedule to do this great, if not, then focus on the things you can control.
When it comes to selecting a meditation to prepare you for flow, what’s best? In an episode titled: The Science of Creativity & How to Enhance Creative Innovation from the Huberman Lab podcast, Dr. Andrew Huberman goes into great detail about how various conditions, substances and tools can help you engage in creative thinking. The episode is over two hours and covers a lot of ground (I’d recommend listening to it if you have the time), but with respect to meditation, if you’re looking to specifically write a novel let’s say, I would personally do a meditation that is half focused attention and half open monitoring (I currently do this now).
You don’t need any special app or device to do this. All you need is a timer. I personally find 10 minutes to be effective and that’s really all I can slash out of my schedule. First, I set my timer for five minutes and then do a focused attention meditation (FAM) by either doing a body scan or focusing on my breath, then continually bringing my attention back to the breath or my body when it wanders. When the five minutes is up, I switch to an open monitoring meditation (OMM), which is a more expansive type of meditation where you notice a thought and then let it go.
Because there are slight differences in the neural pathways and what type of thinking they help to access, these two meditations will both help with convergent and divergent thinking—both required for a task like writing a novel.
I’ve been thinking about creating some free meditations to help you on your writing journey. Let me know if you think they’d be helpful!
