Have you ever been in ‘the zone’?
If you have, you’ll know what it feels like.
Everything seems to flow easily. It’s an extremely positive state where you feel focused and connected to what you’re doing. There is no resistance, struggle, overwhelm or stress — only continual progression which feels effortless and easy. You don’t have to think about your actions as they seem to just happen. You’re not bothered by negative emotions such as doubt or fear. Instead, there is clarity and purpose and you may even lose sense of time. When we’re in the zone we usually perform our best.
Many people believe that this zone or state of flow is a magical place that only occurs once in a while or you can only be in the zone for a short period.
However, being in the zone doesn’t have to happen by accident and it doesn’t have to be fleeting. You can learn to achieve this zone — or state of flow — and live this way every day.
When it comes to your transformation journey, you must achieve this state of flow, because unless you do, you won’t get the results you’re looking for.
What happens when you’re not in a state of flow?
When you’re not in the zone, or a state of flow everything seems much harder because you’ll be too focused on the end result (your weight loss goal) instead of the journey.
This means that you will try to rush the process and will always be looking for the latest fad diet or quick fix that promises results. However, diets don’t work for long-term weight loss and only lead to further weight gain and damage to your metabolism. If you want to get results, you need to be consistent instead of jumping from one diet to the next. While it may seem like the quick way to weight loss, this approach will take a lot longer. We explain this in more detail in our blog Nothing changes if nothing changes: How to lose weight for good.
When you focus on the end result you’ll spend all your energy using willpower and motivation to try to control your result. As we have seen before, this approach always ends in disaster because once willpower and motivation fail, which they will, you end up falling off the wagon. This often translates into binge eating, emotional eating or excessive alcohol consumption — all of which will sabotage your weight loss.
Focusing on your results also increases your stress levels. Stress is a huge barrier to weight loss as it is one of the metabolic blockers. You can read more about the effects of stress in our blog How stress and weight gain are linked. Stress will also impact your sleep (another metabolic blocker) and increase the likelihood of you drinking alcohol (yet another metabolic blocker!) Quite simply, stress is one of the biggest hurdles to weight loss, which is why it’s so important to reduce your stress levels. You can read how in our blog Why stress management techniques won’t eliminate your stress and what you need to do instead.
If you never achieve the transformation flow, you’ll be destined to continue sabotaging your weight loss. We explain this in more detail in our blog How to stop weight loss self-sabotage.
However, the good news is that you can achieve this state if you know how.
What is the transformation state of flow?
The transformation state of flow is being at peace with where you’re at, even if you don’t have the body you want.
You may still be working towards your goals, but you no longer have a timeline for your weight loss, such as losing weight for your 40th or 50th birthday, because you know you are already worthy of acceptance no matter how much you weigh.
Regardless of how long it may take you to reach your goal, you’re okay with that uncertainty and have completely surrendered to the process. You are consistently doing what you need to do without forcing your result or self-sabotaging yourself.
Signs you have achieved this state include:
- trusting the process completely
- focusing on the journey not the destination
- blocking the noise and focusing on your own journey
- ditching diets for good
- getting rid of the diet mindset
- overcoming binge eating and emotional eating
- having a healthy relationship with food
- not judging food as good or bad
- no longer relying on willpower
- not putting a timeline on your weight loss
- not weighing yourself all the time
- not smashing yourself with exercise
How to achieve the transformation state of flow?
To achieve the transformation state of flow you need to address your habits that are getting in the way of your success.
Build your self-worth
Many people believe that they will feel worthy once they lose weight. However, to lose weight you need to feel worthy first.
Low self-worth is a keystone habit that leads to a whole lot of other habits which cause you to self-sabotage your weight loss. The good thing about keystone habits is once you address them, you’ll also get rid of the habits that stem from them. Low self-worth can show up as:
- People-pleasing
- Imposter syndrome
- Perfectionism
- Comparing yourself with other people
- Being too busy or working longer hours
- Putting up with toxic relationships
- Binge eating and emotional eating to fill the void inside
- Using alcohol to numb your feelings
- Finding worth in material possessions and status
- Lack of confidence
- Procrastination
- Being unable to slow down
- Being unable to put yourself first
- Limiting beliefs and identity
All of the habits above will prevent you from being in the transformation state of flow. To learn more about each of these habits, just click the blue links. However, if you build your self-worth, you will automatically get rid of each of these, and your weight loss results will come quicker and easier. Our blog How to build your self-worth so you can lose weight for good will show you how to do this.
Confront your fears
While you continue to live in fear, you’ll never achieve the state of flow. The things that most people fear are judgement and abandonment. When you’re afraid of being judged, you’ll compare yourself with other people, and will end up sabotaging yourself by resorting to diets to lose weight quickly, rather than take your time and do things properly. In other words, you’d rather deal with the pain of losing weight and regaining it back, than confronting the uncertainty of how long it will take to lose weight and being seen for where you’re currently at. This is why people who have a social occasion go on diets and quick fixes to lose weight quickly — they are afraid of what other people will think of what they look like.
While you continue to live in fear, you’ll always do things to protect yourself from being judged or abandoned by other people, even if this means sabotaging your results. You can read more about this in our blog Why fear influences your weight more than diet and exercise.
Let go of control and surrender completely
You also need to completely let go of control and surrender to whatever comes your way. This involves accepting your situation for what it is, instead of trying to resist it or control it. It means fully embracing it and working through it, no matter how scary it may seem, and being present in the now. Only then will you achieve the peace of mind that is necessary to enter the state of flow. We explain these concepts more clearly in our blogs How to feel in control when everything is out of control and How to build your resilience so that you can lose weight for good.
If you’re ready to get rid of the stress and angst involved in weight loss we can help you. You just need to take the first step and apply for our DATSTM Program.
