The Amazing Vitamin Z

Ever wonder what makes the difference between clock-watching and losing track of time?  Wish you could get more of the energizing boost that comes from the latter?  What if I could share with you some tips on how to do just that?  And what if I told that getting there would be, at least in part, a balancing act?

O.K., let’s try this on.  Call forth a memory of an activity or an engagement during which you lost track of time.  You know, one of those instances where, at the conclusion of which you may have looked at the clock and wondered, “Where on earth did the time go?” You may have thought of yourself as operating “in the zone.”  I’ll call it getting your Vitamin Z.

The activity really can be anything.  For me, my memories of timelessness are quite diverse, from time spent re-surfacing a wall to a dinner with my mentor and from a 2.5 mile swim to writing a well note (yep, these Wednesday columns really can mean timeless bliss for me). 

Now, got your Vitamin Z memory front and center for observation?   When you’re ready ask yourself:

•   Did I have a real passion for the activity?

•   Did I have a clearly defined goal for the activity?  A goal releases us from worry about “where is this taking me?” and liberates us to enjoy the present moment.

•   Was I getting immediate feedback?  In times of timelessness (I love that), it’s likely your internal critic was off and you were sensing your activity with unobstructed enthusiasm (something like, “I can do this!”).

If you’ve identified three conditions, it’s likely that you are on your way to the identifying a flow experience (when you were “in the zone”).  The architect of flow theory, psychology professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Me-hy Chick-sent-me-hy-ee), said he named this experience flow “because so many people used the flow analogy of being carried away by an outside force, of moving effortlessly with a current of energy.”

And at the heart of Csikszentmihalyi’s state of flow is the fourth condition: the balance between challenge and skills.  As with your awareness around the three previously listed conditions of passion, goal and feedback, you can set yourself up for a flow experience by being deliberate in establishing your challenge vs. skills balance.  Here’s the trick:

To intentionally achieve flow  – and you might do this for the psychological boost and improved productivity flow produces – schedule into your day an activity where your skills (abilities) are fully engaged in a challenge that is just manageable – neither too easy nor too hard.

If your chosen activity (challenge) is too easy given your skills, the result will be boredom.  If the challenge far exceeds your skills, the result will be anxiety and frustration.  Note: For leaders, this is a good framework in which to consider assigning and monitoring projects assigned to your team members.  Important because people generally will produce their best work – and be happier in their work environment -- when this balance is struck.   It’s the often reason people perform well “under pressure” and can be observed “rising to the occasion” with a certain joie de vivre.

Here’s a simple illustration of one way I can be assured of getting my Vitamin Z through a physical activity:

In the last couple of years, I have fallen head over heels for a piece of exercise equipment at my gym called the versa-climber.  It’s one of those fitness contraptions that looks like a torture device and is ALWAYS available – because most people find it too challenging for their fitness level (creating anxiety).  Here’s how the versa-climber contributes to my flow:  Exercise is a passion for me – made even more transcendent by the addition of a great play list on my iPod Touch.  I first set my versa-climber workout goal by establishing the number of feet I want to "climb" within a certain time period.  Next I set the machine’s resistance, pace and step height at levels that challenge my fitness ability and are still manageable (high challenge to high skill match up).   Finally, as I exercise, I get immediate feedback from progress monitors and my own feeling of increased strength and endurance.

Not terribly sophisticated, very do-able – an almost magical “balancing act.”  That’s my Vitamin Z – what’s yours?

Flow.  Zone.  Balance.  It does a mind and body good.

Are You a "RIghty" or a "Lefty"?

In a long-held overgeneralization of the split brain theory of psychophysiology, our “handedness” somewhat indicates our “brained-ness.”  That is, a right-handed person is left-brain dominant, with a proclivity toward spatial abilities, facial recognition, visual imagery and music; while a left-handed person would be right-brain dominant -- tapping more easily into the parts of the brain most responsible for language, math and logic.   

While over time that split-brain notion (first put forth in the late 1800s) has not been wholly supported, there is some evidence that handedness may in fact contribute to some lateral dominance in brain function (as do eye dominance, foot dominance and hearing dominance).  And what any dominance suggests is a movement away from center – and away from balance. 

Alice Flaherty, author of the Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer’s Block and the Creative Brain, argues that creativity is due to a balance of frontal and temporal lobe activity.  In other words the trick is not, in fact, to get out of your "left brain" and into your right, but to increase activity in the right hemisphere (or reduce activity in the left) so that it matches the activity on the other side – i.e., balance!

So, in a salute to the righties and lefties of the world (and in deep admiration of all of you ambidextrous souls) today’s well note offers two simple tips to help balance your beautiful, brilliant, bodacious brains!

• Since you’re already thinking about it, let’s start with handedness.  If you are right-handed – and an estimated 80% of humans are – change!  Yep, right now (don’t panic, it’s temporary).  For the next hour (and it will undoubtedly feel like longer) do with your left hand what you normally would do with your right (write, eat, brush your teeth, etc.).  And if you are left-handed, well, you’ll be letting that southpaw rest while you give the right hand a workout.  

By doing something as simple as switching hands, you may just feel your brain “light up” with neural activity that can fuel creative thought and the development of new ideas and novel solutions to challenging problems.  Now there’s a tool you can access next time you’re feeling “stuck”!

Want another easy practice you can try right now?  

• This next idea for balancing the brain is taken from the world of yoga: alternate nostril breathing.  I had the occasion to give this practice a try last week as part of a mind-body practice in a post-graduate program on positive psychology; and was struck by how it opened creativity, awareness and calm. 
• First, close the right nostril with your right thumb and inhale through the left nostril.  Do this to the count of four seconds.
• Then, close the left nostril with your right ring finger and little finger.  At the same time, remove your thumb from the right nostril, and exhale through this nostril.  Do this to the count of eight seconds.  This completes a half round.
• Now inhale through the right nostril to the count of four seconds.  Then close the right nostril with your right thumb and exhale through the left nostril to the count of eight seconds. This completes one full round.
• Continue for 8 more rounds.
• The idea behind the alternate nostril breathing practice is that your nose is directly linked to your brain and nervous system.  Breathing in through your left nostril will access the right “feeling” hemisphere of your brain, and breathing in through your right nostril, will access the left “thinking” hemisphere of your brain.  Consciously alternating your breath between either nostril will allow you to activate and access your whole brain.

Simply put, the balance of the brain, like the pleasing aesthetic of balanced design in architecture or the sweet harmony of a balanced tune, enhances the balance in our lives. 

Brain balance, it does a mind and body good.