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Comment by agumonkey | Hacker News Reader

I do chores as yoga exercise, never thought of adding podcast to the blend..

I work in manufacturing, and sometimes i listen to podcasts, but sometimes i meditate(like tai-chi, attention to body movements) while working.

Meditating is harder(and coffee is helpful), but when successful, is much more satisfying.

I'm still not sure I approached a meditative state by "meditating". When I play drums I do get into a slight trance / bliss where I kinda become music and my mind shifts off.

The key to flow/meditativr-state is sussposed to be fitting the processing capability someone's brain has , to the task. That way all of your attention is given to a network called "task mode network" and no attention is left to the "default mode network " (which is resonsible for mental chatter and self in past/present) so the brain becomes quiet.

So maybe there's a way to make chores more demanding of attention[1] ? Like deciding to do them in a different way or focus on more/different details ? Maybe that's why the Japanese tea ceremony is so complicated ?

[1]As drumming is , altough maybe there's something meditative about music?

I do that all the time. I think I did this from birth. Anything boring I twist it to make it "interesting". I achieved supposedly a 10x throughput increase in my last mission (stupid job though) by applying checking constraints so tight it was a choreography.

This doesn't work all the time though. I believe there are limits to ones ability to influence it's mental state. Last year, very sick, I could sense the calming effect of meditation. But tonight for instance, after a violent incident, my mind is racing.

You are experiencing Flow: https://www.amazon.com/Flow-Psychology-Experience-Perennial-...

That's quite interesting. Any reading material about that?

Some of it from internet research about flow, so hard to pinpoint specific material. Some of it from this very good youtube lecture: "the end of suffering and the default mode network" .

Thank you. I'll make sure to watch it :)

Very interesting lecture! Thanks!

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