How to Enter Flow State on Command (using Neuroscience)

When you understand the neuroscience of flow state, you will be able to activate it on demand. And by the end of this video, you are going to be a flow state, super focused maniac. I was diagnosed with ADHD when I was younger, and focus was something that I always used to struggle with. But when I understood the neurochemical cocktail behind flow and deep work, the cocktail that unlocks this state in your brain where you are Focused, creative, and intuitive. It became this formula that I now use on repeat. You have a peak performance mode in your brain, and I'm going to show you how you can turn it on. And if you're new here, hi, I'm Emily, also known as Em on the Brain. I am a neuroscientist by training. I've got 2 degrees in neuroscience as well as many years of research experience in the lab. I am now a coach to people in over 55 countries all over the world. I help them rewire their brain, level up, and live their best life. And that is exactly what I am here to help you do too. So So what is flow state exactly? Flow state is complete absorption in what you are doing, and there are actually 4 psychological characteristics that are associated with flow. The first is having a challenge-skill balance. Okay? So whatever it is that you are doing, it can't be boring because that isn't engaging, but it also can't be so hard that you're pulling your hair out and you're super frustrated because that actually creates anxiety. And I'm gonna tell you a little bit about the neurochemical cocktail in a second and why this matters so much. The second psychological characteristic of flow is having a very clear goal and feedback. So you need to know exactly what it is that you are aiming for. You can't just be sitting down and being like, oh, I don't know what exactly I'm going to be doing. No, you need to have a very clear goal, a very clear outcome that your brain knows it is needing to work toward. The third psychological characteristic of flow is loss of self-consciousness. So this is where you kind of step outside of the ego and you become immersed in what you're doing. And, you know, athletes, performers, people who have, maybe even you, if you've been in flow before, it sort of feels like you step out of your own way and this energy is just flowing through you. And this is actually super helpful because self-consciousness and our ego often gets in the way of creation. Whereas when we lose this kind of sense of self and when we're fully immersed in what we're doing, We really do unlock flow. Psychological characteristic number 4 for flow state is time distortion. So this is where you're just locked in for hours, but those hours feel like minutes. And the really great thing about flow state is that action starts to feel effortless. Like it feels fun and you are just so immersed in it. You're not having to fight or force. And this is the exact psychological state that I liked to find myself in when I was studying, when I was in school, or when I was working in the research lab, or when I'm creating or coaching now. But what's really interesting is what has to change in your brain for you to feel this way. And this is where it starts to get actionable, because when you understand what's happening in the brain, you can design a schedule. You can design a sort of protocol that allows you to get into flow at any time. And that is exactly what I'm going to share with you in a second. But first, let's talk about what happens in your brain when you enter into flow state. The first is that certain areas of your brain actually get quieter. So certain areas in the prefrontal cortex and the default mode network have actually been shown to become quieter. Now, why is this important? Well, the default mode network has been found to be active when we are mind wandering, daydreaming, imagining, right? And that's not something that we want to be doing when we are in flow. When we want to be in flow, we want our task-positive network to be on. We want to be locked in. We want to be fully immersed, not Mind wandering and daydreaming. That actually goes against what we need for flow because I'll explain this more in a second, but we actually need to be focused on one clear thing, not a bunch of different things. If our attention is being pulled in many different directions, we are kind of destroying our ability to get into flow. And these areas in the prefrontal cortex that have been shown to get quieter are involved in self-referential processing, like self-awareness and being aware of yourself, which we just talked about in order to get into flow state, we kind of need to lose this sense of self. And so if we are monitoring ourself and you're sitting here doing your work and your immediate thought is, oh, and that's not good enough, or that's not gonna work, that's not gonna be good. If you are monitoring yourself like that, that takes you out of flow. So the part of you that is watching yourself do the thing gets quieter, which allows you to actually do the thing. And now I actually have a fun hack for sort of activating this. On demand, I like to do this even when I'm creating content and I feel like I'm just getting in my own way, like I'm just monitoring myself too much. I actually got this from one of my students that I coached that she gave to me, and it was really cool when she shared it with me. But anyway, what she said to do was she actually likes to pull herself up. She imagines sucking her ego out and like plopping them in the chair next to her. And this is something that I like to do now. It's a little practice that I like to do when I feel like I'm monitoring myself. I will literally imagine plucking my ego out and plopping her in the chair right next to me. Like, you can sit right there, allow the divine life force energy to flow through me, and you can sit right there. And then when I'm ready for you to come back. But this is really just a sort of fun visualization hack that I have found to be useful. So use that and try it out, see if it works for you. But aside from these brain areas shifting in activity, we also see a shift in neurochemistry. And this is where it gets really interesting and really applicable. First, we see an increase in dopamine. This is exciting. I feel motivated. This is fun. Let's keep going. We also see an increase in norepinephrine. Norepinephrine is involved in alertness and wakefulness, right? Which is important for focus. If you wanna be immersed and locked in, you want that norepinephrine buzzing in your brain. We also see an increase in endogenous opioids or endorphins. This is where that feeling of like, this feels good. And these also are responsible for sort of like the pleasure pain axis and can help create those feelings of effortlessness that are associated with flow. We also see an increase in anandamide or endocannabinoid signaling. Now, this is really cool. Endocannabinoids are appropriately named actually after cannabinoids. So cannabis binds to cannabinoid receptors all throughout our nervous system, in our brain, in our body. They're everywhere. And we actually have something called endocannabinoids that bind to these receptors as well. Anandamide is one of them. And so these are associated with sort of like creativity and lateral thinking that if you've ever smoked the plant, you may have had experience with that. And so we have endogenous chemicals in our brain and body that help us to do that too. And in flow, we see an increase of signaling with these molecules. So that is the background. That's the science. But now let's talk about how you can trigger this neurochemical cocktail to activate flow, to activate deep work and feeling Fully immersed in what you're doing at any time. And I have actually given this exact formula to my students that I coach. And I had, I remember one of my students came back like a week later after sharing this formula and he had this competition at work and he shared with me that he won the entire competition at work because he used this formula. I use this formula. I live by it. It works every single time. So make sure you have a pen and paper. Take notes because you're gonna wanna use this formula to get into flow state. Step 1 is to find your Remember, we need a challenge-to-skill balance. So you don't wanna be doing something that's gonna be super difficult. It's gonna stress you out, but you also don't want it to be boring. And so how can you activate this? How can you do this when the tasks are boring? You're like, but I work this job and it's like these mundane things and I am bored. Well, how can you make it a little more challenging or a little more exciting? How can you stretch yourself to make it a little more challenging? Maybe you can put a time restriction. on yourself. Maybe you can say, I'm going to get this amount done in this amount of time, and it's sort of a stretch for you, and you're not exactly sure if you're going to be able to do it. That is one way that you can sort of make a mundane, everyday, boring task more challenging so that you can actually activate the neurochemicals for flow. But again, if it's too easy, you're bored. You don't get dopamine from that, and you're not going to have a boost in norepinephrine. If it's too hard, you're going to be stressed, and then the balance of these neurochemicals are going to be thrown off, and you might feel more anxious or stressed than Enjoy and immerse in what you're doing. So this balance is really important. Flow lives right at the edge of your abilities. Step 2 is to give your brain one clear target. Multitasking destroys your ability to get into flow. If you are trying to get into flow state and you are also trying to multitask, you are doing 2 different things and it's not going to work. And that is why, you know, flow state is maybe isn't something that you're going to try to get into. All of the time, but maybe you want to curate your schedule and update your calendar and be like, this is going to be a time block where I am going to purposefully get into deep work and activate flow. That's personally what I like to do, but you cannot multitask. You cannot have your attention being pulled in all different directions because you need to be fully immersed in one thing. You need focused attention on one thing. And remember the psychological characteristics of flow. You need a clear goal and feedback. So before you get into work, ask yourself, what exactly am I doing? Like, what is the goal? The next question that you can ask yourself is, what does done look like? Is it at a certain amount of time? You know, when a certain amount of work gets done, that is up to you, but what does done look like? Having that definition of done is really, really important again for that feedback that your brain is going to get. It is really easy to get into flow. When you're playing a game, like athletes report getting into flow a lot of the time as well. Why? They have a very, very clear goal. Their attention hopefully is focused on the game and the game alone. And when it's not, that hurts their performance, right? But they have a very clear goal and they have feedback. And the feedback is whatever sport they play. In a lot of sports, it's the score, right? So they're getting constant feedback about what is happening and the brain Loves that. And it helps to kind of be like, okay, this is the goal and this is the feedback. So have your clear definition of what success or done looks like. And then finally, because the brain loves feedback, how are you going to know that you are making progress? What does progress look like, right? Having a definition of done is really important, but also having a definition of like, what does making progress look like? A lot of the time, the answers to these questions are very simple. We just don't take the 30 seconds to Answer them. So choose one task, put your phone away, go on do not disturb, get all of the distractions out of sight because you cannot get fully immersed in something that you are constantly leaving. And then the third condition for flow is to increase engagement. Remember, you need wakefulness. You need alertness. You need that norepinephrine flowing through you. You can't just be tired and lethargic. You need to be wide awake. For flow. This is why it is sort of reported with athletes and the runner's high, right? Because you are wide awake, you are alert, your body is engaged. And you can do this through novelty, through physical embodiment, like in exercise, or with risk. And I personally have discovered that risk can be a great way to boost alertness and get into flow, especially with creative acts. So when I feel like I am, for example, in the past, um, with creating like short-form content, when I feel like what I am about to say is maybe a little risky, maybe I am I'm on the edge a little bit, I get into flow and I enjoy creating that content so much more because it is sort of on the edge, right? And that might be because it is sort of like this challenge to skill balance that I mentioned in number 1, but also because it requires physical engagement. It requires your brain to be alert because your brain's like, oh, taking a risk here. I need to, I need to be aware of what's going on. But essentially you want to make the task that you are doing stimulating enough that your brain actually Because if it's not stimulating, it's boring. And if it's boring, you're not getting into flow state. And novelty, physical embodiment, and risk really are the 3 categories that you can use to make the task more engaging. So with novelty, how can you switch it up? How can you make it feel new? If it's something that you have to do a lot, how can you make it feel new? Maybe you can do it in a new environment. Maybe you can listen to a different type of music. I know personally for me, as somebody with ADHD, switching up even how you sit can make a difference. When I was in the trenches the last couple of months writing my book before I completed it, I would be sitting with my legs up like this. I was sitting in the craziest ways, but it really takes just little things like that to make it more physically demanding, to make it feel new, to switch it up, to confuse the brain a little bit. And that Helps you to get out of your mind, to remove that sense of self, right? But also to make this like embodiment condition work for you. So how can you make it new? And then the second piece, right? Embodiment. How can you make it physically engaging? If it's an active task, if it is like a physical activity, way easier to get into flow for that. But if it's not, it is tried and true process for me. Exercising first thing in the morning. is a game changer for getting into flow and for actually being able to get into deep work throughout the day. Waking up your body, waking up your brain, and making yourself feel like more alert— that is one of the neurochemical conditions for flow. Exercise boosts dopamine and it boosts norepinephrine, so that helps you to again have more of those neurochemicals that are involved in the cocktail for flow available to you. Now, if you're not going to exercise, maybe This looks like doing like a yoga flow, like a little round of yoga flow, like in your office. You can do this. It takes 5 minutes. It's something that I used to do back when I was in my PhD and I like didn't have time to work out in the morning. I would have to be in lab to run an experiment at like 7:00 AM. I would do like 3 morning sun salutations quickly, like plowing with it, right? Like that wakes you up. You could literally do jumping jacks. You can have a 5-minute dance party. You can do breathwork. There are so many options here, but the point is that you have to wake your body up and be physically Stimulated. And then the last condition, of course, is risk, like I mentioned. Now, you do not have to go skydiving or do something crazy to take risks, but you can, you know, post something bold. That can be a risk. Or to, again, make that one clear goal that you are going to be focused on, make it something that you're not really sure you're going to be able to accomplish. That can be a risk. But there are ways that you can kind of make what you're doing a little risky, and that is Cognitively demanding to activate flow. Those are the 3 conditions that are required for activating flow state. Now let me give you a protocol that puts it all into order step by step so you can do it on demand whenever you want. This is my ultimate flow on command protocol. Follow each of these steps before you need to get into deep focus or just do it in the morning. I personally like to do it in the morning and watch how your brain responds to you. Step 1, activate. Move your body, do some breathwork, do some jumping jacks, wake yourself up. All right, step 2, aim. What is your one specific target? And remove all distractions. Get rid of them. Put your phone on do not disturb. Tell everybody around you not to bother you. Tell yourself there are— there is nothing more important. Everything else can wait. This is what we are focusing on right now. Number 3, stretch. Make Slightly challenging. Make it slightly demanding. Maybe even a little risky. Switch it up. Maybe make it feel new. New music, new environment, new way of sitting. Number 4, disappear. Give yourself enough time to actually get into flow state. Don't expect yourself to be able to drop in in like 10 minutes or 20 minutes. Like, don't expect that of yourself. Give yourself enough time to get into it. And actually setting a time limit can be very helpful for that one clear goal. So disappear. Allow yourself the opportunity to become fully immersed. And then number 5, recover. Come down, eat, go for a walk, have some social activity, but most importantly, reinforce how good that felt and really wire into your brain what it took for you to get there. I was in like the ultimate flow state. I got so much done and it felt so good. And the only reason I stopped was actually because I had to leave. For an appointment. So I had to stop, and it was a little irritating because I was like, I'm so in flow, I don't want to stop. Um, but I stopped, and then I remember just being in the car on the way to my appointment and just thinking to myself, like, I feel so good right now. I feel so proud of myself. I feel so, like, activated and just happy right now. And I took a moment, I took out my voice memos, and I just talked to myself for like 10 minutes. And I— because I really wanted to wire it into my brain, like, how good this feels. They've actually shown in studies that Single-pointed focus is inherently rewarding to our brains. So if you can get yourself into this state where you are actually fully immersed in what you're doing and focused on just one thing for a solid amount of time, that is going to be rewarding to your brain. Like, it is inherently rewarding. And it sucks that society and our phones, like, it's training our brains away from being able to focus on one thing. And that's actually removing the thing that is inherently rewarding to us. Like, it's removing the thing that makes the brain feel good, which is focusing on one thing at a time. Like that actually makes our brains feel good. So anyway, I sat down and I just like talked to myself for a few minutes, just, just about how good it felt and how rewarding and fulfilled, like I felt so fulfilled in that moment after doing that. And again, I just followed the exact steps that I gave to you. I did my morning routine that I've done a video about before. You can let me know in the comments if you want another video kind of breaking that down in more detail, but I do my morning routine, which involves activating my body and centering myself through meditation and dumping all of the contents out of my brain so that I'm not distracted by thoughts because thoughts can be distracting when you're trying to get into flow state. And I have a whole process for kind of removing the thoughts before I get into it. And anyway, I got into like just the best flow ever. And I have kind of figured out how to organize my schedule and my calendar to be able to activate flow on demand and create days that are like purposefully for getting into flow and doing deep work, and it is so rewarding. So I highly recommend you try out this protocol, and I can't wait to hear how it goes for you. I am also going to be teaching a live free masterclass on the neuroscience of manifestation, sharing my entire protocol for reprogramming your subconscious mind and all of the different components, all the different parts of your brain and nervous system that are involved in the subconscious mind. I'm going to be doing that very soon, so check out the link in the description to RSVP and save your seat for that class. You don't want to miss it. I am also going to be going on tour very soon. There's going to be a link in the description to RSVP for your city. This also gets you on the list to be the first to know when I drop the tickets, which you'll definitely want to be on that list. So check out that link to RSVP for your city, and I'm sending you so much love. I believe in you. I'm rooting for you. Get out there and do this protocol because I'm telling you, it will feel so good. You'll So proud of yourself and you'll just, you'll be craving it. Like you will be craving deep work when you use this protocol. All right. I'm sending you so much love and I'll see you in the next one. Bye. Bye.