Countless Buddhist books explore this in thorough detail.
The quiet art of attention
161–170 of 291 posts
Re: The quiet art of attention
#162Cognitive control is one of the most important issues of our era, IMHO: https://vonnik.substack.com/p/how-to-take-your-brain-back There are many techniques to increase our CC. The ADHD community is a trailblazer in this respect.
The universally accepted ADHD community’s technique seems to be called Adderall. It is difficult to pinpoint another universally accepted technique. Breathwork is not always good for ADHD from my personal experience and is not universally accepted. So really wonder what this trailblazer thing is about. Another very apparent shortcut to ADHD treatment, also not universally accepted, is called endogenous adrenaline - t…
> The universally accepted ADHD community’s technique seems to be called Adderall.
I wouldn't call it technique. ADHD is the one condition of the mind that can be treated with medication with greater success than any other, and yet it is under-diagnosed in children and adults.
Re: The quiet art of attention
#163Isn't parts of this quoting or paraphrasing from the book "The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying" ? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tibetan_Book_of_Living_a...
haven't read that book, but it's not unusual since language is finite.
Language is finite in the same way as our supply of UUIDs is, ie, not finite at all in any practical sense.
Re: The quiet art of attention
#164Cognitive control is one of the most important issues of our era, IMHO: https://vonnik.substack.com/p/how-to-take-your-brain-back There are many techniques to increase our CC. The ADHD community is a trailblazer in this respect.
I used to think that once I started browsing the internet, it was time for a break. One technique I've implemented, which I haven't seen mentioned is "walking pomodoro technique": for every 25 minutes of work, I get up and take a brisk 5-min walk (or lately, a jog) and come back. One of the most surprising things is that by mandating my own breaks, I browse the internet a lot less.
I tried Pomodoro more than once, but so far always failed. I guess I have to follow Russel Barlkeys advice to externalize the internal and replace the Pomodoro app with a physical timer that sits on my desk with sad eyes when I don't use it for more than a day.
Re: The quiet art of attention
#165Caveat: this is not about neural network architectures.
Re: The quiet art of attention
#166[flagged]
Honestly the bigger problem is probably that creating lasting habits is hard. Everyone knows that exercise is important but how many people maintain a consistent routine? With mindfulness it's even worse because there is no way to track how strong your equanimity is. You can't know if you are making progress or just deluding yourself.
I can only confirm this and still struggle whenever I want to create a new habit. Russel Barkley when speaking about ADHD in children suggests to prefer productivity over quality. Want to work out more? Go for a walk/run every day, start and don't bother about the distance or duration. Same for the gym, as long as you keep going there, doing whatever you improve the likelyhood of doing it better this or the next time.
Re: The quiet art of attention
#167Earlier quoted context omitted.
I used to think that once I started browsing the internet, it was time for a break. One technique I've implemented, which I haven't seen mentioned is "walking pomodoro technique": for every 25 minutes of work, I get up and take a brisk 5-min walk (or lately, a jog) and come back. One of the most surprising things is that by mandating my own breaks, I browse the internet a lot less.
I tried Pomodoro more than once, but so far always failed. I guess I have to follow Russel Barlkeys advice to externalize the internal and replace the Pomodoro app with a physical timer that sits on my desk with sad eyes when I don't use it for more than a day.
How did you fail?
I failed at first by either not setting the time or igoring it, but just kept trying to come back to it more and more. Eventually I stuck to it and then it became a habit. I even do it in the evenings now so that I don't sit too long or get overstimulated but that's a bit harder to stick to consistently.
Re: The quiet art of attention
#168Earlier quoted context omitted.
I used to think that once I started browsing the internet, it was time for a break. One technique I've implemented, which I haven't seen mentioned is "walking pomodoro technique": for every 25 minutes of work, I get up and take a brisk 5-min walk (or lately, a jog) and come back. One of the most surprising things is that by mandating my own breaks, I browse the internet a lot less.
I suffer from RSI and definitely do not move enough when I am invested in some piece of work (personal or professional). I recently installed workrave[0] and have noticed marked improvements in just a couple weeks of actually taking breaks when it indicates. I take a 25 second break every 5 minutes, and use this time to do one hand and wrist exercise (I keep some resistance bands and hand exercise balls at the desk).…
This microbreaks idea is something I've come to myself. I noticed that when reading very difficult stuff (serious math or complex APIs) then I get to that point where I repeatedly read the same sentence over and over again. I realized that at that point I should be taking a break even before my usual 25 minutes is up. Maybe you 25s/5m would help me. I like the numerical aesthetics.
It seems I wrote my own keycounter for RSI last year but I never added timers/lockouts. I'll have a look at this workrave. Thanks.
Re: The quiet art of attention
#169It's a bit heavy on the purple prose (though I was guilty of a very similar writing style in my 20s, and as I got on in life the purity of the idea became more important than its surrounding ornamental structures). The gist of the article reminds me of a quote from the famous pianist Clara Schumann who would admonish her more virtuosic students for striving to play through passages as rapidly as possible. "Why hurry…
I still drift towards this overweening style myself if I'm not careful, which is probably why I hate it so much. I couldn't make it past paragraph 3.
Re: The quiet art of attention
#170I like the message of the article overall. And I am skeptical when “liberation” and “freedom” are used when not clearly defined because where I am from (US) these words are thrown around flippantly. If I follow this approach of quietness and attention, will I be free from hunger (ie have food)? Free from fear (eg security from violence)? No, clearly not. There are other freedoms. Also, a left out item that we have di…
the concept of freedom itself kind of is hard even in a stricter context like politics.
like, I cannot freely choose to do X today, because (iE: capitalism environment) demands me to do certain other things that bring in money to live comfortably. I could make a tradeoff somewhere, but that very tradeoff itself limits actual freedom.
therefore to maximize actual freedom, we're looking at eliminating constraints that limit freedom, like the need to make money somehow, which would be a dramatic society change not everyone agrees to.
its hard. and wonky. so everyone uses it only through a personal belief lense.