Staring at something for 30-90 seconds has been proven to improve & boost mental focus on subsequent tasks (from Andrew Huberman - https://youtu.be/CrtR12PBKb0?t=3367
).
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
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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
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.
Dead Comment
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%...
* https://quietkit.com/box-breathing/
Also, you could think about extending to box breathing.
It's disconcerting because its not how I naturally breathe.
It's one of extensions that makes you instantly regret you didn't install it earlier.
1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0OBgihk2f8
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 == $$), but for real. I don't need your life story, just tell me how many onions I need to buy for the recipe.
No, in the current Youtube ecosystem it's "watchtime == $$". 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.
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.
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.