Why do people need to "entertain themselves"?

Why do we think there is something that will "distract"us? distraction is actually paying attention to something else and in fact, by distracting ourselves we are perceiving information, learning, generating experiences and knowledge as when we pay attention.
Thinking of distracting oneself as a relaxation activity, without a transcendent purpose, without an end of learning, without even asking oneself What is distraction? What good is distraction? How to distract us? is a harmful habit that has been passed down through generations and has been maintained as a constant practice. But this does not mean that having free time, relaxing and doing things out of the ordinary is harmful in our lives, but that acting impulsively, without thinking at all, without discerning the consequences of our actions, is what is really harmful.

The process of distraction as a way of thinking

it has been discovered that we have two fundamental ways of thinking, focused mode and diffuse mode. The focus mode is when we intend to do something, and consciously guide our physical and mental efforts to perform some activity, expecting a specific output. Instead, the diffuse mode aims to discover new ways of doing something, that is, not to guide our physical and mental efforts towards some specific point or activity but to discover new ways of thinking and acting through relaxation and evasion of expectations.

Learning and the way of having leisure go hand in hand, however, almost nobody questions this, as I said in the beginning, we only think about distracting ourselves and enjoying ourselves, but not knowing these intrinsic processes in us.

Example of a bad practice of distraction

A person who comes from work might think that a good way to relax would be watching a novel, a TV series, or even a movie, but may not be aware that the information they transmit might be wrong, morbid, with fallacies in their dialogues or dogmas, and over time, inevitably he will begin to adopt these misconceptions, begin to lose the ability to abstract new things. As a consequence, all the time he spent watching those novels, series or films will only have given him ideals, mistaken beliefs within his mind and in the end he will act based on this new learned beliefs.

We can describe many cases, many reasons why we would distract ourselves with anything, but the important point is to understand that every action has implications in our mind, health, beliefs and as a consequence in our lifes. Thus, we should first start to think about the outcome of our distractions activities.

Example of a good practice of distraction

An example of good practice to distract us can be with art. Playing music, painting, writing poetry, dancing are recreational activities that can help us generate new points of view about the activities we are doing.

Another example is to change small details of our routines, for example: brushing our teeth with the left hand, writing using different words. Change the language to our devices for something totally unknown, speak to a stranger and create a new relationship, practice leadership with our social group or in our company, and in general, small actions within our routines that are not usual.

Also, an example of diffuse mode is to go to creative and intelligent people that we meet and talk with them, ask for feedback, ask for advice and help, share ideas with them.

so tell me ¿How do you practice diffuse mode? comment below!!

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References

1. Images 1, 2, 3, 4