oneminutefocus.com
So I made something simple you can look at (and simultaneously meditate) for 1 minute to improve focus for your next task :) Let me know if it works for you
YMMV
Telling myself to breathe slower is fine. Just not at some predefined interval (or worse, whatever interval the yoga instructor feels like I should be breathing at)
Maybe that's the point. Because you have to follow a certain timing, your body is not on autopilot anymore, so you have to be conscious of your oxygen needs, maybe even adjust them (for example, by calming down).
A lot of it is breathing slower, or faster than your body requires (including retention of breath, or holding with no air in the lungs), in order to elicit mental and physical states.
Another example of this is Wim Hof, where you over breathe intentionally and then hold the breath for extended periods.
Breath is a really interesting topic, being an autonomous system for the most part, but one which we can take voluntary control over.
If you are interested in learning more, I'd recommend the book "Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art" by James Nestor.
Edit: After trying the meditation, I also found it was a little quick if I was trying to sync my breathing to the dot. It may be intentional if the aim is to improve focus and alertness for an upcoming task, rather than relaxation!
Many people give up on learning to meditation because they cannot clear their mind for X minutes straight. Their mind runs away, and they must bring it back to focus. They see this as failure.
Yet, this is exactly what is expected. How else to learn the invaluable skill of refocusing after distraction. If staring at a circle was so stimulating you never got distracted, then you would have no chance to build your focus muscles.
Note: this comment is mostly about the first steps into meditation. I learned this idea from Shinzo Young.
Yes, this is a real block for lots of people. When I was teaching my children to meditate, I tried to head this off a bit by telling them "you'll probably find that your headvoice will keep chattering away at first. Let it. Don't really fight it. Just acknowledge without judgment, clear your mind again, and keep meditating. Your mind will grow quieter on its own as you practice more."
This is for those of you that live by the bay. Needs a clear day but no Otis Redding song necessary.
Where I live it takes about a 20-30 mins for a ship that left the harbour to disappear over the horizon. As it leaves I can see all the details, the name of the ship, the containers or people. Lots to think about and observe. I don't take my eyes off it. Gradually it turns into a smaller and smaller square, and eventually a dot. All that it is, all the people and cargo and funnels become an ever smaller world. Somehow that grabs and keeps my focus.
Actually started to do it as an exercise for vision from too much screen time. Apparently it helps to focus on a distant object and I think... maybe... hmm... maybe it helps. But anyway, after a half hour of watching a dot vanish over the horizon, it leaves you with a _good_ feeling. Like I used to get from astronomy before moving to the city. YMMV.
When people first start meditating, they often find it very difficult to get a "quiet moment" and think that's a sign that they're doing something wrong or something isn't working. Neither of those things are true, and while you might get just a few seconds of "quiet" at first, as you practice more, that time will expand.
The basic point is that it's part of the normal progression (of anything, really). When you're doing anything new, you're going to suck at it at first and improve as you keep doing it. It's counterproductive to feel bad about the stage where you aren't good at it, and giving those judgemental feelings power can cause an unwarranted discouraging force.
This is what we say to our students. It'll run away. Just bring it back. It's OK.
The tool is great, BTW. Congrats. My only small gripe is the pulsation is too fast (for me). My relaxed breathe is 5 seconds inhale, 5 seconds exhale.
Was it my imagination or did the rate change? It seemed to slow down a bit at the end.
If it doesn't, that might be a good feature; a progressive slowdown and perhaps a config to change overall rate.
Because evening out the speed and taking deeper breaths help calming down with a couple of mechanisms.
OP had a cool idea -- wish it hit the 5/5 cadence.
I decided to start going to a therapist for some issues I've encountered over the years. He took my background information and immediately dove into an entire diatribe about meditation. Without addressing a single thing I actually said. The thing is, I've attempted meditation over the years. Not only had I already read all of his recommended source material AND watched the videos he recommended, but I knew other sources that I rattled off to him as well, including entire books on controlled breathing. I spent 2 years with it and never got anywhere.
It does not work for me and I'm not putting myself through it again. I've got three or four separate trains of thought going on at all times. It's impossible to put a cork in all of them, it isn't helpful, and it's about as useful as prayer is to an atheist.
Asking someone who has been abused as a child to instead stare into the abyss is a cop-out. Meditation as a solution to depression and anxiety doesn't bring me calm. It makes me angry.
It reminds me of: years ago I came across a book profiling the journey of a young western Jewish man seeking a path in Zen Buddhism, studying under gurus with other seekers in monasteries. As he progressed through his meditative practice he couldn't avoid feeling unsettled by the sense that none of it was "working" for him no matter how deeply he understood and how much he practiced. The gurus all just kept trying to help him improve his practice. Until he came to the most enlightened and compassionate guru who basically let him off the hook, saying, in essence, that this stuff will never stick to him and that he's just meant to practice Judaism.
It is not impossible for all to learn this type of 'skill'. It is more difficult for many, and impossible for some.
I believe we can learn languages by (1) concentrating on mimicking and (2) learning by speaking with others and being continuously corrected by others.
The problem is that is requires a tremendous amount of work for learner and teacher.
Think how a baby or child learns and do as much of that as possible.
Initially absolutely avoid all reading, and totally avoid learning any rules.
Improve your general ability of mimicking skills e.g. by copying singers and songs, by copying famous people in the foreign language, mimicking accents or people in your own mother tongue.
People with English as their mother tongue have some advantages - we actually recognise a huge variety of vowel sounds because various English accents contain them - we also have familiarity with a variety of grammatical constructs. We also know pronunciation and writing are completely disjoint: anyone coming from a language where you say what you read has a big disadvantage.
Much of my belief comes from talking with people that have English as their second language, and looking for their successes and failures. Some people learn English well and it's interesting to look for why them? Some mistakes are common to particular groups and it's interesting to look for the root cause.
I have applied some of the above to teach myself conversational Spanish. To test my beliefs I'm definitely keen to move onto something more difficult ( I'm middle aged): the block is that I will need to dedicate many months of effort living in another country.
Not so sure about that. For example, I noticed it takes a bit of effort to get native English speakers to pronounce the ы sound, or to get them to hear how the ь letter affects pronunciation.
> We also know pronunciation and writing are completely disjoint: anyone coming from a language where you say what you read has a big disadvantage.
I don't quite agree. I come from a language where the spelling is almost phonetic (so, not totally disjoint from pronunciation), and it's very easy for children to learn reading and writing, which means they quickly move on to more important things. Meanwhile, children learning English as a first language are stuck memorising spelling and obscure rules and exceptions just to be able to write correctly. And conversely, when they hear a new word (or name) they need to look up how to spell it. I don't see an advantage, it's just a waste of energy.
It was relatively easy for me to learn the spelling of English words because I already knew a reasonable amount of French, so it was quite intuitive to spell "restaurant" or "renaissance". But for someone with English as a first language, I suspect it would have involved a lot of memorising.
But you are saying English speakers can learn it? How do Romance language speakers do? I'm just making a generalisation, which is not universal and there are plenty of vowel and consonant sounds English speakers really struggle to learn.
> children learning English as a first language are stuck memorising spelling and obscure rules and exceptions just to be able to write correctly.
Absolutely: it is a serious downside of English and plenty of adults never learn to spell well. I have seen the advantages of saying it like it is spelled in Spanish. But that isn't relevant to my point that English speakers have a natural understanding that spelling is disjoint from pronunciation. It maybe doesn't help much - hearing English speakers saying words they have learnt from books is painful!
Secondly, many English speakers often try to pronounce foreign names correctly - another habit that teaches us pronunciation (a little!)
I’ve meditated on and off, and find it sometimes helpful, but I can’t conceive of what it would mean for it to work, or not work.
It did not. I never felt any real benefit from it and I didn't enjoy the process. So to me, that's "not working."
What's your motivation for meditating? Is it something that you can tell afterwards whether you achieved it or not? And I'm not talking 'achieve' like some sigma grindset maximizing gains type BS, I mean the way if I play a video game, I'm doing it because I expect to have fun, and afterwards I can ask myself "was that fun?" and gauge the degree to which I had fun.
The benefits are “small” in one sense, but highly leveraged in another sense.
I don’t necessarily feel that I get a lot out of any single session, aside from a mental interrupt (which could also be achieved by going for a walk, or whatever).
It’s more like, doing it consistently over time moves the needle in some very small way, almost imperceptible. Like, I’ll notice I’m a little more patient with my kids, a little less anxious during a work meeting, a little slower to get angry, a little quicker to let anger dissipate.
And if I wasn’t paying attention, these changes might be so subtle that I wouldn’t even say anything had changed, and I could easily be one who says it “doesn’t work”.
But while those changes are all small and subtle, the downstream impact can be enormous. The difference between staying angry for a minute versus an hour is often the difference between good long term relationships and divorce, or the difference between going to prison, or not. Lots of long-tail negative outcomes get avoided. And the benefit of having a lower idle anxiety level seems to have a cumulative impact, or a thing that kicks off a virtuous cycle. Like, I feel a little less anxious, so I make a less worse decision to not medicate with junk food, so I sleep a little better, and make another better decision the next day, and so on.
It’s hard to really convey, because it’s very subtle but the principle is, I think, that the difference between doing a little, and doing zero, has a way larger impact than the arithmetic calculation would suggest. Like the difference between spending a dollar more than you earn, versus spending a dollar less than you earn. It’s a $2 difference and seems insignificant, but it’s the difference between debt and a path to wealth.
But for others who maybe have struggled with it but haven't entirely sworn it off, I wanted to offer the following thoughts.
> It's impossible to put a cork in all of them
I know you know this given your background, but for others reading, the point of meditation isn't to silence your mind. It's one of the most confusing things about meditation at first, and it often sends people into an anxiety feedback loop. People notice their mind isn't being silenced and start to feel like a failure for not silencing it, which makes their mind less silent etc. I have an anxious kid, and this fear feedback loop is the hardest part.
But really, stripping away the traditional/religious background, IMO the main thing is activating the parasympathetic nervous system in a controlled way. Putting aside relatively abnormal cases, if one is angry or anxious then one hasn't successfully activated the parasympathetic nervous system, even if one is sitting in a meditation posture and trying to focus on the breath. So this it's pretty easy to tell whether you're deploying this skill successfully.
From trial and error, I've found that asking people to breathe out slowly is the least error prone method to get people to successfully activate the parasympathetic nervous system. Sometimes it helps to take a breath, hold it for a few seconds and then breathe out slowly. Other methods, like telling people to take a deep breath I've found to be less effective and more prone to errors. (For example, some people try to breathe hard or fast or even hyperventilate).
Once you can do that reliably and habitually, then you can start promoting other skills, like watching your mind without judgment. But I'm not sure it helps to, for example, non-judgmentally watch yourself have a panic attack. So IMO the ability to step back from the brink should come first for a lot of people, and then the harder skills should be built on a foundation where you know you have the ability to intervene if you need to.
The only times I do clear my mind intentionally now are the times when I am waiting. Kinda like fast-traveling to the future in video games (or, indeed, meditation mechanic in Witcher games). Makes airport experience a lot better, actually.
Meditation is a tool, and no tool is useful for everyone. And some folk don't use the tool as intended.
Aim to make it all the way to 6 seconds. Tell yourself this is a major accomplishment for you - a 100% improvement.
Then you need to take a break, have something to eat. Stretch your muscles, do some shadow boxing and see how far you can make it beyond 12 seconds.
Scream inside your head, YES I'VE MADE IT!
The other thought processes deserve to be mocked like this.
The way I get through it is to remind myself that the only reason to avoid doing anything is fear of death, and I know for sure that sitting here for 1 minute will not kill me, therefore I have no reason not to force myself to just do it.
A suggestion: the pulse animation would look much better with ease-in / ease-out animation curves instead of the harsh linear curve it's currently using. EaseInOutSine from this cheat sheet would do fine: https://easings.net/
Under 2 kB total. HTML, mostly CSS and literally two lines of JS only for restarting the animation.
[0] https://myfonj.github.io/sandbox.html#%3C!doctype%20html%3E%...
[0] https://myfonj.github.io/sandbox.html#%3C!doctype%20html%3E%...
Also, you could think about extending to box breathing.
It's disconcerting because its not how I naturally breathe.
task: stare at circle
HN, staring at the circle: they could use CSS for this instead of JS
It's one of extensions that makes you instantly regret you didn't install it earlier.
Dark Mode Reader is good, but it's not perfect. And it makes a lot of map-based sites pretty weird.
From what I've noticed, more than two inhales is fine, it still works. It just shouldn't be an uncomfortable amount of air in the lungs.
I've also noticed that my dog does this when he's about to go to sleep.
Culture gripe; I wish more creators got to the meat first, and added the long drawn out explanations later. I know why they don't (views == $$), but for real. I don't need your life story, just tell me how many onions I need to buy for the recipe.
Note: this doesn't mean the technique takes a few seconds, just that the technique will be useful in seconds
No, in the current Youtube ecosystem it's "watchtime == $$". Maybe you meant that anyway, because it matches your actual comment way better.
Incredibly skeptical that it could work, but repeating it 5-10 times in a row significantly calms me and fills me with a warm relaxed feeling for at least 10-15 minutes.
I can't say it improved my focus but I did appreciate the 30s of calm. Good work!
Two minor requests:
- Ability to hide the timer at the bottom completely (one less distraction for my brain)
- Dark mode (or maybe selectable colors?) -- I think it could be useful right before going to bed, clear my mind out etc.
Ideally, both could be saved to local storage so the settings persist.
I do think there's something that happens after a short period of intentional focus, where you cross a "barrier" into a state of mind that is more conducive to long-term focus. But there's definitely sometimes real resistance to crossing that barrier.
That's how it feels for me anyways though.
Secondly... My distrust of the internet did not let me complete this as it told me a jump scare was guaranteed to happen eventually.
That phrasing, "wouldn't let me complete this", is a self-defeating way to talk to yourself.
Switching it up a bit can make a significant difference, for example: "That first try was a struggle, it might take some practice for me to improve".
--
In case you or other HN friends are curious and find this technique intriguing, it stems from the philosophy suggesting healthy thinking can reduce distress and promote well-being. The field of study is called Cognitive (or Dialectical) Behavioral Therapy, aka CBT / DBT. Millions of people have found it an effective framework and strategy to permanently improve the way we speak to ourselves and relate to the world.
Here's the book I liked most (but there is an ocean of them):
DBT Skills Training Manual by Marsha Linehan
https://www.amazon.com/DBT%C2%AE-Skills-Training-Manual-Seco...
While you're alive, you might as well live your best life.
Sincerely, your buddy Metadat
p.s. sorry for the medium-length text wall, I didn't realize this would take be more than a sentence, but after initially posting only the first sentence, it was downvoted and it was apparent some explanation would be more helpful.
https://www.skylandtrail.org/4-differences-between-cbt-and-d...
DBT originally stems from therapies for Borderline Personality Disorder. While it has applications beyond that for things like anxiety and bipolar management, it may or may not be the right answer for people who don't struggle with negative impulses or behaviors.
I'd probably start with sources on more general CBT for someone just needing a nudge or who is more depressive than impulsive.
- Your text on that background colour does not provide enough contrast, my guess is that it won't pass WCAG AA requirements
- Keyboard navigation using Tab causes focus to jump down the page's content, skipping its navigation and CTA links
You can use extensions such as "axe DevTools" and "Accessibility Insights for Web" to run some quick automated tests to uncover more issues.
I can't wait to stare at this thing !!!!
The vast majority of things he talks about, if beneficial at all, are at the margins and people stand to gain far more from doing things like exercising and eating vegetables more.
Edit: Alan Flanagan has spoken on the Huberman paradox in detail: - https://www.instagram.com/p/CkLPU7BMiIN/ - https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Bgc3uGu0uoI
From what I can tell, Huberman is a neuroscience Ph.D. whereas Flanagan is one in nutritional science is that right? If so, by credentials alone, Huberman seems like a better reference in matters of the nervous system.
Note that I have no horse in this race, I'm really just curious!
I can't speak on Huberman's assessment of research in the neuroscience space, where he has expertise. Alan has done some breakdowns of Huberman's broad claims related to nutrition, and how they're generally hyperbolic and lacking sufficient evidence (ie they're not based on studies that show outcomes in actual humans in a controlled fashion). The folks at Barbell Medicine have spoken to some of his generic health/fitness claims as well, to similar effect.
I think Huberman uses his platform and title to paint overly broad strokes about all kinds of things outside of his expertise. Some of this could be attributed to a platform like twitter that prioritizes small amounts of text, but overall I think it's disingenuous especially as someone claiming to be an expert. I think if he were more interested in helping people he would focus less on money/fame/views and take a more nuanced approach, instead of (mis)leading people to change based on extremely limited evidence. The problem is he wouldn't be able to churn out so much content if he did so.
I have no reason to doubt any of his academic qualifications. But I have a lot of appreciation for the breadth and depth of knowledge required to speak confidently about the latest evidence in a field. This becomes a problem when the field is outside of one's expertise. Alan goes into this in detail on his instagram post.
I realize the post is based on something Huberman said within his expertise. But I think the context is important to understand, as it makes me wary of listening to him in general.
It's always met with something that sounds like: buT tHe handsome NEuroSciENtiSt sAid !!!
If you find that last statement to be outlandish, please take a look at these resources.
https://neuroclastic.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Thin-sli...
Based on these studies, ADHD manifests as deficits of goal-directed attention, such as reduced ability to suppress saccades, less accurate saccades to target location, and difficulties in maintaining fixation on a target object.
https://www.webmd.com/add-adhd/adhd-mindfulness-meditation-y...
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4694553/
https://www.healthline.com/health/adhd/adhd-meditation#get-c...
meditation takes practice for everybody, it literally is absolutely nothing to do with ADHD.
Every single time I could not help but hallucinate gigantic infrastructure from the tiniest speck of dust, and I further digressed into blaming my stupid self for being unable to perform such a simple task.
It felt hopeless.
I felt hopeless.
But I kept at it, a day at a time. A moment at a time. I accepted that failure is part of the process. I let go of blame. Oh, here's a thought, oh well, I lost focus; well so be it, let the thought float, a soap bubble drifting wherever it fancies, I could physically feel it wandering around my head while I went back towards the goal, if only for just a little bit, if only for just a little while.
And then, one day, the magic happened. The stray thought vanished, the bubble faded away. I did notice the thought popping up as usual, I did take note of its presence, but I did not notice its later absence. I was there, in the moment, but I did not notice being there in the moment. I only noticed that retrospectively.
I had let go.
I had let go on my mind, but also, and perhaps more critically I had let go of the illness. I am not ill. I am different. This is who I am. This is me. There are others like me.
It does not work at first with ADHD, but long term it does work, and it's a fantastic tool for one to manage ADHD without medication. It's training, like so many other things, one can't reasonably expect to be good at it overnight. And with continued training it gets easier.
Mind you it's not a silver bullet, but now I have one more tool up my sleeve in that endless struggle.
Cool site though. How long does the "mental boost" last for? I.e. 1 min of focus for x amount of boost?
Huberman sometimes passes the results of a single experiment as if there are no more hurdles to overcome.
My cat would sometimes sit close and directly facing the wall, eyes open, for many minutes at a time.
The technique it implements is called resonance breathing AKA resonance frequency breathing: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8924557/
If you've wanted to try meditation but haven't made time, try 3 minutes in that app and work up to 5-10. 5 minutes is enough to measure a difference in HRV.
I'm generally not disturbed by my noisy visual field, but this.. Giant halo around the breathing dot, as the contrast faded in and out the roundness started to disintegrate and as it changed size while fading to grey it started straight up breaking into geometric patterns, like the geometry was chopped up around the edges.
I have no problem looking into nothingness for a long time (I can stare at ceilings until the lines disappear, or into the sky until the clouds seem to meld away)..
Given how this was probably not intended to be a visual illusion, it did a great job of it! :D
(Felt like too much UI for me so I dropped it.)
I wonder if this lets you measure the average attention span of visitors? I'd be curious to see the impact on the average of the various platforms where this is shared.
I have a fun test where I blank my mind and look at the seconds on a clock. This is great to see how fucked up your state of mind is. Ideally there are no automated bodily processes that override that what you intend to do on the short term. That you should sleep eat drink, go to the toilet and stretch your legs is obvious. It's worth fighting those processes a little bit but unless you have a sensible excuse (like losing weight or driving a car) there is no need to meddle with them. Short term distractions from within should be suppressed when trying to get something done but also embraced when you are not.
I love the idea that narrowing your field of view makes you more focused and do work with less effort and faster. I do think easier is not always your friend. A fancy bicycle that takes less effort and shortens your trip does make the trip less of an exercise. Maybe you should widen your vision before easy tasks.
as a focus tool or means of understanding the self - anyone that hasn’t tried to just sit or lay quietly, for the sake of doing so, ought to. it isn’t hard, it isn’t easy, it just isn’t something modern society really seems to encourage, let alone understand. you might find you feel different once you are done than from when you began. that might be a good thing.
I'm a bit jaded from the internet so I couldn't relax. I was waiting for something to jump out or a big eyeball or something.
the white and black contrast was nice... though it started to mess with my eyes as I stared. maybe awkward for light/strobe sensitive folks?
Few things I'd consider:
1. Make it to not stop when the time's out. New users will wonder if a minute passed and see 0:00, happy. Regular users will know the trick and will learn to spend as much time as they need around a minute, instead of feeling interrupted. Some will be angry, they failed anyway.
2. Make the "dot" smaller and blurry to avoid sharp halo.
3. Fade-in unintrusive "vvv" under 0:00 to suggest scrolling down for a random short advice/info. What was expected, how to deal next time, and so on. Educational and praising component.
4. Dark mode for those who can't browser extensions.
5. Click on a circle is probably barely discoverable due to the nature of the process. I'd push it down to #3.
Otherwise it seems it could be effective.
What unexpected positivity in the comments! And when I read this I feel somewhat more connected to you others. It’s not just text that was already plastered here. It is someone’s written thoughts.
How can that be useful for people who are following the instructions? (Very strange.)
> And blood-black nothingness began to spin... a system of cells interlinked within cells interlinked within cells interlinked within one stem... and dreadfully distinct against the dark, a tall white fountain played.
Feedback: mostly I need to do this at work currently, which means I am going to retreat to a quiet place and grab my phone.
Phone Screens going to sleep and the thing being interrupted by tapping anywhere on the screen are not compatible. Not sure if other people face this issue, but for me tapping anywhere on the screen in order to not make the phone go to sleep should not interrupt or restart this meditation. A small X in a corner would be better.
Nit: The scrolling on your site is horrible broken on mobile. Keeps rubber banding and bouncing around.
Regarding mobile phones going to sleep, Wake lock [1] might help, unless you can reduce to 59s since I believe 1m is the threshold (make sure to request within the context of the user hitting "start"). Unfortunately on older mobile browsers [2], the best workaround I found was using this NoSleep library[3].
Source: ran into this same issue when building https://www.phonefreehour.com
[1] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/WakeLock
i'm maybe 12, and thinking of all sorts of things as i sat proudly waiting for an image of me to come back.
after 15 odd seconds, i was shown a picture of a laughing primate. who was neither me or human.
staring at this circle, i thought i was gonna get pranked again
- This is great to link to breathing
- After reading multiple breathing books (Breath by James Nester, Outlive by Peter Attia, Oxygen Advantage, etc.), there's a lot of evidence to breath slower. Specifically, 5.5 seconds in, and 5.5 seconds out, make the dot match or be closer to matching that rate could actually cause a lot of physical benefit by people matching with it
- Alternative if you don't want that, make it a control setting so someone (like myself) can do it.
Application error: a client-side exception has occurred (see the browser console for more information).
main-b85113564a892656.js:1 DOMException: Failed to execute 'removeChild' on 'Node': The node to be removed is not a child of this node.
(As opposed to all the other opinions he seems to love to opine)
Can you focus hours playing a good game? Yes? Then why is this game innately making you focus and your task isn’t? Maybe it can be looked at differently? Can it be fixed?
I keep trying to think if there is some way I can trick my brain into thinking things are always interesting and novel so that I can reliably get into a flow state and feel happier about what I'm doing.
I’ve used this one and it’s pretty good also. Trataka meditation with Dr. K, a gamer->monk->doctor.
Tangentially, I would love to have something like this in which I can "program" my own breathwork routines (reps and sets including breath holds). Been trying various apps, but haven't yet found one that ticks all my boxes. (Tips welcome.)
I came here looking for the paper or research that proves this. Do you have a source?
There was a bit of jumpscare for me at the end though: when the circle jumps back to being a button again. May I suggest adding a slower deflation?
It's open source, runs on iOS and Android and has aboslutely no clutter.
I got so annoyed I was about to make my own damn app, but now I don't have to.
There is a type of breathing recommended for calming the body which is something like 4 seconds in, hold 4 seconds, 4 seconds out, wait 4 seconds, repeat.
I think increasingly that major portions of humanity are.. well, insane, to be frank. Perhaps its me thats the crazy one? ;-)
The software does have a purpose. Launching the software requires two specific acts of intention. First to open the software, and second to affirm our intention and click the start button.
Then the intention is realized by sticking with the exercise for the duration of the timer.
Since the very purpose of the software is to change the way an individual is currently relating to their own mindset, these can all be quite useful tools towards that end.
--
Obviously, not Everone's cup of tea. Perhaps specifically not yours. but then you said "there's no need for this software" and not "I don't need this software". A personal preference doesn't imply a universal truth.
It's just a css animation
the aim would be to be focused for 1 min
Initial feedback:
That circle is gargantuan, focusing on it takes no significant mental bandwidth. Yes, that's the point of meditation, but if you challenge people a bit, it makes it easier for them to stay focused, especially for beginners. (Or maybe it's a mobile page and I just shouldn't watch it on my desktop monitor?)
Like the pulse in general, but maybe a bit too fast. Absolutely hate the coloring - black is having a mood impact, and washed out grey is just meh. That's probably a personal reaction, but worth keeping in mind if you want to build on it.
Having a clearer indication of time left might be helpful for people beginning to meditate. (If I'd built it, I'd progressively make the focus object vanish until it's gone at the end, but, again, that might be personal preference.)