Name: Rapt
ISBN: 9781594202100

Winifred Gallagher

The behavioral scientist author of Just the Way You Are presents a provocative argument that the quality of one's life is directly related to the focus of one's attention, drawing on the latest findings in neuroscience and psychology to cover such topics as the human capacity for training concentration, the ways in which the creative mind thinks, and why people deliberate on the wrong factors when making big decisions.

Attention and the Focused Life

Rapt

Dana Kraft

Perhaps my expectations were off. I believe that we all have a choice about where we spend our time and attention and those choices have a profound impact on our physical and mental well-being over time. I was hoping for more insights about that. Unfortunately, the book seemed scattered and unfocused because the author takes such a broad look at the concept of "attention". She talks about parenting, ADHD, mental illness, employee productivity, prayer, vanity...and the list goes on. She also injects way too much social commentary. A quick excerpt should demonstrate my point...

"As a husband, father and professional observer of how relationships develop, he [UCLA psychologist] thinks this newly vigilant parental focus reflects the conflict between America's venerable ethic of upward mobility and its increasingly downwardly mobile socioeconomic conditions."

Note: The above quote correctly reflects her use of two 'ly' adverbs in a row. Nice.

Rapt Attention and the Focused Life

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