Kevin's Watch

Apparently we modern world humans spend less and less time actually sitting thinking [with no distractions] than ever before. We, it seems have become addicted to having our minds distracted at all times by say reading, or gaming, or tv or texting.....etc, etc to the point where few of us ever actually just sit and cogitate.

In fact the problem has become so sreious that many people actually get anxious and unhappy at the thought of being required to spend even a short period of time [say 20 minutes] in simple thought. So abhorant to some is the idea of internal rumination rather than external distraction that in a sample of 42 people questioned, given the choice between just sitting in a room with no distractions, or alternatively being able to subject themselves to electric shocks, two-thirds of the men and a quater of the women chose the shocks [evidence of the mental superiority of women if ever it was needed].

Well - if for no other reason than to be a stick in the mud and for the possible reason that it may actually help me, I pledge to spend at least twenty minutes each day occupied in nowt but abstract thought [as long as I can have a cup of tea while so doing].

Good god, if anything I think far too much. Where's the soma when you need it?

Sure I still think. Why I thought just the other day at least I think I did.

I see this all around me every day. The people at work cannot stand silence - they would rather listen to banal gossip on the radio than keep their own company [albeit briefly] while they have the chance. Absolute silence is one of the few perks of insomnia where I live; at 4 'o' clock in the morning you can hear yourself breath!

I think a lot - especially while I'm ironing or walking. I love silence. I don't have any music on up here while I'm working.

It makes me crazy that we feel like we need to be entertained or have some kind of noise blasted at us 24/7. Or perhaps more accurately, somebody (probably somebody trying to sell us something ) decided we need all that noise, and we're going along with it.

I think I need to start meditating. I'm getting cranky in my old age.

Yoga! I started doing yoga a couple years ago.

I've done yoga in the past, MsMary. You may be right that it's time for me to give it another go.

Yoga is good stuff. I will be going to my yoga class shortly.

I personally have to drown out my thoughts in media so that the voices don't talk to me. And they tell me to do things. Terrible things.

Way too much, which I suppose is better than not enough. Just wish there was a way to turn off the 'spin cycle' sometimes.

I try not to.

--A

at work the inmates NEVER shut up. so not much thinking gets done there by me. at the trusty camp I will have a bit of a downtime where I can actually take my break.

At school I was always the kid who would get called out for looking out of the window and not paying attention. Mostly it was because I was thinking about something, and I still do the equivalent of that - I just zone out and spend time thinking about something that is totally unrelated to my surroundings.

I see the ability to zone out as a good thing, as long as you can focus when necessary. I am immune to boredom, which seems to be rare these days.

Einsteins genius was apparently a product of his ability to focus absolutely on a given problem over an extended period of time - think years!

[Cag - a cold shower usually does the trick ]

Sorus wrote:I am immune to boredom, which seems to be rare these days.

I find it really hard to get bored too. I always find so many things that I'm interested in, and even if I have no media of any kind to entertain me, I can entertain myself by going for a walk, sitting and thinking, taking in a view, etc.

I get bored at work on a regular basis, but that's a different thing. And hey, that's what the Watch is for, right?

I wonder if this is related to how a lot of people I know can not sleep unless the TV is on and it is making noise...

Just the other day, while I was waiting for food, I was staring off into space pondering Gaussian elimination and the echelon forms of algebraic linear systems (naturally)

Other times, I'll ponder poetry, writing, the state of the world, the futility of Man trying to make an impression on the universe, my cat playing with some string....

You know, normal stuff.

As a result, I don't like to surf the web unless I am actively getting information out of it, I don't want to be told what or how to think, what to enjoy, or what's "mindblowing" (boy, has that word lost meaning on the internet )

I've never been able not to think. It keeps me awake at nights. It can make quiet moments dull, but it can also make them unpleasant. And there are times when I really don't want to think. I've done a lot of stuff to get around it, though most of it has just made me think differently. So yeah, I'd probably take the shock rather than sit alone for 20 minutes. Not because I can't think or don't like to. Hell, I sit zazen for that long all the time. But because 'why the hell not.'