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Almost anything you give sustained attention to will begin to loop on itself

henrikkarlsson.xyz

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Re: Almost anything you give sustained attention to will begin to loop on itself

#81

Post by bwfan123 »

palotasb wrote: post #58

What does "loop on itself" mean in this context? The article repeats it 5 times but I can't find a thesaurus definition, and it's unclear to me if the author means it as a synonym repeat or *self-amplify or something different.

> What does "loop on itself" mean in this context?

What it means is understood by looking at its converse - panic attack. Wherein, anxiety stirs some negative thoughts which stirs even more anxiety which stirs more negativity and so on until the system seizes - or that has been my understanding of it.

Here, positivity feeds joy which feeds more positivity etc..

Re: Almost anything you give sustained attention to will begin to loop on itself

#82

Post by [deleted] »

jimkri wrote: post #70
fwipsy wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems like a strong claim, and I've never heard of it before. Can you provide sources?

I’m not backing that comment claim, but from recent research I’ve been doing. My ADHD brain is lacking non-essential and essential amino acids/minerals,I think that comment stated the brain then rewires to compensate for the lack of nutrients. Thats what I’m taking. I’ve been taking Spirulina as my booster to help fill in my nutrition deficiencies and then I’ve been feeling better leading me to get past the anxiety a…

[deleted]

Re: Almost anything you give sustained attention to will begin to loop on itself

#83

Post by laurent_du »

iLemming wrote: post #53
lisper wrote: post #33

> In Spanish, you “lend” attention. In Swedish, you “are” attention. In Hebrew you "place [your] heart" (lasim lev).

In Russian, you "spare" attention by "making" it. The word 'уделять' shares the same root with the word that means - 'deed', 'doing', 'act' or 'affair'.

No, it's a different etymological root. A better translation would be to say that you give a share of your attention (делить's meaning is to divide).

Re: Almost anything you give sustained attention to will begin to loop on itself

#85

Post by metabagel »

mhurron wrote: post #71
thewebguyd wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "let's give this my full attention for just 5 minutes, and if I still don't want to do it we can move on". I have to use this trick to help manage my ADHD. Of course, just actually starting for 5 minutes is a challenge in itself but while medicated at least I can. Giving myself a time limit as an easy out works wonders, and after 5 minutes I'm probably going to keep going.

I wish you the best with that, but by the metric of 'if I can do it for 5 minutes I can probably keep going because I wanted to do it' would mean that I don't want to do, very literally, anything. To be fair, I only just recently (past month) talked to my doctor and started treating it properly so I'm still in the tweaking the dosage phase.

Could it be that something other than ability to focus is blocking you? Fear of failure, for example?

Suggest thinking as if you already accomplished the thing and then work backwards from there. Start with a feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction, because it’s already done. Now, you just need to do it.

Or whatever approach works for you. Everyone is different.

Re: Almost anything you give sustained attention to will begin to loop on itself

#86

Post by anentropic »

freddier wrote: post #74

He seems to have hyperphantasia, judging by every example of mental images he described. It's not a requirement, as the example from the other person on the beach didn't need it to feel that level of self-feeding joy. But I wonder if aphantastic people have a harder time with this? Or maybe easier with less mental distractions?

I have aphantasia, and I can definitely get deep into music

and to be honest, for me, turning great music into a mental movie seems to be almost missing the point, I prefer experiencing it as music

Re: Almost anything you give sustained attention to will begin to loop on itself

#87

Post by mrexroad »

causal wrote: post #27

This did not go where I thought it was going, and I'm glad. I enjoyed the read. I'm not versed enough in psychiatry to validate the brain-chemistry stuff but my practical experience lines up. Reminds me of the trick of telling yourself "let's give this my full attention for just 5 minutes, and if I still don't want to do it we can move on". I pretty much always end up wanting to keep doing that thing.

“Action comes before motivation.”

I’ve repeated this to my kids to the point it’s a meme in our house. I find it’s a nice short circuit to “I have no motivation”, b/c “Great, do {thing} and you’ll find the motivation!”

Re: Almost anything you give sustained attention to will begin to loop on itself

#88

Post by metabagel »

mhurron wrote: post #71
thewebguyd wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "let's give this my full attention for just 5 minutes, and if I still don't want to do it we can move on". I have to use this trick to help manage my ADHD. Of course, just actually starting for 5 minutes is a challenge in itself but while medicated at least I can. Giving myself a time limit as an easy out works wonders, and after 5 minutes I'm probably going to keep going.

I wish you the best with that, but by the metric of 'if I can do it for 5 minutes I can probably keep going because I wanted to do it' would mean that I don't want to do, very literally, anything. To be fair, I only just recently (past month) talked to my doctor and started treating it properly so I'm still in the tweaking the dosage phase.

Suggested books which I found helpful. There may be audiobooks available, if that is more your thing.

https://bookshop.org/p/books/learned-optimism-how-to-change-...

https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-now-habit-a-strategic-progr...

Re: Almost anything you give sustained attention to will begin to loop on itself

#89

Post by otikik »

mhurron wrote: post #71
thewebguyd wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "let's give this my full attention for just 5 minutes, and if I still don't want to do it we can move on". I have to use this trick to help manage my ADHD. Of course, just actually starting for 5 minutes is a challenge in itself but while medicated at least I can. Giving myself a time limit as an easy out works wonders, and after 5 minutes I'm probably going to keep going.

I wish you the best with that, but by the metric of 'if I can do it for 5 minutes I can probably keep going because I wanted to do it' would mean that I don't want to do, very literally, anything. To be fair, I only just recently (past month) talked to my doctor and started treating it properly so I'm still in the tweaking the dosage phase.

Hyperfocus is an interesting one. You can now focus on a single thing so profoundly that you forget to eat or sleep. Slight caveat: you don’t have control over what you hyperfocus on.
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