Body's inner clock, sleep & studying / Bates method

State of mind, mental focus, ADHD, sleep, motivation, studying etc
Chin-Chin
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Post by Chin-Chin »

Yeah but Oscar, you are a genius - medical degree, computer science wizard, violinist, the ideal renaissance man!

For us ordinary individuals, we cannot learn asleep with the book on our lap. We experimented a lot in college - lying with our head on the textbooks, listening to tapes while asleep, it's called osmosis, only works in chemistry :lol:

About procrastination, I'm not so sure if it's linked to IQ, although I certainly would have the highest IQ by a long howl if IQ and procrastination were directly related :D

But I do realize that it's undermining my chances to get my goals achieved, so I'm constantly coming up with strategies and am a junkie on productivity self-help materials - due to the lack of productivity.

I do think that procrastination is great for things we don't care to do. Often, by procrastinating, I find out that I don't even have to do it! That's the good side effect of procrastination!
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Oscar
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Post by Oscar »

ROFL! :lol:

Genius? Well, I think everyone can do what I did, as long as they really want it, and believe/know they can do it. :)

I'm actually procrastinating at the moment, hee hee! Image
CurlyGirl
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Post by CurlyGirl »

Awww, come on Oscar, don't be so modest... :-)

I procrastinate all the time, because I know I work best if I have only a little time left. I have made it this far through my academic career without starting any project too far in advance, so I figure, if it isn't broken, it doesn't need to be fixed!

This forum is also a perfect haven for procrastination for me.... :-)
huntress
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Post by huntress »

This thread is so interesting! :D
I wonder whether quick and smart people just can't get the high focus/intensity they need to work too soon before a deadline
And 'they' say that smart people work earlier through out the term? Well we have Oscar here to prove them wrong!
About procrastination, I'm not so sure if it's linked to IQ, although I certainly would have the highest IQ by a long howl if IQ and procrastination were directly related
ROFL!! :lol: Oh Chin-Chin, that would be an interesting fact! I would certainly be the happiest person in the world if that were to be true!
I procrastinate all the time, because I know I work best if I have only a little time left. I have made it this far through my academic career without starting any project too far in advance, so I figure, if it isn't broken, it doesn't need to be fixed!
CG! :D Knowing that you've procrastinated through out your academic years and survived it really motivates me! I am currently under pressure from school and my escape from all this pressure is to procrastinate. But procrastinating only makes me feel more in the soup.

Gee Oscar....you Wizard....how did you do it? I feel so small now...
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Oscar
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Post by Oscar »

Hmmm, well I really don't see it as being so special, but I guess I've always believed that I (anyone) could do anything if I (they) put my (their) mind to it. I think that is far more important than for instance IQ, which is hugely overrated in my opinion.
avalon
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Post by avalon »

Oscar, I so agree with you!

I'm no great success story as the world sees it, My problem is more applying my knowledge.

I'm an Artist, first. But I love to write, stories, songs, sing, sculpt, fix things- computers whatever.

Richard Bach wonce wrote:
The original sin is to limit the Is. Don't.
Whenever someone says to me they can't be something/do something or in some way qualify their abilitys I usually have to speak up. I believe if you want enough, you can...making that into a profitable venture is another thing.

Here's a cool link to Bachs quotes;

http://www.barefootsworld.net/illusions.html

p.s. here's my tribute to Van Gogh :)

http://www.vggallery.com/inspired/xeta.htm
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Post by CurlyGirl »

WOW, avalon! Gorgeous painting. :-)

Hey huntress :-D What sort of pressure? Peer pressure? Academic pressure?
Keep strong, listen to your inner voice. You'll make it!
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Oscar
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Post by Oscar »

Wow, great painting! Image

I like this quote: "Here is a test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: If you're alive, it isn't." Very true.
avalon
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Post by avalon »

Thanx friends.
I really mean that.
huntress
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Post by huntress »

*marvelled* Avalon....I can't tell the difference if it was really Van Gogh's works or yours. It is very haunting and beautiful. I really like it!

CG, I am going through academic pressure. Things in school are getting more complicated for me. I have been trying to contain the problem but I can't seem to pin point on where the source is coming from in me. Which has led me to be in a state of confusion too. :?
Keep strong, listen to your inner voice. You'll make it!
THANK YOU CG, you're amazing! *hugs*
Chin-Chin
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Post by Chin-Chin »

Huntress,

My compliment to Oscar is an inside joke, although he really is all of those things. But there's no need to feel small: like he said, we all have the ability to achieve what we really set our mind to.

From your description, I would think that the very source of pressure comes from a sense of being overwhelmed by all that you have to do? And that translates to a sense of incapacity to act, thus making you procrastinate?

I have an idea! Everytime you put a post on the forum, you have to promise yourself to study/work for 45 minutes before returning to the forum? Also try to break up what you have to do so it seems less overwhelming?

I also have a tendency to glorify procrastination, but procrastination always points to something that we are not willing to face. When we decide to live life fully and courageously, all of a sudden, procrastination becomes a value that's not so congruent with the rest...

It all depends on how you view your studies: if you are doing it for yourself or if you have to get a degree. I definitely did not have any clarity about this back in college, so I didn't take advantage of it as I would now. I did have a jolly good time though!
Chin-Chin
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Post by Chin-Chin »

Thank you Avalon for the quotes and the painting.

Do you have more personal work that you would like to share with us?
CurlyGirl
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Post by CurlyGirl »

huntress wrote:THANK YOU CG, you're amazing! *hugs*
*hugs* to you too, my dear! Isn't it astonishing, how you can feel so familiar with someone and yet never have met that person?
Chin-Chin wrote:I also have a tendency to glorify procrastination, but procrastination always points to something that we are not willing to face. When we decide to live life fully and courageously, all of a sudden, procrastination becomes a value that's not so congruent with the rest...
You have a point. My 'don't-fix-what-ain't-broken' theory is something of a cover-up, I admit. But deciding to live life fully and with courage is one of the hardest things - it requires giving up all your illusions about waiting for a better life to form itself in front of your eyes, your hopes that your work will just get done all by itself, your fantasies that living in the moment is unnecessary when all these good things are just, just around the corner. I have been reading Suzuki for years and I still can't always be still, be present, face my life full-on. To me my poor eyesight is also evidence that there are things in my life I am not willing to face... but I am working on all these things, and hope that each feeling I touch in myself, each fear I hold in my hand and examine (rather than flee), is one step closer to being completely open-hearted.
Chin-Chin
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Post by Chin-Chin »

CurlyGirl,

I know that Corinne and Oscar are trying these natural methods to better their eyesight and apparently, there's a theory that you are somehow psychologically responsible for your eyesight.

I don't want to ridicule their theory because they seem to be really convinced, but is there any scientific basis to this? I highly doubt it. So as we say in China, it's true if you believe it's true. No one is going to argue with that.

To me, extreme myopia is usually linked to genetics. And then, you seem very intelligent and learned and spend a lot of time in front of the computer screen, so that can contribute too. Isn't it disempowering to say that you are near-sighted because you don't want to see? If you had to choose belief systems (I personally "believe" :P that all belief systems are limiting to some degree), isn't it much better to have empowering ones?

When I was a kid, there was a Qi Gong master who came to the Chinese physicists' community (my dad was a physicist) for a demonstration. He was able to make a man stand up and run around from his wheelchair and create mass hypnosis. Afterwards, we went to see if he can work on people's eyesight with energy, and he said that he had not been able to find a miracle solution, he himself wore glasses. I really appreciated his honesty. The point is that if there's a miracle solution, we would have already heard about it right? Of course there are basic things like massage and eye movement exercises that you can do to relax your eyes, and correct what we called "false myopia"(myopia caused by stress or fatigue), and in China, we actually learn them in school, which is really cool! Myopia is a national affliction in China :lol:, but it's not a handicap! The only miracle that I know are laser surgeries which you may or may not decide to undergo. Anyhow, I just find that a little bit of New Age theorizing is great if it's amusing, but if it's to beat ourselves up because we have a real physical problem, it's kind of useless and counterproductive.

I haven't read extensively Suzuki, but am very influenced by Chinese zen and Taoist thoughts, as well Advaida and non-dualist philosophies. It's definitely a challenge to integrate all that when we are in a hyper-competitive and stressful environment, like where I'm at with my thesis even though I really enjoy what I work on. When I turn this in, I am too going to have a hard talk with myself in order to realign my goals with my true desire. It's kind of a fine-tuning process for me, with some drastic changes that can be truly discomforting. But I try to be at least honest with myself, and that includes saying that my procrastination has not always empowered me :(
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Oscar
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Post by Oscar »

Chin-Chin wrote:I don't want to ridicule their theory because they seem to be really convinced, but is there any scientific basis to this? I highly doubt it.
You can ridicule all you want, but there has been a scientific basis to this for more than a century. Dr Bates, a famous ophthalmologist in the 1920's, only re-proved existing theories about the cause of bad eyesight, by experimenting on thousands of (his) patients, including himself. His major contribution lies in finding the actual cause, and developing a program to re-learn the natural vision habits.

Why do we (almost) never hear about it? Because you make a lot more money by selling glasses, contact lenses, and laser eye surgeries, than by teaching people how they don't need anything anymore...

Pointing to the genetic makeup becomes more and more the excuse of not having to bear any responsibility for ones health. "It's in your genes, so just accept your fate, and take these pills.".
Studies have shown that it's highly unlikely that myopia (or hypermetropia) is hereditary.

I think there is more scientific basis to the Bates method, as there is to the Wai diet, than to Qi Gong, which, to my knowledge, has never been scientifically proven to exist. Making a man stand up from a wheelchair is easy, when the man is in league with the Qi Gong master (this is a very old trick, often used in religious gatherings). Mass hypnosis is something you don't need Qi Gong for, since western people do this for entertainment, like Rasti Rostelli here in The Netherlands. :)
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