Focusing is stressing on one thing and conversely stress arrives out of incessant focus on one thing. We are told time and again to focus and not be distracted, that there is always only focus or distraction, not awareness.
If focus is like a pin that pricks, awareness is a pin-screen. Awareness is the art of giving distributed importance to the happenings of life in the moment. There is thought happening always, yes, but there is also the bird singing in the window, a quiet gentle breeze from the ceiling fan, smell of a perfume wafting from a passerby - they too are present.
In our heavy handed importance to focus we have created a stressful life and a stressful society. We are extremely domain dependent and fail to connect our knowledge in one discipline to have inter-disciplinary uses and interactions in finding broader solutions. We are blinded by focus.
The specializations worshipped in the industrial age have left a specialized, isolated mind in an isolated society. When we think of taking breaks we again focus on another thing while isolating everything around us. When nothing that we focus on holds our interest we rapidly jump from one subject of focus to the other hoping it will fill our parched void.
It is our heightened focus on one thing and elimination of everything else that keeps our mind hopelessly stuck. Regurgitating the same old information, trying to come up with a solution, only ends up generating worry and anxiety.
Every creation that is unique can in some way be traced back to awareness and observation, not focus. Creative geniuses of every kind be it in science, art or business are great observers of the happenings around them. By observation and awareness they find their inspiration, they cannot afford to be blinded by focus. Execution of ideas might benefit from focus but the genesis of any creative pursuit is always rooted in awareness.
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