The Art of Achieving Flow With NeuroTracker - Part 2

In this first part of this two-part special I covered how well NeuroTracker works for stimulating psychological and environmental triggers of flow, breaking down how it fits at a practical level. In this second part blog I'll take a more top-down view of how this science-based neurotechnology is also great for hacking creative and social triggers of flow states.

Creative Triggers of Flow

Triggering creativity is all about novel experiences which place you in a state of mind for alternative thinking. This is where I have found the most flow and my clients have also found themselves loving the creation of a completely new or unique set of dual tasks or ways of training NeuroTracker based on their sport, goals, or just plain curiosity!

One goal-keeper decided to physically follow one ball across the screen as if it was an attacker and he had to cut them off. We now call that the ‘Joshy Jockey’, because in soccer to jockey is to cut that person off. Another example is a retired armed forces veteran, who performed 400 NeuroTracker sessions with me as part of his own PTSD post-recovery plan to get back to peak performance shape. At first I set the training schedule. After time, he took ownership and autonomy and I just assisted. He eventually took control of what session types and tasks he would do each session.

The best thing about NeuroTracker and the creativity trigger is the almost boundless nature of how many combinations of session types, number of targets, lengths of sessions, and kinds of tasks one can perform while doing NeuroTracker. Here is a great example of legendary ex-Manchester United coach Mick Clegg training taekwondo world champion Aaron Cook.

Then there are technologies and equipment that can be directly integrated with the NeuroTracker platform. Here are examples of combining biometric feedback and at AR Mental in Spain. On the left is a professional climber working on moves while tracking (imagine the task of scanning for the next hold) - it doesn't get much more novel than that!

We can understand someone’s composure often through their breath rate. So I also like to train my clients to inhale gently during the 1-2 seconds time when the target balls are shown, and then slowly exhale during the usual 8 second tracking. As the set of 20 repetitions progresses clients find themselves getting into a rhythmical breath rate and state. Focused, and yet composed. This harmonious syncing is another hallmark of flow states.

So by training both at the same time we are linking those systems together. Just like learning to drive and eventually being able change the radio station. In time, we can achieve automaticity to do it all seamlessly…but we need to put in the repetitions. It's training over time which yields the biggest benefits for real-world performance.

Social Triggers for Flow

Doing NeuroTracker alone is good, challenging, stimulating and rewarding. Yet, like many who go to the gym, there’s something special about a training buddy or a personal trainer who you’re accountable to, to inspire you, for you to support and challenge each other, and grow and celebrate your personal gains. That’s why I commit to being with all my local clients in their NeuroTracker sessions so I can encourage, celebrate their PBs, and even sometimes talk some smack talk to see if I can distract them or rattle their minds. I do it for their benefit…but I’m also a very cheeky man!.

We are ultimately humans and we are social creatures who regulate and affect each other through our presences. There’s something about teaming up and getting in sync with someone while training NeuroTracker. Whether to have someone put in your answers on the keyboard, or someone to take it in turns within a NeuroTracker set, or to challenge each other onwards and upwards.

Then with athletes in particular, competition is a big social motivator. Gotta get faster than the next person, and the great thing is that person is a moving target, because everyone training is always steadily improving.

The Promise of Flow and NeuroTracker

As a featured Alumni, I’ve twice travelled from Australia to the 1440 Multiversity in California to present NeuroTracker for the Flow Genome Project Coaches Certification program (2019, 2020). I chose to do so as I truly believe this training technology provides us with an epic way to prime our brains, vision, bodies and breath for more flow, focus, and composure.

I’ve practiced NeuroTracker while mentoring my clients over 7000 times now, and I'm also getting close to completing 1000 sessions myself. I have seen time and time again what happens when you speed up the brain of an athlete, student, or senior. They perform better. They learn faster. They experience more in-the-moment states of flow as they’ve trained themselves to shut out all distractions and exist in the here and now, rather than somewhere in their head, which is where I think people tend to spend too much of their lives.

NeuroTracker requires you to be externally focused and apply selective attention, in this way it’s a sneaky and perfect way to train mindfulness - if we find ourselves getting lost in our thoughts, we simply bring our eyes (and mind) back to the targets.

I’ll am currently writing a book on everything I’ve learned since starting my NeuroTracker journey in February of 2014, and I invite you to reach out to me at the The Brain Room. If you're interested in what that journey looks like in a snapshot, then also check out my recent Experts Corner blog.

Boosting Your Brain's Processing Capacity

In you missed the first part of this blog special, you can read it here.

The Art of Achieving Flow with NeuroTracker - Part 1

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