If you heard that psychologists told you they discovered the ultimate state of consciousness and how to access it on demand, would you be interested? This is going to be like a mini masterclass in how to step into your peak state of performance or just how to get the most enjoyment, fulfillment, satisfaction, Out of your own life.
And by putting what you learned from this episode into practice, that you can access this state more consistently, because this is how you can recharge your batteries. This is how you could get all of some of the greatest neuro feel good chemicals known to man by not having to take any external substance and you're cultivating it internally.
And now we have the science and research to back this up. This is your invitation to become the alchemist of your life. Decode your heaven on earth and go through the alchemical process. The alchemist is a master of himself so that he can master life. People thought alchemists were turning lead into gold, but they're really crystallizing their soul into form.
Alchemize your golden potential. Welcome to the golden life. If you heard that psychologists told you they discovered the ultimate state of consciousness and how to access it on demand, would you be interested? Welcome to the Golden Life. My name is David Gilbert, and today I'm going to help you understand the ultimate state of consciousness, AKA the flow state, and how to unlock it so that you can access this on demand.
And this is going to be like a mini masterclass. And how to step into your peak state of performance, or just how to get the most enjoyment, fulfillment, satisfaction out of your own life. So this is going to be like a mini masterclass. And how you could really utilize this state of consciousness to either step into your peak state of performance or to create your most fulfilling life.
So you won't want to miss this. And I've studied extensively with the two organizations leading the way for flow state research. And this is both the flow genome project. And then I've also trained and have been certified as a flow coach from the flow research collective. I even wrote an entire chapter in this book, peak performance mindset tools for business that you could find online or in your local Barnes and Noble.
But first of all, what is the flow state? And if you don't know, well, this is a kin to the moment where you just feel in the zone. You lose sense of time, you lose yourself in the moment, and you just come out feeling awesome. Now, some of the highest flow activities tend to be sports, games, creating art, or making music, or just dancing.
But, to really help you understand this state, it helps to know the acronym STEER. S T E R. And the S stands for selflessness. So this means that when you get into a deep flow state, you lose sense of yourself. Your mind and body just become one. And then T, which stands for timelessness. This means that you lose sense of time.
One hour can feel like a minute or one minute can feel like an hour. Just time seems to operate on different rules. And then E is for effortlessness. You don't have to think about what you're doing. You're just doing it. Everything just feels effortless. And then lastly, R which stands for richness. This state is extremely rich.
Psychologists call it autotelic, which means we enjoy doing the activity just for the sake of doing it. So now that you understand flow, stay a little bit better. Can you think about the last time you got into flow? Because we get into flow in all types of different activities and it's helpful to understand there's also macro and micro flow, right?
These little short moments where we're in flow, where we lose sense of time and ourselves and it feels rich. And then there's also these deep flow states and we can learn how to create more of these flow states on demand. The first. How did we get to where we are today to understand this state, you know, to a point where psychologists actually call this the ultimate state of consciousness where we feel and perform at our best.
Well, flow state science really goes 18 seventies with Fred and learning and exploring peak experiences. And then even more so in the 1950s with Abraham Maslow and really starting to talk about these altered states and even more in depth about peak experience. And finally, Chick sent me high in the 1970s.
It was really considered the godfather of flow. And what's interesting is that he was a Holocaust survivor and he noticed that there was some people in the camps who were doing really well and some people who were not. And this sent him on a journey of really asking what makes life worth living. And why do some people seem so much happier than others?
And this led him to discover what we now call the flow state. And what's also interesting too, is before they thought this was just the endorphins being released that we'd get from something like a runner's high. With the state known as getting in the zone or getting in the pocket, And at first they thought it was more just limited to this state and just part of the runner's high.
But as the research continued by the 1990s, they started to understand that flow is universal and that it has these core characteristics and we can utilize the triggers to help us elevate our performance. So if this hasn't caught your attention, why should you absolutely be at least aware of the flow state, even if you're not an athlete or a peak performer?
Well, this is to really say if you want to live an enjoyable life or live your most meaningful life, then you want to know about the high flow advantage. Because I'm going to share in a minute how you can get the greatest cocktail of neuro feel good chemicals. But more importantly, the research to today has now shown the high flow advantage.
And this is things like a 500 percent increase in productivity when you get into a flow state, 200 percent increase in learning and memory. So you could acquire skills faster than normally. And do this in about half the time to 400 to 700 percent boost in creativity. Now it depends on which part of the creative cycle you're in, but that's a little side note, 100 percent increase in overall life satisfaction, meaning purpose and well being.
And I could just end it there because you might be able to just argue that that's all we really want, right? More satisfaction, meaning purpose, and just overall wellbeing. But if that's not enough, accessing flow, deep flow states on a consistent basis also creates an uptick in grit and performance, and it can amplify collaboration, cooperation, empathy, and ecological awareness.
Just wanting to give back to nature and mother earth as well as increases strength, stanima, and simultaneously decreasing pain and even increases muscle reaction time. Now. Why do we get all of these benefits? Well, I'm going to break down the neuro cocktail that you get when you get into a deep flow state.
But this is to also highlight that when you see people do things like Skydiving or maybe even the even crazier version of wingsuits or some wild activity where they're on the brink of death coming face to face with that edge. What do we typically call them? We call them adrenaline junkies, but the truth is they're not actually adrenaline junkies because if you had a lot of adrenaline in your system, you also have a lot of, norepinephrine and it would be very uncomfortable.
It's not a comfortable state to be in when you're just overflowing with adrenaline, you kind of lose body awareness and just not overall fun. Well, the really flow junkies and the most addictive state known to mankind is group flow. Because you're going to get all of these feel good chemicals, but when you stack on getting into a flow state as a group, aka something like sports, well, you also get more neuro feel good chemicals on top of that, and that's why it's the most addictive state.
So, people who tend to do those wild activities, they are not adrenaline junkies. They are flow junkies. Maybe you're like, Hey, that's me. Well, you don't have to call yourself an adrenaline junkie anymore. You can just call yourself a flow junkie. But why is this one of the most potent and natural cocktails of neuro feel good chemicals that are available to us?
Well, when we get into a deep flow state, Here are some of the endorphins we get. We get acetylcholine, norepinephrine, dopamine, anandamide, endorphins, serotonin, oxytocin, GABA, and glutamate. But really, I'm going to talk about the core five, because as with all different kinds of activities, there's a lot of extra neurotransmitters, neurochemicals that get released.
But the core five And I'm going to break these down as to why this flow state feels so great. So starting with norepinephrine, and this is a little bit like adrenaline. This gets you into focus and this provides some excitement as well as a little bit of anxiety. And then you get dopamine, which makes everything feel good, especially chasing some type of reward.
And then you also get anandamide. Which is like a little bit of a painkiller and also activates some pleasure response. Same with endorphins, they do the same thing. Right, you get a runner's high, you feel less of the pain, and you feel a little bit of this high, of this pleasure. As well as serotonin. So you feel a little bit more calm, you feel peaceful, you feel satiated.
And, you could really start to understand this state. Where you're relaxed, yet focused. You feel less pain and more pleasure. You actually feel really good because you're chasing a reward. And you're getting these extra endorphins. They're activating all the other pathways. So you actually feel really awesome.
So you can start to see why flow state is so addictive. And that's not enough. I'll use the analogy of different drugs. To really drive this home for you. So this deep flow state that you can access and you don't need anything externally, any external substance to get you there. Well, getting into a very deep flow state is the equivalent of taking cocaine, speed, THC or marijuana, MDMA and opioids in one cocktail.
Right? Why is that? Well, first of all. You get a response of dopamine just like if you were to do cocaine. And then when you take a drug like speed, you're getting that norepinephrine, that rush, that little bit of not quite adrenaline cause it's norepinephrine, but it's getting you to focus. It's getting you locked into the present moment.
And then you also get anandamide, which is the same pathways that activate when you use marijuana. So you feel more pleasure, you feel less pain, you have divergent thinking, which is to say your left brain and right brains, both hemispheres are in better communication with each other. This is why you get more creative ideas and you just start to connect dots that you don't normally do.
And if that's not enough, then you also release a lot of serotonin, which is the power of MDMA, you're overflowed. You're overflowing with serotonin. So everything feels like love. Everything feels like bliss. Everything feels great. And then on top of that you were to get the same type of effect. If you were to take some type of opioid and get that endorphin rush.
So that's the power that you have that hopefully now with this awareness and by putting what you learn from this episode into practice that you can access this state more consistently. Because this is how you can recharge your batteries. This is how you could get all of some of the greatest neuro feel good chemicals known to man by not having to take any external substance and you're cultivating it internally.
And now we have the science and research to back this up. So once again, the flow state, The flow state is where we're out of our normal operating of how we go through life, right? The beta brainwave of being alert and checking everything. No, we're in this alpha and theta, which means we're a little bit relaxed and we even have more access to our subconscious or divergent thinking.
We can use more of our left and right brain, uh, both hemispheres and we're just, we're more relaxed. We're more open. We have access to more creative thinking and we're not processing as much information in the beta brainwave state yet. We're still focused. We're still lost in the task at hand. And because of this, we completely experienced time dilation.
We have no sense of time. And when we come out of this, we get so lost in the present moment that when we come out, We feel so recharged. We feel so full of life. We feel like our life has meaning because we weren't stuck in our head. We were fully integrated in our body and mind and whatever task at hand.
So, I want to plant the seed and we'll come back to this. But do you know what those activities are for you? Before I go a little bit further into some of the core things to know, because you do see a lot more people talking about flow nowadays, I want to be able to give you all the groundedness you need so you could really access this state and live up to the promise that I said to access this state on demand and more consistently.
But first, I do want to share quickly the dangers of flow. And this isn't a full comprehensive list, but these are some of the biggest things. And these also tie in to creating peak experiences or altered state of conscious experiences on demand, like I shared in a previous episode. So no flow state is an altered state of consciousness because we're not in our ordinary state of consciousness, our ordinary way of being as we typically go through life, right?
We. Drop into a different state. So this goes for flow states as well as peak states of consciousness, such as breathwork journeys or psychedelics, or just major, you know, transformative retreats, whatever it may be. Just be aware of these dangers when it comes to accessing more altered states. And number one is selflessness can turn into ego inflation.
So what happens during a flow state? Well, your default mode network shuts down. Literally your conscious brain isn't working as much and you're just more access to more of your brain. Now, when you go through a deep altered state or peak experience or flow state, this can happen. You can completely lose sense of your ego.
Now, what happens when your ego kind of loses sense of herself or Mimi dies, there is the potential for it to come back with the vengeance. So just know if you have a deeply transformative weekend, maybe you try psychedelics or breath work or some altered state modality and you decide you're going to rename yourself.
Well, this can just be a symptom of you experiencing total selflessness and then your ego wanting to come back with a new version of yourself and a new name, new identity and let go of all those responsibilities that you still should probably be holding onto. So just know that is a potential. Then there's also what's called the watchtower effect.
And this is when you experience timelessness, you have an increase in dopamine. Remember, just like doing a bunch of cocaine. And with that, you also have more access to information, which is to say you have better pattern recognition. So when you're in the deep now, when you're in a deep flow state or peak experience, and you're kind of lost in the present moment, You can see more patterns.
You could see more trends. You could connect more dots. And what can happen is you can see something, let's say it's a idea for a business and you could see it in front of you as if it's here right now. And you can create that in a month or a year, but you're seeing that when you have no sense of time.
So really that's probably going to take a year to 10 years to create, but. Because you're in the deep now, you thought you could create it, you know, in a month. And this is where we run into a lot of problems, especially high achievers. Cause they see the potential and then they don't get the results that they were expecting.
And then they burn themselves out and give up. So just watch out for the watchtower effect. And then also effortlessness. Right? When we get into a peak state and everything's becomes bliss and we get this neural feel good cocktail and all of our responsibilities just dissolve and we're not thinking about our problems, well, it's known as the most addicting state for a reason.
So no, you could turn into an addict, a flow junkie, a bliss junkie, somebody who just skids. Caught on the peak experience on this altered state versus ordinary life. And if you want to tie this into a peak performer, then you also got to make sure you're doing your flow state activity. Maybe it's writing for you, or maybe it's shooting content like this.
You want to make sure you're putting strategy behind doing accurate. Work. This is to really know which levers are going to make a difference in your business and that you're using a flow state to catalyze those levers, not getting caught on some, you know, secondary tertiary or non important, non urgent work.
Then finally richness. And this is to really highlight, like I just mentioned with effortlessness, you know, this state feels so good that sometimes we can get caught chasing this state. And it's like the metaphor I used of climbing a peak state of consciousness. We get up and we touch the sun and we forget that life is about coming back down the mountain and bringing that to our ordinary life, this state of bliss, the state of joy, the state of losing ourself in the present moment of trying to embody that as much as possible in normal, Mundane life.
So no, life is not meant to only be rich, only a peak experience, and we can get caught on the shiny object of chasing the sunlight verse actually integrating that into normal life. So now that I share the dangers, I want to go through the flow cycle a little bit because this is where the majority of people get stuck getting into flow on the daily activities, especially things like work.
Where it would really help them. So the four part flow cycle is first struggle, release, flow, and recovery. And this is just like using the metaphor of surfing. If you were to go out surfing, we would start with the struggle phase. You paddle out into the waves, you struggle a little bit. And then what happens?
You see this big set coming and you have a little bit of fear. Oh crap. Here it comes. And you start struggling and you start paddling really hard. And that releases the norepinephrine and gets you in focus. And then what happens as you paddle? Your body awareness kind of takes over, right? You created a habit already.
So this is where you release. You're not thinking so much about what you're doing. You're just starting to paddle and then you jump up on your board. If you've been surfing for a while, you don't have to think about it. It's just. It's a habit at this point. So that's the release phase. And then you get into flow.
That's when you're on top of your surfboard and you're losing sense of time, catching the wave, having a good time. And then the other critical part people don't realize is recovery. This is the ultimate state of consciousness where we feel and perform at our best. That means it's going to take up a lot of energy.
And that you need to have a foundational practice of recovery so that you can access this state more consistently. And I'm even going to talk about the positive psychology basics to help you do just that. To help you sustain more access to flow. But I really want to emphasize phase number one, struggle.
Cause this happens in work all the time, right? We go down to work on that really most important project that we know is going to get us the results. But there's a thing we've been putting off and we go to work and then we decide we need to check our email or our phone notification goes off or we want to check social media.
And this is the phase where it's important to push through the struggle. to push through the procrastination. There's a lot of techniques you can use to push through procrastination. But for today, just know if you're going to sit down, make sure you remove distractions and you get yourself to push through to the other side because of what happens if you sit there long enough, eventually, let's say if you're writing, for example, you're going to start writing, can't get any words out of your head, can't get any words out of your head.
Eventually, you'll start writing a little bit more, a little bit more, and then you'll get into that release phase. You'll just kind of let go, let go of that resistance, and then you're going to drop into flow. So once again, just push through the struggle phase and there's also techniques to help you with the release, but that's for a deeper dive.
Now going into recovery and the positive psychology basics. So some of the basics to know when it comes to recovery. Number one, sleep, sleep is actually the ultimate peak performance state because you're getting the most amount of recovery when you are asleep. So six to eight hours of quality sleep will really help you sustain access to more flow.
Number two, nutrition and hydration. Once again, high energy activity. So you're going to need a lot of energy and hydration to have you have access to the state more consistently. The number three, social support, something that we don't typically think about, but having that connection, that belonging and having those relationships that can kind of refill your social tank because we are social creatures.
Number four, gratitude, some type of practice to enter you into a state of gratitude will give you more access to flow. Then number five breath work or a mindfulness practice could also think about this as tools to help you release and that's really what you're looking to do with that. And then number six exercise, even if you're not big into exercise, it will help you gain more access to flow and you really just want to do it 10 to 20 minutes really until it goes quiet upstairs in your mind and you get those endorphins.
And then number seven, going out in nature or walking outside has been shown nature bathing helps reduce stress and gets you back into the present moment, which is going to help you gain more access to flow. So there's just a quick overview of the positive psychology basics that are really the foundation for you to sustain the energy and the recovery you need to gain access to this state more consistently.
And then I'll wrap this up by sharing some of the biggest flow blockers so that you can start to remove these from your life and then apply the flow cycle so you can gain more access to the ultimate state of consciousness where we feel and perform our best. So number one, distraction and interruptions.
Remember if we use the work analogy, you're trying to work and your phone is going off and emails are going off and maybe your wife or kids are busting in the door cause you work at home. Well, that's going to be the quickest thing to drop you out of a flow state. So how can you minimize distractions?
How can you go dark if it's for, you know, an hour to 90 minutes to only focus on one task at hand. Number two, a fixed mindset and negative thinking. This is why gratitude is so powerful because when we get a negative mindset, Into a boxed mindset, we literally put ourselves in our box and we can take away more access to more flow.
Number three, stress for overly stressed and we're not applying the positive psychology basics. Well, we're leaning too much into stress productivity and we're not giving ourselves enough time with recovery and rest. So that is the recipe for burnout. Number four, mission misalignment. It. This is where having a purpose that aligns you with why these tasks are important to you are actually really important.
If you want to be able to access flow on demand, then number five, poor time management, not understanding how to create blocks within your day to get the most important work done and remove distractions and just get yourself past that struggle phase into the flow phase is going to keep you from accessing more flow.
The number six, like I talked about before, improper feeling, if you don't have the energy to sustain flow, well, you're not going to be able to access more of that. And that is the list of the biggest flow blockers. So I know we covered a lot today. Like I said, I said this was going to be a mini masterclass, but I know that if you start to be more aware about flow state.
And just like my shirt, I kind of talked about in a previous episode, understanding that inner masculine and inner feminine, right? The ability to have the discipline to push through the struggle, to focus on the task at hand, to align it with a bigger purpose, and then surrender, to release, to come back to the present moment, to just be.
You'll be able to gain more access to flow and you can use the flow state, the ultimate state of consciousness where you feel and perform at your best to fill up your cup of life to make your life feel more fulfilling as well as help you be more productive. So this really is a secret advantage. And if you want to learn more, I cover this in detail in the book Peak Performance Mindset Tools for Business, where I'm one of the 24 authors in this book.
And I also offer one to one flow coaching. If this is something you want to step more into your peak state of performance, or understand how to use these altered states to accelerate your growth and healing, well, this is part of what I do. To help you to become the alchemist of your life, to understand the most powerful tools of transformation so that you can apply them to them, to yourself and master your life and create the results internally.
And externally. So thank you. Can't wait to hear about your greatest flow activities and what helps you get into a flow state. So please feel free to leave that in the comments below. And if you have any questions about gaining access to flow, please send them my way as well. Have a beautiful rest of your day.
