When you are in a flow state in a workout or in your work, it’s like magic.
Everything is moving with ease. You have clarity of purpose and direction. You feel connected, confident, dialed-in.
You have the courage to take risks.
Such is the magic of flow that it’s natural to want to hang onto it for as long as possible.
If you’ve caught the wave, you want to keep riding it.
How can you do that?
It’s the opposite of what you likely think.
The Counter-Intuitive Way to Sustain a Flow State
The way to sustain flow to do the thing you are likely to resist the most:
Rest.
It’s counter-intuitive: when you’re in flow, stopping can feel like the one thing that is guaranteed to disrupt your flow.
In fact, however, rest is a crucial element to both creating and sustaining flow.
Read more: 11 Elements to Create Focus and Flow — Especially for People with ADHD
Rhythm Requires Rest
Flow emerges from a rhythm. When you can find a rhythm, you can get into flow.
In music, rhythm incorporates rest.
Rhythm requires rest.
If you’re just playing notes without rest, all you’re doing is making noise. The rhythm of music emerges from the pattern of repetition of musical notes that create sound interspersed with moments of rest.
When I look at the workouts that help me get into good flow states, they all incorporate rest, even if in small ways.
Here are five examples of how rest might show up in different workouts:
5 Ways to Integrate Rest Into Your Flow
(1) In a Transition: Take a Beat
Sometimes the rest is a beat in the transition between two different movements:
Example: swing a kettlebell 10 times, then drop to the ground to do a few push-ups.
That moment between putting down the kettlebell and getting to the floor is like an eighth-note of rest in the musical score of the flow.
You take a beat. You take a breath.
(2) In a Time-Interval: Finish Out the Measure
Other times a workout might require repetition of a single movement or two movements over several rounds, with short periods of rest between each round.
Consider the example from above: Every 90-seconds, swing a kettlebell 10 times, then do a few push-ups. Before you pick up that kettlebell again, you rest for the time remaining in the 90 seconds.
That “rest for the remaining time” is like a quarter-note or half-note rest in the music. It finishes out the measure.
It’s enough time to take a few breaths and refocus on the kettlebell, perhaps gear up to increase the weight.
(3) Alternating Work and Rest in Even Measure
In a partner workout where we split the work, I do half the volume and rest while my partner does the other half.
A 500-meter row means 250 meters for me and 250 for my partner. While my partner rows, I rest. Then I move on to the next movement.
That rest is like a full measure rest. It’s a chance to reset before the next movement, but not too long that I lose focus on the flow of the melody.
(4) A Change of Rhythm
Sometimes the “rest” period is simply a change of pacing or rhythm. A burst of cardio, like a row or a run, in the middle of lifting or plyometric movements creates a different cadence. It’s a form of rest.
(5) A Change in Intensity
Pairing two movements that require different muscle groups gives rest to one part of the body while working another part.
In all of these cases, rest is integrated into to the flow. It’s not separate from it.
Integrating Rest Sustains Flow
I’ve used these different types of rest to create flow in how I work and go through my day. For example, I typically alternate periods of physical activity with periods of writing. In this way, I rest my brain while working my body, then work my brain while resting my body. Each “segment” feeds the other.
Life is an endurance event. The way to sustain the flow is to pause periodically to alter the rhythm, change the pace, and even to find moments of stillness.
Building rest into flow and between flows can help us harness the magic of flow and ride the wave for longer.
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