How To Feel Limitless - Neil Strauss | Neil Strauss

9/25/14 3:37 PM

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How To Feel Limitless

Posted by Neil on Sep 24, 2014 | 7 comments
I have something pretty special just for you guys today.
Recently I updated everyone on the recent Society 100 Future Intensive in Silicon Valley. We talked about all the crazy things that went on, from
getting a top clearance tour of NASA to a Society member volunteering to become the groups first cyborgit was an unreal three days. But now
Im going to take it even further and talk about the future of human potential.

Most of you may already be familiar with the concept of the state of flow. But for those who are not, heres the quick summary to get you up to
speed:
Flow is a mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and
enjoyment in the process of the activity.
Studies have shown that you are 500% more productive, learn 200-500 percent faster, and have a creativity lift of 7x in the Flow State than out of
it. And currently it is theorized that s of people trying to work end up in a state of disengagementnot in Flow even if theyre working on
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something thats very important to them.

So what if all, or at least most, of society were operating on that level? Imagine that kind of future for a moment. As a species, we would be
accomplishing feats that were once thought to be impossible.
Note: This has nothing to do with Flow from those insurance commercials on TV. Speaking of which, watching TV actually takes you out of the state
of flow.
Moving on
The big takeaway from our lesson with one of the intensives speakers, Steven Kotler, co-founder of the Flow Genome Project and coauthor of the
New York Times best seller Abundance, was that Flow is not binary (meaning an on or off thing). Flow is a four-stage cycle.
What makes repeating this cycle difficult is the fact that one of these stages is often avoided, but it is the most imperative for getting back into flow.
So this is what Im going to do for you. Im going to break down the four stages of Flow so you can get into them easier and recognize any
impediments that may hold you back from making the most out of your Flow state.

Stage I: Struggle
In this first stage, you are presented with a problem to solve, and most of your time is taken up consuming information.

Stage II: Release

Step away from the problem and take your mind off it. The best thing you can do in this stage is a low-grade physical activity like walking or riding
a bicycle. This releases stress hormones and its when you shift from conscious to unconscious processing which gives way to the next stage

Stage III: Flow

Go back to the task and fully immerse yourself into it. Now that youre in the state of flow its time to put it to work.
Heres what youll experience: the concept of time and space blur into the background. All faculties are channeled and focused on the task at hand.
Emotions are contained and used to create an unlimited reserve of energy allowing you to work past the point of exhaustion. Nothing else exists
not even oneself or ones emotions. (Think Bradley Cooper in Limitless.)

Tip from personal experience: Typically it takes 10 to 20 minutes to get to a point of full immersion, once you begin. And every time your state is
interrupted it will take another 10 to 20 minutes to become immersed again. So avoid distractions and jealously guard your time while in the state
of flow.

Stage IV: Recovery

Now heres the step people often miss or try to avoid but is absolutely critical to the process. And people usually try to avoid it, because it can feel
very uncomfortable depending on how long you were in Flow. But if you dont go through this stage, it becomes very difficult to get back to Flow
state.
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The Flow State takes a lot of energy, especially when you stay in Flow for an extended period of time. Once youre out of Flow, you need to give
your mind and body some time to recover from the experience.
But before we get to what to do, lets identify how to know youre out of the state of flow:
* Creativity and progress will begin to grind to a halt. Instead of ideas coming easily, you may feel like youre forcing the work and becoming
unproductive.
* Depression may creep in.
* Emotions become directed at things other than the task and uncontrollable.
This is why a lot of artists may look like theyre constantly going in and out of depression. They tend to work in Flow for extended periods of time,
showing incredible bursts of creativity, but without taking any time off. So when their piece is finally done, their body and mind crash hard.
Some recover by hanging out with their friends for a bit. Others may find physical exercise helpful. But the point is to do something unrelated to the
task that recharges your batteries in a healthy way while you work through this period. Try different things and see what works best for you.
So knowing that its coming, and knowing how to deal with it is the best way to move through this stage. While you might be tempted to work in
Flow all day, go to sleep, and wake up in flow, this strategy will only hurt you in the long run.
Now that you know the four stages of flow, be aware of which stage you are in, make sure to maximize your time in each stage, and give yourself
some time to rest and recover before attempting to go into flow again.

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7 Responses to How To Feel Limitless

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Logged in as Jeremiasz. Log out

1.

brunopadilha says:
September 24, 2014 at 2:45 pm
Awesome! Ive just noticed that, in days when I feel really productive, I unintentionally was following the 4 steps to flow.
This is golden, will put it to practice starting right now!
Thanks
Reply

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How To Feel Limitless - Neil Strauss | Neil Strauss

2.

9/25/14 3:37 PM

luis733 says:
September 24, 2014 at 3:42 pm
How are you always writing such amazing and useful material?
Well I think I just read the how, what I meant is thanks!
Keep the kaizen flowing
Reply

3.

olivse says:
September 24, 2014 at 3:52 pm
Handy guide. Now to make that cycle as automatic as possible.
Reply

4.

Aenemus says:
September 24, 2014 at 5:18 pm
im allways on stage1 This is a very good post, i think its a problem with most of all men, and this is a problem that could have more
attention.
We are allways getting striked with the flows from the suroundings, our societies, our world. Fighting in our lifes to overcome the
negativities, our self-estimes, our confidences, problems at home, problems outside, bad experiences with girls, people telling us what to do
and how to be and behave to be accepted in society and we live our lifes with fear in our short lifes that will end some day just dreaming with
a better world, while someone are living it and others and seeing it passing by behind a steering wheel in a very small, rusty and slow car.
Great post by the way!
Reply

5.

AllanGianfranco says:
September 24, 2014 at 10:20 pm
Another good post from you Style. Greetings from Chile.
Reply

6.

kml says:
September 24, 2014 at 10:25 pm
Flow reminds me of MOMENTUM Donal Trump wrote about it. If you have FLOW, you have MOMENTUM Am I right? Have you read
about it, Neil? Would like to hear your opinion. Or is there any difference?
Reply

7.

smind says:
September 25, 2014 at 1:25 am
this was very helpful, thank you Neil !
Reply

Hi, Jeremiasz
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