Flow is not a binary process but a four-stage cycle that you can build awareness around how to engineer this state, rather than waiting for it to happen haphazardly. The key thing to remember is that without the struggle, you cannot achieve states of flow. 

The sympathetic nervous response and loading of our pattern recognition system is the entry point into this altered state of consciousness where we feel and perform at our best. Ways of doing this include leaning into discomfort, get comfortable with resistance and overwhelm, saying “yes to the fight” – that’s when we can lock in getting into flow on demand. Therefore, what’s even more critical to accepting the higher states of risk, uncertainty, chaos and struggle is the ability to adopt a positive outlook and growth mindset; to reframe this physiological state of stress into one of excitement and opportunity so that you can push through. 

Once you can “embrace the suck” and lean into something difficult, then it’s about struggling gracefully, not burning out, and then being acutely aware of when to pull away just in time. Because adhering to well-designed release triggers that allow deep embodiment and mindfulness to lower our dopamine levels and executive function, then turn on our default network, and ultimately prime the brain for continuous flow. Then boom: you have the right combination of chemicals in your system for “effortless effort” to happen. Then because flow is neurologically expensive (draining the system since so much is going on in the brain and body at the same time), it’s paramount to be downright gritty about active recovery so that you can access flow on a regular basis. 

Without it, we just live between the common binary states of Struggle and Release (or Collapse when you end up using passive entertainment or alcohol to down regulate). So really the practice of engineering flow is about disciplined recovery and the ability to focus long enough to struggle gracefully. Rinse and repeat.