Biggest Best Life

Flow State and the Power of Active Recovery to Prevent Burnout

• Lauren Chapnick • Season 1 • Episode 16

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Ever notice how the harder you push, the fuzzier your thinking gets? We dive into the counterintuitive habit that top performers use to protect creativity and stop burnout: stepping away on purpose. Through Lauren’s candid nursing school story—where a friend hit the beach and still scored higher—we unpack why rest can outperform relentless study and how that lesson maps to business, writing, and building anything meaningful.

We break down the four phases of flow—struggle, release, flow, and recovery—and show how each one feels in real life. You’ll learn to spot the moment when effort becomes noise, why a short release (walks, movement, task switching) opens the door to flow, and how recovery cements learning and keeps your best ideas coming. This isn’t theory for theory’s sake; it’s a practical system grounded in positive psychology, cognitive science, and everyday experience so entrepreneurs and creators can do better work in less time.

Expect simple, actionable tactics: a struggle stop-rule to prevent spiral, micro-recovery blocks that fit into busy days, and macro-recovery that protects your energy during big pushes. We also talk about using holidays like Thanksgiving as intentional recharge time with family, food, and gratitude—no guilt required. Come away with a kinder, smarter workflow that replaces white-knuckle hustle with sustainable, repeatable peak performance.

If this resonated, tap follow, leave a quick five-star review, and share it with someone who needs permission to pause. For a weekly nudge right when you need it, text BEST LIFE to 833-681-6463 and get Lauren’s motivation straight to your phone.

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Announcer:

Welcome to Biggest Best Life, the podcast that guarantees a dream in it louder and step fully into the rock star life you are made for. You're not too late. You're right on time. And we're just getting started. Here's your host, Lauren Chapnick.

Lauren Chapnick:

Hello, my friends, and happy Thanksgiving. Welcome to this very special Thanksgiving Day episode, or whenever you have stumbled upon this episode. My name is Lauren Chapnick. I am the host of Biggest Best Life. This is where we talk about living your deepest purpose and going after what you want in your life and not playing small, trusting your gut, getting off your butt, and going after the things that you want. Today I'm going to keep things short and sweet. As you can hear, my voice is a little raspy. I've been a little under the weather, but we are coming back strong for Thanksgiving. So before we get into it, I just want to invite you, if you haven't done so already, to text the word best life. That's one word, best life, to 833-681-6463. If you would like a weekly text from me that just gives you that little extra dose of inspiration right at the time you need it, I send it at different times during the week to just give that little extra pep in your step to go after what you want and live the life that you truly deserve. So if you're an entrepreneur or an aspiring entrepreneur, if you have a small business, if you are trying to grow your business, you are very familiar with flow state. And this is something that in the field of positive psychology and cognitive psychology and neuroscience has been studied since the 1970s. I'm not going to give you a big lecture on flow state, but just as a quick recap, the four phases of flow are struggle, release, flow, and recovery. And we'll get into a little bit of what each of those means. But I just wanted to share a quick story. When I was in nursing school, I was psychotically competitive about grades. I think I went to nursing school when I was 40 and I just wanted to really prove myself because I chose to be there. I wanted to be there and I worked my butt off every time there was an exam. I just I put my all into it and I did really well in nursing school. Not to brag, but I was the valedictorian and I, you know, all my hard work paid off. Not that it mattered when I went to get a job, nobody cared, but hey, bragging rights, I guess. There was this time that, you know, I still did well on the test, but I had a friend, a good friend in nursing school, and the test was on a Monday, and I studied all weekend, and she went to the beach literally on Friday. She said, you know what? I think I'm good. I'm just gonna go enjoy myself this weekend, and whatever happens on Monday happens. And she did better than me. And at the time, I was pissed. I was like, how could that happen? I worked so much harder. And listen, guys, the difference was like four points. We were just really competitive with each other because our world was so small. But it brings me to the point of this episode today, which is it is so crucial to know when to walk away. To walk away and give yourself time to actively recover and recuperate and take care of yourself so that when you come back, your brain is in a much healthier, rested state. You're in a much better place, in a higher state of creativity and joy and flow. And you need to you need to know when it is time to walk away and when it is time to sit down and pound the pavement and get to work. Let me quickly explain what these four phases of the flow state are. The first is struggle. Now that's when everything feels hard. You're at the very beginning of working on a project. Maybe you're working on a new course for your business, or you're an author and you're just starting to write uh, you know, the first chapters of your book or outline your ideas, and everything feels hard. It feels like, how is this so hard? It's overwhelming, it's daunting. How am I ever going to do this? That is struggle. Next is release. That's when you step away. That's when you say, okay, I am going to change my environment. I'm going to switch my task. I'm going to give myself a little brain break, maybe move my body, go for a walk. It's that sense of, I'm going to stop forcing this and I'm going to step away. That's recovery. Then we have flow. Flow is where the magic happens. That's when you're in your peak state of creativity. Time stands still. It feels like it's either moving really fast or it's moving really slow, but you are in the zone. Ideas are cranking. You are getting shit done. You are in it. Whatever that means for you in your business, you know what I'm talking about. When you have those peak moments of creativity, or you just are getting things done and ideas are coming to you and it feels so good. And then that final stage of flow, and it's a circle, it keeps going around and around and around, is recovery. This step is crucial. And if you don't take this step of recovery, this is where you're going to hit burnout because flow only lasts for so long. An hour, two hours, maybe even less, whatever it is. But that peak state is going to eventually get tired, and the light's going to start to dim and burn out a little bit. And that is when you have to go into this active recovery stage to step away, to actively recover and take care of yourself. That could mean sleep. That could mean having a workout. That could mean going out for a meal with a friend or spending time with your family, whatever that means to you to actively recover until you can get back into that state of flow. And it's a cycle, but it's not a rigid format. You might skip right from struggle to flow, or you might go from struggle to recovery. It's a general cycle of how it works, but it's not a rigid set of rules that you must go in this order. The point is that in this cycle, there are two phases that tell you to get up and walk away. And that is something that I know I need to implement. And it is so crucial to give yourself that gift of active recovery, of release. Because at a certain point, when you're going down that rabbit hole of struggle and you're just researching until you don't even know what you're doing anymore. Speaking from personal experience, if I'm trying to work on a new talk or I'm trying to come up with a new podcast idea, or I'm wanting to start a new program in my business, and I just start researching, researching, researching, and I get so stressed out as far as what's going to work best. And I just start really getting in my head when it's not fun, when it doesn't feel easy and light, that should be a clue for you. If you're getting upset, if you are feeling overwhelmed, it is a must. It is not just a suggestion, it is a must in order for you to get into that flow state, to remove yourself from that situation and do something that is going to provide you with some recovery, some release. That's why there are two phases in the cycle that say, hey, get up, walk away. Nobody is meant to sit down and actively work and be in flow state all day. That cannot happen. So what does that mean for you? What are some activities that you can do that you can implement to actively recover, to give your brain that gift of a recharge so that when you get back to it, you are ready to step into that flow state? That is what I wish for you all the time in your business, in your life. And what better time than Thanksgiving to walk away and to actively recover with your family, your friends, delicious food, and be thankful for all that we have. I am so grateful for you. I am so grateful that you tune into this podcast to listen to my crazy stories and what I have to offer every week. And I hope that it has helped you in some way. If it has, I invite you to please give this podcast a five-star rating and a review. Share it with somebody who needs to hear this. And until next time, make today awesome. Trust your gut, get off your butt, and I will see you next week. Bye-bye.

Announcer:

Thanks for tuning in to Biggest Best Life. If today lit a fire in you, follow, review, and share it with someone who needs the spark. And remember to text Best Life one word at 833 681 6463. To get Lauren's weekly dose of motivation straight to your phone. Now go out there. Live boldly, love wildly, and never settle for less than your biggest best life.