How To Stay In The "Flow" State For Blogging - Affiliate Marketing Mentors

Keeping yourself in a state of “flow” is important if you want to make a habit out of blogging. This can be challenging, especially if you’re unsure of your direction. Ideally choose a topic you can become obsessively passionate about. That way, you’ll never run out of ideas to blog about.

But it’s also important to set up your daily routine to help you maintain consistency. If you’re all over the place with your daily routine, it’s going to be tough keeping up with a blogging practice. I find a good routine for me is to blog first thing in the morning. If I have a late night, or drink too much alcohol, it massively effects my ability to be creative and stay consistent.

Consistency is what you want with your blogging. Successful bloggers have made a habit out of posting blogs regularly.

How To Stay In The “Flow” State For Blogging

First, you have to “get” into the flow state. The flow state is a state of mind where you are consistently creative enough to keep writing blog posts. In this state, ideas come to you easily, and you write freely. To help you find the state of flow, choose a topic you can easily write about. Ideally it should align with a passion or interest you can consistently come up with ideas for. If you find yourself getting stuck then it could be you’ve chosen the wrong topic.

Of course your environment has a part to play too. Make sure it’s tidy and you’re not distracted by clutter – a tidy space means a tidy mind and although I like a bit of mess at times, it definitely effects my ability to focus on the task in hand and come up with ideas.

I also find social media a distraction. So if you’re spending hours scrolling your feed, ask yourself whether it adds or subtracts from the flow state you want to maintain. I’m a big fan of psychology books and often get ideas from them for my blog posts. So keeping a book on the go which inspires me definitely helps.

I also read other blog posts when I’m coming up with ideas for my blogs. If I’m not certain of my blog post I’ll scour the internet looking for inspiration.

How To Stay In The Flow State For Blogging – Why Consistency Is Key

Consistency is key to blogging and if you don’t keep up your blog habit, your traffic will dwindle and die! But before you can make it a habit, you must start! If you’re struggling getting stated with blogging, the first thing you should do is look at your state of mind. Ask yourself what mental baggage are you carrying? Spend some time clearing your mental space with some meditation. Are you in a state of panic? If so this definitely won’t help you in your creativity.

I find I work best in a calm and relaxed state of mind, but you will find your own “perfect” state with a bit of practice. You might even find a little bit of fear helps you get going! Here’s a few things I use to help me reach my best blogging mental state for productivity:

Meditation
Reading a book about my topic, or something inspiring
Clearing your workspace
Reading blog posts about your topic for ideas
Listening to music and lifting your “vibe”
Exercise

Not Feeling It? Shift Your “Vibe”

Remember some days just aren’t blogging days. So on those days I like to strategise about potential future blogs. Or focus on some other activity which moves my online business forwards, such as paid advertising, video or just research.

Find books which cover your area of interest. I’m personally a big fan of the self help genre and often use them for my blog posts in one way or another.

If you’re struggling with your affiliate business I always find it helpful to detach from it and work on myself. This could be doing some form or exercise, setting goals, journalling, reading or writing out my gratitude journal.

Here’s a post on the power of gratitude for an affiliate business. I think a gratitude journal is one of the best tools for a blogger. Gratitude quickly shifts your mental and physical “state” to a lighter and higher vibration.

A Mental “Check-in”

I’ve personally found particularly destructive circumstances for your creativity are those shown on the lower level of the emotional guidance scale (shown above). These are emotions of anger, jealousy, unworthiness and powerlessness. Often I might watch a video of someone online, for example, which might trigger feelings of unworthiness. Some leader type such as Tony Robbins might even have a negative effect on me because I compare myself to him! How stupid I know!

If I get into an argument, it can affect my mental state for long after the quarrel, too, affecting my ability to create content. We often carry around a lot of mental baggage and “noise” which affects our ability to come up with spontaneous ideas.

I find a mental “check-in” helps me detach from what’s going on inside and become more present. This in turn helps you return to the flow state where ideas come more freely. So if you’re carrying a lot of mental indecision, noise, unworthiness and so on, it’s likely holding you back from being creative.

To help switch off the mental internal “noise” I use:

Meditation
Exercise
Mindfulness exercises – moving meditation such as kung fu exercises (Siu Lim Tao is a kung fu exercise I practice regularly)

Look At Your Consumption Habits

What information are you consuming on a regular basis? Is it information which inspires you and gives you ideas for your blog posts? Or is it social media conflicts and problems with the state of the world! I often catch myself “doom” scrolling social media finding all the problems with the world. This puts me in a negative and fearful state from which is can be very difficult to return!

So if this happens for you, it might be worth having a “digital detox” and finding some new information to consume. As already mentioned in this post, I find self help, psychology and mindset books, as well as certain business books are inspiring.

What books inspire you and give you ideas for your blog posts? Make a habit out of reading these kinds of books and you’ll find you’re much more inspired for your blog posts than if you constantly doom scroll social media sites instead!

Summary

So there’s a few ideas for how to stay in the “flow” state for blogging. Staying in a positive mindset is paramount if you want to make a good habit out of blogging. If you find yourself “blocked”, don’t force it. Just shift your mental state instead!

There’s lots of ways you can “gear” your brain to stay in a state of flow. Firstly take an inventory of your consumption habits and remove those which put you in a negative state of mind. This could be social media scrolling for example. I’ve definitely found Facebook throws me into a negative state when I see how great everyone’s life “appears” to be on their news feeds! So I avoid the platform if I want to be creative and write!

Take regular check-in’s with your mental “inner” space. Notice what situations and circumstances throw you off and start avoiding them! Look for inspirational books, and follow other bloggers who inspire you. Sign up to inspirational email lists so you get regular ideas dropping into your inbox!

If you find yourself in a negative state these are some simple tools you can use: