Maria Konnikova Quotes

I'm pretty much done with mindfulness. I'm just going to start paying attention.

You lose your habitual behavior, which allowed you to sort of zone out. You have to be here, you have to be now, you have to be present.

Brain studies of mental workouts in which you sustain a single, chosen focus show that the more you detach from what's distracting you and refocus on what you should be paying attention to, the stronger this brain circuitry becomes.

The more you focus, the more that focus becomes a habit.

Even now when I am answering a question I am at the height of my own meditation.

I sometimes got distracted easily and allowed my mind to wander when I needed to be focused. It's quite subtle, really, and just being aware of it helps.

You're a wise person if you can easily direct your attention to what ever needs it.

No more than a surgeon can operate while tweeting can you reach your potential with one ear in, one ear out. You actually have to reacquaint yourself with concentration. We all do.

Concentration is a fine antidote to anxiety.

Focusing isn't just an optical activity, it is also a mental one.

I can enjoy what I'm engaged in and be fully present rather than planning my answers to questions while someone else is speaking or thinking about my next appointment while my current engagement is still in in progress.

We know even from ordinary life that we have to achieve a sufficient degree of attentiveness if we want to concentrate on an inner picture or an object of some kind; we must also have it in our power, though, to turn our soul away from something we have been concentrating on.

I'm good at separating things. When I'm in my classroom, I'm totally there. When I'm at an event, I'm totally there. And when I'm with my grandkids, my total attention is on them.

When you're playing, it's important to focus 100 per cent on what you're doing.

Meditation is practical, simple, and very useful. Taking even 30 seconds to rest your attention on your breath instead of following the cycle of your thoughts can bring you back to you in a heart beat.

If you aren't focused on what's right here in front of you, if you're daydreaming about what might be, you really aren't focused at all.

To learn to concentrate we must choose a prayer or meditation and follow this path with commitment and steadiness, a willingness to work with our practice day after day, no matter what arises.

Survival lies in sanity, and sanity lies in paying attention...the capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention.

The quality of your life is determined by the focus of your attention.

Your first daily priority should be stillness, attention to what you really know and what you really feel.

Our awareness is the key. It is our awareness more than our work effort that gets the right result right now.

The power to concentrate was the most important thing. Living without this power would be like opening one’s eyes without seeing anything.

The mental ability to concentrate is inherent to all; it is not extraordinary or mysterious. Meditation is not something that a Yogi has to teach you; you already have the ability to shut out thoughts.

Meditation teaches us to focus and to pay clear attention to our experiences and responses as they arise, and to observe them without judging them.

One great cause of failure is lack of concentration.