38- Reclaiming Flow: How Women Rediscover Themselves Through Creativity

Flow isn’t passive happiness. It’s deep immersion. It’s the state where time bends, self-consciousness softens, and you stop narrating yourself long enough to fully engage in what you’re doing.

And research shows it’s one of the healthiest states the human brain can enter. In this episode, we explore: What flow actually is (and what it isn’t)

The neuroscience of transient hypofrontality — when the inner critic quiets

Why flow improves focus, creativity, and emotional resilience

How high-demand religious conditioning can make immersion harder

Why women trained into self-surveillance often struggle to access flow How creativity becomes one of the safest gateways back High-demand systems don’t forbid flow — but when life is structured around obligation, moral performance, and external approval, it’s difficult to enter a state that requires autonomy and self-forgetting.

You cannot merge with the moment if you are busy monitoring yourself. If you’ve been craving deeper presence, this episode will help you understand why — and how to begin rebuilding your capacity for immersion.

Download the Reclaiming Flow Worksheet to assess where you are and begin intentionally creating the conditions for flow in your own life.

References:

https://medium.com/change-your-mind/3-habits-of-people-never-in-flow-states-180683cb8e36

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2008). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. Harper Perennial Modern Classics. Kotler, S. (2014).

The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance. New Harvest. https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-rise-of-superman-steven-kotler McGonigal, K. (2015).

The Upside of Stress: Why Stress Is Good for You, and How to Get Good at It. Avery. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/314317/the-upside-of-stress-by-kelly-mcgonigal/ McGonigal discusses stress physiology, performance states, and neurochemistry related to focus and resilience in both her book and related lectures. Dietrich, A. (2004).

Neurocognitive mechanisms underlying the experience of flow. Consciousness and Cognition, 13(4), 746–761. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2004.07.002 Dietrich, A. (2008).

Psychiatry Research, 159(1–2), 122–128. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2007.02.006 (This 2008 paper expands on the hypofrontality hypothesis in the context of exercise and altered states.)