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Men who stare at walls

alexselimov.com

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Re: Men who stare at walls

#61

Post by SoftTalker »

diogenes_atx wrote: post #25

Seems like it would be better and easier to just take a walk instead. Whenever you feel information overload, it's time for a break: step outside, get some fresh air, stretch your legs, etc. Not a panacea, obviously, just common sense. Staring at a wall while forcing your mind to "think of nothing"... maybe try it once and see how it goes.

Getting outside/walking can be good but there's still a lot of activity hitting your senses. People, cars, animals, sounds, or all of the above. If you can find a quiet park bench to sit and sort of defocus it might work. But more than just taking a break, when you "stare at a wall" you are engaging in deliberate sensory deprivation, which might be a better reset for your analytical mind. All that said, if taking a walk works for you, great!

Re: Men who stare at walls

#62

Post by CPLX »

timacles wrote: post #42
Al-Khwarizmi wrote: post #10

Is this not a form of meditation? I've never been able to keep a meditation habit, but my understanding is that meditation techniques often feature closing your eyes and focusing on breathing, body parts or some other irrelevant thing, it sounds like staring at a wall would serve the same purpose.

it almost is but meditation, is done with more intent. In Zen Buddhism for example you are always striving to increase awareness , by constantly monitoring your internal monologue, pulling yourself back from day dreaming, expanding from focus on the breath to all near by sensation and phenomena. True meditation, in the zen sense, is an order of magnitude more difficult to do consistently, and takes intense willpower.

I am a practicing Zen Buddhist and I wouldn’t agree with this description, at least not in my experience and the community that I’ve participated in.

Specifically I would say the concepts of “striving” and “intent” aren’t ones I would use.

What it actually is takes a little more to pin down (famously) but I would consider the concept of surrender to be more applicable. In fact I would say the absence of striving would be a good sign you’re on the right track.

I would consider staring at a wall without intent to be completely compatible with Zen practice.

Re: Men who stare at walls

#63

Post by cramsession »

I've always done this. As I got older I found out that I have really bad astigmatism. It takes a lot of work to keep my eyes in focus. It feels great to just zone out and "stare" at nothing, it's like a bunch of tiny muscles in my skull get to relax.

Re: Men who stare at walls

#64

Post by sublinear »

diogenes_atx wrote: post #25

Seems like it would be better and easier to just take a walk instead. Whenever you feel information overload, it's time for a break: step outside, get some fresh air, stretch your legs, etc. Not a panacea, obviously, just common sense. Staring at a wall while forcing your mind to "think of nothing"... maybe try it once and see how it goes.

Yup. It activates the parasympathetic nervous system because of the mild exercise. It also levels out your hormones such as insulin and cortisol.

Re: Men who stare at walls

#65

Post by hk__2 »

robertclaus wrote: post #12
Al-Khwarizmi wrote: post #10

Is this not a form of meditation? I've never been able to keep a meditation habit, but my understanding is that meditation techniques often feature closing your eyes and focusing on breathing, body parts or some other irrelevant thing, it sounds like staring at a wall would serve the same purpose.

I was taught to aim for "mind blanking" when meditating, so does seem like it!

This is what I do when trying to sleep, and often wonder what’s the difference with meditation.

Re: Men who stare at walls

#66

Post by sbretz3 »

Al-Khwarizmi wrote: post #10

Is this not a form of meditation? I've never been able to keep a meditation habit, but my understanding is that meditation techniques often feature closing your eyes and focusing on breathing, body parts or some other irrelevant thing, it sounds like staring at a wall would serve the same purpose.

this is known as trataka meditation in the yogic tradition. trataka falls under the umbrella of kriya (purification) techniques which is why it helps with focus and intention

Re: Men who stare at walls

#67

Post by giancarlostoro »

> Extrapolating that trend, we would be at about 87 GB worth of data today.

Throw in YouTube Shorts / TikTok etc and it makes me wonder if that estimate is drastically too low. We went from the information age, to the brainrot overload age, to let's both have brainrot and let computers think for us.

Re: Men who stare at walls

#68

Post by Rendello »

cpa wrote: post #59

I thought it'd be the male version of https://www.thehairpin.com/women-laughing-alone-with-salad/

In a lot of these there could logically be someone sitting across from them making them laugh, but the woman with the cherry tomato in her fingers is just smiling for the love of the salad.

Re: Men who stare at walls

#69

Post by antiframe »

timacles wrote: post #42
Al-Khwarizmi wrote: post #10

Is this not a form of meditation? I've never been able to keep a meditation habit, but my understanding is that meditation techniques often feature closing your eyes and focusing on breathing, body parts or some other irrelevant thing, it sounds like staring at a wall would serve the same purpose.

it almost is but meditation, is done with more intent. In Zen Buddhism for example you are always striving to increase awareness , by constantly monitoring your internal monologue, pulling yourself back from day dreaming, expanding from focus on the breath to all near by sensation and phenomena. True meditation, in the zen sense, is an order of magnitude more difficult to do consistently, and takes intense willpower.

No need to gate keep meditation. The wall stare does have intent: to increase focus and calm the mind.
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