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Flow How to get it…. but do you want it?
Eboids produce two different reactions
The Eboid system has receptors in your cortex, and your cerebellum. There are very large numbers in the cerebellum. As stated in the THF syndrome the general effect of the Eboids is neural inhibition meaning to slow down and decease in activity.
Research shows that this decrease in brain activity happens during intense exercise which can be as low as 75% of your maximum effort and start to occur within 5 to 10 minutes of commencing your sport.
So when you start exercising the Eboid system fires up and sends neurochemicals to all parts of the brain where they are happily absorbed by the receptors in your frontal cortex and cerebellum and many other parts as well.
But recall what the Eboids do to the brain: sedation, sleepiness, and poor concentration.
The remarkable latest research shows that your frontal cortex actually “shuts down”! Well not completely, it goes into a low state of activation just like the power saving mode in your computer.
However the opposite occurs in the cerebellum: It lights up! This research indicates that Eboids have opposite effects on the cortex and cerebellum – they actually tend to quiet the cortex and simultaneously help the cerebellum to run in a smooth and highly efficient way helping you to produce complex and finely controlled motor movements.
In other words the two parts of your brain alternate their activities and operate in tandem to help you produce your best smooth movements.
So this is good news and bad news:
- Yes you can attain a flow like state of consciousness in which everything seems to happen on automatic pilot with no pain and effortless movement;
- You get lots of efficiency in your brain for smooth execution of skills
- But its bad news for calculations: Your frontal cortex is now unable to perform very well. Your working memory is poor, the ability to learn movements in time and space through verbal instruction and feedback decreases and your ability to concentrate for sustained periods of time is diminished.
Have you ever forgotten the score while playing? We all do that occasionally and I guess that on a few occasions when you’ve forgotten the score you have had trouble recalling the previous few minutes of the game and can’t recall who won which point.
This is obviously a more prevalent issue in sports that play for a short period of time and then restart at the next serve or hole as in racquet sports, golf and other sports where the score is not always displayed on a score board.
The problem with Flow
It doesn’t’ guarantee superior performance. Even if you reach a state of altered consciousness the flow effect does not cause superior performance.
It just feels good. You have little awareness of pain, it feels like you are not concentrating and your skills seem to happen without you paying attention. Your cortex can still plan and create strategies as you play, but these actions need to be well learned also – experienced chess players can see an evolving strategy far earlier than novice players.
The experience of Flow can occur in parallel with automated motor skills meaning you can feel good and simultaneously play good. This happens due to the simultaneous suppression of your Cortex activity but only if the automated skill action is learned to a high level of performance in SAC 3*.
The illusion of Flow
The simultaneous occurrence of flow and high performance gives the illusion of flow producing perfect effortless performance. Flow doesn’t cause good performance – it just feels good. You have to be in SAC 3* before your skills are automatic. If you are playing great and the sensation of flow also occurs, you will then have the wonderful simultaneous experience of feeling and playing in another dimension
* Term used in Winning Zone Mental Skills training program