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Men who stare at walls

alexselimov.com

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Re: Men who stare at walls

#241

Post by dbdr »

baxtr wrote: post #240
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?

When you are reading a book, you certainly need to use your attention. However, you stay in a given topic/world for a sustained amount of time. This feels very different and much less tiring than scrolling on your phone jumping from topic to topic. Especially social media feeds that have been optimized to keep using it as long as possible (dopamine hits and all).

Newspapers are probably an intermediate between those two, to various degrees depending on the specific newspaper (trash vs deeper analysis).

Re: Men who stare at walls

#242

Post by dgb23 »

HerbManic wrote: post #213
cfors wrote: post #92

The spirit of this is correct, but a better approach to this is going for a walk with just your thoughts. Yes, that means no phone, no headphones, just you and your brain enjoying a walk. Let your mind wonder and be free.

It depends on who you ask. Some Zen teachers think that it is impossible to meditate while walking as it keeps the mind moving rather than still. These are the folks that go against any kind of seasoning in food for the same reason. I always thought that was a very restrictive way to box in and needlessly constrain what meditation can be. If it works for you, great but don't sell it as the only path. That is the thin…

Rumi (the Sufi mystic) apparently walked and turned in circles in order to contemplate. The tradition merges music and movement with philosophy and religious mysticism.

Walking, dancing or manual labor (for example gardening or cleaning) can all be done in a meditative way.

But these are likely different types of meditation that have different effects. Even just a calm, sitting meditations might be vastly different from another, depending on the meditation object.

Of course there are people who lean into specific types over the others as you describe, but I think many of these activities share a common core and experience.

Re: Men who stare at walls

#243

Post by sebastiennight »

iammrpayments wrote: post #239

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.

While your point is very helpful ("stare through a window instead"), you're adding a second-order improvement while the article is suggesting a solution to a first-order problem (dread, overwhelm, depression, burn-out).

(Also, even on the second-order of "what about your eyes", I would guess that staring at a wall several feet away is already an improvement over staring at a screen in your hand.)

To play along as we crowdsource a combined solution to more than this narrow problem, I'll add my own 2nd-order suggestion as well (for fitness and health), and suggest staring at the horizon while walking outdoors for a few minutes

Re: Men who stare at walls

#244

Post by nobodywillobsrv »

Would be interesting to understand if walls and short focus vs trees and natural stuff further out is preferable.

When I was working more vision was always a bottleneck ... Staring at yet more close things would be less useful than staring at far away things

Re: Men who stare at walls

#245

Post by dgb23 »

psidebot wrote: post #225

For me it's driving. My best thinking and my best zoning happens on the road, especially if it's limited access highway with low traffic.

Apparently movement plus focus on the distance has a calming, clearing effect on the mind.

Do you have a similar experience when walking or running (deliberately)?

Re: Men who stare at walls

#246

Post by cbracketdash »

iammrpayments wrote: post #239

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.

This can be fixed by relaxing your eyes and staring through the wall. This is equivalent to looking into the distance.

Re: Men who stare at walls

#247

Post by lasftew »

OP mentions they are a coffee drinker, and use caffeine a lot to fight tiredness and brainfog. While the suggested methods to refocus are great, maybe there is some improvement potential by looking at root causes?

As a former heavy coffee consumer, I experienced varying degrees of tiredness over my workday, and inconsistent sleep patterns.

Ever since I stopped drinking it, my energy levels have been far more predictable and decrease rather linearly until bedtime. There is definitely no more "hitting the wall" in the early afternoon! Living caffeine free has generally been a considerable QOL improvement (after initial withdrawal).

Re: Men who stare at walls

#248

Post by ifh-hn »

I thought this might have been about zazen, but it's not and no comment seems to mentioned it. I practiced zazen for a while, I want to get back to it. Maybe I will now I've finished studying.

Re: Men who stare at walls

#249

Post by bashkiddie »

BubbleRings wrote: post #234

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.

An ADHD brain may work better without stimulating caffeine, YMMV.

Re: Men who stare at walls

#250

Post by kristjank »

A lot of these self-improvement sort of hacks stop working when employed at a large scale, repeatedly, so one must keep it in check enough to not overdo it.

However, a lot of my mental performance has become intertwined with the concept of breaking the mental work pattern with some light physical activity like taking a short walk, or just mental inactivity like going outside for a smoke (which also includes a positive chemical reinforcement, coupled with some light environmental stimulation), which might yield itself somewhat similar to the staring at a wall routine, though much less dull.

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