Your full attention, please

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Avatar for CoquiCoin
3 years ago

Hey you, awesome people at Read.cash? I hope everything it's been good and productive for you these days.

I've been quite busy these days. And I'm exhausted. I've always been a multitasker, and I could do more than one thing at a time. But the years don't pass you in vain, or these days I have more distractions than usual. And I don't feel I am being as productive as before while trying to do many things at a time. And I should try to start focusing my attention on one thing at a time.

And I thought that maybe it's time to remember some of the Mindfulness practices that I learned a few years ago while taking a Positive Psychology course. Mindfulness is a practice that helps improve concentration and relieve stress. I will like to share with you some of the things I learned.

For those who are not familiar with Mindfulness, this is a practice, I would say that in some way similar to meditation, that helps us to be aware of the present moment and reach full attention to what we are doing.

Image by S. Hermann & F. Richter from Pixabay 

I remember, in my first session of mindfulness, the instructor put us to eat a tangerine. We had to eat a slice of tangerine with our eyes closed. But before closing our eyes, we had to observe it and smell it. We had to feel the texture with our tongue before bite it. And focus our attention only on what we were doing. We had to focus on how we bite it, and how the juice made contact with our tongue while savoring and chewing. And then focus on how we swallowed it. Overall the experience is very different. I don't use to pay full attention to the experience of eating, whether it is a tangerine or anything else. I focus my attention on something else. But I can tell you that we enjoy the experience much more if we focus on it.

Another of the assignments from the training was to focus our attention on when taking a bath. And then writing about the experience. And I don't know about you, but that's one of the moments when my thoughts wander through a thousand things. So I remember it was a challenge to clear my mind and focus only on the bath at that time.

Inattentional blindness

Another thing that I remember and that I would like to share with you. It is that during that Mindfulness training, for the first time, I heard the term inattentional blindness. Although as you will see below, it's something that we experience very often. And to illustrate what the term refers to, I invite you to watch a short video before you continue reading. I encourage you to do the exercise. And count how many times the players wearing white pass the ball.

The video is a test called The Monkey Business Illusion. It's part of a quite famous study in the field of psychology which studies Inattentional Blindness. The authors of it are Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris.

Inattentional Blindness is when we don't see what we have in front of our noses.

How many times has it happened to you when losing an object, and look for it, you cannot find it, but suddenly you realize that it was there in your sight. Or for example, when we are driving. And we are concentrated on the road, but suddenly, we see a pedestrian come out of nowhere, and we have to stop suddenly.

This happens because many times we are saturated with stimuli, and we aren't able to pay attention to all of them.

And you, do you often have Inattentional Blindness? When you watched the video, did you notice the gorilla and the other details like the color change of the curtain?

Have you ever practiced Mindfulness?

Thank you to my wonderful sponsors! You rock!

And thank you so much @Eylz2021 @KrisCastro and @JonicaBradley for renewing your sponsorships.

Image credit on the caption

All writing are my own unless otherwise stated.

© CoquiCoin  

You can find me also at Noise.Cash ⊛ Hive ⊛ Torum ⊛ Twitter

Until next time! ;)

October 15, 2021

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3 years ago

Comments

This was very interesting! I will definitely give it a try... especially with the food. Hhaha, I´m already looking forward to it!

$ 0.01
3 years ago

Mindfulness is a helpful practice. I hope you'll enjoy it.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

You cheated me, you asked me how many times the players in white pass the ball and I focused my attention on that, I counted 17 times and then you asked about the gorilla and the curtain, that's not worth it hahahaha.

Really those moments of mindfulness are worth a lot, I practiced them in a spiritual retreat that was actually pure meditation and those moments of mindfulness changed my life, I just did not continue practicing them.

Very interesting post, I loved it. Thank you.

I take this opportunity to send this personal information

I don't know if it's appropriate to write this here but I will anyway, I have an active post for 19 hours and the PromptlyJonica community that has not yet been approved, please check and tell me if I broke a rule. Thanks

$ 0.02
3 years ago

I'm glad you like it, hehe. Mindfulness is really useful. I don't practice it often either, but I should.

I see that your post has already been approved.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Yes, the other administrator approved it, thank you.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

I am going to look and see if it is approved or not

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Thank you, look and tell me.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Video was cute, I did notice all but the player leaving.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Cute is a weird word to describe it. 😉

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Didn't you think the gorilla was cute?

$ 0.01
3 years ago

I didn't notice the gorilla the first time I watch the video, and the last thing I thought was that he was cute, lol Your mind is an enigma to me Eddie W. 😂

$ 0.00
3 years ago

hehe, speaking of Eddie W, when I was golfing in the jungle in Gabon in West Africa, I saw a gorilla well two actually nearly pooped my trousers!

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Haha! But you still find them cute. Isn't it? I would have passed out. But I would pay to watch a video of your incident with the two gorillas 🤣

$ 0.00
3 years ago

They were B I G I mean bloody BIG! Yeah oh to have had a smartphone then

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Maybe if you had a smartphone then, it would have ended up in the hands of the gorillas because you would have thrown it out of fright.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

So, it's called inattentional blindness. We usually call it amnesia haha! But, just an expression, coz i don't know the right term.. Very informative my friend.,thank you!

$ 0.02
3 years ago

You are welcome, Lykelyca!

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Don't always try to do multi-tasking try to do thing's once at a time as it would relieve and make the work faster;btw i once looked for an object which wasn't far from me but i wasn't mindful that's why i didn't quickly notice it.

$ 0.01
3 years ago

You're right. If we concentrate on a single task, it can be more effective if we focus our attention.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

You're right...we should do one thing at a time so that we don't keep unfinished tasks for long.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Wow! I watched the video and at first, I didn't notice the gorilla because I thought I saw three black players 🤣🤣 Also the curtains changed from red to orange. I only focused on the white players and I counted 15 passes but it was actually 16 passes. I enjoyed watching it. Can I get the link to the positive Psychology course you took please?

$ 0.01
3 years ago

I took the course here on site in the Venezuelan Society of Positive Psychology. But on the Internet, there are many resources to read on the subject. You can start reading about the PERMA model https://positivepsychology.com/perma-model/ I will also look at the material I have from the course to see if have some in English to share with you.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Multi-tasking has been the trend nowadays due to busy life. People neglect the importance of developing the skill to focus. I'm still a believer of laser focus. I multi task only on meager things. But when it comes to serious tasks, I focus. It's more productive that way and the quality of work is better. Single tasking simultaneously is effective. When you focus with current task, you finish faster with very minimal or no errors with the task and can proceed to the other tasks earlier. You'll find yourself accomplishing more. This mindfulness training is a reminder that there are things that would require focus. The video is amazing too. I didn't notice the gorilla coz I'm too focused on counting how many times the ball was passed by those wearing white shirt. It's like telling us that laser focus can help us overcome distractions. Nice exercise.

$ 0.02
3 years ago

I agree with you. Some things require our full attention. I counted the passes, but I didn't notice the gorilla the first time I watched the video either.

$ 0.01
3 years ago

Righ, I did spot the gorilla and I got scared, thanks for the mini heart attack, But now seriously, this is cool how we miss so many details in our daily life and when they´re in front of us, we´re caught by surprise.

PS: I hate the gorilla, again.

$ 0.02
3 years ago

Haha, not that you had been passing balls when the gorilla appeared to scare you, lol

And yes, many details go unnoticed by us every day. But I think that same ability allows us to focus our attention on something even though there are many disturbances around us sometimes.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

El video no me cargó por la mala señal. Pero con respecto a lo de la comida y el baño lo he experimentado, ya había leído sobre eso y es una experiencia placentera comer y enfocarse solo lo que se está produciendo en el momento que masticados la comida. Pero eso muy pocas veces lo hacemos. Cuando como, tengo al lado a mi niña pendiente de que no la tire toda al suelo,veo la televisión, leo diferentes escritos o msj y pare usted de contar.

Y mientras me baño es el momento que más pienso, pido y agradezco a Dios por mantenernos en pie.

Seria bueno poner en práctica todo eso que nos hace bien, de lo que nos compartes.

$ 0.01
3 years ago

Sí el asunto es como dices, cuando hacemos esas tareas cotidianas aprovechamos para hacer mil cosas a la vez, jeje. Pero es relajante cuando de vez en cuando nos tomamos el tiempo para enfocarnos únicamente en lo que estamos haciendo. Saludos!

$ 0.06
3 years ago

Inattentional blindness is sort of like when you get home from work and don't remember a single thing about the drive. lol

$ 0.02
3 years ago

I would call that a memory blackout, lol

$ 0.01
3 years ago

Mindfulness training looks interesting. Though i cud count the balls i missed the gorilla and curtain colour chage. lack of concentration may be.

$ 0.01
3 years ago

I would say that maybe you were too focused on counting the passes. A mi me paso igual cuando lo vi la primera vez.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Dear, is it about human psychology test? The changing colours were missed by me at first.

$ 0.01
3 years ago

Yes, it's a test that is part of a psychology study. ;) And I missed everything but the passes the first time.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Really good exercise. I missed the changing of color of the curtain and the other member of the black team leaving. I only noticed it when it was over that they are lacking one member. I counted 15 passes. I guess it was the gorilla's fault I missed one lol!

$ 0.02
3 years ago

The first time I counted the passes well, but I didn't notice anything else. And I'm sure that if I had noticed the gorilla, I would have been distracted. And I wouldn't have counted well. lol

$ 0.00
3 years ago

It very new to me especially the video but being mindfulness is the matter. I am aware the existing gorilla but not the changing color of curtains. I am too focus in particular and I misses out something.

$ 0.01
3 years ago

It happened to me. The first time I watched it, I didn't spot the gorilla.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Oh, this brings out what we have really been missing all along. It happens often, doing something and thinking of another. And the video makes me laughed haha. I did count the correct number and noticed the gorilla, but missed the curtains changing colors.

$ 0.02
3 years ago

I didn't spot the gorilla the first time, hehe

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Hehe, I just wonder what was it doing there when I saw it.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Haha! I think that if I had noticed the gorilla, I might not count the correct passes, because it would have distracted me, lol

$ 0.00
3 years ago

I think it was just an accident that I noticed it hahaha

$ 0.00
3 years ago

I had never seen the habit of eating and feeling spices and foods in this way. Now that you say it.

$ 0.02
3 years ago

Mindfulness is a common practice nowadays. It's similar to meditation. And it has health benefits.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

I think I'm going to practice those tasks. These days I have also been bad. Everything comes out as I least expect it. I even have a huge pain in my left hand. A specific nerve or tendon hurts, very badly. I think it's from having the phone in hand all day and writing. :(

$ 0.01
3 years ago

You should rest and do some exercise to help relieve the pain in your hand. Maybe you have some inflamed tendons in your hand.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

I liked the video, I had not done any similar practice, I counted the passes, I noticed when the girl went out and the gorilla came in, but I did not see the color change of the curtain.

$ 0.01
3 years ago

My first time watching it, I just counted well the passes, but I didn't notice anything else.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

I have experienced that kind of blindness sometimes. It means that I probably am too distracted nowadays 😅

$ 0.02
3 years ago

Hi Bryan! Too much tokens and games are your good distractions nowadays, hehe. Cheers!

$ 0.00
3 years ago

right after reading this " when we don't see what we have in front of our noses" I immediately look at my nose lol

$ 0.01
3 years ago

LOL! So you know now, watch out your nose, hehe

$ 0.00
3 years ago

As the song goes, "Sometimes the very thing you're looking for is the one thing you can't see"..I hope mindfulness will be taught in school..I do try my best to practice it most of the time and I am teaching it to my kid.

$ 0.01
3 years ago

That's great that you teach it to your students. I think it should be taught at least in high school.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

It should start in elementary or something, the earlier, the better :)

$ 0.00
3 years ago

You may be right since it's a great tool to improve attention and relieve stress.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

And kids will be more compassionate and empathetic :)

$ 0.00
3 years ago

I noticed the Gorilla and the lady who left.. but didn't notice the changing colors of the curtain.. Sometimes when we are finding things, we tend to focus on the place where we thought we placed it not looking at another place. I guess that's similar to that too...

$ 0.02
3 years ago

Exactly. And the experiment also shows how sometimes we can be so focused on something, that we don't pay attention to what is going on around us. I think that also says about our ability to concentrate despite the disturbances around us.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Mindfulness should really be taught in schools. Sometimes we are busy doing a lot of things simultaneously that we lose our focus and the moment. A reminder that we should all slow down, take time and enjoy every moment.

$ 0.01
3 years ago

I agree with you. Mindfulness should be taught in school, especially for teens.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

I remember watching this video years ago. I felt it was lying and rewatched it from the beginning! Lol. This kind of blindness is certainly happening very often and there are some that have mastered the art of deceiving others.

$ 0.03
3 years ago

The first time I watched, I didn't spot the gorilla, lol

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Me neither.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

hahahaa i got the correct number of passes but I didn't see the gorilla passes by lol. thanks for this my amiga! learned something from it

$ 0.02
3 years ago

The first time I watched, I got the passes too, and I didn't spot the gorilla either, lol. And you are welcome, amiga, xoxo

$ 0.00
3 years ago

While I was counting the times the white player pass the ball, I notice the gorilla and I counted perfectly but didn't notice any player leaving to the changes in the curtain. I have learnt a lot from this and I will try to put it into practice

$ 0.01
3 years ago

I'm glad you've found it useful. By the way, I didn't spot the gorilla, my first time watching it. ;)

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Ahaha, that was something interesting. I count 14 whit passing bals and noticed the gorilla and the curtain but didn't noticed the black player is leaving. What kind of situation is this?

$ 0.01
3 years ago

I don't know. But it shows how different people can be when it comes to perceiving visual stimuli. When I watched it for the first time, I counted the number of passes well but didn't notice anything else. ;)

$ 0.00
3 years ago

My brain is weird, it will notice stuff when it wants and when it doesn't care, it doesn't even care hahaha.. I think I have selective blindness lol

$ 0.01
3 years ago

I think we all have selective attention blindness when we want 😂

$ 0.00
3 years ago

I have already learned this a bit before, but I am still mind blown! I admire people who could simultaneously notice every single details.. 😮

$ 0.01
3 years ago

Yes, I admire them too ;) The first time I watched the video, I didn't notice all the details.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Wow great learnings. The colors of the curtain, the gorilla. Lol, I didn't even noticed.

$ 0.01
3 years ago

I'm glad you learned from it. ;)

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Guess I don't have that full mindfulness at all, ma'am. I did not see the curtain changing colors. Oh my. This is why my mom would spanked me for being this way.

$ 0.01
3 years ago

Haha, for your peace of mind. The first time I watched the video, I counted the ball passes well, but I didn't even spot the gorilla. LOL

$ 0.00
3 years ago

I'm speechless i just find it fascinating because I only got the right count which is 16 then I didn't even notice that there was a gorilla back there because I was too focused on those three women on a white t shirt. Indeed we missed a lot of things just because we tend to focus on one thing alone. Thumbs up for this!❣️

$ 0.01
3 years ago

Thank you! The same happened to me the first time I watched it.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

take care sweetheart. Sometimes life goes down but when you don't expect it at all, it goes up. Nothing more important than a healthy mindset.

$ 0.01
3 years ago

I haven't seen you around here in a long time. Glad to see you are back. And you are right, a healthy mindset is very important.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Was to disappointed from the community as a whole, so I spent my energy for other things. :) Good to see you

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Omg! Why is that I only count 15? Hahaha and yes, I saw gorilla coming in but wasn't able to see the one wearing black going out, and did not see the curtain changing colors.

$ 0.01
3 years ago

Hehe, my first time watching it, I counted the 16 but didn't spot the gorilla and the other details. ;)

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Really? Hahaha this just means we really have different ways on how we give our full attention to something.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Wow! Just wow! I counted 16 times and i saw the gorilla. I didn't notice someone leaving or see the curtain colour changing. Great lesson learnt!

$ 0.02
3 years ago

I'm glad you've found it useful :)

$ 0.00
3 years ago