the latest empirical evidence suggests that there is a correlation between parasympathetic engagement of the vagus nerve and creating a "flow state." Flow is a blissful and rewarding state of consciousness that feels good and occurs when a person "loses" him or herself wholeheartedly in an activity. Most simply put, flow tends to occur when you find the sweet spot where your skill level perfectly matches the challenge while doing any type of activity. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi coined the term "flow" in his seminal book, Beyond Boredom and Anxiety: Experiencing Flow in Work and Play (1975).
From a psychophysiological perspective, flow is a state of "relaxed but heightened arousal" marked by a situationally perfect "yin-yang" balance within the two branches of your autonomic nervous system (ANS). This dynamic duo includes the "fight-or-flight" mechanism of your sympathetic nervous system and the "tend-and-befriend" or "rest-and-digest" mechanisms of the parasympathetic nervous system.
From the perspective of this vagus nerve, a recurring theme has been the link between parasympathetic activity being part of a feedback loop that is often rooted in a smaller sense of self and reduced egocentric bias. According to the latest research on the phenomenology of extreme sports, a spiritual type of "overview effect" (when astronauts witness Earth from space and realize the oneness of humankind) occurs during sports when someone is in the flow channel and experiences such intense awe that it triggers a spiritual feeling of life-altering ecstasy. Notably, the word ecstasy comes from Greek and means "to stand outside oneself.” Just about any stimuli that evokes positive valence and arousal (such as appreciating natural wonders, the arts, music, dance, etc.) can create a drug-free type of “ecstasy” that isn't dependent on mastering a particular skill
Science-based research on music, including the psychophysiological effect of flow, and the importance of the vagus nerve has been studied by Fredrik Ullén is a professor of cognitive neuroscience at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. He studies elite-level performance and flow. He's also an internationally renowned concert pianist, which makes it easy for him to be a guinea pig in many of his own experiments. Using music as a model, Ullén has done fascinating research on how the parasympathetic response might assist people in creating an optimal flow state to perform at a world-class level within a specific field of expertise. His 2010 paper, “The Physiology of Effortless Attention: Correlates of State Flow and Flow Proneness,”
Örjan de Manzano, “The Psychophysiology of Flow During Piano Playing,” found that professional pianists were able to immediately activate the parasympathetic system in the difficult prima vista "sight reading" situation of playing unknown music. The researchers of this study concluded, “It appears possible, therefore, that the ability of experts to regulate the level of activity in both sympathetic and parasympathetic branches of the autonomous nervous system during performance is of importance for state flow.
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