Want Flow? Mindful Exercise Enhances Focus, Pleasure, and Creativity
By Brooke Bergman Parr, LMFT, ZenFounder Consulting Staff
I love January.
I love the new calendar year and the idea of a stretch of time in front of us.
For me, the new year represents the opportunity for growth and a reset for our habits.
The unfortunate thing about a new year with its new intentions and growth ambitions is that our very own brains are working against us.
Our brains don’t love change, even if the change is positive. Creating new neural pathways in the brain is uncomfortable because the brain is building a new road.
If we want to be entrepreneurs who are committed to learning and growth, how can we speed along the development of new neural pathways? How can we support our own ability to growth and change?
Moving your Body is the best Move for your Brain
Exercise- moving the body- represents one of nature’s miracles. Scientists continue to discover the ways in which exercise changes our physiology, psychology, and our physical fitness. As a therapist, I know that if I can cajole my depressed clients into moving more, their depression will begin to lift and the talking we do will make more sense. It's as though the mind and heart need the body to make the first move. I know that if I can teach my self-effacing female clients to confidently own their sexiness through hip circles, their body image catapults. If I can get my entrepreneurs to find bliss in their movement practices, they find more happiness and creativity in their work.
Moving the body proves to be especially important in both resolving PTSD symptoms and supporting a cohesive sense of Self. Bessel van der Kolk writes, “In order to change, people need to become aware of their sensations and the way that their bodies interact with the world around them. Physical self-awareness is the first step in releasing the tyranny of the past” (Van der Kolk, p. 101). Exercise supports feelings of agency and interoception, which is our awareness of and interpretation of sensory experiences. In a study involving trauma informed yoga (Van der Kolk, 2014), over half of the study participants no longer met criteria for PTSD, and most were able to sustain this improvement over time.
Exercise, if used properly, radically shifts our attention to the current moment. It is a form of meditation. It takes us away from worry for the future and ruminations about the past. It brings us home to our bodies and connects us to the genius of wholeness. When we come home to our bodies, we feel whole, content, and more able to connect with the people and creatures we love. Exercise inspires new neural pathways to be created- giving rise to more creative solutions in our work and in love.
Exercise as it is promoted in commercials and fitness programs, however, frequently ends in frustration and disappointment because deep down, we actually hate it. We hate it because it is not connected to our authentic Self-expression; it is an expression of ego insecurity. And any action, if it is not rooted in truth, will be lovingly sabotaged by our true Self.
Getting “into the flow” while Exercising
Getting into the flow is an elusive and much desired state; neuroscience has discovered that we are operating at “peak capacity” when we are in a flow state. Although flow state is not only during sports or physical exercise, I generally recommend that folks try to find movement that helps them achieve a flow state because it generates feelings of Oneness with the Universe, a loss of a sense of time, greater integration between the mind and body and, what I believe to be one of the more important attributes, you desire to repeat the activity because it *felt* good. Gold and Ciorciari (2020) say it like this:
When in a flow state, the individual is considered to perform at their full capacity. Flow has commonly been associated with intense concentration, a higher behavioral efficiency and creativity, and heightened sense of playfulness. Furthermore, the intrinsic rewards associated with autotelic experience is likely to increase learning efficiencies, as well as better remembering of the experience and also more likely to seek such experiences more often (137).
But, doesn’t all exercise lead to flow?
Not necessarily. Although all exercise is good for you, not all exercise leads us to lose a sense of time and live in pure bliss. And the types of movement that lead people into flow are as unique as your fingerprint. I have finally given up on running because I was able to honor the fact that I *rarely* got into flow while running. This is not true for everyone, but it was true for me.
In general, training programs such as Crossfit, weight lifting, or any other movement that requires you to consciously *think* about what you are going to do next, does not lead to flow. These are considered non-flow because the mind is literally telling the body what to do next. There is a flow of narration happening. Do this, don’t do that, just 5 more! While this structure does not lead to flow, it does support the development of discipline. And we all need discipline in order to succeed. There are some tasks that just need to get done. And training the body in this way helps us develop that habit.
Developing the discipline of exercise is important and can be a precursor to flow state; I am able to achieve flow state when I dance, but it takes discipline for me to get my bag, plan a time, and drive there. I like to say I never regret going.
Flow state exercise encourages more body-mind integration because the mind is not stopping or censoring movement, rather, it is responding to in the moment information from the body. In general, flow state exercises are commonly reported in the following: skiing or snowboarding, dancing, surfing, skateboarding, long distance running or swimming, group sports, yoga and martial arts.
In the beginning of learning these types of movement, you are often not in flow. Your brain has a lot of commentary about what you are doing or not doing.
I think of the difference between myself and my husband skiing. He has no memories of not skiing. Clicking into his boots is as natural as walking for him. Watching him ski is incredible- he has a dancer's grace as he surfs the snow at high speeds. He can precisely and safely whiz by me at high speed while spraying me with snow- laughing all the way. When he skis, he is in flow- there is no narration about what he’s going to do next or how to do it. He, just, goes and goes, and flows. He is one with himself and the mountain and the snow.
Me on the other hand? After five seasons, I’m getting better. I learned as an adult and so my brain has quite a bit of commentary about the whole endeavor. Starting continues to be a challenge for my brain. I have to quiet a lot of fearful thoughts initially. However, as I improve, there are times when I feel myself flowing down the mountain. I get into flow even faster if I just ski behind my husband for even a few moments; my body begins to mirror his bliss. This mirroring in flow state has real significance for our relationships that I’ll explore in the month of February.
Still Lost? Just go for a walk outside.
Alright. So, you can’t start skiing. Or Surfing. Yoga studio is closed, there are no dance classes for adults, and martial arts sounds downright intimidating. One of the best types of exercises that is accessible and has all the heart health benefits and that nearly everyone can do? Go for a walk. Preferably outside.
Walking is one of the most underrated forms of exercise, but if you read the research, it is darn near a miracle exercise. It is especially good for our mental health and creativity.
Oppezzo and Shwartz (2014) from Stanford University note that, “whether one is outdoors or on a treadmill, walking improves the generation of novel yet appropriate ideas, and the effect even extends to when people sit down to do their creative work shortly after,” (p.1) However, if people walked outside? Oppezzo and Shwartz noted that the quality of their analogies (their creative “test”) was superior: “walking outside produced the most novel and highest quality analogies.”
This particular research has very real-life implications for improving our creative output while supporting our heart health. If people are literally “stuck” at their desk, apathetically staring into the abyss of the problems they need to solve, I tell people to move their bodies and then come back to the task.
Sometimes the most challenging problems require simple solutions. Going for a walk outside will help you find them.
For more on this topic, check out Brooke’s recent ZenFounder episode: Movement, Mindfulness and Mental Health
References
Gold, J., & Ciorciari, J. (2020). A Review on the Role of the Neuroscience of Flow States in the Modern World. Behavioral Sciences, 10(9), 137. MDPI AG. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/bs10090137
Oppesso, M. & Schwartz, D. Stanford University (2014). Give Your Ideas Some Legs: The Positive Effect of Walking on Creative Thinking. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 2014, Vol. 40, No. 4, 1142–1152. Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/xlm-a0036577.pdf
Sawyer, B. (2020, December 19). Talking point: Q&A with Brandon Sawyer, ph.D.. Viewpoint. Retrieved from https://viewpoint.pointloma.edu/qa-with-brandon-sawyer/
Swann, Christian F., "Flow in sport" (2016). Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers. 2723. Retrieved from https://ro.uow.edu.au/sspapers/2723
van der Kolk, B. A. (2014). The body keeps the score: Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma. Viking.
van der Kolk, B., Stone, L., West, J., Rhodes, A., Emerson, D., Suvak, M., & Spinnaloza, J. (2014). Yoga as an Adjunctive Treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. Volume 75, No.6, 559-565). Retrieved from https://www.besselvanderkolk.com/uploads/docs/Yoga-F-J-Clin-Psychiat-1.pdf