Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: My brain refuses to think, what should I do?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 151 posts

Re: Ask HN: My brain refuses to think, what should I do?

#141

Post by rhl »

aneth wrote: post #11

I highly recommend learning meditation. I meditate once a day for 15 minutes and it's worked wonders for my ability to feel well and focused. Personally I learned a cheaper and less cult like variation of transcendental meditation, because it requires little training, time, or even effort. A day without meditation for me now is worse than a day without sleeping.

I just spent a useless day not managing to get in serious productivity mode, and I tried 15 minutes of meditation -- I am SO relaxed now, it is like a short nap that also stretches your body and makes you high on oxygen... It's still very hard to control the flow of thoughts, but I guess that comes with practice.

I couldn't get in Lotus position, but this page at Wikihow helped quite a bit: http://www.wikihow.com/Meditate

Re: Ask HN: My brain refuses to think, what should I do?

#142

Post by igrekel »

From my experience, it means you need a break or a vacation. Get in a totally different environment for a few weeks days and do not bring anything related to work.

If it is not possible at this time, you may buy time using a trick I have used in the past. Dedicate a part of your day to working (ex: afternoon) and dedicate another part of the days to something else entirely and in a different environment (spend the morning playing sport, walking, exploring the neighborhood, anything out of your work environment and off the computer).

Re: Ask HN: My brain refuses to think, what should I do?

#143

Post by MartinCron »

Just wanted to add one more voice to the "how's your sleep?" chorus. Sleep is so important to being able to focus.

One thing to check if you think you're putting in enough sleep time but are still groggy and have focus issues, is that you may potentially have obstructive sleep apnea. Have you been told you snore? Do you have a thick neck (17'' or larger dress shirt size)?

From personal experience, getting a real you full night's sleep makes a huge difference in ability to focus and get work done.

Re: Ask HN: My brain refuses to think, what should I do?

#145

Post by justlearningnow »

DeusExMachina wrote: post #89
justlearningnow wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hello, could you please elaborate a bit on the meditation technique? What exactly do you do? Thank you so much for answering. I've been trying to learn TM but all the courses cost a fortune..

I'm getting interested in meditation too and I'm starting with this: http://www.mro.org/zmm/teachings/meditation.php

Hello, thank you for sharing this!

Re: Ask HN: My brain refuses to think, what should I do?

#146

Post by jpdbaugh »

MartinCron wrote: post #143

Just wanted to add one more voice to the "how's your sleep?" chorus. Sleep is so important to being able to focus. One thing to check if you think you're putting in enough sleep time but are still groggy and have focus issues, is that you may potentially have obstructive sleep apnea. Have you been told you snore? Do you have a thick neck (17'' or larger dress shirt size)? From personal experience, getting a real you…

I feel like this almost everyday and my girl friend tells me snore terribly. I also fit the thick neck description. Where do you get something checked out like this cheaply?

Re: Ask HN: My brain refuses to think, what should I do?

#148

Post by MartinCron »

jpdbaugh wrote: post #146
MartinCron wrote: post #143

Just wanted to add one more voice to the "how's your sleep?" chorus. Sleep is so important to being able to focus. One thing to check if you think you're putting in enough sleep time but are still groggy and have focus issues, is that you may potentially have obstructive sleep apnea. Have you been told you snore? Do you have a thick neck (17'' or larger dress shirt size)? From personal experience, getting a real you…

I feel like this almost everyday and my girl friend tells me snore terribly. I also fit the thick neck description. Where do you get something checked out like this cheaply?

Cheaply? It all depends on your medical insurance situation. A full-on sleep study is a big deal, a full night in a (cozy) hospital room, hooked up to wires monitoring brain activity, oxygen saturation, etc.

What I did was describe my symptoms to my family doc, and he referred me to a sleep medicine specialist. That's what I would suggest you do.

If you happen to be in the Seattle area, the sleep medicine folks at Swedish are great.

Re: Ask HN: My brain refuses to think, what should I do?

#149

Post by aneth »

justlearningnow wrote: post #31
aneth wrote: post #11

I highly recommend learning meditation. I meditate once a day for 15 minutes and it's worked wonders for my ability to feel well and focused. Personally I learned a cheaper and less cult like variation of transcendental meditation, because it requires little training, time, or even effort. A day without meditation for me now is worse than a day without sleeping.

Hello, could you please elaborate a bit on the meditation technique? What exactly do you do? Thank you so much for answering. I've been trying to learn TM but all the courses cost a fortune..

Better late than never.

The course I used was this one:

http://www.naturalstressreliefusa.org/compare.php

I'm sure there are many like it, but this one was well done and taught me the basics of this type of meditation.

Re: Ask HN: My brain refuses to think, what should I do?

#150

Post by wglb »

I recommend reading the book http://www.amazon.com/Courage-Create-Rollo-May/dp/0393311066

He offers the thesis that creating something new is likely to be fraught with anxiety. Understanding that this is the case may in fact decrease this anxiety. One of the symptoms of this anxiety is an avoidance.

So perhaps think of it this way: as you sit down to do something new, and feel the distraction, this can mean you are getting into the creative mode.

Post reply on HN