High intensity interval training and cardiovascular endurance exercise with noise cancellation headphones along with a specifically curated flow playlist are prerequisites for achieving total immersion and complete focus during the selected exertion activity.
You need to be alone for this task. As interaction with the outside world must be eliminated for the duration in order to lose one’s self into the goal. It is therefore vital that you are not able to hear anything at all outside the musical contents being delivered to your brain.
In order to achieve zero distractions you must have no room leftover except for this intense concentration moving as quickly as possible pushing yourself as hard as possible doing this for as long as possible without interruptions or stopping. It’s okay if you need to decrease the maximum effort to catch your breath (and stop yourself from vomiting) but it’s equally important that under any circumstances you do not stop. You are here to work.
Nothing about this can be easy. However, what you will discover is that during the workout there is a threshold from where the experience of pain starts becoming pleasurable. You need to keep going until you are not only comfortable with that pain but until you arrive at this intersection where you begin to feel nothing at all, even though you are going harder than ever.
There comes a point when the body carries itself for you through the activity. At this point it’s actually easier to keep going than it is to stop and go again. It is precisely at this point when you will no longer experience pain but euphoria will arise. You are now in flow.
Synchronising the body’s movements in time with the music converts this physical energy into a eustress experience, a highly positive form of beneficial stress. You need to be pushing yourself extremely hard in order to achieve it. And once achieved you will experience tremendous side effects. Eustress is the ultimate flow experience.
The more you deliberately find ways to create this eustress in your life, the more you will enjoy challenges, the more you will deliberately seek out difficulty, the happier then you will feel.
Music is a critical element in order for this state to be achieved. You must have a flow state practice playlist. That is: specifically prepared music that when listened to during each highly intense interval training session, cardiovascular endurance exercise or mental activity this music induces flow almost instantly. And as soon as you arrive into flow, the body can lose its ability to feel itself in the task as it becomes one with the activity and automatic, where all actions start to become effortless.
During flow you will be performing at an extremely difficult level however, paradoxically, when in flow you will not notice yourself doing it and the feeling of ‘you’ will even disappear. In flow the sense of self vanishes to the point where even though you are engaged with this extremely demanding task and performing beyond your previous ability, the magic is that you will also not notice or feel yourself doing this.
In order to achieve this balance between skill level and challenge you need to focus on increasing the intensity until your body becomes one with the music, almost as if your body were the instrument that is playing, moving in motion like a metronome to the sound that is playing. Everything is moving synchronously, the body harmonises with the music.
It is therefore helpful to be listening to loop based electronic music: repetitive music that generates loops that you can listen to over and over again and again without ever getting tired of listening to. And sometimes the more serious and harder the sound, the far easier it is getting to a maximum performance. A good example of this would be techno, however trance is also extremely capable. But this aspect could be subjective to each individual’s preference for music.
Regardless of what music you choose, it’s important that the music motivates you to the maximum and it is the only thing you can hear during the session.
Flow is a euphoric trance-like state of mind. We could say flow is trance. Therefore trance works really well. But it’s an individual preference. The Rocky 4 Soundtrack is great for getting in too. Whatever inspires you to the point of intrinsic motivation. That’s the main point here and all that really matters. That you are intensely motivated by what you are hearing and focused on continually increasing the challenge as it plays and you engage with the task.
No outside interference is permitted. No standing around waiting minutes between workouts. No distractions whatsoever. That means being on your phone or even talking to other people. You’re focusing on achieving a goal and you are always trying to achieve better than before. You can’t do that maximum threshold if you are talking or thinking about other things.
The music is playing and your physical body is the tempo to that music. It is therefore essential that you are not able to hear anything outside the headphones. This is critical: in order to reach the zone you need to be completely locked in, almost to the point where it’s as if nobody else in the world exists and nothing else in the world matters now but this task. Without this carefully chosen curated track selection reaching a state of flow simply may not be on the cards. The activity has strict rules and you must abide by these rules if the game.
It’s not a simple matter of what you choose to do and hope it will bring on the experience but more importantly is how you do what you do to ensure it. How you prepare yourself going in and the way you engage is the difference here that makes all the difference.
Anyone can set a goal, go to the gym, pick up a book or hear a song. But not everyone studies the book, listens to the song, does as much as they can at the gym, or go on to achieve the goal. Not everyone applies themselves with the level of discipline of shutting down the entire world to focus solely on the task at hand and nothing else is allowed in during this activity.
And yet, forcing one’s self to be extremely disciplined whilst difficult not only leads to extraordinary benefits but an unusual amount of satisfaction and immensely pleasurable rewards.
The difference is the level of focus and discipline you bring to the activity. Standing around and talking or looking into your screen receiving irrelevant information that has no relation to the task at hand is a distraction and you are exactly who this is not for.
Make this the year to invest more into your physical health than ever before. Take a swim. Go for a run. Hit the gym. Walk everyday. Then burn in a sauna for 20-30 minutes. Go the ocean.
Think about how much has already been wasted on pointless things. Change the game. Play it differently. Reverse the clock. We are at the point of having an extra life. It’s on you to make the most of it. Don’t waste it. Make it last, by making you far better.
Yes, there is only so much you can do. But there also so much more you could do that you do not. The only thing holding you back is your imagination. Or that screen you confine your life to. Get the fuck off your phone and start doing something better with your life. If you wake up one day and feel depressed when all you do is live passively inside the screen then we may even blame you for the cause of your own depression. Because only you can do something about that.
Become more active. Get into running. Run for the peak experiences it delivers. Keep away from passive activities and things that don’t serve your purpose or mind. Follow news that actually makes you smarter and not more fearful about the world. Start running and don’t stop until you unlock and feel what it is I’m talking about. I don’t run for what it does to my body. Endurance running is terrible for the body. But what it does for your mind? The clarity of thought? Solutions to problems? Answers to questions? Increased creativity? Productivity? Feel good chemicals released into the brain causing one to feel far better and much happier: experiencing flow.
Many mistake sex and drugs as the best ways to achieve pleasure. These people have never experienced flow before, because if they did they’d realize they don’t need either in order to feel that way. Pleasure can arise entirely from the self within the self. If only more people knew how they would a better use of their time instead of meaningless distractions, which is never a solution to lasting long term fulfilment and sustained contentment.
Flow however is the solution to that problem which makes all the unnecessary easy to abstain from. You will be surprised to know that you can get as much of a high on your own supply. Flow mimics the same euphoric quality of experiencing high as ecstasy. Who needs drink or drugs when there is flow everywhere? The only problem they have is where the next goal is coming from.
Ever get that feeling when going over a bridge and suddenly you get those butterflies in your stomach, but it only lasts for a second? Well, flow is a bit like that, only it lasts for hours. It really does feel magical. I don’t mean to get all mystical on you but it can feel at times like creative angels or energised fairies come along and carry you to the end of whatever it is you are doing, because you don’t feel yourself doing what you are doing at all.
You lose your complete sense of self whilst caught up in this activity to the point where the ego disappears which is why sometimes things can get a little strange or funny. The self paradoxically increases itself during acts of self forgetfulness. And as the self gets forgotten during an episode of flow, for a while, that person momentarily isn’t with us. And whilst this might sound like someone crossing the chasm over into schizophrenia, flow is in fact the extreme opposite. Flow is defined as an extremely focused, wildly productive and pleasurable state of consciousness, whereas schizophrenia involves a breakdown of cognitive, emotional and behavioural functioning. These two states are diametrically opposed.
And while symptoms may appear to overlap between these worlds, when we take a closer examination of the activity these people are engaged in and consider their current skill level, sit back and look at the activities. Whilst what we are seeing might seem unusual, something peculiarly positive is actually beginning to transpire.
Knowing what makes this satisfaction is the key. Too many desire too many things. How much better it would be to want what you have and desire what you already possess. There is no other way, at least to my knowledge, how to activate this state so fast so easily.
Stop now and invest more in your physical health. Jim Rohn once said to me (in a book): develop a good exercise program and you can make all of your dreams come true. I took that very seriously when he told me that. He was right. It won’t happen overnight. But with real effort, serious commitment to eliminating distractions for focus and an unusual dedication to improvement of the self, it’s not impossible to have an extraordinarily rich state of mind.
Write down right now that you are going to become an athlete.
Make that one of your goals.
There is absolute pleasure to be discovered at the other side of extreme discomfort. Ecstasy-like sensations, but without any of the brain damage or seriously negative side effects? In fact, if anything, all this will only ever lead to extremely positive results. Similar experiences of pleasure compared to those who take drugs to try and feel the same way, but without the need to take any at all.
Who wouldn’t want to feel like that as much as possible?
GETTING WIRED FOR THE ZONE
