If you haven’t seen this before, here’s an olden but golden experiment that’s well worth doing if you’ve got a moment. Here are the instructions:
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There are 6 students, three black shirts and three white shirts, and two basketballs being tossed back and forth.
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While watching the video, ignore the team in black. Your task is to accurately count the number of times the basketball is passed between the white shirted students. Not an easy task given the weaving of the basketball players.
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Click on this link to view the one minute video http://viscog.beckman.uiuc.edu/grafs/demos/15.html
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When you’re done watching, click the back page arrow at the top of your screen to bring you back to read the rest of this article.
How did you do? Were you able to concentrate?
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How many times was the basketball passed among the white team?
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Did you see anything else in the video?
I won’t ruin the video for you, but I will say that whether or not you got the answer correct, there is no “right” or “wrong” to this experiment. The point is gaining personal awareness about yourself as you observe whether or not you saw what was going on in the background? According the original research by (you can read about it here at http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~cfc/Simons1999.pdf) there’s a fifty percent chance you saw it, and a fifty percent chance you didn’t. This video demonstrates the benefits of full concentration and the downside.
Creating New Perceptual Balance
Often, when we’re working through a difficult situation, stuck and unable to move forward on a goal, or experiencing intense emotions, it’s easy to myopically focus on the immediate problem. This same phenomenon of intense fixation on the problem also occurs when we’re worried, stressed, or depressed.
While it’s important to accept the reality of the problem or emotions present and be committed to finding a solution, it’s often harmful to limit your concentration to immediate awfulness of the situation.
Instead, learn to step back often from the thick of things. Doing so allows you to breathe consciously and deeply, and shift your perspective to seeing the bigger picture. Once you are in the larger perspective, you can review, synthesize past experiences and outcomes, pluck the positive from them, and recognize certain patterns. Observe how your actions are unfolding and where they are heading.
Remember that your larger fundamental intention is to create a positive outcome. How does what you are doing and how you are doing it fit into the big picture? Are you focusing attention and action on what is most important to you, and with each step are you becoming more self-assured and self-loving?
To bring yourself back into balance, take several slow deep breaths, allowing your mind and body to relax and calm down. Notice that taking a breath helps ease that anxiety and panic and lifts your spirits. You make great strides towards regaining momentum and forward movement when you bring yourself back into this “now” moment of creative possibility.
Author Resource: Want to learn more about how to live consciously, love deeply, and laugh often? Come along with Annette Colby and learn the secrets to creating the life you’ve always wanted to live! Subscribe to her blog Divine Self! today.
