LO-FI INDUCED FLOW STATE

“Flow is a subjective state that people report when they are completely involved in something to the point of forgetting time, fatigue, and everything else but the activity itself. It is what we feel when we read a well- crafted novel or play a good game, or take part in a stimulating conversation.

The defining feature of flow is intense experiential involvement in moment-to-moment activity. Attention is fully invested in the task at hand, and the person functions at his or her fullest capacity.”

The term Flow State was coined by positive psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Jeanne Nakamura

“The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost,” Csíkszentmihályi said in an interview with Wired magazine.

LeBron James, in a session with Calm, talks about tapping into this state by doing a few minutes of meditative practice before the start of a game.

Personally, I find music to be a perfect way to induce and maintain flow state. But not just any music, Lo-Fi music/beats. I can’t find a scientific explanation on how this works for me, so I invite you to try this out for yourself and see.

I unlock a deep concentration into my tasks, and I tune out all the noise going on in my head and the world around me. My complete focus rests entirely on the object of my attention.

Over time, it has become an associative response to find my focus when I put on a Lo-Fi beat. More importantly, a surge of motivation when there’s no energy.

This is how I hack my brain into doing work when it doesn’t want to work, and staying grounded even when it would instead wander about the shores of past and future derivatives.

You can find Lo-Fi beats on any music streaming platform. I enjoy the ones curated by mindfulness apps such as Calm and Headspace.

Jay Jay