By: Maria Williams
Lindsay is a neuro-psychologist who developed a brain retraining program that targets the stress response for high performers. She delivers the program through executive coaching and leadership development training, working mostly with Silicon Valley growth stage startup founders, investors, as well as professional athletes and thought leaders. Lindsay has named her program by the result it delivers, ‘Stabilized Flow’.
Lindsay Briner explains, “the world has changed, now we must change too” speaking to executive leaders. Running businesses during times of uncertainty has proven to require a high resilience capacity; a skill to regulate the stress response. Lindsay has applied her hands-on experience in the lab and with research participants to her executive clients and teams she teaches.
‘Flow’ has been named a top skill of the 21st century.
For decades, the concept of “flow state,” as defined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, has been viewed as the pinnacle of peak performance – a temporary experience of intense focus and immersion. However, according to executive coach Lindsay Briner, this model is incomplete. Her pioneering stabilized flow method integrates neuroscience, contemplative practices, and psychology to reveal an even higher potential – the ability to sustain a flow-like state continuously as an embodied trait.
The business world is facing a crisis of burnout, with leaders and executives grappling with unprecedented levels of stress, distraction, and disconnection. In this tumultuous landscape, Lindsay Briner emerges as a beacon of hope, offering a groundbreaking solution through her pioneering concept of Stabilized Flow—a revolutionary approach to achieving persistent optimal performance.
At the heart of Lindsay’s work lies a profound recognition of the challenges plaguing modern leadership. The culture of constant hustle and stress has led to a pervasive sense of burnout, undermining the well-being and effectiveness of leaders worldwide. Traditional approaches to high performance, centered around fleeting moments of flow states, are proving inadequate in addressing these systemic issues.
Lindsay’s journey toward developing Stabilized Flow began with her research pursuits, where she delved deep into the neuroscience and psychology of flow. With a background in transpersonal psychology and the neuroscience of motivation, she brings a wealth of expertise to her innovative work. Through her PhD training and research, she has garnered recognition in Silicon Valley, laying the groundwork for her groundbreaking approach.
Stabilized Flow represents a departure from conventional high-performance paradigms, offering a solution that integrates business leadership, sports psychology and mindfulness with modern neuroscience. Briner’s methodology focuses on rewiring the limbic system, resolving limiting beliefs, and unlocking hidden potential within individuals. By cultivating a ‘flow trait’—an enduring state of optimal performance—leaders can transcend momentary peaks of performance and achieve sustained well-being.
Briner’s contributions extend beyond individual performance to encompass broader societal issues. She is deeply passionate about supporting humanitarian initiatives at the intersection of neurotechnology, AI, and human well-being, advocating for ethical development and responsible use of technology. In a world marked by constant change and complexity, her work offers a roadmap for leaders seeking to navigate the challenges of the modern business landscape.
In embracing the principles of Stabilized Flow, leaders can unlock their full potential, cultivate resilience, and thrive amidst uncertainty. Briner’s pioneering work heralds a new era of sustainable high performance and well-being, offering hope and inspiration to leaders worldwide.
Implications for Leadership
While emerging from executive coaching, Briner believes stabilized flow can transform leadership across sectors as we face increasing complexity. “Operating from these higher stages allows decisions from clarity rather than unconscious fear patterns. It gives access to higher cognitive capacities for creative problem-solving and tapping into our interconnection.”
Ultimately, her method points toward a new phase of human potential – maintaining peak performance while embodying wisdom, compassion and transcendence. As Briner states, “We must embody what we wish to create in the world. Stabilized flow is that embodiment in action.”
Her approach provides four key insights for leaders:
- Sharpening High-Risk Decision Making
The stabilized flow method teaches frameworks like the “drama triangle” to recognize unconscious stress patterns hindering executive function. By inquiring into the “false self” roots of these patterns, leaders can self-regulate their nervous systems for greater clarity and strategic thinking under intensity.
- Slowing Down to Go Faster
Contrary to pushing harder, the path to achieving time-sensitive goals requires slowing down through mindfulness practices that remove internal blocks like procrastination. Specific concentration meditation techniques give direct access to the same brain centers as flow state.
- Peace and Performance Compatibility
The method reframes limiting beliefs that peak performance requires harsh self-sacrifice and burnout. Instead, it centralizes intentions around altruism and positive impact, allowing inner peace to arise as a driver of sustainable high achievement.
- Unlocking Innovative Insight
By mastering the internal psychology of stabilized flow, leaders can access an intuitive flow of creative insights and complex problem-solving that may have been previously inaccessible. The method provides a structured path to this “automatic” higher cognitive mode.
In essence, Briner’s stabilized flow trait represents a new frontier for leadership development – empowering leaders to maintain excellence while embodying the transcendence and maturity required to navigate our planet’s existential crises. As she puts it, “We have to be the embodiment of the future we wish to create.”
Published by: Nelly Chavez
