Frankenstack or Self-Cairn?
Feeling Stuck? Stack Your Wellness Practices.
When you take an honest look at your self-care routine, how does it stack up? Is your wellness system a “Frankenstack” of random, infrequent practices that aren’t doing much for you? Not judging, that's the case for most of us. If you’re looking to make a change for the better, consider stacking— combining and harmonizing your wellness practices in a way that amplifies the impact. Curious how? Oops! You might have accidentally tripped a "flow trigger."
WTH Is A Flow Trigger?
To design a wellness routine that’s optimized for you, one that you’ll actually want to stick with, it helps to know a thing or two about flow and flow triggers. Flow is when we’re in the zone. We're intensely focused and fully engaged. Time seems to stand still. Our actions are fluid and effortless. A flow trigger is what leads us into this state of mind-body connection.
Flow is one of the few cases, where you want to be triggered! When we're in the zone, we get a substantial bump in everything from performance, motivation, creativity, and innovation to enhanced feelings of meaning, fulfilment, and happiness. We can all experience flow, and we can create wellness routines that support this optimal state of consciousness, but most of us don't know exactly what triggers it. This is where it would be super to have a one-size-fits-all answer to what triggers flow.
There’s not. We're all wired differently, so how we find our version of “the zone” naturally varies. Not to fear! While there are many mental, social, and environmental factors that can trigger the flow state, there is a common element: focus. So, stacking this all up: Being in the flow state supports our overall well-being. We want our personal well-being practices to help get us in the zone. Focus can lead us there. So, what drives focus? Again, many answers, but the smart money is on what motivates us.
Follow Your Curiosity
When it comes to wellness practices, we’ve all done the thing where we tell ourselves we’re going to totally embrace (insert the healthy activity of your choice here). Then, we don’t, because it turns out we hate that thing. That doesn’t mean we’re not capable of sticking to a wellness plan. More likely, it means we were not intrinsically motivated by it. And, we can make different choices—choices that inspire us.
According to Steven Kotler, author and founder of the Flow Research Collective, when these five common drivers of intrinsic motivation — curiosity, passion, purpose, autonomy, and mastery — are stacked, in this order, and pointed in the same direction, we create optimal conditions for focus and flow. This motivation stack not only boosts dopamine in our system, which influences pleasure, attention, motivation, learning, mood, and that yummy feeling of reward, it also produces norepinephrine, which contributes to alertness, attention, and yep you got it, focus.
Intuitively, it makes sense. We all pay more attention to things we’re curious about. If your curiosity is connected to passion and purpose, you get sucked in even more. When you combine that with feeling empowered to choose, you’ll naturally want to learn, grow, and develop in that area. Bringing it back to wellness, you stack the odds in your favor when your well-being practices are driven by what actually motivates you, what gets you in the zone, not what you think you should do (but low-key hate).
Stack For Energy
If you've taken yoga classes or listened to guided meditations or motivational speakers, you've probably heard some variation of this phrase: energy flows where our attention goes. This isn't a woo-woo pep talk, it's actually backed by neuroscience.
Attention and energy are linked through neural networks and neurochemicals. Our attention directs energy and information flow, influencing which parts of our brains are activated, what we focus on, and how our thoughts, emotions, and body respond. With this in mind, it's not only what we stack that matters — similar to flow triggers, how and when we stack our daily activities makes a difference.
For example, our willpower and energy tend to decline over the course of the day. Stress zaps our energy too. So, if we're stacking habits into our day, we want to be mindful of the attention and energy needed, so we can tackle the activities that require the most effort and creativity early in the day. Or, consider stacking activities that you know spark your motivation, give you energy, and/or reduce stress with activities that require a little more effort.
Habit Stack With Intention
As we continue to practice what motivates us and gives us energy, deep states of flow become more accessible, because we’re reprogramming our brain and training body each time — making it a habit. Athletes are in the zone often because they’ve practiced getting there. We can make flow a habit too. We can't all be Olympic athletes (just sayin), but we can all experience the benefits of being in the flow state more frequently. In addition to practice, it helps to have goals.
All humans (not just pro athletes) excel when our short-term practices and daily habits are connected to longer-term strategic objectives that are linked to a compelling vision that motivates us. You might think of this sequence as action, intention, purpose or task, strategy, mission — whatever words we use to frame up the sequence, we're at our best when we're focused and present, acting with clear direction, and following a balanced progression toward something that inspires us.
Habits stacking is where we take this to the next level. Research shows that habits are more successfully adopted when stacked on top of existing routines. By inserting a new action within a routine that's already working for us, we can Jedi mind-trick the neurological connections in our brains, linking new and existing behaviors and making a new habit easier to form and stick with. Try it! Add something that motivates you into an existing routine, execute it when you have the most energy, and repeat. More on habits here.
Frankenstack To Self-Cairn
So, let's get real. What do we stack for optimal health, happiness, and well-being? First, let’s look at what doesn’t work as well, the Frankenstack. I’ve worked with companies going through the pain of correcting technology Frankenstacks — a mismatched ensemble that inevitably leads to difficulty scaling, redundancy, integration issues, poor performance, high maintenance costs, retention, and even morale issues. On the flip side, in a solid tech stack, all the components work together to support optimal performance. It's similar with human systems.
A well-balanced strategy and progression of practices to support our mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being can work wonders for our health, happiness, relationships, career, and overall life experience. I like thinking of my stack of mind, body, and spirit wellness practices as my "self-cairn." Also true: I’ve never met a pun I didn't like. If self-cairns are too puntastic for you, no offense taken.
The point is to design a system of support practices that work together and support you holistically — mind, body, and spirit — keeping your flow, focus, motivation, energy, and habits in mind. A wellness practice stack doesn’t need to be complicated, it just needs to be mindfully balanced and built to serve you. Below are some suggestions to get you started:
Start With A Solid Foundation. Prioritizing healthy eating/nutrition, exercise, hydration, and restful sleep helps us stay resilient and energized. Caring for our bodies not only contributes to our physical health, it helps us manage the daily challenges of work and life with sustained energy and a positive mindset.
Add a Gratitude Practice. Reflecting on and expressing gratitude benefits our mental, physical, and emotional health. Take time every day to notice and appreciate what's good in your life. Pause to feel it—not just think about it or say it—but stay in the moment until you feel the gratitude wash over you.
Add a Mindfulness Practice. Mindfulness is all about focus. It’s a flow trigger happy place. When we quiet our mind and become more aware of our thought patterns and more intentional about what we put into our mind, we can begin making conscious upgrades to our mental programming. New input (what we think/consume) supports new choices, behaviors, experiences, feelings, and habits.
Add Mindful Physical Activity. Activities like yoga, tai chi, or simply walking in nature, further magnify the positive effect on our well-being. Moving meditation harmonizes physical movements with mental focus, nurturing inner peace and physical equilibrium and optimizing energy flow.
More to Explore!
Hi, I'm Amber, founder of Spirit Stone Wellness. Thank you for reading the first post on our new blog! You might have noticed that some articles from my previous blog were migrated over too. I thought it might help to give you context on what to expect here. Unfortunately, the engagement stats didn't migrate along with the content – in case you're wondering! I'm biased, of course, but rest assured actual humans did read and enjoy these posts earlier and elsewhere.
If you’re looking for wellness suggestions to incorporate into your work day, feel free to download this free Wellness at Work Resource Guide. If you’re interested in going deeper, I have a program called The PATH of Well-Being. If you’re feeling stuck, burned out, or your inner voice is telling you something needs to change, this might be for you. Whether we work together (or not), if you’re feeling more than a healthy level of stress, please let this be a gentle wakeup call to prioritize your well-being (for reals). My heartfelt wish for you and everyone reading this is that you enjoy more ease and lightness and you find your path to living, working, and BEING well.
If you liked this post, let us know your thoughts in the comments, check out the other posts, and consider subscribing. If you're looking for more wellness strategies, resource guides, and scoop on upcoming events, we would love to welcome you into our subscriber community. See you there!
 | A guest post by
|