States of mind

[purpletigron]

I seem to spend too long in unhelpful states of mind.

There is the 'over-focused' state which is good for studying, but lets important life-stuff slip.

There's the 'totally blank' mode, when my mind is just listening to elevator music - not relaxing, sadly.

There's 'hyperactive' where trains of thought are interrupting one another, going nowhere.

Tell me there's something normal besides this...

Comments

[alexmc.livejournal.com]

> Tell me there's something normal besides this...

Sadly *I* can't.

> 'over-focused' state

I never had this - even when at college. The nearest I could get to it was when coding or when playing with Lego. However these activities were quite short.

> 'totally blank' mode

I dont really know what this is like.

> 'hyperactive'

I find that I only get this when I am seriously ill and feverish.

Hopefully someone else will say something more positive.

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

Um, yep, that sounds pretty much like my 3 basic states of mind too: work mode, social mode and rest-of-the-time (think think worry remeber something think think why aren't asleep?).

Ok maybe social mode is maybe not blank but it is non-conscious-of-self. I need drugs for really blank - I am envious :)

[bugshaw.livejournal.com]

There's the state of "relaxed mindfulness" which is the goal of the Getting Things Done system ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GTD ) where you pay your attention to the task in hand while knowing you are not going to drop any balls.

[mkillingworth.livejournal.com]

You mean that's not normal? Uh oh.

[tanngrisnir.livejournal.com]

Sounds a lot like the innards of my skull ;o)

There is also a relaxed but in focus state, which is productive without letting things drop.

Oh, and happiness. I remember that, it was quite pleasant.

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

I hope that's a very recent memory! :-)

[tanngrisnir.livejournal.com]

Oh, not too long ago, actually. ;o)

I could get a taste for it if I am not careful.

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

I get those three, and also "Too scared to do anything," which usually results from the hyperactive state if I leave it long enough, and "Too sad to bother moving, even though I don't have all that much to be sad about," which seems to me to be an excess of the 'totally blank' mode in some ways; it just gets harder and harder and harder to even move.

Helpful states of mind for me include hte one when I pick the things that are most important for one day and stop worrying about the rest. This only seems to happen if I pick 'correctly' in that I'm not letting anything pile up too much. Also I get a calm focus with Ki-Aikido and sometimes with music which is highly desirable. It isn't the hyperfocus where I totally immerse myself in the task to the exclusion of important things, it's something else. I'm too tired and groggy to explain it well at the moment.

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

I don't exactly get panic attacks, but I do get locked into anxious inaction. Blank is a varient on 'too sad to move', for me.

Picking correctly? Ah, there's the nub :-)

I get calm focus with aikido, if I have enough spoons, that's true.