I will be reading and re-reading this article to glean the lessons it has about self-evaluation of life decisions and lifestyle. I think there are both near- and long-term implications in this article. How do the major components of my life (e.g. job) support a sense of flow? Have I cultivated enough diversity and slowness to support the coalescence of new thought via concentration? Am I devoting time to strengthening my concentration skills, much as I routinely work out?
However, in early December 2008, in a generic hotel room in Palma, Mallorca, I vividly remember trying to prepare for a game while feeling unusually displaced from myself.
This description of “feeling displaced” hit home for me. It’s how I’ve felt often when preparing myself for an endeavour that is outside my comfort zone. I’ve been wondering how to tell when my willingness to challenge my own boundaries just becomes self punishment as a habit, and I think there’s the beginning of an answer here.
Has anyone read his book? I’m thinking it could be worthwhile.
Great Read. Of the three - Attention, Flow, Concentration- Concentration is hands down a vulnerable area Here, personally. I enjoy getting familiar with the proposition of the differences of the 3.
Each day I feel significant improvements and in my case a lot of those improvements stem from exercises to focus on decreasing nervous system anxiety or stress...even in regards to feeling like I have to Do Something.
This excerpt really Illuminates:
We have to pay attention with the body, the will, the place, the mood, the memory, the moment, the relationships, the affordances, not the least the smartphone. All these variables are implicated in our capacity to attend, but they have their own kinds of agency, too, and they play with each other in unpredictable ways. The emergent properties arising from the psyche at play with itself in the world include amusement, enchantment, dissonance and distraction: these are not mere hindrances but more like a kind of data to be understood and integrated before we can exercise agency that is truly our own. We need to coalesce in order to concentrate, and concentrate to coalesce.
Update (12/20/2020):
Also, this read inspires a personal goal to learn Chess. The only time I was ever introduced to it was during a sleep over with a friend. I had trouble with comprehension of the instructions. Part of the issue I think was we were exhausted and he was trying to teach me after midnight. Lol.
As a chess grandmaster, I find the familiar injunction to ‘Concentrate!’ a little naive. Concentration is not like a bulb that we can turn on and off with a switch, because we are not just the bulb; we are also the switcher and the switch. Humans are more like thermostats receiving and sending out signals, seeking the optimal ‘mental temperature’ as ambient conditions around and within us change, and we’re often abruptly adjusted against our will. We succeed in concentrating when we manage to convene the dispositions that matter for a task at hand – for instance, our awareness, attention, discernment and willpower – and that is possible only if the right emotions co-arise and come along for the ride.
I will be reading and re-reading this article to glean the lessons it has about self-evaluation of life decisions and lifestyle. I think there are both near- and long-term implications in this article. How do the major components of my life (e.g. job) support a sense of flow? Have I cultivated enough diversity and slowness to support the coalescence of new thought via concentration? Am I devoting time to strengthening my concentration skills, much as I routinely work out?
This description of “feeling displaced” hit home for me. It’s how I’ve felt often when preparing myself for an endeavour that is outside my comfort zone. I’ve been wondering how to tell when my willingness to challenge my own boundaries just becomes self punishment as a habit, and I think there’s the beginning of an answer here.
Has anyone read his book? I’m thinking it could be worthwhile.
Great Read. Of the three - Attention, Flow, Concentration- Concentration is hands down a vulnerable area Here, personally. I enjoy getting familiar with the proposition of the differences of the 3.
Each day I feel significant improvements and in my case a lot of those improvements stem from exercises to focus on decreasing nervous system anxiety or stress...even in regards to feeling like I have to Do Something.
This excerpt really Illuminates:
Also, this read inspires a personal goal to learn Chess. The only time I was ever introduced to it was during a sleep over with a friend. I had trouble with comprehension of the instructions. Part of the issue I think was we were exhausted and he was trying to teach me after midnight. Lol.