Finally, we wrap up our master class on flow theory!
Y’all I could geek out about this all day as you well know, so this has been fun to try and encapsulate in ways that make it easily consumable, action-oriented, and hopefully fun!
Today’s work: Examine your relationship with flow. What gets you in a state of flow? What are the words that best describe the feeling of being in a state of flow? What can you do today that engenders more of these feelings to kickstart flow when you most need it to boost your creative output, silence your inner critic, and put more brilliance out into the world?
This, my friends, is how you become Beyoncé. Or at least Bonnie Gillespie. 😉 Get into flow as much as you can as often as you can, always while respecting the recovery period required, the limitations involved, and the shadow side for which you need to account at all times. Balance, as always, is key.
Flow, baby… flow!
I dig it! I’ve been thinking about this more throughout my days, which is, of course, always the first step to really understanding it. I’ve noticed that my Flow activities all seem to involve
1) some level of control by me (dangerous? PERHAPS! I’ll keep an eye out!)
2) fun, both for me AND the people sharing the event with me.
3) hopeful, again both for me AND the people sharing the event (a feeling like everything is right in the world and this is the beginning of something good!).
I noticed Flow most recently at one of my money jobs cater waitering. OF ALL PLACES! I often serve as Sanit Captain (organizing the dirty dishes) at events. It’s my domain (CONTROL!), it’s like playing in mud for me (FUN! I’m gross. haha), I get to entertain myself and my co-workers with my extrovert energy which makes the work and the night less dreary (HOPEFUL!) I literally feel like I’ve been plugged into an outlet when I make my coworkers laugh with my stupid shit. I made silly signs for all the dishes being returned. My coffee mugs sign said “Used in a sentence: ‘They beat him up and stole his coffee yesterday just down the block. That makes four COFFEE MUGS in only a month!'” WHICH WAS SO DUMB, but fun for me and my coworkers nonetheless! My boss said, “need a creative outlet, do we?” Yes. Yes we do, Ross. hahah
I had some good Flow performing my solo show which is both comedy sketch humor (FUN!) annnnnd a lil touching (HOPEFUL!) annnnnd I wrote it (CONTROL!). Same with some recent standup gigs. I think, as much as I sometimes enjoy improv and would like to do it for the skill and the challenge, the lack of control I have over the full product is not enjoyable to me. But maybe that’s a beacon for something I need to go towards to see what happens…?
In the end, I think that’s what made the day job I left so unbearable at times; I often had fun joking with coworkers (plugged into an outlet!), but there were moments I felt like we were falling backwards as an organization (not hopeful!), and I allowed my role to become less and less in my control. I plan to either return with a new role and hours that are more IN my control or not return.
This is helpful! I’m going to keep analyzing in this way and see if I can get some more flow in mah life. I’ll have to apply these ideas to job searches, too. Acting almost always puts me in that bliss state, but my goal now is to find day job work that I can feel that way in, also, as I move up in my acting tiers!
Onward, Citizens of Ninja City!
🙂
Damn that was long winded. (rebrand: EXPRESSIVE AND THOROUGH!)
Yes yes YES! OMG, Days, yes! You’ve got this! One of the benchmarks of flow state is that it’s MEASURABLE and that means we can measure the influence of our involvement. Hence, control feels *good* because we can see the impact. Totally normal!
Love the creativity you’re infusing in EVERYthing. It’s so good! Oh, and the involving others part of things — something Kotler said is that “helper’s high” lasts up to TWO DAYS depending on what we’ve helped someone do (survive a catastrophe vs. find a suite number in an office building). So, again, totally normal for the dopamine hit coming from that flow state you’re describing.
Right ON, ladyDays!
Great! This is fun! Wading through this new life post-my-main-day-job has been about figuring out where I want to go next, so analyzing all this is super helpful in the process! What kinda life DO I wanna create for myself? What will be my FLOWcation? haha Man, that word is so fun to plug into other words.
Flow-habitation
I’ve got friends in FLOW places
FLOW is me!
FLOW-LO
LadyDays onward! 🙂
Days, you crack me up! You are FLOW funny! 🙂
Haha! Good one!!
Love this notion of living my Flowcation <3
Core Qualities to being in a state of flow for me:
1. Expansion: feeling that I am learning/growing as a human, artist, businessperson.
2. Connection: being in relationship with myself and/or with others, which ties in to Expansion and feeling that I am growing as a human/artist/businessperson.
3. Joy: feeling bliss, giddiness, thrill, focus coursing through me drawing out uninhibited emotions.
This is super helpful in labeling: I feel that I am seeing my life through a new filter and am able to identify HOW these qualities are embodied in so much of the activities and choices which I am cultivating in my best life/flowcation. As well, when self-sabotaging and old habitual behaviours come up which are obstacles to my entering flow.
Finishing up this class on flow with these personal keys/essences which lead me to flow is so useful and easily applicable to my everyday life. Thank you Bonnie, as always, for offering tools and a foundation from which we can personalize, tune in to, and clarify our frequency and artistic/human offerings.
Of course! If you can’t build off this into all of life stretched out ahead of you, what’s the big takeaway other than that we shared some cool time together? 😉
Fascinating… you want your writing or your works to create an epiphany for others–a “lightbulb” moment. As I create my stuff (my screenplays, my films, my music) and much of my work is solitary work (although directing movies is definitely NOT a solitary endeavor), my biggest desire is that my works create an emotional impact. A bit of a distinction although, ultimately, we are both striving to create an effect on others — to impact other peoples’ lives in some way. Not so very different. And it’s always on my mind as I create.
Such great information, as always. Much gratitude for the awesome master class!
🙂 So glad you’ve done the deep dive!!
I haven’t gotten my hands on the book yet, but an interesting question started bouncing around in my head: is there a benefit or detriment to running shorter flow cycles in the research (i.e. under 90 minutes)?
I also wonder if the research shows any effect on the next cycle if you’re interrupted mid-flow? (Aside from the emotional annoyance of crashing a train of thought, and the subsequent hunt for a larger “do not disturb” sign, lol.)
The sweet spot for flow is 90 minutes, then a 10 minute full break + 20 minute switch or reset type task(s).
I find around 72 minutes I can start to notice my state getting ready to shift gears (I’ve usually been IN the bulk of the bell curve of my flow state for an hour by then). Occasionally, I will elect to stop the 90-minute-long block “early” but I will not adjust down the 10 + 20 minute break and reset to match the shorter-than-90-minute flow block.
I’d have to play with shortening each element of this to really know whether there’s a downside to stopping the flow task before 90 minutes is up, but I’d imagine it’s the same on both sides of the curve, in that I can tell when I’ve pushed myself beyond 90 minutes (you can even see it/hear it in my voice when I do a Zoom or livestream beyond 90 minutes) and it’s likely I’m similarly NOT doing as much as I could to bring my highest brain function to a thing when I stop it too early.
What sorts of observations are you having when you play with that timeline?
I’ll have to play with it, too. Right now, I’m practicing consciously initiating and recording my flow states to see how long they are naturally (last one I caught was 100 minutes). I do know my struggle and release sequences tend to be short (exact data pending).
It’s a valid side experiment, both for tasks of a short nature, and for tasks that can’t possibly be finished in a single cycle anyway. For testing: does my mind work better if I batch lots of those little tasks, or is it possible to spot-flow them? Can I drop in for a 30 minute rehearsal or class, or does it cause me some mental wonkiness later? My hypothesis is that I’d elect to stop, but wouldn’t get 100% compliance. We will see. 🙂
Thanks for the additional info from the book & your own research, Bonnie!