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Being Present

October 22, 2011 at 1:52 AM

Late last month I went to visit some friends in Minneapolis...

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Exactly. Same here.

Greetings,

best blog I`ve seen in ages.

A nice present....

Cheers,

Buri

 Best compliment I've seen in ages.

Thanks, Buri.

I agree, this was a great blog. I'm not advanced enough and probably never will be, to be able to use the Bruch concerto as an emotional release, but I think I understand the the impulse, and it's a human and noble one. To my mind, it's one of the (many) joys of being an amateur, that one can take the opportunity to turn off one's internal critic and express oneself emotionally through music without having to be concerned that one isn't good enough.

As for "focus," as someone with ADHD, I don't really have the luxury of viewing it as a matter of character or even, really, of choice, except in a broad, indirect sense. There was an interesting article recently about decision fatigue:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/magazine/do-you-suffer-from-decision-fatigue.html?pagewanted=all

Cognitive processes like focus and will power are subject to fatigue like anything else, and to circadian rhythms. If you need focus, it's a scheduling problem as much as anything else.

I didn't really like Ehnes' comments on focus--they sounded like someone who doesn't get it.

And I was really struck by your response, "Is there anything in the world that sounds easier?"

In fact, yes. There are a *lot* of things that sound quite a bit easier than that. And, there is actually quite a bit of psychological and neurobiological evidence backing up the point that it's not easy at all.