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Men who stare at walls

alexselimov.com

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Re: Men who stare at walls

#231

Post by dr_kiszonka »

Olshansky wrote: post #137

I hope people see this comment. Meditation is to mental training and focus, as going to the gym is to physical training. Socials killed our attention span. Agents are literally making us context switch even more. Putting aside the whole "I am at piece and one with the world" part of meditation, it is extremely hard. I'm also no expert. When I'm waiting for something to finish (agent, compilation, etc), I've found tha…

I am a pretty peaceful person, but working with agents frequently (daily) makes me furious. I wonder if the context switching you mentioned leads to more fatigue, which makes me much more irritable.

Re: Men who stare at walls

#232

Post by randomNumber7 »

krunck wrote: post #89
smeg_it wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was taught basic breathing meditation from a Vietnamese nun; but I'm not an expert. There are so many variations that I don't understand. I don't know much about Zen or it's take on meditation or mindfulness. On meditation, I know when I do it right, but have trouble helping people learn. I have trouble when I most need it (highly stressed), as I have the most trouble taking the time to relax without feeling too gu…

A meditation practice(in the Soto Zen tradition) over the course of five years changed my life. Daily 40m of sitting facing a wall watching the breath and returning the mind to the present moment when it strays. No judgement. Just returning the mind to the present, again, and again, and again.... The BS starts to drop away. No enlightenment moments. But later, away from the practice you have more patience, more accep…

This is something I want to try. Does the time where the mind stays in the present before it strays away increase when you practice this?

Re: Men who stare at walls

#233

Post by contubernio »

I have wondered if one of the issues with mobile devices might simply be physiological - using them appears to require constant eye movement that rest does not require. I haven't seen this addressed.

Re: Men who stare at walls

#234

Post by BubbleRings »

I’m sorry, could you repeat that? I got distracted by the large animal with the tusk, over by the kitchen door.

Try zero caffeine for a while. It will not be easy, for the majority of people. After 3 months the worst of it will be over, and most people are withdrawal symptom free by 6 months.

Btw free means no decaf, no chocolate, no tea.

Re: Men who stare at walls

#236

Post by strken »

kombookcha wrote: post #229
strken wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with the word meditation is that, if this counts as meditation, then I meditate every time I take a long train trip or go for a walk. That might actually be true! But there are people who claim they cry, or experience infinite bliss, or that meditation gave them long lasting mental health problems and is dangerous. When I've emptied my mind and let the trees and houses fly past on train trips, I've neithe…

Meditation, like exercise, can be a lot of things. Choosing a brief walk can be exercise, or a brisk walk that's a little longer - maybe doing some forms of housework can be exercise. But exercise can also be running marathons, swimming laps, playing street hockey, dancing in your kitchen, skateboarding or messing around on the monkey bars. Those would all make you feel your body in various ways, both during and afte…

If someone wrote about how taking a twenty minute walk in nature made them more productive, I don't think anyone would reply 'I swear every day I see a "new" fad targeted at fixing one's mood and every time they're doing so much mental gymnastics to not use the word "exercise."'

Who cares if they're doing exercise or not? The person who takes walks presumably knows it's a form of exercise. They're not talking about the other forms, they may not be able to do Crossfit or go skiing, and they might not feel confident expressing opinions about the entirety of all exercise, but they definitely know that walking works for them.

Re: Men who stare at walls

#237

Post by vasco »

llmssuck wrote: post #182
vasco wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dunno I feel like brains are always going? It's not like if I'm staring at a wall my thoughts slow down vs if I'm watching a movie. If anything I'll be more "focused" on my thoughts so maybe they are more intense than the "shut brain down" effect of mindlessly consuming media? And I gave example of a wall, but what about scrolling tiktoks vs walking in the woods? Am I really processing more information scrolling ti…

Interesting example for sure. Walking the woods seems more complex, but I still think there is a real difference between "this character Xenia in a TV show acts an actor inside a TV show inside this current one and she likes to eat brownies with yellow cream on top" versus "I see trees with many leaves". TikTok I have no knowledge of, but for sure seeing something like "Arab dude wearing suspicious looking outfit pla…

Yeah I just disagree immediately. Even having to mechanically traverse and move, each step you think way more than, "swipe". Plus all the things to look at all around you, being tired, etc.

Re: Men who stare at walls

#238

Post by Otterly99 »

conception wrote: post #189
hgomersall wrote: post #152

I've recently realised that the biggest problem with smartphones is not that they steal your attention (which is bad enough), but that they steal your disattention I don't know of a better word for it than disattention. Perhaps downtime? But it's not so structured. It's just those moments where you'd previously let your mind wander. Gone forever.

John Cleese had an amazing talk on this - https://youtu.be/nvKeu46jgwo?si=vIRHSJWXff8Kyf2l on being creative

I also immediately thought about his book on creativity. Thanks for the talk. For me, instead of staring at a wall, I just take a short walk. I think doing any activity with low mental load helps creativity.

Re: Men who stare at walls

#239

Post by iammrpayments »

Who ever wrote this has no understanding how eye muscles work.

If you keep looking for hours at a short distance, you should instead take breaks looking at a distance for long term eye health.

That’s why I prefer working next to window or a big open space, not a cubicle where I can stare at a wall.

Re: Men who stare at walls

#240

Post by baxtr »

hgomersall wrote: post #152

I've recently realised that the biggest problem with smartphones is not that they steal your attention (which is bad enough), but that they steal your disattention I don't know of a better word for it than disattention. Perhaps downtime? But it's not so structured. It's just those moments where you'd previously let your mind wander. Gone forever.

While I don’t want to downplay the toxicity of smartphones, couldn’t the same be said for books and newspapers?
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