Humans likely evolved to reach this peak performance zone. Here’s how you can enter the “flow state.”

• Flow happens when the brain’s control center powers down and practiced skill takes over.
• Musicians are helping scientists understand how the brain enters this peak-state of consciousness.
• Anyone can achieve a state of blissful flow with practice.

In Pixar’s Soul, the richly imaginative 2020 film exploring life and purpose, jazz pianist Joe Gardner often loses himself in a rapturous piano solo. As his fingers dance across the keys, the world around him melts. Later, a character named 22—a disembodied soul living in “The Great Before,” a realm where souls are prepared before birth—explains: “You know how when you humans are really into something and it feels like you’re in another place? Feels like you’re in the zone, right?” For 22, this “zone” is a mystical Astral Plane where people are transported when they’re doing what they love—a literal place where time vanishes and the soul expands. It’s a cinematic expression of what neuroscience now recognizes as a measurable brain state: flow.

Flow is a state of intense focus, reduced self-consciousness, and peak performance. And just like in Soul, scientists are turning to musicians to understand how the brain enters this intriguing peak-state of consciousness. In March 2024, a neuroimaging study published in the journal Neuropsychologia studied 32 jazz guitarists, some highly experienced, others less so. Each musician improvised six pieces while an electroencephalogram (EEG) measured their brains’ electrical activity. After each session, the players rated how “in the zone” they felt, while expert jazz critics rated the creativity of the output.

The study tested two competing theories: Is flow about laser-sharp focus? Or is it about deep skill and letting go? The data pointed to the second. The most experienced musicians—those most likely to report being seamlessly immersed—showed increased activity in auditory and sensory regions, and decreased activity in both the frontal lobes (which govern conscious control) and the default mode network (the part of the brain associated with self-focus and daydreaming). In other words, creative trance-like focus seemed to emerge when the practiced brain quieted its inner supervisor and allowed automatic brilliance to take over.

“The brain’s executive control system [the mind’s command center] is mostly in the frontal lobes, which exert control over the rest of the brain—organizing, focusing, and inhibiting thought and behavior,” says John Kounios, Ph.D, who led the study. Kounios is a professor in the department of psychology and brain science at Drexel University and director of its Creativity Research Lab. In the hyperfocused flow state, he explains, a phenomenon called transient hypofrontality occurs—“a temporary reduction in frontal lobe activity.” This loosening of top-down oversight “releases control to posterior brain networks [regions toward the back of the brain] that can take over.” These regions of the brain rely on automatic processes built up over years of experience, says Kounios, allowing seasoned performers to execute complex tasks with minimal effort. “They don’t have to think about what they are doing as much as novices do. They just know what to do,” he says. In other words, when the bossy frontal lobes relax, the brain’s internal autopilot kicks in, allowing baked-in mechanisms to lead the way.

Other experts echo this brain-based model. “Think of flow as a ‘Goldilocks state,’” says Kevin J.P. Woods, Ph.D., director of science at Brain.fm—a company that uses music to help people focus—“where your task isn’t too hard, but isn’t too easy. In this sweet spot, you’re trying without struggling, confident enough to operate on autopilot while your brain makes high-level decisions behind the scenes.”

Licensed psychotherapist and high-performance coach Michael Ceely further agrees that mastery precedes performance groove. “You have to have the initial skill set first before you can be very productive in a flow state,” he says. His advice? Choose an activity “just slightly above your ability.” This way, you won’t have the luxury of zoning out or overthinking—you will have to be fully engaged.

And yet, what begins as practical advice—calibrate your challenge, show up with skill—culminates into something ecstatic. Because once you’re locked in, the experience feels nothing like effort. In recent years, this elite mental state has taken on near-mythical status: secular transcendence, the secret to effortless genius, and more. But is it really that metaphysical? Or are we just so out of practice that it feels like that?

“The mystical part is that we spend so much time distracted in the modern world,” says Ceely. “We worry about the future and the past, and we forget how to be present.” He believes the mental condition being totally present might not be a magical anomaly but rather our natural human baseline. “That’s really our design. For 90 percent of our history, we were hunter-gatherers. And the activities we engaged in—for example, hunting and defending ourselves—demanded flow.” They demanded being fully present.

Woods adds an evolutionary twist though. “The function of flow—doing things efficiently and proficiently—probably evolved, improving the odds of survival and reproduction,” he says. But the feeling of flow—its warped sense of time, joy, and immersion—may be a byproduct: “It’s an altered state of consciousness,” Woods says, “that makes our brain see the world differently, almost like we’re in a dream or trance.”

The surreal experience of flow—that enraptured feeling, like your mind is floating on cloud nine, undistracted and sharp and clean—might simply be a natural afterglow of peak brain function. Whatever the case, it’s entirely learnable. Woods highlights three core ingredients: the task, your motivation, and your environment. “Choose a challenge that stretches you just enough to stay engaged. Push through the first 10 minutes—flow rarely kicks in immediately. And be strategic with your space. Light, temperature, sound, and tools all affect your mental rhythm.”

Ceely adds a few more priming tips. Music, for instance, can set the stage for flow. So can getting a full night’s sleep. Most importantly, cut out distractions. “Even a simple change of environment can help,” he says. “If you go camping and all the distractions are removed, it’s easy to get into flow.”

Still, heed Soul’s final warning. Moonwind, the mystical sign-twirler and spiritual guide, leads 22 through a shadowy part of the Astral Plane to reveal how “lost souls” are created—people who once entered The Zone doing what they loved, but stayed too long. In one scene, a soul mutters endlessly, consumed by work until he’s no longer human, but just a drifting shadow. “The Zone is enjoyable,” Moonwind explains, “but when that joy becomes an obsession, it becomes disconnected from life.”