The quiet art of attention

Well written! I can relate to most of the article. However, I find that

> To focus on one thing deeply, to give it your full attention, is to experience it fully. And when we do this, something remarkable happens. Time, which so often feels like it is slipping through our fingers, begins to slow.

doesn't really apply to me, or to many people I know and have worked with - it is when I focus on one task that "time flies", and it's distractions that end up throwing men out of the zone.

agree that the "clock of life" is a strange beast, when compared to the clock on the wall. i try to quit paying too much attention to the latter, and time becomes more nuanced and textured.

Yeah, it's more like time taking a backseat than slowing down.

What you're describing is a state of flow which is good for things like work but the article seems to be talking about time metaphorically.

For example, imagine you're going to your daughter's piano recital and spend the whole time thinking about work. You would be missing out on the experience of watching her perform and grow. If you become mindful of these habits and say "My mind is focusing on something that I cannot change right now, I should be present" then you'll be able to fully experience a moment in your child's life. So rather than feeling like life is passing you by, you're able to experience it in the moment. The surrounding sentences of the line you quoted don't read like the author's describing time like you are:

"But in this process, we must remember something important: life is not meant to be rushed through. It is not a race, nor is it a problem to be solved. It is an experience to be lived, and living well requires presence. ... Moments become rich, textured. Even the simplest of tasks takes on a new significance when approached with care, with attention."

What I think he meant is that time slows down for him in the way that time around him speeds up while he can stay focused on one thing.

Now of course I’m not the author so I’m not sure but yeah the way you’re describing it (real time flying when you’re locked in on something) is how I feel it goes for most people

Well put, but I think you’re using “focus” in a different sense than the author is.

The article discusses internal (intensional!) focus on the substance of experience itself as it’s presented to your unified Ego, and you’re discussing the much more common idea of external (extensional!!1!) focus, which is almost the exact opposite since it typically requires quieting your inner monologue to the greatest extent possible and letting your subconscious faculties act autonomously.

Author describes experiences that myself can fully confirm. Everything said in this article resonates very strong, including how time slows in observation. This incredible essay is a very organic, honest summary, yet without all the esoteric, of what a mindful presence can be (whenever achieved). A bliss retold in few paragraphs.

Indeed to let go of the worldly rush is truly liberating. What a pity it is not allowed to complement the scriptures with such insights.

Yep that’s my reading too. I like to see it from a dynamical systems perspective: as a system approaches an attractor, the phase flow slows down, while the wall time marches on steadily. If we consider the “perspective” of the system, which is wall time divided by phase flow, we get the time speeding up part.

It is my experience that "flow" is not the same as "mindfulness" or "attention".

I do improvized couples dancing, and have experienced time slowing down. It is an unique kind of experience, not just a different conceptualization of an everyday experience.

Buddhists say that you are where your attention is. So if a sound captures 100% of my attention, I am that sound. This feels strange on the surface, but when you look deeper into it, it reveals deep wisdom about the human experience.

In my understanding, it is possible, through years of practice (meditation etc.), to learn to direct your attention. Most of us have very limited capability to direct our attention, because we have not practiced it. Actually, modern life trains us to become less capable of directing our attention.

Based on your description, when you talk about "focusing on one task", you describe a flow state where you are 100% absorbed in the task. In a way you have not consciously decided to focus your attention. (I use a very specific meaning for the word conscious here, it is more aligned with the buddhist sense of the word, instead of western sense of having-thoughts-about the thing).

Your attention has been captured by the task at hand. In a way you are lucky that an useful and productive task has captured your attention.

In my understanding, if you learn to direct and hold the attention consciously, there is a next stage you can learn, where you become able to split your attention, to be conscious of two things at the same time.

If you direct some of your attention to the task at had, and some attention to a part in you observing yourself doing the task, then it feels as if the task is "happening", instead of you "doing" the task.

When this happens, there are effects on the physical experience as well, such as time slowing down. I have been blessed with such experiences when dancing, It seems to be possible to have such experiences also without being able to consistently and consciously direct the attention, as I have been blessed with such experiences in my dancing. But in this case it is accidental.

I think it is helpful to differentiate between mindfulness and concentration.*

I would associate flow more with concentration. And if there is no mindfulness together with the concentration, time will just "fly by". At least for me.

*As it is done in Buddhism, where both are separate spokes of the dharma wheel.

In my experience it is not metaphorical, but an actual effect on how you experience time.

I have experienced slowing of time in improvised couples dancing. I may have to react to very complex situations in a time frame that feels impossible.

For example, at the same time my follower can be so tense that she cannot feel leading/following signals as well as if she was relaxed, and she mis-interprets my lead and goes where I was not expecting her to go, her clothing gets stuck, another couple comes into the space I have directed our dance and we are about to crash etc. All this while I am interpreting live music in an interesting way. (This is an extreme example, most of the time things go smoothly.)

It may be unbelievable that it is possible to be able to solve such problems in split second, but it happens all the time in improvised couples dancing. The analytical mind is way too slow for it, however. If I am experiencing time that has slowed down, there is ample time to do everything. It does not even feel I need to rush it, but I can stay relaxed, and continue improvising go the music.

It's an interesting thing to consider.

They seem both similar but very different at the same time.

"Flow" to me feels like allowing the mind off its leash, but having it be completely focused on one task rather than its normal state of unfocused chaos.

Whereas "mindfulness" feels more like allowing the mind to rest and become still.

In the former time slips by so quickly, and the latter time can seem to stand still, but with both time becomes meaningless.

Maybe what both have in common is this disconnection from time.

Maybe you're both right? Staying on the example of recitals. When I concentrate hard listening to the music they seem like they last forever while also being over in the blink of an eye!

Similar sensation to being in an isolation chamber

In sports/competition isn't what you've described the ability to both execute technically extremely precisely while having presence of mind to dictate the flow of the game?

you have described my experience succinctly and eloquently. it is a profound event that feels like a whole-body centering. thank you for this.

I think this is correct. Time is not, metaphorically, just the perception of elapsed seconds. There is a dimension of depth. And while it may “fly by” it can feel slow if it was spent with depth.

An hour on social media and time laughing with friends can both be fleeting but one will feel better spent.

Good write-up. IME, you can meditate enough that you can sometimes consciously choose to slow time down to devote more and more attention to something.

The key advantage of this is you can jumpstart a flywheel: attention -> unmediated effort -> attention. I say unmediated because your talking mind gets out of the way or helps you (versus never shutting up). I have used this during guitar practice sessions and found them both very enjoyable and helpful in the learning process.

Flow can deplete you because of the singular focus. Mindfulness refreshes you because you simply are - there’s no motive for it.

It might be that programming and other office jobs simply overtrain the analytical mind to the point that we mistakenly think that it is the best tool to ascertain reality with.

I believe the original author referred to the importance of intentionally focusing on something that isn't stimulating enough to create a sense of flow. It requires mindful effort to truly pay attention.

In essence, it's about being present without an occupied mind. In my experience, this can make time seem to pass more slowly, but in a pleasant way, even if it's somewhat subdued compared to a state of flow.

Yes. For many years, working on hard problems was my "drug of choice", because while in that state time disappeared, as did emotional pain -- being fully invested in a problem used up enough of my brain to shut up the internal narrator and the consciousness of pain.

It still does. But eventually you become aware that you aren't solving the key problem, just making it worse by not addressing it.

I think it starts already in school.

This is a complex question. I have found the book "Inner game of tennis" very interesting in this regard. The book is by a coach for world-class athletes. If you try it for yourself, you will learn that your analytical mind cannot micromanage your body to even lift a spoon from the table.

Thank you.

I cannot do that. In fact, when I think it is "me" who controls my attention to increase my presence, I immediately lose any presence.

Yeah when I was watching young family learn to walk it became clear that even things like walking we take for granted and its very complex and isn't meant to be learned analytically and most of us lack the fundamental understanding of what is involved to teach it under an analytical model and yet most of us walk everyday without a given thought