The Benefits of Flow States
The happiest people on the planet are those who spend the most time in flow, regardless of their socio-economic circumstances, culture, nationality, or gender. Facilitating extraordinary increases in performance, productivity, creativity, insight, learning, and cooperation, flow is also the key to accomplishment and success in any endeavor. Remarkably, the most challenging or boring of tasks become effortless and enjoyable in a flow state, leaving us energized and fulfilled by life’s challenges, rather than burned out and exhausted.
Common factors about flow
The unifying feature of the spectrum of flow states, altered states, dreaming, hypnotic, psychedelic, and meditative states is transient hypofrontality. We quiet the part of our brains that is thought to give rise to logical thinking, to our sense of separateness and identity, to our cultural inhibitions, and to our sense of time. We stop processing small chunks of information in a slow, step by step, linear manner based on rules and past experiences. We begin simultaneously processing very large sets of information holographically. Our brains become holographic optimization engines. We can instantly, simultaneously, and holistically compare decades of experiences and thoughts to the present moment, a present problem, or a present intention.
Benefits of flow
Patterns, similarities, the ideal path forward, and one-in-a-million solutions suddenly brighten in our minds. At the same time we are inevitably overwhelmed with a sense of oneness, and see the world from a higher perspective. Time inflow tends to make us more compassionate, more concerned with the well-being of the planet, and tunes us into creative solutions that benefit everyone involved.
Who utilizes flow?
Organizations such as Google who have integrated flow into their business models and practices have created trillion-dollar industries in a few short decades, and have transformed the competitive landscape. Inefficient extractive win-lose economic models are failing spectacularly in the face of more nimble, highly co-operative, flow-inspired open-source, “don’t be evil” models. Flow is rapidly becoming a competitive necessity in the 21st century, but it is a kinder, wiser form of win-win-win competition. We win personally, everyone involved wins, and the planet as a whole wins as a result. Embracing the power of flow, our future is indeed very bright, no matter the challenges we face.
Angie Aristone, co-author of Consciousness Becomes You www.angiearistone.com
