If you are a normal human who juggles work, friends, social life, fitness and me time, you are no stranger to stress and the occasional self doubt episode when feeling overwhelmed makes you question, like your WHOLE LIFE PLAN!
And living in the modern world with a constant ‘background noise of daily mental threats’ our brains are actually operating a mode that isn’t super sustainable for years and years.
And scientists are starting to figure this out, figure out what is happening in the average ‘modern life juggling’ brain that makes us prone to stress, anxiety and feeling ‘brain foggy’ AND how to activate different neural networks or brain pathways to achieve the OPPOSITE STATE: something called FLOW.
Now this may sound woo-woo but FLOW has now been measured by researchers at top centers like Yale and they have found that when your brain is in FLOW, certain brain networks involved in ‘constant mental chatter’ start to quiet down and people say they feel like they are in a state of effortless concentration where they feel ‘at one’ with themselves and their environment, like they are no longer separate and they get this radical peace and clarity happening.
If you have ever had a ‘peak experience’ doing something you absolutely love and got so absorbed in it that tie seemed to stand still you have experienced this brain state of FLOW too! For me, I get this into this state when I dance, sometimes when I do yoga and meditation AND when I and when I hook myself up to my neuro-feedback machine and do something called ‘alpha theta’ training, which is kinda like meditation on steroids!
So You can learn to enter FLOW doing an activity that works like a ‘moving meditation’ like dance, tai-chi, or even sky diving! Or you can train your brain into this state through simple meditation techniques, like using a mantra meditation, concentration-based practice with a focus or a vipassa style sitting meditation. It’s all about finding what works best for you.