{"id":207,"date":"2019-07-01T22:29:09","date_gmt":"2019-07-02T02:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=207"},"modified":"2025-09-08T11:31:23","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T15:31:23","slug":"flow-state-complete-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/flow-state-complete-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"Flow State: What It Is\u2014and How to Get It"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What is the mythical flow state? How do you achieve flow? How do you get into flow, and experience it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The most successful people in their fields&#8211;masters of a certain subject or ability&#8211;often describe their ideal working mentality as a \u201cflow\u201d state. <strong>Flow state is a product of motivation, discipline, and practice. <\/strong>They describe this state as one where you lose your sense of self&#8211;you might as well not exist, or you go into full autopilot&#8211;and your ability to do something seems to come from outside your mind or body. One composer described it as his hand working without him&#8211;that the music just came pouring out <em>by itself<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p><em>Editor\u2019s note: This article is part of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/hub\/society-culture\/arts\/creativity-guide\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Shortform\u2019s guide to creativity<\/a>. If you like what you read here, there\u2019s plenty more to check out in the guide!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>This flow state represents the pinnacle of emotional control in the service of doing something<\/strong>&#8211;people who get into <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/steven-kotler-flow-state\/\">a flow state<\/a> are not just controlling and directing their emotions, but their emotions become positive sources of energy that align with the goal they\u2019re trying to achieve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Like a composer channeling her emotions into a piece of music where what she\u2019s feeling seems to translate immediately into music and build on itself, and the more she writes, the easier it comes, all her skills working together in perfect harmony (Shortform note: pun intended).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>In this flow state, <strong>our awareness merges with our actions<\/strong>&#8211;there\u2019s little to no gap between what we\u2019re conscious of and what we\u2019re doing. Even reflecting on what we\u2019re doing can take us out of a flow state&#8211;it halts the relationship between thinking and doing for a moment of outside reflection like \u201cThis is going well!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>It\u2019s the opposite of anxiety.<\/strong> Anxiety is the tendency to step out of the current moment and look down on it from above <em>with worry<\/em>. Flow state is the ability to be totally <em>in<\/em> a moment and an action, without any removed opinions, good or bad.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-how-to-get-into-a-flow-state\"><strong>How to Get Into a Flow State<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>First, it requires long-term discipline. To <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-get-into-a-flow-state\/\">get into a flow state<\/a>, <strong>you have to have mastered the basics of what you\u2019re trying to do<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Next, it requires <strong>high levels of calm and focus<\/strong>. Flow is, in essence, a highly concentrated state, relaxed yet intensely focused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lastly, once the first two steps have been achieved, a flow state usually requires the <strong>task at hand to be <\/strong><strong><em>just outside your abilities<\/em><\/strong><em>.<\/em> In other words, once you\u2019ve mastered something, if you only perform it at that level, you\u2019ll get bored. Flow occurs when you don\u2019t have to think about the basics, but the task at hand is a challenge for you, so you are constantly engaged in performing the skills you\u2019ve mastered to achieve a new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/levels-of-success\/\">level of success<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It can\u2019t be too much of a challenge though, or you\u2019ll probably get anxious&#8211;if the task is too far outside your ability, you\u2019ll find yourself reflecting on what\u2019s going on in a negative way instead of keeping up with the challenge as it occurs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-feeling-of-flow\"><strong>The Feeling of Flow<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>When people get into this state, they usually describe the emotions they\u2019re feeling as spontaneous rapture. There\u2019s actually little emotional content other than a feeling of ecstasy that serves as motivation. They lose track of time or their surroundings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Watching someone in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-flow-state-2\/\">a state of flow<\/a> makes the difficult thing look easy: the performer looks like an effortless natural, despite the task being something of a challenge for them.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Olympic athletes are a great example of this: sprinters look like they\u2019re barely expending effort to get ahead of one another, despite the fact that they\u2019re challenging their physical abilities at the highest level. This is real flow state.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>And, in one sense, it is easy: the reason why people feel like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-flow-state\/\">the flow state<\/a> comes from outside themselves is that their brains are expending minimal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/mental-energy\/\">mental energy<\/a>. This is why mastering the techniques involved is crucial, as well as a sense of calm: well-practiced skills require less effort than freshly learned ones, and agitation or anxiety tire the brain out and decrease your ability to be concise in your efforts.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-flow-state-in-academics\"><strong>Flow State in Academics<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>There\u2019s a case for education embracing the idea of flow:<\/strong> people are more likely to master something that they enjoy doing, and since people enjoy doing different things, a one-size-fits-all model of education might not bring out the best in students. When kids get bored in class or overwhelmed by anxiety if the pressure is too high, it becomes harder for them to learn. Motivating kids from the inside out&#8211;letting them find the things that they care about and enjoy engaging in, and then helping them master their abilities to do those things&#8211;might result in a better educated student body, even if their education has a more <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/narrow-focus\/\">narrow focus<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>But teachers can use <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-increase-intrinsic-motivation\/\">internal motivation<\/a> and the idea of flow state to improve student performance in any subject:<\/strong> schools that embrace this model of education identify a student\u2019s individual profile of natural competencies, then pass those profiles on to teachers, who can use them to shift how a certain topic is presented.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>For example, though math is numbers, if a child had a particular aptitude for music, math lessons could be taught through the vehicle of music, since the two are closely connected.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The ultimate goal is to introduce every child to the flow state<\/strong>&#8211;once they know what this feels like, it will hopefully motivate and encourage them to take on challenges in other areas, with the hope of achieving the same results in a different subject. Studies reinforce this idea.\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><!-- wp:paragraph --><\/p>\n<p>What is the mythical flow state? How do you achieve flow? How do you get into flow, and experience it?<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><\/p>\n<p><!-- wp:paragraph --><\/p>\n<p>The most successful people in their fields&#8211;masters of a certain subject or ability&#8211;often describe their ideal working mentality as a \u201cflow\u201d state. <strong>Flow state is a product of motivation, discipline, and practice. <\/strong>They describe this state as one where you lose your sense of self&#8211;you might as well not exist, or you go into full autopilot&#8211;and your ability to do something seems to come from outside your mind or body. One composer described it as his hand working without him&#8211;that the music just came pouring out <em>by itself<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[10],"class_list":["post-207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-psychology","tag-emotional-intelligence","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Flow State: What It Is\u2014and How to Get It - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What is the flow state? How do you get into flow, and what does it feel like? 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