I know what you're saying about state btw. I really struggled last night to get out of my head and get in state. I've just remembered two events that demonstrated this pretty well.

One was where a girl was squeezing past me at the bar and I tapped her on the shoulder. She didn't turn around, so I tried again a bit harder...no reaction at all. Felt state going down.

Second one was a girl squeezing past facing me this time so had eye contact. I said merry Christmas and shook her hand. She gave me a hug and kissed me on the cheek. (she was a blonde bombshell). Felt my state go right up. Then I was up and running until I got a blow out. State down again (that was a front approach of two girls). I can see relying on the reaction to get the state up has it's pitfalls. I'm sure this has been what's been partly causing my run of shitty nights recently.

Like you say you want more to be able to generate it from within or from the environment rather than reactions that you have no control over. I've not worked out how to do that yet.