I have always enjoyed exploring and being in nature - from walking on the seashore and swimming, to trails in forests, lakes, mountains, caves. Being away from technology and people, losing sense of time as my mind and body synergize with nature, appreciating the beauty of plants, wildlife and the vast landscapes. Something I’ve suspected for a while is that apart from the joy and excitement I gain from the experience, there are healing properties to this activity. Well, it turns out there’s decades of research to back it up - Spending time in nature positively affects overall happiness, stress levels, and equally importantly - mental fatigue, concentration, and creativity.

The main psychological theory that explores this was proposed in the 1980s by Stephen Kaplan and Rachel Kaplan, and is called Attention Restoration Theory. According to the theory, our attention is divided into two types:

Directed attention: The conscious effort we exert when we focus on specific tasks, such as studying or working.
Involuntary attention: Effortless and occurs when we are drawn to stimuli in the environment, such as a beautiful landscape or a chirping bird.

Directed attention is a finite resource that can become depleted after prolonged use. When we constantly engage in tasks that require directed attention, like working in a busy office or studying in a noisy environment, our capacity to produce directed attention depletes, and we experience mental fatigue, reduced productivity, and increased stress.

Being in nature induces involuntary attention. This is basically like charging your directed attention batteries, restoring your attention and capacity to focus. A central part in the explanation of why this works is the concept of “Soft fascination” - a state of attention that is captured effortlessly, allowing the mind to relax and recover. The natural world provides gentle and intriguing stimulations, such as the sound of flowing water or the rustling of leaves, which attract the mind’s involuntary attention without requiring effort or cognitive processing. The resulting effect allows our capacity for directed attention to replenish, restoring our cognitive resources and ability to concentrate and engage in tasks that require prolonged focus.

Recently, during dealing with some health issues of a family member, I’ve had time to think about the impermanent nature of life. How everything we worry about is so temporary and insignificant in the end. It sounds negative and sad, but how freeing is it! If only we could accept this idea and remind ourselves in our daily lives. Life is too sweet and short to be taken for granted, wasted on others’ perceptions and expectations. It is our own fears that are holding us back from realizing our potential and to truly shine.

I’ve long been interested in what Buddhism has to say about this topic. In Buddhism, the Dhamma (Teachings of the Buddha) has a concept called “Three Marks of Existence”.

Anicca (Impermanence): All things are impermanent - Things, people, feelings, ideas. They all arise, exist for a period of time, and then pass away.
Dukka (Suffering, Dissatisfaction): There is inherent suffering or dissatisfaction experienced in life due to the impermanent nature of existence. It can arise from various sources, including craving, attachment, and inability to accept change.
Anatta (“Non-self”): The “self” as a consistent entity is an illusion. There is no unchanging essence or quality within individuals.

The concept of Anatta is closely tied to the attainment of Nirvana (“Enlightenment”). By recognizing the absence of a fixed self, one can free themselves from attachment, craving, and the causes of suffering, ultimately leading to the experience of Nirvana.

References

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_marks_of_existence
• The Way Out is In - Lessons in Impermanence: How to Handle Life when Everything Changes
• Former gymnast Tamara O’Brien talks about life after terminal cancer diagnosis

When not learning or creating, there is a passive way to “prime” your brain. I’ve learned this technique from a video by Elizabeth Filips. She talks in-depth about the challenges of a chaotic mind to improve in a world where consistency is key. The method she describes is interesting: instead of trying to get consistent, linear, “1% every day” progress, go for 5000% progress. The way she approaches it is by “priming” the mind. When you want to learn something, watch videos and tutorials about it, read blog posts, read about previous efforts in the field but don’t allow yourself to start actually learning it. Motivation will naturally build up, and at some point your mind won’t be able to stand it anymore - you’ll enter flow state and spend countless hours, staying up nights learning and playing with everything about this subject.

I know this exposure motivation method works, because I have seen it’s effects on myself in the past. Will doing this by intention lead to different results? Maybe the mind will be able to distinguish and rebel when it recognizes that it is being led or manipulated to be excited about a particular subject? I wonder.

The amount of rush I get when I am already in flow and coding is unreal. In this alternate realm, the ego is dissolved, there is no concept of effort and anything is possible. The mind is flying in 3000mph, completely free from anything that ever held it back. It doesn’t take too much time to get there, either. I just need to get over the 10 minutes of “getting bored” and recalibrate the “focus lenses” of my mind to zoom in on the thing I want.

You know the feeling where there is an annoying noise in the background? Your mind readjusts to it’s new reality and accepts it as the new norm: Reality + “Beeeeeep”…

You’re still able to concentrate because the human brain is among the most remarkable devices to ever exist, but there is a thread running in the back of your mind, noticing the noise, processing it, and it’s taking up CPU and driving you crazy. It’s hard to even notice that it’s doing that, until the noise is gone and you relax in a sigh of relief.

When the noise comes back for the second time around, your mind loses faith in the idea that the environment is safe from noise, and readjusts again. As the noise keeps coming back again and again, it becomes a permanent resident in the mind’s model of the environment. Even when it disappears, you ask yourself, “Is it still there? When will it be back? Should I concentrate fully or expect the noise to come back?”. Apart from it being a nasty form of torture and taking up permanent CPU, it degrades the quality of your focus and your ability to consume informations and solve problems. You forget how it was before, and it seems like it was always like this.

Even when it’s not there for days, you still wait for it in anticipation, knowing it will come back to disturb you. Just like when it first introduced itself, when the noise disappears, it takes time for the mind to unlearn the trauma and gain trust in the environment as being safe from noise again. During that time, the mind had already allocated cognitive resources, using them to anticipate and expect something that will break the stream of focus. So, even when the disturbance is not physically present anymore, it’s there - like a ghosting effect.

This phenomena happens with other types of distractions. It could be a noisy roommate or neighbor, unimportant phone call, even that other task you keep thinking about and getting back to. We basically train our mind to acknowledge that our time working is worth as much as the time spent doing the interrupting activity. Because, after all, if what we were doing was really that important, couldn’t everything else wait? This thought corrupts our mindset and stops us from letting go of outside reality and entering a state of deep work.

I don’t have all the answers, but for me, the way to deal with this is: instead of dealing with, or, removing the distractions, I remove myself from the distractions. Like starting with a blank sheet of paper, a separate, clean physical and virtual environment helps me completely focus and immerse myself in the process of creation.

It took me far too long to realize this one, but it seems like the mind is like a plant… Do not let it’s silence misguide you, it has access to all the information about your intentions. It feels when you’re genuinely interesting in something, and when you’re bluffing, lying to yourself because there’s some arbitrary deadline for a generic test that some pile of carbon molecules wrote…

If you pour a bucket of water over a plant, it won’t magically grow and become 10 times bigger. The mind thrives in environments where it’s externally stimulated and it can interact and play with things, like a kid - to ask questions, solve mysteries, explore, make stuff happen!

The way I phrase work in my mind before I approach it, whether in a specific session or in general, can affect my productivity by hundreds of percents. It’s a relatively elusive matter, because the moment I think of it in these terms, measuring and optimizing performance, the magic disappears. I find it’s best to just be present in the flow, immerse yourself in the rhythm and let the mind take over.

The inner child learns and creates through playing

A while ago, I’ve started working through a wonderful book that takes you through a psychological journey to reconnect with your inner child through art and dialogue. This quote particularily resonated with the idea of freeing your mind to learn by playing, messing around and having fun.

“It is a well-known fact that children develop and learn through play. While playing they explore, test their limits, and develop skills. Allowed to play without pressure and criticism, children’s true creativity blossoms from within. Watch any group of nursery school kids or kindergartners. Left to their own devices they will play with finger paints and clay, scribble with crayons, erect entire cities with building blocks, create magical castles and landscapes in the sandbox, and invent their own world through dramatic play with costumes and props.

Metaphors are natural to children. They adore make-believe. The youngest children create scenarios and act them out. They can turn anything into a prop. A broom handle becomes a sword. A garbage can lid becomes a shield, and a packing crate becomes a fort. No one has to teach children the fun of creative play. It is an intrinsic human ability that shows itself best in the child. On the contrary, society teaches children to stop being creative, to grow up, and to be “practical.” If the Inner Child is to be fully reclaimed, this innate creativity must be allowed to express itself. This creative aspect of the Inner Child is often called the Magical Child”.

Time needed

20-30 minutes.

Ingredients

• Broccoli (1 bag, 800g)
• Coconut cream, 1 can (500ml)
• Eggs, 3
• Salt, to taste
• Pepper, to taste
• Curry powder, start with 1-2 tsp. and adjust to your preference

Instructions

For the coconut curry cream

1. Pour the coconut milk into a saucepan over medium heat.
2. Add 1-2 teaspoons of curry powder into the saucepan and stir well to combine with the curry powder.
3. Bring the mixture to a simmer and let it cook for about 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sauce thickens slightly and the flavors meld together.
4. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Adjust the amount of curry powder if desired.
5. Remove the coconut curry cream from the heat and set it aside.

For the broccoli

1. Wash the broccoli thoroughly and cut it into florets. Peel and chop the stalks into small pieces if desired.
2. In a separate large pan or skillet, heat some oil over medium heat.
3. Add the broccoli florets and stalks to the pan and sauté for about 5 minutes until they start to become tender. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
4. Reduce the heat to low and cover the pan. Let the broccoli cook for another 5-10 minutes, or until it reaches your desired tenderness, stirring occasionally.
5. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs together.
6. Temporarily remove the cover, push the sautéed broccoli to one side of the pan and pour the whisked eggs onto the other side. Allow the eggs to cook for a minute or two until they start to set.
7. Gently scramble the eggs with a spatula or fork, breaking them into smaller pieces.
8. Once the eggs are cooked, mix them with the sautéed broccoli in the pan.
9. Once the broccoli is cooked, remove it from the heat.

To serve

1. Place the cooked broccoli on a serving plate or individual bowls.
2. Pour the coconut curry cream over the broccoli or serve it on the side as a dipping sauce.
3. Serve hot.

Enjoy!

In the modern era, technological and societal advancements have given us the means to live lives that our ancestors could only dream of. We have access to superpowers that the even royalty did not possess - Internet (greatest network of knowledge in history), instant worldwide communication, global travel, healthcare (along with absurdly long lifespans!).

As it turns out, despite these incredible advancements, many individuals struggle to harness the full potential of these tools in their lives. Instead of embracing the opportunities that the modern age offers, they find themselves turning to non-constructive patterns of thinking and behaving. The advancements have also come with their own set of mental chains, traps and barriers [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12].

To rise above, we must make conscious choices to embrace the opportunities given to us, and decide what we can leave out. By treating our minds and lives as the precious gifts they are, we can begin to live life fully, taking charge of our learning, health, relationships, time, purpose. The power is in our hands to elevate ourselves beyond these challenges and create a life of significance, to awaken to the potential that lies within us.

It may not always be easy but there are vast amounts of resources out there for achieving virtually any dream or mission that the human mind aspires to.

Let us heed to the call of the unknown… Greatness awaits.