On focus

“Cool breezes and a clear sky. This day will not come again.” -Thomas Merton...Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander 45

From a research brief from Scientific American MIND Mar/Apr 2011 issue:

“Lose Focus, Lose Happiness: A wandering mind may bring you down

Daydreaming may boost creativity, but a new study from psychologists at Harvard University suggests that letting your mind wander may also lead to unhappiness. The researchers had more than 2,000 study participants use an iPhone application that randomly asked them to report their current activity and state of mind. The results indicate that people’s minds wander an awful lots… and the more people reported being distracted, the lower they reported their mood. There may be something to “living in the moment” after all. – Erica Westly”

At this source researchers Matthew Killingsworth, a doctoral student in psychology at Harvard University, and lead author on the study Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert assert: “People's minds wandered almost 47 percent of the time, and were more likely to think about pleasant topics than unpleasant or neutral ones. Yet thinking pleasant thoughts made people no happier than focusing on what they were doing – and unhappiness spiked when thinking neutral or unpleasant thoughts… Mind wandering took up at least 30 percent of the time during almost every activity, including playing, exercising, praying and taking care of the kids…So what was the only exception? "Apparently people focus most intensely on making love. [Making love] was 10 percent [for mind wandering], which was the lowest," Killingsworth said in an e-mail. "The highest was 'grooming, self care' at 65 percent."

(Study is detailed in the Nov. 11, 2010 issue of the journal Science)

Spring will come soon to our part of the world and I’m looking forward to that. But I don’t want only to look forward, I want to also be present in this day and in this moment (even when it’s COLD outside? Even when some situations feel cruddy? – well, I’ll try). Sounds like we’ll be better off “all in” whatever it is that we’re doing. Attentive. Intentional. Focused.

And it helps me to come back to the idea that there is a Loving God who has gifted me with this moment, even when it’s harder to find the gift under all the clutter, or the grass under all the snow.

May you be present in your moments, and may those moments hold good and gift. Best, Dee

And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. – Colossians 3:17