People, mind and physics-related writings

Why do we like to lose focus?

January 17, 2012

A cup of coffee

Starting with unicellular organisms, going through all the evolution process to finally get to the present humans, which are still animals, but can think. We can think and that’s where everything around us came from. Starting from the tools, the alchemy, the chemistry, the maths, and the rest of sciences, we are here, living in a powerful civilization, being everything possible thanks to our minds.

Now the key word here is “civilization”. Is there some civilization made up with monkeys instead of humans? or birds? or water creatures? or dogs? have you thought about that? Even the word civilization came from humans; the language came from humans. Every single invention is just that: something someone somehow created.

Now, if I think about that, I can only figure out 2 answers to this post’s question:

Why do we like to lose focus?

You can see this from two different perspectives. Either think the entire humans’ civilization works thanks to a few selected people (geniuses; Einstein, Darwin, Hawking, Jobs, etc.), or think we all have a problem, a problem that causes us to not like to concentrate a hundred percent in what we’re doing right now.

If you think exclusively that geniuses are geniuses and nobody can be like them, then I’m sorry, but you’ll be sad for a long time (you hopefully will eventually figure out it’s not that way). On the other hand, if you think we have a problem you could develop that thought.

If you are more organized and always wants to see everything in order, then we can divide people in three groups: easily distracted, moderately distracted and fully concentrated. As you may think, we change with time and surely we can have a fully-productive saturday, but a full-of-distractions sunday. In an average, it makes us who we are, in some way.

I myself couldn’t figure out where am I, I mean in what group. I sure can spend a weekend morning entirely writing for the blog, fully concentrated in studies, or doing anything else. Yet I know I can be distracted, and somehow I know anybody is at some time distracted by something: I don’t think any of the mentioned geniuses were fully concentrated all the time. What I think is that we all can be in any group and we all are constantly changing from one to another.

So what’s the problem?

The problem is that we all like to be distracted. Distraction is not something exterior. If that were the case, how can you explain being distracted by a plant, a door, the blank wall of the classroom. If distraction were some effect the exterior makes on you, what changed? You’re in a classroom concentrating in the exam, and, suddenly, the wall in incredibly interesting. The wall hasn’t changed, there were no voices telling you the wall is interesting nor anything else. The wall is a wall, a seamless wall that 2 minutes ago was an incredibly innocuous thing.

So, we look for distractions. But we look for them when we need not to think. Some people need this more often than others; the have some kind of thinking-phobia (I’m sorry not to know the greek, nor latin name for that).

Either way, if there is some reason our brain looks for distractions not to think is that thinking is actually stressful for the brain; in lower levels, sure, but see that even then we try not to force us a lot with this.

It is funny, sure, that sometimes you actually concentrate, and can’t be distracted from anything. I read somewhere that concentration is directly proportional to interest. If you’re not interest, your brain will look for distractions: and no matter what, it will find them. Otherwise, it will not be disturbed by plant or any inanimate objets, not even people. If you have real interest for what you’re reading, the distractions, even the smallest like time, will disappear.

Time is a distraction as we’re constantly thinking of it. Sure, you can use it for your own good: manage your time, by hours or whatever. Other thoughts are omnipresent just like time, but they’re mostly created by the environment, or well, the 5 senses. In a normal situation, you could stand all the senses and use your mind for something productive. On the other hand, you could forget about some senses: you can easily forget about the smell and tact, and with some patience you can make yourself deaf, so noises couldn’t disturb you.

Lose focus is ok, but in certain situations: when we ~~want~~ need to be distracted. When we need not to think for a while. When we are exhausted. When we need to empty that little tank we named head, let rest that little friend we named brain and turn off that invisible machine we called mind.

Photo by Visualpanic.

Any thoughts?

By Mathias San Miguel | In: Distractions, Procrastination, Psychology

Loosing focus with Music

January 15, 2012

Listen to your own music

Days ago I wrote an article talking about Why do we like to lose focus? and frankly I do believe that we actually look for distractions. Even then, our mind in a continuous vortex of strings, mechanisms and complex stuff that, at least now, doesn’t have sense, and yet it works.

Today’s article is kind of related to the mentioned one. This is about how good is to lose yourself in the music; lose focus on your thoughts, your stress and everything just to follow a melody.

As said before, we like to lose focus, and so, sometimes we need it. It’s like our minds are constantly filling up with thoughts, now-used thoughts that at the time are useless, because after using them (or not using them), they lose sense, so they become some other thing, some dark energy that prevents us from thinking more.

If you’re still at school/college/SomeOtherEducationalInstitution, maybe you have experienced something like a blocked mind. Picture yourself studying math. You’ve studied 3 hours in row and you’re exhausted. Do you have the same energy as you started? No. Do your thoughts are coming slower? Yes. Are they confusing? Yes. Are you aware you should empty that head? Not always.

Of course, perhaps you realized you were exhausted and that you should take a break. Maybe not. But you should. After filling your head, and hopefully that is not as literally as it feels, you should stop, go somewhere else (perhaps some other room), close your eyes if they’re tired, be a moment in silence, and think of nothing. Don’t keep up with what you were doing. Change. Try to procrastinate, turn on the T.V., cook, play some video game (even your phone’s), and something that will always work: listen to music.

Do not “lose focus with music” too regularly, or you’ll be skipping more than you’d want to.

What I try to do, always, is to not listen to music when I’m trying to concentrate. That distracts you, you lose thoughts on the lyrics and tunes. But when I-m trying to actually not concentrate, not to think, I listen to music.

Something useful is to listen to new music, so you cannot think of the lyrics and think of something else, that will or will not be what I’m trying to be distracted from: either way, doing that your mind relaxes.

Also, you can listen to music when you try to concentrate: Right now I’m in our living room, which has this beautiful view at daylight (the sea, the beach, the sunset), but at night it turns into a noisy place to be: In the front avenue there are many people with enormous stereos with reggaeton music playing. Now it’s night, so yeah, I can hear the noise (’cause that is no music). I’m here because I was tired of being all day of my room, so now I’m spending night on the living room. Anyway, music helps in those cases when the outside world (being the inside your thoughts) is too noisy: changing noises that distract a lot, or just annoy a lot.

On the avenue they’re playing so sex-themed songs (a lot of stereos at the same time with different songs is worst). Now, inside the apartment I’m listening to Noel Gallagher, not listening to the song, but concentrated in this article.

Photo by Shiv Shankar

Any thoughts?

By Mathias San Miguel | In: Distractions, Mind, Psychology

Once a Day, Let Your Thoughts Flow…

January 12, 2012

Brainstorming on a moleskine notebook

If there’s something that keeps repeating in treatments for depression, is not to keep your sad thoughts inside, not to be locked inside, but to express yourself, to accept “I’m depressed ” and go on. Anger management classes also say this: do not lock anger inside, because it keeps growing and at some point you’ll explode, instead, you can choose to be mad sometimes; learn when to be mad, as sometimes we have to.

So, ok, perhaps you’re reading this and thinking “I’m not depressed, and I’m ok with my emotional changes and my anger”. Well, the thing is that it’s fine. As to go to the Doctor you don’t have to actually be sick, you should do it once in while.

This exercise, to let your thoughts flow, is for relaxing, to keep your mind clean, it helps to sleep better, sometimes, as you don’t worry anymore for some things so you’re less stressed.

What you have to do, and I like to do daily (not that I always do, but that I like to), is to get a piece of paper and something to write, and write, anything. Nonsense words, sentences, it doesn’t have to be a complex writing, not a scientific paperwork, yet, you can write whatever you like, the thing is to write thoughts down, think and ask yourself: What was I thinking? not questioning it, but to actually think about what were you thinking about all day; then you can write it down.

You express yourself better with colors and shapes? paint, draw, whatever that helps you release those thoughts out of your mind. One thing is important, whatever you do, it isn’t non-sense at all; keep that in mind.

Nothing you write however it might be grammatically wrong, it’s non-sense, that’s your mind, that’s everybody’s minds: to us they all are non-sensical, therefore they should have sense. It’s a messed up way to see it, but I know it’s the right, and hopefully you too see it that way.

In case you’re drawing, playing a song or whatever, keep that same thought: nothing you do lack of sense. Haven’t you seen great artist? most of their work is, for a lot of people, non-sensical. For you, is it?

Photo by MikeOliveri

Any thoughts?

By Mathias San Miguel | In: Psychology, Thoughts

5 Reasons Why Whiteboards are a Must-Have

January 9, 2012

Whiteboards are white, so your thoughts are clean.

By clean I mean away from other thoughts; distractions. Being white makes your eyes feel comfortable and your mind to be focused only on the color lines that contrast on the plain white. There is a reason chalk boards are being -slowly but surely- replaced on some schools: the dark background it annoying to your mind, which prefers some light color.
Whiteboards are big.

I know, different sizes, but in the end, they’re bigger than a paper sheet, so you can see things from a distance; something that makes easy to think “out of the box”. Sketching ideas on a paper perhaps is more comfortable in some cases, and since the pencil/pen is smaller than a marker (the lines it draws), you can get more content in a sheet of paper than in a whiteboard, but being with a collapsed now-gray sheet of white paper is not good.
You can easily erase them.

With a whiteboard eraser, with your hand, with toilet paper, with your sleeves, etc. you can make the board go white again to write some more stuff, to correct some things, to change, to think different.
You may use whiteboards for notes.

A small/medium-sized whiteboard is perfect for writing notes on, since its size lets you see the note from a distance and even lets you read it without getting close to it. Maybe this is part of the ‘size’ reason, but clearly you could use this instead of your phone notes, perhaps.
Finally, whiteboards’ markers come in various colors.

Having a white board with a black marker is great, and the contrast make you be focused, but having at least 2 other colors (3, Total) gives you different ways to organize yourself, your thoughts, notes or whatever you’re using your whiteboard for.

Whiteboards are, in all sense, the most useful tool your mind may use.

Photo by Paul Mayne.

Any thoughts?

By Mathias San Miguel | In: Mind, Organization, Thoughts

Muses, Greek creatures.

January 7, 2012

The Temple of Poseidon

We all have muses. We all have reasons to write, to draw, to create any thing. “Muses” are not quite reasons but whispers, sighting of some things that don’t belong to this reality and are all messed up in the river of space-time. Whispers of spirits that make you think of illogical yet quite logical things, connect dots, and finally came up with something new, original, something yours.

Greeks, old greeks, had a mythological creature for that; the muses were creatures, goddesses of the ancient Greece, that were supposed to be the source of all the knowledge gathered by the civilization, by the world, the people. They are supposed to be the origin of knowledge, thoughts, ideas, but more importantly, creativity, the art of creating.

They inspire art, creativeness, so that’s where the famous cliché of naming your loved one your muse come from. ~~Doing that is nice, cute, but you can be more original, think of something else! xD~~

The creatures in greek mythology always were counted; although the exact number is mostly always to be unknown, we know that creatures like the giants, the titans, the nymphs and other were always counted. For example, something like the goddess x and the mortal y had 3 sons: keyo, kikoro and kek, and they are a totally different species, from their parents and all other existent creatures.

So, numbers. Nobody knows for sure how many muses they were. If you came up with a logical answers, they could be infinite, as you may come up with any creation, of well one, as she (…he or it, whatever) can instigate the creations from all humans’ minds. The fact is that historians almost say that they were 3, but as there is no “greek bible” because everything was oral-told, they can’t be sure. Also, many stories tells otherwise: that they were 9, ~~option that’s like to be truth, don’t ask~~.

To me, muses can be from a common thing, like a cardboard box (you’ll see…), to a thought, to a girl, to anything. Muses are everywhere, so try and feel them.

Photo by eliasar.

Any thoughts?

By Mathias San Miguel | In: Mind, Thoughts

8 Must knows about concentration

December 30, 2011

Stumbling around I found this quite interesting article about concentration, about ‘How to stay focused’ as that is the web’s name and also seems to be the name of the book that web is intended to promote. Anyway, I just found it very interesting and wanted to share it with you (the link’s in the bottom of this article).

The article writes a list of 8 things you have to know about concentrating, but, first of all, it talks a bit about concentration and teaches us that it is a 3 phases process: alert, execution and disengagement. It’s a cycle, so when you concentrate on something, and then get distracted, you will eventually concentrate again, perhaps in the same task. The tough part here is that when people get to concentrate on one thing, the can’t keep being distracted by others, being that the T.V., music, loud noises, the urge to check the emails, etc.

This is something that can be appreciated when doing any focus-required task: changing attention slow our minds down, and actually is something that the article talks about. You better turn off the television, your phone and your iPod (and that’s to me, too…).

One important thing that is implied here is that the human mind, as it can be awake or asleep, when awake, it changes from concentrated to distracted. Those are two different phases; being distracted is not being concentrated in something else, but being blank. Don’t misunderstand that, when are supposed to study for some math test and are actually watching some youtube video, you’re being distracted from the study, but you’re not actually not in the state of distraction unless you’re trying to study as you’re watching to the video: you don’t learn a thing about math and you may not even remember what are you watching.

Also, there is the fact that we can only do one important thing on a day; a day is a day, one, and in that 24 hours we can do a lot of things, but we are most likely to be fully concentrated in just one. I myself have wanted to be productive, and I mean really productive, since last july-august vacations, so some days I found myself doing so many things I wonder how did I do all that stuff: I’m supposed to do one thing, right? I may have, because all the rest is, in most cases, school work, re-checking some notes for an exam, or finally drawing some sketches for all the craft we’re supposed to do.

The article talks about mind maps, but since I’m really tired of those awful techniques that supposedly help you study, and in this case, concentrate, I won’t talk about them…

The number 5 of the list is “Be smart with your time”, and it talks about three types of people: busy, lazy and sages, being kind of bad to the first 2, I guess. I names a lot the business world, and it explains why a busy person (that who is running with papers and talking serious conversations on the phone all-day) is actually bad for a company, because as it is stressed by nature, its coworkers will stress it even more, by leaving most work for the “most” qualified one, with not even realizing it is not.

On the lists are many ways to being able to concentrate more in important things, but the more direct ones, or well, the ones that are wrote in a more direct way to be “solutions” are ‘questions to kill procrastination’, and ‘blame something’, which are, I must say, the boring and not-very-helpful part of the writing. The former is a series of questions that in some way tells us distracting is wrong in all possible way (or that is how I saw it). And the latter is just a way to say “blame something… but remember not to do it on a regular basis!” and it also talks about object motivator; idea that I don’t find interesting for the topic… But gave me an idea for another post…

To finish, interest is the key for concentration, you are interested in math, it’ll be easy for you to study math; you’re interested in art, it’ll be easy for you to view a single piece for an hour, trying to figure out the colors, shapes, details, emotions, and anything. You see, interest is the only thing that give us a boost when trying to concentrate; that’s why when in the school many lack on concentration skills; they don’t like the matters, they don’t give a damn about them, so they just stare at their cellphones while doing homework, trying to get out of the “study bubble”.

You will find the article I have being talking about the entire post, here: 8 Things Everybody Ought to Know About Concentrating

Image by Emilio Garcia (Lapolab)

Any thoughts?

By Mathias San Miguel | In: Distractions, People, Psychology

The Real Christmas Spirit

December 23, 2011

Christmas is a time for sharing, caring and being with family, and perhaps friends; despite the American stereotype of compulsive-consuming disorder… When we were little kids, we were told of Santa Claus, a magic old, fat guy who was so nice he delivered gifts for kids around the world. Great, we are happy when it’s december.

After a while, we were told of the truth, and even when it was really frustrating, it was ok. We had grown up a little, so we knew what Christmas was really about: love, caring, family, not gifts. Well, gifts are some way to symbolize caring and loving, so they are still present.

But as Christmas is becoming more and more a time for a rest, a rest of work (and school) and other annoyances, just to be with family, or friends, or alone, it is becoming more a time of happiness. Yes, it can be stressful, with all the shopping, preparations and everything, but in the end, it’s Christmas, and everybody’s happy.

So, we are happy in Christmas, but don’t know why. Maybe it’s because we are who we are; we love our family, we care about our friends, and with the revitalizing euphoria, we want to share that feelings, we want the world to be like that.

That’s the Spirit of Christmas, to share those magical feeling we always feel in this time of the year.

I think soon or later I’ll write something about why some people like to spend it alone, watching movies or anything… But hey, it’s Christmas, stop reading this and talk to people :)

2 thoughts

By Mathias San Miguel | In: Psychology, Thoughts