An excerpt from Unblock Your Purpose, by Francesca Sipma
Flow state is optimal consciousness, the nirvana of organization and creativity, where productivity meets alignment. It is a psychological state characterized by complete immersion and engagement in an activity, resulting in optimal performance and enjoyment. It’s the real-world, on-demand, optimal brain power for focus, retention, and cognition.
Long perceived as elusive — more often stumbled upon than deliberately cultivated — the concept of flow has predominantly been viewed as a mystical phenomenon. You’ve probably heard people refer to it as “being in the zone,” where concentration, clarity, and effortless productivity flow. Many think the only ones who tap into it regularly are pro athletes in make-or-break moments, those in elite industries or roles, or spiritual seekers pursuing enlightenment. This state of being is commonly associated with illustrious names like Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky, groups such as the Navy SEALs, or the outcome of psychedelic journeys. It’s the opposite of stress or the grind; it’s a place of peak performance and experience.
Psychologist and author of Flow, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, describes flow state as effortless, fluid, and automatic. Steven Kotler, head of Flow Research Collective, a peak performance and training institute, uses the same language to define it, adding that it’s backed by intrinsic motivation.
Psychologist Abraham Maslow determined early that high achievers were intrinsically motivated. They are committed to testing their limits and stretching their potential for the sake of doing it. Through his research, he found they were able to access intensely focused activity frequently. He stated that these moments could alter consciousness and were often referred to as mystical or peak experiences.
This invites the question, Do you have to fall into a flow state, or is it possible to hack it? Fortunately, you can access a flow state on demand through breathwork — if you’ve got the right tools.
Breathwork can allow you to tap into a flow state by oxygenating and stimulating different regions of the brain to help you reach your subconscious mind. The subconscious is the record holder of all the information we’ve ever collected — our memories, beliefs, values, and wisdom. It’s the real-life playground of the movie Limitless, and breathwork is the legal and free pill to access its wonders.
Understanding your subconscious
To understand what makes hypnobreathwork so powerful, let’s talk about how the subconscious mind works. In his book The Power of Your Subconscious Mind, Dr. Joseph Murphy explained that your subconscious acts as a storehouse for all your experiences since childhood. It also feeds emotions and creativity. Thus, what you think about your past, present, and future comes to fruition — that’s the secret shared by great individuals throughout history. As such, you want to give your subconscious suggestions that heal, bless, elevate, and inspire you in all ways.
You form habit patterns in your subconscious mind by repeating a thought and acting on it over and over again until it establishes neural pathways and becomes automatic. When we breathe to activate this realm of our brain and do it over and over again, we can start to make new connections.
When we fill our subconscious mind with knowledge and information, we allow this content to sprout and come to fruition in divine timing. It’s one thing to cultivate this process from your
conscious mind, but it’s quite another to surrender to your subconscious and allow your innate intelligence to connect the dots.
The experience of being in this space of surrender induces a wildly rewarding psychological state that equips us with heightened automatic processing abilities. In its external application, the functionality of a flow state operates similarly to how artificial intelligence (AI) systems classify, analyze, and compute data, developing more expertise with each process. The machine mechanisms that mobilize AI systems are powered by the human mind, which explains why they use repetitive learning to perform better, just as humans do. In the same way we apply computer programming upgrades to AI systems, we can advance our ability to identify patterns and discover solutions to our problems by accessing flow states.
We create new neural pathways, creative connections, and unique and intuitive solutions. Intentionally breathing to binaural beats — auditory tools to synchronize brain waves and enhance focus or
relaxation — or to a custom playlist designed to stimulate different brain regions can help you focus on finding ideas for a specific intention, obstacle, or project.
Excerpted from the book Unblock Your Purpose: Breathwork, Intuition, and Flow State Copyright© 2024 by Francesca Sipma. Reprinted with permission from New World Library. www.newworldlibrary.com
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