My baby daughter was napping, my son was at school. On a hastily prepared canvas perched on an easel in the kitchen, I eagerly began to paint -- it was a project I'd been planning for weeks. The time was midmorning -- then, suddenly, it was 2:00 p.m. Somewhere in there I must have tended to the baby, but I don't remember. It happened years ago. The children are grown, the painting is long since discarded along with the easel, and the kitchen belongs to someone else. What remains, indelibly, is my memory of the ecstasy -- the absolute wonder of being in "flow."

Have you ever been so engrossed in an activity that you completely lost track of time? What an incredible feeling it is to "come to" and realize that for an hour or more you achieved perfect concentration, your thoughts and emotions precisely channeled, totally aligned with the task at hand. No preoccupation, no anxiety, no blocks -- nothing to impede the -- here's that word again -- flow.

What is Flow?
Researchers describe flow as a unique state of concentration in which action seems to be effortless. Whether painting, writing, planning, scheming, inventing, or running a 10K, you feel alert, unselfconscious and totally absorbed in the present moment. Flow is a state entered when you are performing at your peak or stretching beyond former limits. Emotions are positive and energized, yet your attention is so focused on the task at hand that you may not be aware of feelings at all except in retrospect. Everything but the task is forgotten -- time, surroundings, even yourself. Awareness and action become one.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a psychologist who has studied and written about flow, compares it to what sports psychologists call reaching the "zone," a state of transcendent absorption that seems to push champion athletes beyond former limits. The primary difference between flow and the zone is motivation. The point of reaching the zone is to win. Achieving flow is usually an end in itself.

Daniel Goleman (Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, Bantam 1995) suggests that flow is "emotional intelligence at its best." Not only are feelings incredibly positive (rapture, spontaneous joy), all of the usual emotional static is absent. In flow, senses, feelings, actions, and thoughts are perfectly attuned and you respond to feedback from the task or activity itself. The painter communes with the painting, the writer "becomes" her heroine, the architect moves about inside the building on her drawing board, the rock climber is part of the mountain.

It's Cool!
People who are performing in a state of flow make difficult tasks look easy and natural. They are focused and attentive, but completely relaxed. According to Goleman, this parallels what is happening in the brain, where even the most challenging tasks are accomplished with a minimum expenditure of mental energy. In flow, the brain is in a cool, quiet state. Where you might expect more brain activity, there is actually less.

Your brain operates on four main frequencies or waves: beta (13-25 cycles per second (CPS), alpha (8-12 CPS), theta (4-7 CPS), and delta (.5 to 3 CPS). If you're wide awake and alert, for example talking or trying to solve problem at home or work, your brain is probably "transmitting" and "receiving" at 13 to 25 cycles per second -- the beta level. However, it is probably in the alpha state that heightened powers of concentration and creativity, as well as great mental and athletic performances, are achieved. Alpha brain waves produce a conscious state of relaxed wakefulness which is characteristic of flow. British learning innovator Colin Rose says, "This is the brain wave that characterizes relaxation and meditation, the state of mind during which you daydream, let your imagination run. It is a state of relaxed alertness that facilitates inspiration, fast assimilation of facts and heightened memory."

Finding the Entrance
Flow occurs near the summit of ability, the level of mastery. It is the practiced, confident skier -- not the awkward, nervous one -- who "flows" down the mountain. Practiced moves require much less brain effort than those being learned. With mastery, skills are well-rehearsed and neural circuits efficient. So one key to experiencing flow is to engage in activities at which you already excel; another is to pursue activities to which you are naturally drawn. Identify your competencies and preferred learning styles. Play to your strengths. Then practice, practice, practice.

Give yourself a challenge. Choose something that is hard enough to stretch your abilities but not so hard that you get discouraged. Put another way -- select a task at which you are skilled and engage in it at a level slightly above your ability.

Moving into flow requires discipline. Start by focusing sharp attention on the task. Concentrate. Stay in the present moment and try not to be concerned about how you are performing. Agitation and anxiety prevent flow, so using stress reduction techniques, such as meditation and deep breathing, may help. Try playing baroque music softly in the background. The tempo of baroque music (60-70 beats per minute) is identical to alpha brain waves and has been shown in research to induce a state of relaxed alertness.

It's easy to get hooked on flow. Once you've been there, you'll want to return. The desire to re-experience this blissful state can provide the motivation to get better and better at something, perfect your skills, take on greater challenges. I can't think of a better, more intrinsic motivator. To flow. . . you have to grow.