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in reply to Maintaining one's focus while working (alpha/beta/delta brain waves)

Happiness. If I am happy, I can focus on anything I want.

Maintaining focus really depends on external sources, you can practice all you want, but most of us will still be slaves to our emotions - of course, I choose to continue to practice, because the benefits are there.

As for work, if I can't get anything done - and I know that I won't be missed, I'll take off with a good book to a coffee shop and read up on the craft, without a computer in front of me. But at the same time, if I feel extra creative or just happen to solve a problem at midnight, I'll log on and work from home.

I don't think creativity can be harnessed to a 9 to 5 schedule. You have to take the moments when you can.


jeffa's guide to meditation: YMMV and will!

  1. lie down on your back, make sure your neck is comfortable
  2. don't think - take all of your thoughts and direct them to /dev/null, continue when your mind is sufficiently stable
  3. breathe deep - breathe fresh air in from 'the top of your head', and the stale old air out 'the bottom of your feet'
  4. if nobody is around - chant! as you breathe out, low and strong - sounds silly, but the VIBRATIONS in your throat will help you to concentrate and keep the chit chat away
  5. your head should be light and buzzing, keep breathing
  6. start with your feet - put them to sleep, feel them disappear
  7. move up your legs, torso, and arms - neck and face muscles - all completely relaxed and NUMB, but there
  8. your mind should now be awake, but your body is asleep - hold on as long as you can, and don't be afraid: fear is the mind killer, it will snap you back awake
This really works, and it only takes 30 minutes to feel like you have rested for 8 hours. It is hard and takes a lot of practice, however. I have successfully achieved meditation before, but only 3 times. Most of the time I can only practice at keeping my mind quiet.

Hope this helps . . .Oh yeah, almost forgot - control. Don't try to take control of everything, just let it go. I am still working on this one. :)

The opinions and views expressed by jeffa are by no means shared by PM or E2, readers are encourage to seek a professional guru

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Re: Maintaining one's focus while working (alpha/beta/delta brain waves)
by tadman (Prior) on Apr 17, 2001 at 19:32 UTC
    The funny thing is that you concentrate best when you're not trying to. It's one of those classic contraditions. The worst thing is realizing how much work you've just been doing, and how smoothly it was going, only to have trouble getting 'back into the groove'.

    An interesting read is "How To Meditate" which is a very broad overview of the subject. Instead of focusing on any one religion and its methods, there is a discussion of the historical initiatives and techniques of most popular beliefs.

    There is no "How to Be a Zen Master in 21 Days", or "Enlightenment for Dummies". Like learning programming, these things take a long time to master.
Re: (jeffa) Re: Maintaining one's focus while working (alpha/beta/delta brain waves)
by Falkkin (Chaplain) on Apr 17, 2001 at 19:44 UTC
    Oh yeah, almost forgot - control. Don't try to take control of everything, just let it go.

    How do you manage this without falling asleep? Whenever I've tried meditating before, I've just ended up falling asleep. :)

    This is my main problem with relaxation in general -- relaxing tends to make me feel sleepy, and sleep (in mid-day) tends to make me more tired, and less focused than I'd be otherwise.

      Actually, I was referring to control in a general sense of your daily experiences. A good example, anytime I have a conversation with a group of people and try to interject something, if I am repeatedly interrupted, I will drop what I am going to say. Nobody is really paying attention anyway, and in generaly I find that I end up looking a bit foolish for trying to repeatedly say the same thing.

      When someone cuts you off while driving, let your anger follow them - forget about them.

      Now, as for keeping from falling asleep - practice practice practice.

      Once I was able to shift back and forth between consciousness and unconsciousness. My mind was fully awake, yet I could not feel my body at all. I could drift off into a dream and watch as a complete 3-dimensional world was being creating before me in one master artist's brush stroke - a world with individuals, scenerios, plots - more than a book could ever represent. Before I 'fell into' this world - I pulled myself back without 'waking up'. Then, I allowed myself to drift once more, and a whole NEW world was created. I pulled myself out the second time, and woke up.

      It is tough stuff - you should never meditate with aspirations of achieving some kind of enlightenment or vision. Instead, your goal should be to merely relax, and to practice siliencing the voices in your head.

      If I mediatate 50 times, maybe 3 or 4 will be enlightening.

      A good clue that you are doing something 'right' is if you can feel your body vibrate. I have heard of masters that can change their vibration frequency and even shift the phase 180 degrees. If you feel the vibrations, try to maintain them, amplify them if you can.

      Jeff

      I'm not crazy, it's the voices in my head, they're the ones who is crazy!

      All depends on what level of meditation you're going for, and how deep you allow yourself to go.
      A deep meditative state is very similar to the hypnoidal state, where the conscious mind is in recession (although, without the suggestability of the hypnoidal, as meditation is autosuggestion, rather than external suggestion).
      Muscles are relaxed, heart rate is down, and generally, you're awfully close to sleep.
      However, it's something that's tunable. When you get used to being able to relax your muscles, clear the mind to a good degree, focus the thoughts on nothing (and that's harder than focussing on something), you can choose what aspects of it you wish..
      While sitting at a desk, you can put yourself in a self-sustaining posture (you won't collapse like a rag doll when you relax down). You don't need legs and torso to code, so you relax the muscles there, relax the arms a lot, and clear the mind of all extraneous stuff. If you manage to achieve the 'clear' state of mind, you'll have no trouble refocussing it.
      If you're not quite there, still, it helps, as you've just cleared a load of chaff that, even if you didn't realise it, was chattering away at the back of your mind. :)
      I guess it's like driving a car. :) you don't go everywhere with the accelerator pedal pressed to the floor.

      Malk
      How do you manage this without falling asleep? Whenever I've tried meditating before, I've just ended up falling asleep. :) This is my main problem with relaxation in general -- relaxing tends to make me feel sleepy, and sleep (in mid-day) tends to make me more tired, and less focused than I'd be otherwise.
      Stuart Wilde said that was the whole point. Most people associate a relaxed state with sleep and the only time they ever get into alpha is on their way to delta and unconsciousness. Mystical trance is achieved when you remain awake, but the mind enters the alpha state.

      Forcing yourself to sit up can help.

        Make sure you are not closing your eyes. For most meditation styles, that should be no problem or even recommended.

        Christian Lemburg
        Brainbench MVP for Perl
        http://www.brainbench.com