作为《超人崛起》的作者和心流基因组计划的联合创始人,我致力于研究终极人类表现,而心流状态正是其中的关键。心流,也称“沉浸状态”或“进入状态”,是一种最佳意识状态,让我们在感觉最佳的同时,也表现最佳。
心流的广泛影响
研究表明,心流状态是几乎所有竞技冠军、重大科学突破和艺术进步的核心。在商业领域,其影响尤为显著:心流状态下的程序员构建了互联网,游戏设计师创造了游戏产业,“心流状态占比”甚至被誉为构建优秀创新团队最重要的管理指标。越来越多的公司将心流的培养置于其理念的核心。
我的心流之旅:从莱姆病到超人表现
我30岁时患上莱姆病,卧床三年之久。在身心俱疲,几乎绝望之际,朋友带我冲浪。那次冲浪体验让我进入心流状态:感官敏锐、思维清晰、时间仿佛变慢,并且感觉无比愉悦。令人惊奇的是,仅仅通过规律的冲浪,我的健康状况在六个月内显著改善。这激发了我对心流状态的研究。
我发现,这种改变意识状态的体验并非偶然,它被称为“心流状态”。心流状态下,注意力高度集中于任务本身,行动与意识融合,自我意识消失,时间感发生变化,身心表现大幅提升。更重要的是,心流状态中产生的神经化学物质(去甲肾上腺素、多巴胺、脑内啡、血清素和阿南达胺)能显著增强免疫系统,并重置神经系统,这解释了它为何能帮助我从莱姆病中恢复健康。
心流的神经生物学机制
心流并非大脑过度活跃,而是开始去激活。大脑为了节省能量,会将意识处理(缓慢且耗能)替换为潜意识处理(快速且高效)。这导致大脑某些区域(例如前额叶皮层)暂时性地去激活,从而解释了时间感变化的现象。自我意识的消失则是因为负责自我监控和冲动控制的大脑区域(例如背外侧前额叶皮层)的关闭。
心流状态中产生的五种强效神经递质,不仅增强表现,更重要的是它们是强大的奖励化学物质,这使得心流体验极度令人上瘾,成为内在动机的源代码。这解释了为什么人们会不遗余力地追求心流状态。
心流的应用:提升效率、创造力和学习能力
心流状态能显著提升工作效率和创造力。研究表明,高管在心流状态下的工作效率是普通状态下的五倍。此外,心流状态还能大幅提升创造力,甚至可能训练大脑变得更具创造力。心流状态中大量的神经递质也会增强学习和记忆能力。研究表明,在心流状态下,学习速度可以提高230%。
心流的触发因素与循环过程
心流状态并非偶然,它有触发因素。我们已经识别出17个触发因素,包括环境触发因素(例如高风险、深层体验、丰富环境)、内部触发因素(心理因素)和社会触发因素(群体心流)。
心流状态是一个循环过程,包含四个阶段:挣扎、放松、心流和恢复。在挣扎阶段,我们会面临挑战;在放松阶段,我们会通过例如呼吸练习来降低压力;在心流阶段,我们会进入高度专注的状态;在恢复阶段,我们会进行休息和恢复,巩固学习成果。
心流的未来:量化自我与心流道场
我们对心流的心理学和神经生物学有相当的了解,但对生理学方面知之甚少。我们正处于心流研究的前沿,未来我们将通过心流热图,将心理学、神经生物学和生理学结合起来,更深入地了解心流状态。
我们正在开发心流道场,一个结合蒙特梭利教育理念和量化自我的体验空间,旨在帮助人们进入心流状态,并通过数据收集来推进心流科学研究。心流状态没有单一的模式,它取决于个人、环境和任务。
结论
心流状态能带来长期的积极影响,但也会带来风险。我们需要学习如何利用心流触发因素,进入心流状态,并主动安排恢复时间,以确保身心健康。心流状态的提升,可能远超我们的想象,它将解锁人类潜能的巨大可能性。
A flow state is an optimal state of consciousness where individuals feel and perform their best. It is significant because it underpins athletic championships, major scientific breakthroughs, and progress in the arts. In business, flow has driven innovation, with coders in flow building the internet and video game designers creating the industry. Flow state percentage is considered a crucial management metric for building great innovation teams.
Flow state significantly boosts productivity. McKinsey's 10-year study found that top executives are five times more productive in flow than out of flow. This means that working in flow for one day can yield the same output as working normally for five days. Companies are increasingly integrating flow cultivation into their philosophies to enhance innovation and performance.
Flow involves five potent neurochemicals: norepinephrine, dopamine, anandamide, endorphins, and serotonin. Norepinephrine and dopamine enhance focus and speed up muscle reaction time. Anandamide increases lateral thinking and pattern recognition. Endorphins act as powerful painkillers and social bonding agents, while serotonin keeps individuals calm. These chemicals collectively enhance mental and physical performance, making flow a highly rewarding and addictive state.
Flow states are triggered by specific preconditions such as deep embodiment, rich environments, and high consequences. Deep embodiment involves strong sensory-motor inputs, rich environments provide novel and complex stimuli, and high consequences create immediate feedback loops. These triggers help individuals focus intensely on the task at hand, facilitating the transition into flow. Cultivating these conditions in personal and professional settings can increase the frequency and depth of flow experiences.
Flow state has led to near-exponential growth in action and adventure sports. For example, the biggest wave surfed increased from 25 feet in 1996 to 100 feet today, and snowboarders now clear jumps of 230-240 feet compared to 40 feet in 1992. This rapid progression is attributed to athletes' ability to consistently enter flow states, which enhance performance and allow them to push the boundaries of what is physically possible.
In flow states, the prefrontal cortex undergoes transient hypofrontality, meaning it temporarily deactivates. This deactivation reduces self-consciousness and inner criticism, allowing for heightened creativity, risk-taking, and performance. The prefrontal cortex, responsible for higher cognitive functions, slows down, leading to the merging of action and awareness, and the experience of time dilation.
Flow state significantly accelerates learning and boosts creativity. Studies by the US military and DARPA found that artificially inducing flow can cut the time to mastery in half. Creativity increases up to seven times in flow, as the state enhances pattern recognition, lateral thinking, and access to novel ideas. Flow also tags experiences with neurochemicals, making them more likely to be stored in long-term memory.
While flow states enhance performance, they come with risks. The neurochemicals involved are highly addictive, leading to an escalating ladder of risk-taking. Individuals may become dependent on flow for motivation, and sudden deprivation can cause deep depression. Additionally, the intense focus and high consequences associated with flow can lead to burnout or dangerous behaviors if not managed properly.
As the author of "The Rise of Superman" and co-founder of the Flow Genome Project, Steven Kotler is one of the world's leading experts on ultimate human performance. In this Talk, he provides a tour of the current research focusing on "flow states”, or an optimal state of consciousness where we both feel our best and perform our best.
Researchers now know that flow sits at the heart of almost every athletic championship, underpins most major scientific breakthroughs, and accounts for significant progress in the arts. In business, its impact has been substantial. Coders in flow built the internet; video game designers in flow built the video game industry. "Flow state percentage" has been called the most important management metric for building great innovation teams. As a result of this, an increasing number of companies have put the cultivation of flow at the heart of their philosophies. So what is this mysterious state? How does it work its magic? And if this really is the secret to ultimate human performance, how can we get more of it in our personal and professional lives? Stay tuned to find out!
Originally published in April of 2014.
Visit http://youtube.com/TalksAtGoogle/ to watch the video.