The Flow State (Total Surrender)

Have you ever been drawing or playing a game so much that you forgot what time it was? That is called Flow. In Flow, you are not thinking Am I doing this right? or What if I fail? You just ARE the drawing or the game. To get there, you have to surrender your worries and your thinking brain to the activity. It is like sliding down a water slide — once you start, you just let the slide take you and enjoy the ride!

Once you start the water slide you just let the slide take you. Flow is the biological signature of surrender. The prefrontal cortex — the part of the brain that generates self-criticism, time awareness, and the sensation of being a separate self — temporarily deactivates. This is called transient hypofrontality. The thinking brain goes quiet. And in its absence, performance increases. Creativity increases. Reaction time increases. Everything gets better when the you that worries about everything gets out of the way. This is the paradox that every athlete, musician, surgeon, and artist knows: you perform best when you are not trying to perform. You are most yourself when you forget yourself. You are most in control when you surrender control. Five neurochemicals flood the brain during flow: dopamine, norepinephrine, endorphins, anandamide, and serotonin. This is the most potent cocktail of performance-enhancing and pleasure-producing chemicals the human brain can generate. And it only arrives when you stop trying to produce it. Flow is the universe's reward for surrender. The body, the mind, and the task become a single unified process. The dancer becomes the dance. The singer becomes the song. The player becomes the game. This is not metaphor. This is measurable neuroscience. And it only happens when you let go.

Flow as biological surrender: transient hypofrontality deactivates the prefrontal cortex. Five neurochemicals flood the brain — but only when you stop trying to produce them. Flow is the universe's reward for surrender. The dancer becomes the dance.

SOUND: A song with a beat that makes you dance without thinking: the sound that bypasses the brain and speaks directly to the body.

SMELL: A pine forest: the scent of a system that has been in flow for centuries without a single meeting about strategy.

TASTE: The sudden burst of flavor from a piece of gum: the taste of intensity that arrives when you stop analyzing and start experiencing.

TOUCH: A paintbrush moving across paper: the touch of creation happening through your hand instead of by your hand.

SIGHT: A spinning top that looks perfectly still because it is moving so fast: the sight of maximum motion appearing as maximum stillness.

BODY: Your feet moving automatically while you run: the body proving it performs best when the mind surrenders control.

Music: Is This Love by Bob Marley

Part of Surrender & Letting Go — MYSTICISM — Education Revelation