...or is it just that flow causes fasting?

Whenever I do coding or other solitary development work, I hope to get into a state of flow. It’s probably news to no one any more that the best creative work happens when the person creating is in a state of flow; in the zone; in a deep state of concentration. Flow is a fragile thing - hard to achieve and easily shattered by a distraction.

Flow is one of my favorite modes of being. When I achieve flow, I never want to come out of the zone. I tend to try and finish the task at hand no matter what. Oftentimes this means putting off the next meal until I absolutely have to stop my train of thought and have something to eat. Eating and working at the same time usually doesn’t work out very well for me.

For this reason, hunger and flow are connected in my head. More often than not, when I’m in a state of flow, I’m also hungry.

In some cases, mental connections go both ways. Happiness causes smiling, and smiling causes happiness. It’s the classic Pavlovian connection all over again. This is not to say that the connection is simple. It’s probably more in the order of tipping the scale than a straightforward causal link.

This week, I’ve only had a cup of coffee for breakfast each morning. This isn’t normal for me; I usually have a pretty heavy breakfast high in fiber and protein. I’ve also had some really good flow every morning of this week.

I realize that this is probably my internal pattern matcher firing when there’s actually no pattern to be found. Further, correlation doesn't imply that causation. Also, it's only Wednesday. But I wonder if this kind of mental conditioning could at least have a small but noticeable effect. If true, this could be an additional argument for intermittent fasting.