October 2003

Hitting your 'zone'

by Dr. Dennis Nikitow

Have you ever felt stuck or blocked in your creativity or productivity? You want to get something done, create new environments, take on new challenges, but you can't get moving. You can't get motivated. You have trouble hitting your "zone."

Everyone has experienced these feelings at times, but sometimes they can take over your life and stop growth, passion and fulfillment.

We've all experienced the zone at one time or another, whether in athletics, public speaking, piano recitals, writing, praying, planning, strategizing, adjusting, etc. It's a zone where you feel trance‑like and unstoppable. Your creativity and productivity soar. There's a convergence of your left and right brain.

A fastball seems to be heading at you in slow motion and the ball seems so huge it's impossible for you not to hit it. You're planning or strategizing and everything seems to fall into place like it has already been manifested. You move from patient to patient effortlessly and feel your hands guided by some power that seems other than yourself. You have a feeling of invulnerability or perfection, effortless activity or extreme clarity of thought.

That's the zone.

So, why can't we stay in the zone all the time? It would defy nature's laws. There would be no zone if there wasn't a time you weren't in it. There are ways to access the zone, however, so you can get past the mental/emotional baggage and not live life stuck in revolving anxieties.

Studies done by a Harvard medical researcher found that the zone is an actual molecular, biological and neurological mind‑body impulse that can interrupt mental patterns blocking creativity and productivity so you can increase performance at all levels.

It appears that certain mental triggers cause a release of nitric oxide in the brain. Nitric oxide is a highly active oxygen radical that acts as a gaseous diffusible molecule, i.e. a message‑carrying gas that courses through the entire body and central nervous system. These messages, even though not linked by neurons in the brain, electrically or physically move back and fourth to act as neurotransmitters ‑‑ or enhance others such as dopamine and endorphins ‑‑ to promote a higher sense of well‑being, enhanced memory, learning, performance and creativity.

Accessing the zone

That's all very nice but you need to know how to access the zone.

There must be a certain level of stress to ignite you to increase your efficiency. Yet, if the stress continues after the initial igniting phase, efficiency will decline. This is known as the Yerkes‑Dodson Las.

The healthy nervousness of anticipation in performing at anything is an example. The stress or butterflies that precede a challenging action like public speaking, going on a first date or going into an important meeting are all good.

The next phase is triggering yourself to get into the zone by letting go, turning away from or releasing the stress. One or more of these mechanisms can help you accomplish this:

‑‑ Engaging in a repetitive physical or mental activity;

‑‑ Becoming immersed in some personal empowering belief system (like prayer, for instance);

‑‑ Doing an activity that absorbs you, like knitting; and/or

‑‑ Stimulating a dominant sensation like sight or sound.

Another mechanism is that of taking an altruistic attitude.

You start by not concentrating on yourself the way you are performing and the way you appear to others. You focus outside of yourself, on just being in the event for the joy of it, for what others will achieve, and the good you will provide for them.

(This is often called "getting on purpose."

It can also be described as letting go or releasing a problem from your mind and turning your attention away from it. This interrupts the pattern of worry and stress and puts you in the first part of the zone.)

Whether I am about to do a lecture, adjust patients or do a report of findings, I focus on the benefits I can give the other person. I make it a point to give as much as I can from my heart.

In my own case, my faith is my "trigger" as I release it to God, knowing that if I do my best for the other person, I will be graced with success. This belief puts me into the third phase, which is relaxation, a sense of well‑being, passion, excitement, creativity and production ‑‑ the peak of the zone.

This is the experience when you are out of the way and innate is taking over, the time when effort stops and you are just riding the wave and everything is flowing. Phase four is returning to a "new normal" state of improved performance and mindset that you can build on and duplicate. The key is to get the "release" or "letting go" responses because that is when the nitric oxide appears to be released to counteract the negative efforts of the stress hormone norepinephrine.

The trigger

To establish this trigger, think of times that caused you to release or let go of stress by engaging in a certain activity. In other words, when you're over‑working your educated mind and getting nowhere.

What do you do to walk away from whatever it is?

Some of my personal best triggers to get into innate and out of educated and into my zone of peak performance and creativity are praying, painting, exercising, driving, eating at a restaurant with my wife and brainstorming with her or getting up early and sitting on the deck with a cup of coffee, listening to music or gardening.

Triggers come in various forms: spiritual, musical, cultural, water‑related, athletic, animal‑related, nature, housework or repetitive movement like needlepoint, to name a few. They all have one thing in common. They interrupt your stress pattern so you can release it and let innate take over an get you into the zone.

Follow these strategies and you'll find that you worry less, solve more problems and are more creative and productive in life.

(To learn more about Certainty Practice Products and Dr. Dennis Nikitow's upcoming seminar schedule, call 800/544‑3884. Outside the United States, 303/721‑6202.)