How to learn to abstract

[Teacher]

Staying calm and focused is not easy. Crowds of people, cars, noisy streets, crowded shops, loud conversations, obsessive thoughts, problems, anxieties ... This not only interferes with maintaining mental and mental balance, but also causes negative emotions. What can you do in order not to let negative experiences into your consciousness and maintain concentration on what is important to us? The best way would be to abstract from everything that interferes with our peace and annoys.

Abstraction: what is it and what is it for?
The term "abstraction" comes from the Latin word "abstractio" and means "distraction." In psychology, distraction is most often understood not as a change of activity, as one might think, but a change in thinking. The bottom line is that, abstracting, a person begins to look at things from a new angle.

The human brain is used to perceiving everything (phenomena, events, people, situations, etc.), generalizing its ideas about what it perceives, without dividing them into separate elements. And if we answer the question "What does it mean to abstract?" it is in a psychological context that it means mentally moving away from what is happening in order to give your nervous system an opportunity to rest and come to its senses, to get rid of the negative influence of irritating factors, to analyze the situation and look at it impartially.

You can abstract yourself from sounds (from noise), from negative experiences, from emotions, and even from the outside world. And this can be learned, and this does not require any titanic efforts.

Abstraction helps in many situations in life, in particular when it is necessary to get rid of certain thoughts, move away from surging emotions, discard the unnecessary, understand the essence of a problem or situation. We can be strained by the behavior of another person or - a classic of the genre - the noise of a neighbor's drill on a sweet Saturday morning; we may resent events at work or somewhere on the street. Yielding to our feelings, we easily forget about the main thing, lose sight of something important, and lose motivation. And the ability to mentally throw away all the husks helps us to remain in ourselves and ourselves.

With the help of the skill of abstraction, everyone can better define their desires and goals and find ways to achieve them, understand what they need at the current moment in time and in life in general, effectively get rid of distractions and negativity, concentrate and control their attention, improve intellectual activity and even speed it up.

We think that it will not be superfluous to say what the inability to abstract can lead to. First of all, it is depression associated with a constant feeling of anxiety and fear caused by problems and stress. It is also stress itself. It tends to accumulate, and if a person does not know how to give his psyche to rest, the load on it seriously increases. This depletes energy reserves at both the physical and mental levels.

Low self-esteem is another consequence of the inability to abstract. Failure to concentrate and indulging in one's emotions often leads to wrong conclusions, actions, and decisions. This, in turn, causes regret and guilt, which lowers the level of self-esteem. And with low self-esteem, as you know, it is very difficult to live a fulfilling and happy life.

In addition, ignorance of how to abstract has an impact on a person's relationship with others. Any communication is an exchange of information, emotions and energy, and not always positive, useful and mutually beneficial. And if a person is unable to protect himself from the destructive influence of the other and provocations, it becomes very easy for him to be manipulated.

As you yourself already perfectly understood, the ability to abstract is a powerful defense mechanism. But, of course, it is also an effective remedy in the fight against distraction, procrastination, lack of time, low life and professional results. And here's another little explanation of what abstraction is, from the Khan Academy.

Now let's get down to practice. And we will begin with how to abstract from the manifestations of the surrounding reality in general.

How to abstract from the outside world

Anyone can learn to abstract. You yourself have done this more than once, albeit unconsciously. Remember if you have had similar situations in your life:

• Your friend tells you something, and in the meantime you think about the girl you met in the morning in the minibus
• There is an important meeting at work, and you are in the clouds, looking forward to your upcoming vacation trip
• At home, someone expresses dissatisfaction with you, and you, without paying any attention to it, read an interesting book or watch an exciting movie

Surely you have come across something like this. And this just suggests that you already know how to abstract. But if before you did it automatically, now you can start to get distracted from the world around you on purpose, and at the moment when you need it.

The first thing you will have to master in order to learn to abstract from the negative manifestations of the outside world will be to control your thoughts. There is a simple algorithm for this:

• Breathe out
• Start slowly counting to ten
• Take one slow inhalation and one slow exhalation for each count.
• Concentrating on the breath, pay attention to the thoughts and, as it were, exhale them.

(Make this algorithm right now)
To amplify the effect of the reception, you can look at something. For example, you are standing in line at a store, and two other customers are quarreling nearby. Do the above actions and see what is happening outside the window, evaluate the interior of the store with a glance, concentrate on what actions the cashier performs while serving the customer. If you can turn on your favorite music, do it. This breathing technique can be used in any situation.

Always remember that while abstracting from the outside world, you need to try to maintain a positive attitude, not succumbing to the emerging negative emotions. This means that any circumstances, situations, events and people should be viewed from a different angle. Here are just a few perspectives:

• You may be exaggerating and attaching too much importance to the circumstances.
• Perhaps in the current situation there is some personal benefit specifically for you, and you just need to see it
• Perhaps if everything went the way you want, you would have faced more serious problems.
• You may be in the habit of reacting negatively when something goes against your expectations.

Looking at what is happening from a similar position, you can easily abstract from the outside world, and focus on positive thoughts and / or solving specific issues. In addition, you will have more energy and strength, and life will seem better and easier.

In addition to the proposed method of abstraction from the outside world, meditation can be used. It improves concentration and relaxes perfectly. It is best to meditate at home, when you want to be alone with yourself, to forget about everything and everyone, to organize your thoughts.

Activities such as walking, watching movies, meeting friends, shopping, focusing on specific activities, contemplating works of art, nature, etc. will also help to abstract from the outside world. We also recommend that you turn off all your gadgets from time to time so that no one "bothers you".

But the manifestations of the outside world are often expressed specifically in annoying noises and sounds - this is one of the most common phenomena that interfere with concentration and cause negative emotions. Further we will tell you how to abstract from them.

How to abstract from noise and sounds

It has been scientifically proven that 1 billion impulses enter the human brain every second. The brain, of course, can filter out a lot of unnecessary data, but about a hundred signals will still be recorded by it. And most of the information comes to us in sound form, and there is nothing surprising in the fact that noises and sounds are constantly distracting and make us "twitch".

The following guidelines will help you learn to abstract from noise and sounds:

• Distraction and irritability are seriously affected by fatigue and hunger. If you are hungry or toppled from work, even the slightest noise will cause resentment and a desire to plug your ears. To prevent this, you need, at least, to get enough sleep, eat normally and regularly, and rest during the working day and on weekends.
• If the cacophony finds you where you can leave, we advise you not to delay and just change your place. In general, it is best to choose places where there is not a lot of noise for work and life. For example, life near a forest or sea and life near a railway or airport are two qualitatively different things. If you are a freelancer, you can sometimes work in the library, in the park, in nature.
• To prevent extraneous sounds from annoying, if possible, avoid crowds of people, noisy streets, highways, public transport. Of course, it will not be possible to completely eliminate this from life, but from time to time you still need to enjoy peace and quiet. Do not forget that the breathing technique, which we have already mentioned, helps to abstract from sounds.
• When it is impossible to exclude the source of extraneous sounds, it is worth trying to drown it out with your own noise. At home - speakers, on the street - a player, in the car - an acoustic system - music perfectly distracts from straining sounds. By the way, if you want to relax, new age, ambient, ethnic music, trance and, of course, classics are best suited. By listening to this kind of music, you will be able to maintain your ability to think and keep working.
• When listening to music is not an option, you can simply put on special noise canceling headphones or even insert earplugs into your ears. Even at work, this technique is applicable if you clearly explain to your boss and colleagues why you are doing this. And when the noise endlessly reaches the house and no changes are expected in the situation, it makes sense to resort to drastic measures - to put double-glazed windows, to stick sound-insulating panels on the walls. You can abstract from noise using your imagination. Thought processes perfectly suppress negative reactions of consciousness. You can start to visualize something - imagine (learn how to develop the power of visualization). For example, when you are at home, and some kind of equipment is loudly working on the street, lie on the sofa for ten minutes,

And another good way to learn to abstract from sounds is to master the skill of not paying attention to background noises. If you begin to deliberately get used to any sounds, over time it will be easy to ignore them. Play a video while you work or read, and try to focus on what you are doing. If you're getting ready for a session and your neighbor continues to hammer nails into the wall, don't run away from it - instead, focus on the sound for a little while, and then continue to study the material.

Note that this skill will come in handy anytime, anywhere, because you don't know when and where the noise will catch you again. In addition, absolute silence can have an overwhelming effect on the psyche. If you don't hear anything at all, you will become distracted by the absence of sounds.

Now let's move on to the most important issue - negativity, negative emotions and obsessive thoughts. If it is quite easy to abstract away from the outside world and noise, then it is much more difficult to distract from what is happening inside.

How to abstract from emotions
The most important thing when distracting from emotions is learning how to abstract from negativity. Given that negative emotions often have more impulse and power than positive ones, the first thing you need to do is be able to work with them (by the way, here are ten helpful thoughts on negative thinking). There are different ways to do this, but the most effective are the following:

• Ignoring bad and negative thoughts
• Ignoring irritation
• Remembering good events
• Switching attention
• Complacency
• Thoughts about gaining experience that will be useful in the future
• Adequate perception of what is happening
• Mindfulness

We think that these methods do not need special explanations. It is better to pay more attention to the following tips.

See things philosophically
The philosophical perception of life is that, firstly, you accept the fact that white and black stripes will always alternate, and secondly, you analyze everything that happens, draw certain conclusions and just let go of what you don't Like. This is to abstract from negativity and emotions. Any experience is useful and necessary, and if you look at situations from different angles, disassembling them into components, you can quickly grasp the essence of things and avoid mistakes in the future.

Be imperfect
There is no one perfect, there is not a single absolutely flawless and ideal person. And this applies not only to those around you, but also to yourself. If you take this for granted, life will become much easier, events will be perceived more easily, negativity will cease to cause feelings. Appreciate yourself and others, give up your anger - nothing is so important that it would be worth your suffering.

Enjoy life
One can abstract from the negative only through the positive. Strive to see the positive sides in everything, live every moment as if it were the last, take every day with joy and a smile. You can get pleasure from any thing. Even sitting at home and doing nothing, thank life for the fact that you can see, hear, breathe, communicate with loved ones. Thank life for the fact that you live at all, and remember that someday you will also be gone. Are your current problems important in the face of death?

Drive away bad thoughts
Even when nothing bad happens, you can still think bad. Irrational fears and concerns are easily overcome when you begin to rethink them and understand their causes. When you understand that your anxiety has no explainable reason, how to abstract from it will no longer be such a big problem. If there really is a reason, think about how to resolve the situation. Anyone's fears disappear as soon as a person begins to look them in the eye.

Take it easier
Many people complicate things, thereby worsening their mental and emotional state. But everything, absolutely everything can be looked at easier. Consciousness is just used to reacting negatively to some things, but if you think about them, they may not be worth a damn. Is the boss shouting? Yes, let him cry to himself - let him try to boil the water with his cry. Bad grade in class? And God bless her - with this mark - tomorrow there will be five. Quarreled with your spouse? And so what - the darlings scold - only amuse themselves. Not enough money? And when were they enough? And happiness is not in money, and not even in their quantity. Any situation can be simplified and even translated into a pun. And this is a great way to abstract from negativity.

Become kinder
Have you noticed that good people are doing well? Even if they have troubles, even if they have problems, even if they have hardships, they are doing well. Being kind is very beneficial, but kindness should be shown not only to babies or kittens. You need to be kind to events and situations, and to other people, including those who "negative" on you. Try to take everything as if you are truly a holy person. Ask yourself, how would Nicholas the Wonderworker take this? You will see - awareness will instantly turn on, the brain itself will tell you how to behave, and it will become much easier to abstract. And also, being kinder, you will begin to attract kind people, good events, good news into your life.

Learn to concentrate
The ability to abstract from the bad is the skill of concentrating on the good. Everything is extremely simple here: do not pay attention to what hurts your feelings, what makes your blood boil, what makes you mad. Instead, remember the faces of your loved ones, switch to funny things that happened during the day, mentally draw pictures from anecdotes. Do anything that can be associated with joy, hope, good sadness, happiness, love, and other positive emotions. You can read about how to improve your concentration in our article "Simple Ways to Increase Concentration."

Control the positive
It may sound strange, but you still need to be able to abstract yourself from both negative and positive emotions. If you all the time soar in the clouds and look at the world through rose-colored glasses, one day you can hit the ground nicely. Rejoice, laugh, sing songs, be happy, but understand that these states are also destined to end, because you will spend your energy, and they will lose their intensity. As with everything, there should also be a measure here. And the best way to rejoice is to be grateful to life and to switch attention to business and worries. Such is the human psyche - hovering on the wings of happiness, it is easy to lose vigilance, forget, do not have time to do something important. Keep this in mind and keep balance and harmony within yourself.

And in conclusion, I just want to note that abstracting from the outside world, noises and sounds, negative emotions and experiences always helps the development of skills and qualities useful for life, such as awareness, self-confidence, inner calmness, concentration, gratitude ...

Be sure to make plans, motivate yourself, strive for new goals and achievements, read interesting and developmental books, meditate and relax, develop healthy habits for life. Having filled your life with these things, you can abstract from anything you can easily and naturally.