Experience this state of consciousness for optimal happiness

“Flow is the very thing that makes us come alive. It is the mystery. It is the point.”

Steven Kotler, author of The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance 

You know the feeling when you get lost in a good book? Or when you lose track of time doing something you really enjoy?

At some point, most people have experienced the feeling of being “happily lost” while doing something they love. They go into a positive trance, where time expands, the self feels free, and inhibitions are removed. In these moments, you are experiencing “flow” – a state of consciousness where we feel and perform at our best.

“Flow naturally catapults you to a level you’re not naturally in,” according to Harvard Medical School psychiatrist Ned Hallowell. “Flow naturally transforms a weakling into a muscleman, a sketcher into an artist, a dancer into a ballerina, a plodder into a sprinter, an ordinary person into someone extraordinary.” Hallowell adds, “Everything you do, you do better in flow, from baking a chocolate cake to planning a vacation to solving a differential equation to writing a business plan to playing tennis to making love.”

How To Access Flow

To trigger flow, you have to consider the relationship between the challenge of the task and your ability to perform that task. If the task is too difficult, then the fear or frustration will win. If the task is too easy, then you will get bored and lose focus. Flow is the beautiful balance between monotony and anxiety.

In Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi explains that when it comes to getting in flow and experiencing true happiness, “The best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile.”

As we shift our focus toward a specific goal we want to achieve, our energy literally moves in the direction of that goal. This takes us to a higher state of consciousness; it’s this type of spiritual and mental growth that makes your dreams come to fruition.

The bottom line: make yourself vulnerable and take chances. It’s worth the risk. You deserve to experience life to the fullest.

Rose Caiola
Inspired. Rewired.