Flow
Flow is when all systems are “in sync.” There is no resistance towards the present moment - meaning, you aren’t trying to think back to the past or project into the future. You are fully in the moment, present in the task at hand. You have more creative juice, attention, and energy.
And even when there are distractions and interruptions, there is less unease in that too. You can call them for what they are (distractions and interruptions) instead of going into mental stories (“it’s unfair that I don’t have enough time to complete this”).
Last month, I spoke with Janet Van Buel, a HeartMath coach and trainer, on how to regulate stress response and improve resilience & focus in the face of adverse events. (watch the replay here!) She talked about flow but used another word for it: coherence.
The heart actually sends more signals to the brain than the other way around, and these signals have a significant effect on brain function – influencing emotional processing as well as higher cognitive faculties such as attention, perception, memory, and problem-solving. If you can shift the rhythms of your heart, you can affect brain function and the nervous system. Which means you can reduce feelings of stress, anxiety, and overwhelm.
“During stress and negative emotions, when the heart rhythm pattern is erratic and disordered, the corresponding pattern of neural signals traveling from the heart to the brain inhibits higher cognitive functions. This limits our ability to think clearly, remember, learn, reason, and make effective decisions.
The more ordered and stable pattern of the heart’s input to the brain during positive emotional states has the opposite effect – it facilitates cognitive function and reinforces positive feelings and emotional stability.”
Shifting the rhythms of the heart so that it works harmoniously with the brain is called coherence. HeartMath’s research has found that increased coherence profoundly affects how we perceive, think, feel, and perform.
In other words, when we are coherent, we are in flow. Things are working better internally, emotions are balanced, and the energy switch is on.
Janet shared HeartMath’s Quick Coherence Exercise that can be done when you’re needing a reset (about to start a new task, your mind is feeling chaotic, or you’re about to enter a social situation) and a surge in energy.
Quick Coherence Exercise
Close your eyes
Move your internal attention to your heart space
Deepen your breath by inhaling & exhaling for 5 seconds each
Visualize your breath flowing in and out of your heart space
Activate a positive emotion by bringing in a memorable moment or imagining someone you love
Imagine that positive emotion emanating from your heart space
Every time you choose to move to coherence mode (or the flow state), you realize how the feel-better state is accessible to you in all moments. Regardless of whatever external situation is occurring, your internal state is not dependent on it. You become truly free.
It’s a moment to moment decision you get to make: will you choose presence over chaos, compassion over comparison, acting over reacting, awareness over numbing, and love over fear.
