On some level or another, it’s probably fair to say that just about everyone is looking for ways to enrich and deepen their sense of wonder, awe, and engagement in everyday life. There are many different things that people do in order to try and achieve this – including setting ambitious goals, making various consumer purchases, and much more besides. Ultimately, there’s a good argument to be made that a major source of that deep sense of engagement with everyday life is the ability to regularly enter into a “state of flow,” where the tasks you are engaged in feel deeply meaningful and enriching on their own terms, and where you are so absorbed in what we are doing that your sense of time seems to slip away. Here are a handful of tips for putting yourself in a state of flow more often, over the course of everyday life.
Regularly visit new places and have new experiences
Regularly visiting new places and having new experiences can be an excellent way of helping you to get into a “state of flow” more often, because – for one thing – it removes you from your familiar environment and the contexts that you likely take for granted on some level, and gets you looking at the world once again in an enthusiastic and wide-eyed manner. It might be that you want to travel to a beautiful locale you’ve never been to before, and to stay in luxurious accommodation such as an executive condo. Or, maybe there’s a pastime that you've always been curious about trying out, or an event you’ve always been interested in attending, that’s calling out to you. Regularly putting yourself in these kinds of situations, and in having these new experiences, can really get you engaging with the world again in a much more enthusiastic and positive manner, where things are just more likely to seem to flow.
Nurture the ability to be present in the moment
When all is said and done, it’s probably outright impossible to be in a state of flow if you are heavily distracted by reflections on the past, are concerned about the future, and are more or less ignoring what’s right in front of you.Nurturing the ability to be present in the moment, and to appreciate what is right in front of you is a way of opening yourself up to the magic that is all around you, but that you most likely don’t spot, on a day-to-day basis. It’s when you are present and are enthusiastically engaged with what’s right in front of you, that you can really be said to be in a state of flow.
Pursue activities that naturally feel meaningful to you, and that inspire a sense of enthusiasm
Whenever you are engaging in activities that you naturally feel are meaningful, and that inspire a sense of enthusiasm within you, you will tend to be far more interested, engaged, and “in alignment” with yourself. You will be more likely, in other words, to find yourself in a state of flow while engaging in these pastimes, in addition to enjoying the obvious benefits that come with living your life in a way that feels more meaningful and uplifting, in general.If you don’t know what you find meaningful at this particular moment, begin paying attention to the kinds of things that excite or interest you over the course of everyday life. Does a particular character or motif in a film really get your attention? Does a particular environment fill you with enthusiasm? Whatever the case, following your own intuition in this sense is likely to lead you to deep experiences of flow and enthusiasm.
Focus more on daily actions than long-term goals
Having a sense of the long-term direction you want to head in can be a very powerful thing, and can help you to orient your life in a variety of different ways. Nonetheless, it’s important to realise that fixating on your long-term goals naturally takes you out of the present moment, and draws all your attention towards an abstract vision of the future that you’ve constructed. One negative consequence of this can be that you find it impossible to be immersed in whatever you are doing at the moment, and instead feel a sense of impatient urgency towards achieving the goal in question.
Keep in mind the direction you want to head in, but focus more on your daily actions and habits than on your long-term goals. Try to immerse yourself in these daily actions and habits as much as possible, to regularly enter a state of flow.
