3 powerful mind states: Flow state, good anxiety, and Zen Buddhism

The Four Noble Truths are the most iconic teachings of Buddhism; Zen does not teach that suffering can be eliminated but rather that one can learn to be with suffering, unhappiness, and pain in a way that makes it more bearable by not layering on optional suffering (stories about unfairness), and this makes people less likely to blame others for their circumstances.

“The Four Noble Truths are perhaps the most iconic teachings of the Buddha. They start with the Buddhist statement Now, it's often said that, "The Buddha was teaching that you could get to a point where you never suffer anymore." Zen does not teach that. Rather, what we can do is learn to be with what's unsatisfactory in life, learn to be with unhappiness, even be with pain in a way that makes it more bearable, in a way that doesn't layer on The optional suffering being the stories we tell about how unfair it all is, for example, that I have back pain or how unfair it is that I've got a cold today- that all of these things are workable.”

The challenge-skills balance, often called the golden rule of flow, states that people pay the most attention to a task when the challenge of that task slightly exceeds their current skillset, requiring them to stretch their abilities without breaking them.

“The challenge skills balance is often called the golden rule to flow. And the idea here is pretty simple. We pay the most attention into the task at hand when the challenge of that task slightly exceeds our skillset.”

Anxiety is a normal human emotion that everyone has, evolved to protect us; the conventional framing that anxiety is a disease to eliminate is incorrect, and neuroscience and psychology tools can teach how to use anxiety to advantage.

“You hear the word "anxiety," you think, "Oh God, this thing I wanna kick out the door. It's a disease. I have it. I don't know how to get rid of it." One of the first things that I wanted to do was flip the script on our whole mindset around anxiety. Anxiety is a normal human emotion. We all have it, okay, so you're never gonna get rid of it. It evolved to protect us, and so my whole book, "Good Anxiety," is teaching us to look at anxiety in a different way.”

There are five intrinsic motivators designed to be sequentially built into one another in a specific order: curiosity (which provides focus for free without burning calories), passion (which curiosity builds into, providing tremendous sustained attention), purpose (which is selfish from a peak performance perspective, not necessarily altruistic), autonomy (which purpose demands), and mastery (the skills to pursue that purpose).

“Now there are lots of different intrinsic motivators, but from a motivation standpoint, there are five and they're all designed to be built into one another and work in a sort of specific order in a specific sequence. The most base to human motivator is curiosity. One of the things we get from curiosity is focus for free. When we're curious about something, we don't have to struggle. We don't have to burn a lot of calories trying to pay attention to it.”

Beginner's Mind is a Zen teaching about letting go of fixed stories and certainties; practicing beginner's mind in relationships means being curious rather than expert, noticing new things about a person, and finding fresh ways to interact that prevent relationships from becoming stale.

“And finally, there's a wonderful teaching in Zen about Beginner's Mind. The idea that we let go of all the stories we tell ourselves that we're so sure of. Having a beginner's mind really helps in relationships because it allows us to be curious, it allows us to say, "Okay, there's so much I don't know about this person, let me watch closely. Let me notice what I haven't seen before about this person. Let me find new ways to interact with this person." And that brings a kind of freshness and openness to relationships that can otherwise, easily get stale.”

Zen emphasizes community (Sangha in Buddhist language) as essential to practicing learning about oneself and each other through relationships, both in meditation sessions and in the world.

“Zen emphasizes community. It's called 'Sangha' in the Buddhist language. and it's really the idea that we practice learning about ourselves and each other by being in relationships with each other, both during meditation sessions and out there in the world.”

Impermanence is the foundational concept in Zen Buddhism—the idea that everything is constantly changing with nothing to hold onto in the deepest sense; while scary, it is also a tremendous relief because when you understand that everything is changing, you let go of the fixed stories you tell about who you are, who you're supposed to be, and how the world is supposed to be.

“I would rate the concept of impermanence as, number one, as the greatest hit of Zen Buddhism. Basically, the idea of everything constantly changing There's nothing to hold onto in the deepest sense. And that on the one hand, that can be scary, on the other hand, it can be an enormous relief because we tell ourselves so many stories about who we are, and who we're supposed to be, and how the world is supposed to be, and when we really know the truth of impermanence, we let a lot of that go.”

Metta (loving-kindness) in Buddhism can be cultivated in two ways: (1) explicitly through loving-kindness meditation where you repeat 'May you be happy, may you be at peace' about others (including those you dislike or are angry at), or (2) implicitly through meditation practice that increases awareness of one's own pain and difficulties, which naturally generates empathy toward others.

“There's a concept of Metta, loving-kindness, in Buddhism, and there are a couple of different ways that it's talked about. One is an explicit skill that we can cultivate. You can do a loving-kindness meditation where you think about another person and you say to yourself, "May you be happy. may you be at peace." And you do that over and over again, and you come to feel differently about the other person, including about people you don't like very much, or you're angry at.”

Recognizing impermanence increases compassion toward others because it helps us realize that others, like ourselves, are constantly dealing with the complexities of a self and world that are always changing.

“Once we realize that everything is always changing, it helps us be more compassionate to other people 'cause we realize that they are also dealing with all the complexities of a self and a world that's constantly changing.”

Athletes in flow report receiving an internal voice (bell voice) giving rapid directional commands that must be obeyed immediately, with failure to obey resulting in crashes or errors.

“But one of the things that athletes talk about a lot is what they call bell voice. Often when I'm skiing and flow, I will get directions right left, do this, do that. And it's, it's very quick. You either do what the voice is telling you to do, or you tend to crash.”

Dopamine-driven flow triggers cluster around focus, attention, alertness, and excitement, activated by novelty, unpredictability, complexity, awe, pattern recognition (solving puzzles), risk-taking (physical, emotional, social, intellectual, spiritual), where dopamine functions to drive motivation rather than as a reward for taking risk.

“one way to kind of explore flow triggers is a cluster of them that are predominantly dopamine triggers. They drive focus. They drive attention that drive alertness, um, and, and excitement. And there's a lot of different ways to get dopamine. Novelty produces, dove mean we see the same thing with unpredictability complexity, the experience of awe.”

Complete concentration is the most basic flow trigger, and the optimal work session should align with individual physiology and block 90 to 120 minutes of uninterrupted focus.

“The most basic of flows, triggers, complete concentration. You really want to sort of start your work session. If you can, um, in relationship to your physiology. I like to wake up at 3 34 o'clock in the morning. That's when I'm most awake, most alert.”

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is often referred to as the godfather of flow psychology; he was interested in the meaning of life and traveled the world asking people about times they felt their best and performed their best, finding consistent patterns across all locations.

“Miha sent me high as often referred to as the godfather of flow psychology. He was very interested in sort of well meaning of life. And he went around the world, talking to people about the times in their lives when they felt their best. And they performed their best everywhere. He went, people said the same thing.”

The German term Rausch (overflow with joy) is related to how flow is experienced, and William James and Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi worked on the topic.

“Actually, uh, the term is coined by Gerta who uses the German word RO, which means overflowing with joy. NCHA actually wrote about flow. William James worked on the topic, but Miha sent me high as often referred to as the godfather of flow psychology.”

Flow is a state of effortless effort where a person feels propelled through activity with everything else disappearing, characterized by time dilation (hours passing as minutes), occasionally slowed perception (freeze frame effect), heightened intuition, and paralyzed frown muscles as a sign the brain is doing cognitive work.

“Flow is often described as a state of kind of effortless effort. We feel like we're propelled through the activity. Everything else just seems to disappear. Time is gonna dilate, which is a fancy way of saying it's gonna pass strangely five hours, go by in like five minutes. Occasionally it'll slow down. You get a freeze frame effect.”

Dietary supplements are often band-aids, and it is essential to think holistically about lifestyle habits like diet and exercise, as changes to these will have outsized impact on overall health compared to supplementation alone.

“Dietary supplements, in particular are often band-aids. It's also essential to think holistically about lifestyle habits like diet and exercise, as changes to those things will often have an outsized impact on overall health.”

Mindfulness is the simple practice of paying attention to whatever stimuli are reaching you right now—your heartbeat, breath, sounds, the feel of air on skin, the feel of a chair—with openness and receptivity in this present moment, and can be practiced in any moment.

“The best definition I know of mindfulness is simple: So right now, for me, that's talking with you. That's the feel of the chair on my back. It's the feel of the air on my skin. You can work on your mindfulness right this moment, by simply paying attention to whatever stimuli are reaching you. It might be your heartbeat, it might be your breath, it might be the sound of the fan in the room-anything. And simply letting yourself be open and receive whatever is here right now. And you can do that in any moment.”

Twenty-two flow triggers have been discovered by researchers, representing a toolkit that can be deliberately deployed to prepare oneself and the environment to enter flow, though researchers suspect more exist.

“The flow triggers are your toolkit. 22 of them have been discovered. There are probably way, way more, but so far researchers have identified 22.”

Waking up at times aligned with personal chronotype (Kotler wakes at 3:34 AM when most alert; his wife's peak is 5-8 PM) allows optimal timing for high-concentration work sessions.

“I like to wake up at 3 34 o'clock in the morning. That's when I'm most awake, most alert. I am married to a night out. My wife doesn't wake up till 5, 6, 7, o'clock eight o'clock at night. That's when her brain comes alive.”

Cognitive flexibility is the ability to look at and approach situations in multiple different ways; humans are habitual creatures who often approach situations the same way they learned at age six without realizing it; recognizing this, cognitive flexibility says you have the ability to approach situations differently.

“'Cognitive flexibility' is the idea that we are able to look at and approach situations in lots of different ways. We are habit-forming animals, and sometimes without even knowing it you are approaching the same situation the same way that you approached it when you were six years old. Cognitive flexibility says that if there is a realization, there are other ways to approach it. You have the ability to do just that.”

The amygdala is automatically activated by threats (hearing bumps in the night), but the prefrontal cortex—the brain area involved in executive function—can help calm that response; however, during high stress and high anxiety, the prefrontal cortex gets shut down too, making the situation worse.

“The amygdala is a brain structure that is automatically activated when you hear that bump in the night that launches your anxiety, and the brain area that could help that calming in that situation is the prefrontal cortex, the area that's involved in executive function, that helps you order your day. But unfortunately, in situations of high stress, high anxiety, what happens is not only is your amygdala activated but your prefrontal cortex gets shut down too, so that makes the situation even worse.”

Distraction management is a prerequisite for flow: turning off phone, email, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, messages, and alerts. Studies show that even a single interruption (knock on door, text alert) can take coders and other flow-dependent workers 15 minutes to return to flow, if they return at all.

“distraction management ahead of time. So you want to turn off your phone, turn off email, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, et cetera, all your messages, all your alerts.”