Fitness
Finding flow: The mental state you need to learn to make training more fun
Ever been doing something and lost track of time because you were so engrossed in the activity? That is flow. Here a sport psychologist reveals how to use it your advantage while taking part in sport.
Being in ‘the zone’ is a much sort after state in sport, whether you’re a grand slam winning tennis player or an amateur runner taking part in your first 10km. This engaged state of mind in which whatever you're doing feels nearly effortless was named ‘flow’ by Hungarian-American psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in 1975, when he discovered that people are at their most creative, productive, and happy when they are completely absorbed in a task.
Even if you haven’t experienced flow on the pitch or the treadmill, you’d have felt it at some point in your life. It’s that feeling when you’re so lost in a task that time flies, whether you’re engrossed in a book, immersed in the latest Netflix boxset or absorbed in a work project.
And the best part about achieving flow is that it doesn’t just make you more productive, it makes you happier, too. In Csikszentmihalyi’s words, flow “is so enjoyable that people will continue to do it, even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it,” which explains why ultrarunners like Tom Evans will take part in punishing 100-mile ultramarathons, or adventurer enthusiasts will seek to climb Everest.
Why and how we experience flow isn’t properly yet understood but we do know that flow is a slippery state – it won’t always stick around. That said, there are several steps you can take to make that elusive state all the more reachable…
How do we cultivate flow?
Flow is doing something for the pure enjoyment of it
© Ian Corless / Red Bull Content Pool
Flow is a rather elusive state, and the more you strive for it, the harder it becomes to cultivate.
As Dr Josephine Perry, sport psychologist at performanceinmind.co.uk puts it, there’s no “algorithm that will give it to you.” Perry, who works with endurance athletes, as well as tennis and golf players explains:
“You can’t say, ‘if you do this, this and this, then you will get,’ because if someone could crack that, it would be phenomenal.”
A chance of cultivating flow requires what is known as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. This has five layers: Physiological, Safety, Social belonging, Esteem and Self-actualisation. Each layer should be fulfilled before the next one is effective.
The top layer, self-actualisation, is the flow stage that comes when you’ve achieved the right foundation by working on the six previous layers.
“I would describe flow to athletes as needing all of those elements in place and secure before you’re going to be able to fully relax into what you’re doing and find that flow appears,” Perry says.
What are the barriers to flow?
Perry says flow is as much about breaking down barriers as it is putting the right conditions in place to stimulate it.
Here are some obstructions you’ll need to consider removing in your search for flow:
Not being prepared
Without proper training, you'll struggle to cultivate flow during a race
© Dan Vojtech / Red Bull Content Pool
One of the key building blocks for cultivating flow is to have your skills honed – you don’t have to be an elite or endurance athlete to be fully primed for your task, but being prepared helps. For example, following a training plan for a half-marathon in the lead up to your race enables you to steadily improve and gives you a bedrock of confidence to help you relax and enjoy those 13.1 miles – maybe even helping you reach a PB.
Not loving what you do
Flow is rare – as a runner herself, Perry estimates she has a ‘flow run’ once every two months. But if you’ve found you’ve never been able to completely let go during your climb, run or spin class, maybe it’s time to accept you’re just not that into it – even if you’re smashing PBs and scaling new heights.
“Some people will play sport because they’re good at it, not because they love it,” says Perry, “but they will always struggle with that motivation.”
That said, being good at what you do certainly helps. “It will be much harder to feel flow when you may not be suited to that sport,” explains Perry. “You’re not going to feel fully competent, you won’t feel as prepared, [and] you have to think about what you’re doing rather than lose yourself in what you’re doing.”
Nowell pictured in full flight for Exeter Chiefs
© Getty
Flow is a lot about what works for us, Perry stresses. “So for some people, a run by the beach may give them their highest likelihood of flow because they love the water, they love the sound of that, they love lots of wind in their hair. Other people might hate that and actually want to be in the mountains, and they find [flow] when they’re just focused on their breathing, feeling very out of breath climbing. So much of it will come down to our personal preferences.”
Competition
Although an external motivator, races aren't always the way to find flow
© Darren Wheeler / Red Bull Content Pool.
Despite what you may think, having a competitive goal, while a good external motivating factor, is not the secret to unlocking flow – in fact, it may even inhibit it. This is because forces outside of ourselves – known as extrinsic motivation by psychologists – is the main pull in competition, while studies have shown intrinsic motivation – that is doing something for the sheer love of it – is a bigger driver of happiness and success.
“When you’re competing, there’s much more extrinsic motivation: you don’t want to look stupid by coming last, you don’t want to be judged by other people; you don’t want to fall over in front of people; you would like to get that medal at the end,” Perry says.
She continues: “Even amateur athletes have 123 stresses on them at any time (during competition). So if you’ve got all of that stuff going on, how do you feel comfortable in every single area enough to let go of it? But if it’s just you and your golf club and an empty course ahead of you, it’s much easier to find yourself in the mid of it and come around half an hour later and think, ‘Wow, I didn’t even notice what I was doing.’”
Taking on too great a challenge
Alongside intrinsic motivation, achieving a flow state requires an athlete to have the perfect balance between the skills they already have and the challenge to learn more.
With your ability and training as building blocks, getting this balance right should ensure you begin to find ease and enjoyment in your workout, while still finding enough of a challenge to prevent you becoming complacent or bored.
Fear
Anxiety and self-consciousness are paralysing. We often talk about tennis players “choking” or golfers’ yips, in other professions it might be known as stage fright or writers’ block. These crippling states are the opposite of flow; you are so seized by fear you retreat back to basics and start playing like a novice.
To avoid this and increase your chances of finding flow, Perry says you need to adopt a performance-approach mindset rather than a performance-avoidance mindset, which is a state of mind where we attempt to dodge mistakes and evade danger which causes us to behave over cautiously. Rather than cowering from mistakes, learn from them. Don’t see mistakes as proof of poor skills or lack of ability, see it as a potential for learning and adjustment.
Top tips to get into flow
Enjoying what you do is key to finding flow
© Jon Syrett / Red Bull Content Pool
1. Push yourself out of your comfort zone
By its very nature, flow is fluid. Csikszentmihalyi identified the ‘arousal’ area as the point most people could learn from; it’s the point when you are pushed out of your comfort zone and forced to develop new skills if you want to improve and have a chance of finding flow again. Just as too big a challenge can be so overwhelming it strangles flow, complacency too is the antithesis of cultivating an absorbed state. To keep attaining flow, you need to keep learning and pushing yourself to improve in order to maintain that skills/balance dynamic.
2. Keep a diary
Psychologists can predict an athlete's set point – the moment when your challenge and skills are perfectly balanced and you’re able to move into flow – by studying them over a period of time.
Amateurs don’t have the luxury of teams of experts monitoring their performances, but they can learn to recognise patterns that brought on flow in order to try and replicate those conditions another time.
Keep a log of your training and note down moments when you experienced flow
© Olaf Pignataro/Red Bull Content Pool
Perry suggests when you experience what felt like flow during a workout or training, write down what was going on. What was the environment you were in like – was it windy, cold, hot? Were you on the beach, indoors, at altitude? What was going on in your life at that time? Maybe you are just back from injury and are happy to be running the way you wanted to, rather than being held back?
“If you could replicate some of those conditions either when you’re going through a tough time and you really need to help yourself by using sport to relax or feel good, or you’ve got a competition, if you could replicate any of those elements, it could be really beneficial.”
3. Love what you do
Lucy Charles-Barclay taking second place for a third year in Kona
© Graeme Murray / Red Bull Content Pool
To become fully absorbed in a sport or activity, you need to be what psychologists call “intrinsically motivated”, basically you’re doing it for its own sake, not for any reward.
“If you are competing or training because you want to win something, you end up just focusing on the outcome which won’t help your flow, or your performance,” Perry says.
“But if you have an internal reason to do your sport – that you love the feeling of mastering new skills or enjoy the movement patterns, or it gives you a sense of joy – then you are far more likely to feel the flow.”