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Episode 14: Flow States — How to Get in the Zone

Have you ever looked up from something you were doing and realized that an hour and a half had passed when it only felt like five or ten minutes? Or been so absorbed in a physical activity that your body seemed to move on its own, without any conscious effort? If so, you've been in a flow state — and in this episode, I break down exactly what that is, how it works in your brain, and how you can access it more often in your daily life.

What Is a Flow State?

Flow is a mental state of intense focus, full immersion, and enjoyment in an activity. The term was coined by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in the 1970s, after he studied people across different cultures who described losing their sense of time, losing their self-awareness, and feeling like they were performing at a peak level. You might also know this feeling as being "in the zone," "locked in," or "in the groove."

For a flow state to happen, a few conditions need to be in place:

• The activity must be personally meaningful to you. I can get into flow playing chess — someone who doesn't enjoy chess never will, no matter how skilled they are. I personally don't enjoy gardening, so flow doesn't happen for me there, even though it's a perfect flow activity for many people.
• Your skill level must match the challenge. If the task is too easy for your skill level, you'll get bored. If it's too hard, you'll get frustrated. Flow happens in that sweet spot — the "just right" challenge.

I also believe there are at least two distinct types of flow. One involves high technical skill, decision-making, and focus — like playing chess or rock climbing. The other is more like going on autopilot during a repetitive, rhythmic activity — like a runner experiencing a "runner's high." Both are real, and both are valuable.

The Neuroscience of Flow

As a physician, I'm always curious about what's actually happening under the hood. The neuroscience of flow isn't fully understood yet, but here's the current thinking as of 2026:

Two key brain systems:

• The Dopamine Reward System — Dopamine drives motivation and provides a sense of reward. When an activity is meaningful to you, the dopamine system gets you started and keeps rewarding you for doing it.
• The Locus Coeruleus Norepinephrine System — This system is involved in attention, motivation, and — crucially — task persistence. It keeps you doing the thing. If a task becomes too boring or too difficult, norepinephrine drops and you disengage. In flow, both of these systems are likely working together: one gets you in, the other keeps you there.

Three neural networks:

• The Default Mode Network — This is where your brain goes when you're not focused on anything. It's responsible for self-talk, rumination, and self-awareness. You know the voice: "How am I doing? What do people think of me? What do I need to do today?" Some people call this the "monkey brain." In flow, this network is down-regulated — which is why you lose that constant sense of yourself.
• The Central Executive Network — This is the focused, task-oriented part of your brain. In flow, this network is highly active.
• The Salience Network — Think of this as the conductor. It sits above the other two networks and modulates them — turning up the central executive, turning down the default mode, and vice versa. It also appears to take periodic "snapshots" called global emotional moments — quick internal check-ins covering things like your heart rate, discomfort, and sense of time. The theory is that during flow, these snapshots become less frequent, which is why time seems to disappear.

So putting it all together: a meaningful activity engages your dopamine system, the norepinephrine system keeps you at it, your central executive network locks in your focus, your default mode quiets down (so you lose that nagging self-awareness), and your sense of time fades as the salience network takes fewer snapshots. That is flow.

Why Flow Is Good for You

Flow doesn't just feel great — it's genuinely good for your health. When you enter a flow state, your parasympathetic nervous system becomes relatively more active, and your sympathetic nervous system (the "fight or flight" system) calms down. This means:

• Lower blood pressure
• Decreased cortisol levels
• A more relaxed overall physiological state

Many of us spend a lot of our modern lives stuck in sympathetic overdrive — stressed, overstimulated, always "on." Flow is one of the best natural antidotes to that.

How to Get Into Flow: Hobbies That Work

I truly believe hobbies are the best gateway to flow. And I think people experienced flow far more naturally a hundred or two hundred years ago, before constant digital distractions. The phone ringing, a text notification, someone walking in — these can yank you right out of a flow state, and it's hard to get back. So when you're pursuing a flow-inducing hobby, put the phone away and protect that space.

The best flow hobbies share a few qualities:

• Something you genuinely enjoy
• Clear goals with immediate feedback
• A good balance of skill and challenge

Physical/outdoor flow activities:

• Rock climbing — You're staring at a wall with no distractions, constantly making micro-decisions about your next handhold or foothold, with immediate feedback on every move. It's one of the purest flow experiences I can think of.
• Hiking — Especially solo, on a trail with roots and rocks that demand your attention. You're focused on footing, terrain, the sounds around you, and moving through nature — a natural soother of the human soul.
• Skiing, surfing, fishing
• Running, swimming, cycling — These repetitive rhythmic activities may work differently neurologically, actually quieting both the central executive and default mode networks together, putting the brain in a calmer state overall.

Creative flow activities:

• Cooking, gardening — Weeding, for example: a clear goal (get those weeds out), immediate feedback (you can see the result right away), and an enjoyable, focused task.
• Sewing, quilting — My wife is a perfect example. I've learned not to interrupt her mid-project. She's in a trance, and she is not happy when I break her out of it.
• Drawing, painting, woodworking, playing a musical instrument

Mental/strategy flow activities:

• Chess, video games, creative writing — Inherently challenging and technical. Chess is my personal go-to.

Dr. Rocko's Recs

📖 Food Rules: An Eater's Manual by Michael Pollan (2009)

This is a short, wonderful book — barely a book in the traditional sense. It's 64 practical rules for eating, laid out one per page, with a brief explanation for each. Michael Pollan is a well-known food writer and New York Times contributor who has done extensive research on the relationship between food and health. He distills everything into three overarching principles:

"Eat food. Mostly plants. Not a lot."

A few of my favorite rules:

• Rule #2: "Don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food." If she'd look at it and not know what it was, it's probably not real food.
• Rule #20: "It's not food if it arrived through the window of your car." That one speaks for itself.
• Rule #50: "The banquet is in the first bite." The first bite gives you the most pleasure — every bite after that is a diminishing return. Stop before you're completely full. The best of the meal is already behind you.

Highly recommend this one. Quick read, genuinely useful.

One More Thing

Did you know that the oldest known human drawing is a 73,000-year-old hashtag-like pattern drawn in ochre, discovered in a cave in South Africa? We have been creative beings — making art and leaving our mark — for at least 73,000 years. We are part of a long and beautiful tradition.

Remember, Life is not a dress rehearsal. Until next time.

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