You Have to Stop!
Wagner Souto
Posted on November 29, 2024
Meditation as a side quest to buff skills
I recently brought my meditation routine back, and itโs been about three weeks since I started setting aside some time to stop and breathe. I began with just seven innocent minutes, and now Iโm up to about 20.
Not everyone knows this, but I used to work as a hatha yoga teacher and trainer. It was my teenage dream ever since my first practice at 14. I started practicing at that age and enrolled in a teacher training program in 2007. For over a decade, yoga was my professional life. Back then, some of us (the hardcore ones) would practice ๐๐ข๐บ๐ข ๐๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ช๐ณ๐บ๐ข๐ฎ for three to five hours straight โ standing so still that it felt like our legs werenโt even there anymore.
But thatโs not the point. I donโt want to scare you off.
Establishing a meditation routine has measurable benefits, no matter what field youโre in. I wonโt go into long-term changes like hormone regulation and so on. Letโs keep it practical: itโs about what you can feel ๐ฟ๐ถ๐ด๐ต๐ ๐ป๐ผ๐.
As a developer, Iโve noticed how easy it is to lose focus during long hours in front of a screen with unlimited internet access. Itโs way too tempting to switch tabs, start multiple research threads, or try solving many problems at once โ and we all know that never works as well as it feels at the moment.
Even before we sit down to work, our minds are already โrefactoringโ everything โ revisiting yesterdayโs debts, rewriting todayโs to-do lists, and preloading tomorrowโs tasks.
While we are skilled at breaking down problems into manageable chunks, we often dive too deeply into details when a step back could give us the perspective we need.
Pausing for just a few minutes, paying attention to something simple like the sounds around you, the rhythm of your breath (without trying to control it), or even the flow of your thoughts can have an impact that lasts the entire day. For me, thatโs enough. Iโm not aiming for enlightenment โ I just want to be functional and get bills paid.
Iโve noticed how this practice reduces the mental clutter around my to-do lists. The tasks are there, written down. Iโm (almost) trained to notice when my mind jumps from one thought to another, and it no longer pulls me away from the present moment.
Recently, I revisited a book called ๐๐ณ๐ข๐จ๐ฎ๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ค ๐๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฌ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ฏ๐ช๐ฏ๐จย by Andy Hunt โ yes, the same author of ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ณ๐ข๐จ๐ฎ๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ค ๐๐ณ๐ฐ๐จ๐ณ๐ข๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ณ. He uses the word โholisticโ, pointing out that having an holistic view of a problem or architecture would benefit us all as developers. Well, thatโs my thing. At least it was. I felt good about a tech person bringing that up with no new age weirdo biases.
The idea is this: ๐ ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฑ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฃ๐ช๐ญ๐ช๐ต๐บ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฐ๐ฃ๐ด๐ฆ๐ณ๐ท๐ฆ ๐ด๐ช๐ต๐ถ๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด, ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ด, ๐ด๐ฐ๐ญ๐ถ๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ช๐ต๐ด ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐ข ๐ฅ๐ช๐ด๐ต๐ข๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ โ like watching your thoughts without getting caught up in them.
This โdetachedโ perspective has many benefits:
โข You donโt get overly attached to a single solution, which makes it easier to explore alternatives.
โข Youโre not tied to the code youโve written, so you can refactor or rewrite it without hesitation.
โข You let go of what you think you know, allowing you to listen, learn, and even see the world through someone elseโs eyes.
In a way, itโs a training for lifelong learning โ and thatโs exactly the theme Iโd like to explore in my following posts.
Thanks for reading! Let me know your thoughts or experiences with meditation, learning, or staying focused on your stuff.
Posted on November 29, 2024
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