Slow: Three Seconds

I thought this was a great animated gif to help you ponder the power of slooooow breathing: blue is breathe in... green is breathe out...

Pause Button

It's important to know where the pause button is on your self-control. The graphic is from Lori Deschesne, founder of the TinyBuddha.com website.

Practice the pause. Pause before judging. Pause before assuming. Pause before accusing. Pause whenever you're about to react harshly and you'll avoid doing and saying things you'll later regret.

What you should focus on

Things that matter and things that you can control: where they overlap is what you should focus on. And if you want to make a Venn diagram of your own, there are lots of Venn-diagram-makers. :-)

Things that matter.
Things you can control.
The intersection: what you should focus on.

Importance and Urgency

This is a nice 2x2 diagram for helping to identity what things are urgent and/or important and how to focus your attention based on those four categories: Important / Urgent.

Important AND Urgent: Manage these short-term crises and problems.
Important NOT Urgent: Focus on long-term strategic goals.
Urgent NOT Important: Avoid distractions and interruptations.
NOT Urgent NOT Important: Limit time-wasting activities.

When everything is highlighted...

Here's a great meme for the attention files:

When everything is highlighted,

nothing is highlighted.

The Joy of Tech-Meditation

From the Joy of Tech by Nitrozac and Snaggy (Liza Schmalcel and Bruce Evans). I like this techno approach to meditation! In your mind's browser, clear your cache... now delete your history... now navigate to a blank web page.

Odysseus and Facebook

Here's a good one from Shoebox: in the ancient world, they were called Sirens; today... Facebook. You can read about the legend of Odysseus and the Sirens at Wikipedia, and, yes, this is where the modern English word "sirens" comes from!

Intensity versus Consistency

This is an RSA Animate adaptation of Simon Sinek's talk on Intensity versus Consistency, which also has a lot of relevance to education... because real learning depends absolutely on consistency, but much of school culture promotes intensity instead. Ouch.

The Classics: Then and Now

Some of you in Myth-Folklore might even be reading Beowulf in class this semester... whether you will be reading it in the style of Jeremy from this great Zits cartoon is up to you! :-)

Cartoon by Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman

Everything is your teacher.

I thought this was a lovely graphic to illustrate the words of Ezra Bayda, a Zen teacher:

When you really pay attention,

everything is your teacher.

To see a World in a Grain of Sand

I found this lovely graphic in a Twitter post by Chitra Divakaruni. You can see more of William Blake's poem: Auguries of Innocence. For more about the genius William Blake himself, see Wikipedia.

To see a World in a Grain of Sand

And a Heaven in a Wild Flower 

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand 

And Eternity in an hour.

— William Blake

Unplug for a few minutes

Good advice from the writer Anne Lamott; more quotes here: Wikiquote.

Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes... including you.

If you look online, you will find that many people have made graphics for this one. Here are just a few:

Life is like a Camera

Here is another great one from Sylvia Duckworth! It has some good growth mindset advice (develop from the negatives and, if things don't work out, take another shot), plus some good attention advice (focus on what's important) and happiness advice too (capture the good times).

Today I will do nothing

Grant Snider has a wonderful new comic on the power of boredom, and you can learn more about the connection between boredom and creativity here: How boredom can lead to your most creative ideas.

Meditation Apps v. Meditating

I thought this was a great graphic; research is good, and apps are good... but eventually you have to stop researching and downloading, and get around to the practice!

Live to Inspire: Dance

From the DotMove YouTube channel dedicated to dancing: "We are proud to bring you a motivational and inspirational video which features the dancers from Cuban sensation "Ballet Revolución." We firmly believe that one shouldn't be afraid to express their passion, and that it is our duty to live them to the fullest and inspire each other along the way."

What do you you see happening around you...? And what are you showing to others?

LIVE TO INSPIRE

You can find out more about Ballet Revolución at their Facebook page:

Grant Snider: Interior Life

Another genius cartoon from Grant Snider: Interior Life. I though this would be a good cartoon to share for ATTENTION.

My brain could use some tidying up.
I clear mental clutter, adjust my receptivity to social signals, collect hidden thoughts and sweep away distraction.
I cast out negative spirits, strengthen my focus, keep my ego in check, and uncloud my perception. I stay full open to new ideas, and all that stuff that's been cluttering my mind — I'll deal with it eventually.

Multitasking

You can do anything,

but not everything.

The photo is by Richard Giles at Flickr. I was inspired by this quote from Kenna Griffin:

Single-Tasking

I thought this video was very funny, and also very thought-provoking. Plus I really like the idea of going "tabless" every once in a while! James Hamblin is an editor at The Atlantic, and you can see his other articles there. His idea for "Tabless Thursday" got written up in Lifehacker: "Save up tasks for Thursdays that need intense focus. Tabless Thursday can be your day to intensely single-task and avoid multiple tabs in your browser. One tab, one task, one day a week. The other six days you can tab to your heart's delight."

Single-Tasking is the New Multitasking

by  James Hamblin for the Atlantic

And of course there is a lot of "too many tabs" humor:

Creating a Clearing

Stillness is not about focusing on nothingness. It's about creating a clearing. It's opening up an emotionally clutter-free space and allowing ourselves to feel and think and dream and question. — Brene Brown... see also here video on empathy!