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mindful

Benefits of Getting Out of Your Head: How being mindful and achieving flow states will help you succeed in life

๐—ง๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜† ๐—ฏ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐˜๐˜€ ๐—ผ๐—ณ ๐—ด๐—ฒ๐˜๐˜๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐˜ ๐—ผ๐—ณ ๐˜†๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ฟ ๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฑ (๐—”๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—œ ๐—ฑ๐—ผ๐—ป’๐˜ ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ป ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—ฎ๐—น๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ต๐—ผ๐—น ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—ฑ๐—ฟ๐˜‚๐—ด๐˜€).

Despite all the recent talk about supercomputers and artificial intelligence, the human brain remains the most complex machine on the planet.

At the centre of this complexity lies the prefrontal cortex, our most sophisticated piece of neuronal hardware.

With this relatively recent evolutionary adaptation came a heightened degree of self-awareness, an ability to delay gratification, plan for the long term, reason through complex logic, and think about our thinking.

This hopped-up cogitation promoted us from slow, weak, hairless apes into tool-wielding apex predators, turning a life that was once nasty, brutish, and short into something decidedly more civilized.

๐˜‰๐˜ถ๐˜ต ๐˜ข๐˜ญ๐˜ญ ๐˜ฐ๐˜ง ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ช๐˜ด ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜จ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ๐˜ถ๐˜ช๐˜ต๐˜บ ๐˜ค๐˜ข๐˜ฎ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ข๐˜ต ๐˜ข ๐˜ค๐˜ฐ๐˜ด๐˜ต…

No one built an off switch for the potent self-awareness that made it all possible.

As psychologist Mark Leary in his aptly titled book, ‘The Curse of the Self‘ puts it:

๐‘ป๐’‰๐’† ๐’”๐’†๐’๐’‡ ๐’Š๐’” ๐’๐’๐’• ๐’‚๐’ ๐’–๐’๐’Ž๐’Š๐’•๐’Š๐’ˆ๐’‚๐’•๐’†๐’… ๐’ƒ๐’๐’†๐’”๐’”๐’Š๐’๐’ˆ, ๐’Š๐’• ๐’Š๐’” ๐’”๐’Š๐’๐’ˆ๐’๐’†-๐’‰๐’‚๐’๐’…๐’†๐’…๐’๐’š ๐’“๐’†๐’”๐’‘๐’๐’๐’”๐’Š๐’ƒ๐’๐’† ๐’‡๐’๐’“ ๐’Ž๐’‚๐’๐’š, ๐’Š๐’‡ ๐’๐’๐’• ๐’Ž๐’๐’”๐’• ๐’๐’‡ ๐’•๐’‰๐’† ๐’‘๐’“๐’๐’ƒ๐’๐’†๐’Ž๐’” ๐’•๐’‰๐’‚๐’• ๐’‰๐’–๐’Ž๐’‚๐’ ๐’ƒ๐’†๐’Š๐’๐’ˆ๐’” ๐’‡๐’‚๐’„๐’† ๐’‚๐’” ๐’Š๐’๐’…๐’Š๐’—๐’Š๐’…๐’–๐’‚๐’๐’” ๐’‚๐’๐’… ๐’‚๐’” ๐’‚ ๐’”๐’‘๐’†๐’„๐’Š๐’†๐’”.

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๐‘ฐ๐’• ๐’„๐’๐’๐’‹๐’–๐’“๐’†๐’” ๐’–๐’‘ ๐’‚ ๐’ˆ๐’“๐’†๐’‚๐’• ๐’…๐’†๐’‚๐’ ๐’๐’‡ ๐’‘๐’†๐’“๐’”๐’๐’๐’‚๐’ ๐’”๐’–๐’‡๐’‡๐’†๐’“๐’Š๐’๐’ˆ ๐’Š๐’ ๐’•๐’‰๐’† ๐’‡๐’๐’“๐’Ž ๐’๐’‡ ๐’…๐’†๐’‘๐’“๐’†๐’”๐’”๐’Š๐’๐’, ๐’‚๐’๐’™๐’Š๐’†๐’•๐’š, ๐’‚๐’๐’ˆ๐’†๐’“, ๐’‹๐’†๐’‚๐’๐’๐’–๐’”๐’š, ๐’‚๐’๐’… ๐’๐’•๐’‰๐’†๐’“ ๐’๐’†๐’ˆ๐’‚๐’•๐’Š๐’—๐’† ๐’†๐’Ž๐’๐’•๐’Š๐’๐’๐’”.

This is the downside of our prefrontal cortices.

The trade off for having a โ€œsense of selfโ€.

๐˜๐˜ตโ€™๐˜ด ๐˜ข๐˜ญ๐˜ด๐˜ฐ ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ฐ๐˜ง ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜ด๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ๐˜ด ๐˜ธ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ข๐˜ญ๐˜ญ ๐˜ญ๐˜ฐ๐˜ท๐˜ฆ ๐˜ฃ๐˜ฆ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜จ ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ ๐˜ง๐˜ญ๐˜ฐ๐˜ธ ๐˜ด๐˜ฐ ๐˜ฎ๐˜ถ๐˜ค๐˜ฉ.

Hereโ€™s the thing:

When we experience a flow state that gives us access to something more, we feel it first as something lessโ€”and that something missing is us.

Or, more specifically, the inner critic we all come with:

Our inner Woody Allen, that nagging, defeatist, always-on voice in our heads.

๐—ฌ๐—ผ๐˜‚โ€™๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ผ๐—ผ ๐—ณ๐—ฎ๐˜. ๐—ง๐—ผ๐—ผ ๐˜€๐—ธ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ป๐˜†. ๐—ง๐—ผ๐—ผ ๐˜€๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐˜ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—ฏ๐—ฒ ๐˜„๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ธ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐˜๐—ต๐—ถ๐˜€ ๐—ท๐—ผ๐—ฏ. ๐—ง๐—ผ๐—ผ ๐˜€๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—ฑ๐—ผ ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜†๐˜๐—ต๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ฎ๐—ฏ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐˜ ๐—ถ๐˜.

A relentless drumbeat that rings in our ears.

Scientists call this shutdown โ€œtransient hypofrontality.โ€

Transient means temporary.

โ€œHypo,โ€ the opposite of โ€œhyper,โ€ means โ€œless than normal.โ€

And frontality refers to the prefrontal cortex, the part of our brain that generates our sense of self.

During transient hypofrontality, because large swatches of the prefrontal cortex turn off, that inner critic comes offline.

Our inner Woody Allen goes quiet.

Without all the badgering, we get a real sense of peace.

Without self-talk to stir up negative emotions, tension melts and the experience is almost mystical.

And with tension out of the way, we often discover a better version of ourselves.

More confident and clear.

More able to look at life, and the often repetitive stories we tell about it, with fresh eyes.

Even if after flow, we slip back into the monotony of our everyday rolesโ€”parent, spouse, employee, boss, neighbourโ€”but, by then, we know theyโ€™re just costumes with zippers.

The experience of selflessness that flow brings gives us flexibility in how we respond to life and its challenges.

By stepping outside our thoughts, we gain perspective.

๐—ช๐—ฒ ๐—ฏ๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—บ๐—ฒ ๐—ผ๐—ฏ๐—ท๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐˜๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—น๐˜† ๐—ฎ๐˜„๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐—ผ๐—ณ ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ฟ ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐˜€๐˜๐˜‚๐—บ๐—ฒ๐˜€ ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฎ๐—ป ๐˜€๐˜‚๐—ฏ๐—ท๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐˜๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—น๐˜† ๐—ณ๐˜‚๐˜€๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐˜„๐—ถ๐˜๐—ต ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—บ.

We realise we can take them off, discard those that are worn out or no longer fit, and even create new ones.

Thatโ€™s the paradox of selflessness and a key benefit of flowโ€ฆ

๐—•๐˜† ๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—น๐—น๐˜† ๐—น๐—ผ๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ฟ ๐—บ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฑ๐˜€ ๐˜„๐—ฒ ๐˜€๐˜๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ฎ ๐—ฏ๐—ฒ๐˜๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—ฐ๐—ต๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ฒ ๐—ผ๐—ณ ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐˜€๐—ฒ๐—น๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐˜€.

Yours optimally,
Scott

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