{"id":193,"date":"2011-06-17T10:44:00","date_gmt":"2011-06-17T14:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.zenbija.com\/wordpress\/?p=193"},"modified":"2011-06-17T10:44:00","modified_gmt":"2011-06-17T14:44:00","slug":"the-coffeehouse-the-zendo-the-gym","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zenbija.com\/wordpress\/?p=193","title":{"rendered":"The Coffeehouse, the Zendo, the Gym"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, I was at a coffeehouse with my netbook computer, working on some writing, when two women sat at the table behind me and started a very loud conversation. My writing was kind of slow going, and their voices were distracting. I thought about turning around and asking them to modulate a little; indoor voices. I know it’s not a library, and I can’t expect silence.<\/p>\n

Then I had to reason with myself and wonder why I was at the coffeehouse anyway. If I wanted to drink coffee and write without hearing other people’s conversations, I could do that at home. But something about being around other people–something about the potential for annoyance, the invasion of privacy–makes me a little more productive in my writing. I hunker down; I tune out annoyances and keep writing. When trying to write at home, I get up and pace around the room. I waste time on clicky games like Jorinapeka<\/a>. (Seriously, don’t click if you don’t want to waste hours.) Around other people, I’m at my best. If anyone happens to look over my shoulder, they’ll see me writing, not wasting time.<\/p>\n

It’s also why I go to the temple<\/a> to meditate. A few weeks ago, there was an especially fidgety Sunday service. A few people in the zendo were restlessly shifting during the meditation. It made it difficult to concentrate. I could have done my practice at home with fewer distractions.<\/p>\n

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But I also know when I sit at home, I’m like that. I squirm a little. I clear my throat. These things aren’t cardinal sins, but I know that my meditation is much more effective if I sit still. Being around others, sitting with the sangha on Sundays, gives me more incentive to go deep in meditation. I focus myself because I don’t want to be that person, the one who distracts people. I think about using that pressure for good–not to be neurotic and chastise myself for sighing or scratching or fidgeting, just doing my very best not to. When I focus myself out of consideration for other people, it turns out I get most of the benefits–I get a deep, restful meditation, or I get a productive morning of caffeinated writing, because I clear away my own junk. And if once in a while it takes a twitchy sitting or a loud neighbor-table at Biggby Coffee<\/a> to remind me of that, I’m grateful for it.<\/p>\n

However, it’s also important to watch out for contagious behavior. I’m thinking of a phenomenon I call the locker-room sigh. I’ve noticed often after exercising in the gym, people changing clothes will make a little extra noise, as if to say, “Whoa, what a workout. Ugh, I really stretched myself today. Ohh, that was tough.” They aren’t saying the sentences out loud, just the vocalization, to no one in particular. I wonder if they think they’re starting a conversation, if they are doing it to commiserate with other people in the same situation or to show off how hard they’re working.<\/p>\n

It seems to be the same principle, but I wonder if locker-room sighs only lead to more locker-room sighs, that they don’t have the same reminder to focus. I’m also not sure if there’s an equivalent, that I’ll get more out of my own workout if I consciously refrain from going “Ugh” afterwards. But one way or another, I react the same way. I’m going to keep trying not to be that guy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, I was at a coffeehouse with my netbook computer, working on some writing, when two women sat at the table behind me and started a very loud conversation. My writing was kind of slow going, and their voices were distracting. I thought about turning around and asking them to modulate a little; indoor voices. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zenbija.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zenbija.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zenbija.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zenbija.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zenbija.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=193"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.zenbija.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":194,"href":"https:\/\/www.zenbija.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193\/revisions\/194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zenbija.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zenbija.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zenbija.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}