Focus is life-threatening

When you're in the car and focus on the license plate in front of you, for example. Not helpful. You unconsciously tighten your muscles and when the car in front of you brakes you react a fraction later.

Could mean boom.

Not conveniently.

Focus

Focus creates muscle tension. It causes you to leave things out because what you focus on is the most important thing. It's the cue for your brain to become alert and start rushing adrenaline through your body.

In fact, focusing is something you do only when there is imminent danger. It gets your heart rate up, your breathing up and puts your body into FFF mode.

FFF?

Yes, Freeze, Flight, Fight mode. When you focus on a spider, you become afraid of the spider. This is because you make it bigger in your mind than it really is.

If you focus on the sound of the engine on the plane, that's all you hear and you get scared. Here's how it works.

The solution? Don't focus. Unfocus (if that's a word), look peripherally and relax your eyes. Then you'll quiet the amygdala (the fear center in your brain) and you can relax, too. Just do it once and you will find that you relax immediately.

Just start focusing on one thing in space and you unconsciously tense up. Pure nature.

What they often refer to as focused work is working in flow. That's relaxing. Focused work is shit. Then you're like a tense spring that needs to get something done. Very exhausting. Often you do it right before a deadline.

Are you always working in focus? That takes a lot of energy and is a recipe for burnout. Are you working in flow? Then you are very relaxed at work and everything goes easier. You probably call working in flow, being focused, but that's really something else.

The difference is in the eyes. Peripheral vision (having relaxed eyes and seeing spatially) is relaxing and anxiety-inducing, tense eyes is focusing and anxiety-inducing. Both have a function, but you don't want to start confusing them.

Beautiful day!

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