Ask HN: High Focus Activities As someone that deals with anxiety I have developed a dissociative disorder for which I have been in therapy for some months now. My therapist recommended me to find an activity that requires all my focus to allow me to ground my mind and gain awareness. I am already doing meditation and mindfulness, this is more an activity like crochet or chess. I would like the HN community if you have any ideas for such activities and if you have had similar experiences. |
We were not evolutionary designed to sit in front of a screen for 12 hours a day.
Start running or lifting or join a team sport. Anything that gets you into zone 3 for at least a couple of hours every week.
The counterintuitive concept here is the more you feel tired or burnt out the more you need to exercise. Unless of course you’ve been unloading boxes or some such all week.
On the mindfulness/meditation side, there's a lot more out there than what secular groups like the field of psychology can provide. Consider looking for meditation groups and Buddhist religious organizations in your local area.
Also, there are also a billion podcasts and YouTube videos. Some people I know like Thanissaro Bhikku who is outside San Diego. Others are passionate about Ajahn Brahm near Brisbane, Austrialia, or potentially Bhikku Sujato in the same tradition. Some people really like Empty Cloud's stuff in New Jersey. But I'm a fan of Ajahn Sona in British Columbia. Ajahn Jayanto's Dhamma talks, which you can find on the Temple Forest Monastery website, are another favorite of mine.
Among mindfulness meditation, there are the cardinal body scanning and breath awareness meditations, but samadhi meditation is also awesome--Ajahn Sona is probably the best place to learn about this. Chanting is another meditation--adjacent thing that requires concentration. The Metta Sutta in English, Amaravati translation, is a great place to start.
Good luck! I wish you all the best!
I just played in my browser, but think it would be much much more satisfying with a physical console like Brick Game[1] (which I had when I was a kid).
(This was apparently a ripoff of Tetris, but I think I'd enjoy the sense of nostalgia.)
[0] - https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2017-03-28-tetris-used-prevent-pos...
Building something.
And I tend to have intense focus if it's 'compiling exhaustive and thorough analyses debunking someone's point in a minor statement they made a week ago that they weren't even thinking about', but that might be me. (One time I spent probably hours carefully trying to figure out the likelihood that an immigrant comes from a country with higher vaccination rates than the US - something around 1/3 if I recall correctly - and then remembered that the US requires vaccinations for all legal immigrants and as undocumented immigrants aren't the majority of immigrants - yes, I did research on that - if you worry about unvaccinated people, you have more to worry about from native-born Americans than immigrants. I did this in response to a passing comment somewhere about how immigrants were bringing disease or something.)
In a similar vein as the previous one, researching a subject you find fun. I remember being like twelve and writing a 20-page paper on Jewish mobsters and the Jewish community and if I recall correctly the 'upper upper' limit was 12. Again: possibly (definitely) just me.
My wife is not as much a fan of this...
Canadian chess grandmaster Eric Hansen used chess to help with his ADHD as a child.
- Sim racing with my Moza setup - Trail running - Mountainbike riding on not too easy terrain
All these activities does the same thing, forces my brain to focus here and now and take time-critical micro-decisions.
Other activities that puts me in the same frame of mind would probably work too. For example climbing worked for me when I did that, and even working through a large set of pretty easy maths exercises worked while I was more focused on maths in my life.
In between the most focused parts of these activities I often gain deeper insights and feel grounded.
Good luck finding what works for you!
Otherwise... I don't think this is a really great lifestyle suggestion overall, but maybe in your specific case, only for limited doses: Video games? There are many puzzle, card, and strategy games that require a lot of focus and thought. Or yes, chess. I don't mean reflex-based shooters, but more thoughtful, turn-based titles.
If you have a club near you, gliding is a relatively cheap hobby.
Otherwise sudoku or crosswords can be fun and low barrier to entry
On the flip side, try reading books.
Moreover, summarize each chapter in your own words to truly "lock in".
* Playing drums - Practicing with a metronome
* Long distance running
* My wife does knitting for longer hours