Flow State Reduces Anxiety

Rest the Frontal Lobe

Anxiety happens when the frontal lobe is constantly thinking or ruminating, causing worry, lack of concentration, rapid heartrate, and sleep difficulties among other symptoms that perhaps have us thinking about possible bad outcomes to situations. Sometimes, the anxiety goes away. Other times, anxiety makes daily living nearly unbearable. So, today's focus is literally about throwing out logic. 

According to Mira Sharma, logic limits our thinking. She says that subconscious thoughts come through a conduit of what is professionally known as Transient Hypofrontality. This is most commonly referred to, today, as Flow State. By throwing out logic, Ms. Sharma has been able to get several patents for her ideas that literally came to her out of nowhere. 

Thus, in this temporary engagement of subconscious thought, we provide a break for the front part of the brain by holding back some of the blood flow to the frontal lobe as claimed by Dr. Christina Wong. And when we throw out what the brain thinks is logical, allowing the information center in our frontal lobe to rest a bit, we can, in turn, relax a bit more and bring calmness into our daily routines.

Hypofrontality VS. Transient Hypofrontality

Transient Hypofrontality is not to be confused with permanent hypofrontality that is responsible for medical/neurological issues such as bipolar and schizophrenia. As shown in the image below, transient means temporary in which we are giving the frontal lobe of our brain a break by doing things that we pretty much do on autopilot. 

image courtesy of Ms. Sharma's video whose link I have provided above

Frontal Lobe on Autopilot

The YouTube channel, Common Knowledge, explains how Shower Thoughts are the autopilot activities that happen when we do something that we enjoy or something that we're good at such as showering or driving, moderately exercising, learning something new, meditating, or engaging in something more challenging. These types of activities switch off the frontal lobe during these times so it gets a break from decision-making, planning, organizing, reasoning, judgment, outcome prediction, and the other thinking it has to do most of the day. 

Frontal Lobe Rest Causes Positive Experiences

The activities above release dopamine, norepinephrine, anandamide, endorphins, and serotonin (the body's feel-good chemicals that can improve our mood). In turn, this releases us from our anxiety and perhaps can begin to help us realize that things aren't as bad as we had thought. 
According to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, happiness comes from within, comes from activity. Happiness doesn't come from material things. Dr. C. claimed that there are 8 characteristics of flow state as shown below.

1. Complete concentration on the task;
2. Clarity of goals and reward in mind and immediate feedback;
3. Transformation of time (speeding up/slowing down);
4. The experience is intrinsically rewarding;
5. Effortlessness and ease;
6. There is a balance between challenge and skills;
7. Actions and awareness are merged, losing self-conscious rumination;
8. There is a feeling of control over the task.

Conclusion

So, when we put logic in the background by performing activities that turn off the frontal lobe for a while, the brain calms down and we feel that we have better control of our lives. Anxiety is curbed, and we're able to enjoy life more. It sounds simple, but the brain needs this so we can have a healthy outcome.

Thanks for visiting Focus Frenzy today.