We see a lot of things, but at the same time we do not notice everything, and all because we have not developed the skills of observation, which, first of all, consists in our ability to see the main properties of various objects and people. But there is good news - it’s never too late to engage in self-development, you can start right now, and our article will tell you in which direction to move.
An outside observer can sometimes understand a situation better than someone who is part of it. Roger Zelazny. Chronicles of Amber
Why do we need observation?
In fact, not a single person can do without such a quality as observation, because it is with its help that we more clearly understand exactly what events are happening around us. If we work on its development, then over time we will be able not only to understand the essence of other people, but also to predict their behavior.
In addition, developed powers of observation can help us make the right decisions in a minimum amount of time.
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Also, of course, without such a useful skill, humanity would never have learned to read each other’s emotions
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Exercise “Mom is sleeping”
Imagine that your mother is very tired and sleeps next to you on the sofa. You don’t have headphones, but you really want to watch some video. What would you do as a child so as not to wake her up? That's right, I would use my imagination and watch everything with the sound off. This can be done now, just use observation rather than imagination.
Choose a short video or scene (comedy ones will be most useful to begin with) and by facial expressions, surroundings, location and other details, try to understand what kind of action is happening in the video, what the characters say to each other and how it can all end. Then watch the video and note what exactly you were able to predict and why.
How to develop observation skills?
There is no need to despair just because your powers of observation leave much to be desired.
This only means that you will have to spend some time developing it. By the way, there are simple but very effective exercises for this:
- Pick up any thing and look at it carefully, trying to remember even the most insignificant details
. After this, close your eyes and mentally imagine this thing in every detail. Then you can open your eyes and look at your subject again, noting what exactly you didn’t remember - close your eyes and complement the existing image with new details. And so on until your brain displays the object as it looks in reality. - If the first exercise works, then put the object you have chosen aside and transfer its image onto paper from memory
. Again, you must provide all the details. - Take something and pay attention to its details, and not to the image as a whole
. In this way, you will learn to remember individual parts of the whole, and then, based on them, draw conclusions. - Have someone put a dozen different objects on the table that you look at for a few seconds
and then turn away.
Try to remember all these items and describe them in detail
. - In the evenings , remember how your day went, who you saw and what you said, remember all the details and incidents
- this will teach you observation skills.
Observant people can see much more with their eyes than others. It is thanks to the development of the skill of observation that they can easily understand the emotions and feelings of a person that he does not speak out loud.
Exercise “Photo sketch”
Remember the people you know best: family, loved ones, best friends. Imagine that you need to make an identikit of them for some purpose. Just don’t imagine the outright negative: none of them are lost and they are not looking for him on the city streets. An identikit may be needed, for example, to describe a friend in a story or a joke.
It is difficult to do this without proper training, even if we remember the person well. As soon as you can describe loved ones in words, move on to unfamiliar ones, and then to complete strangers. At the same time, practice describing the emotions you read on their faces. This will also be useful.
How to determine other people's emotions?
It’s no longer a secret that all people’s body language is mostly the same, and no matter what they do, they won’t be able to change it.
You can, of course, learn to control all these manifestations, but this is not accessible to every person. Therefore, knowing how people’s basic emotions manifest themselves, you can characterize their state and choose the appropriate line of communication:
- If a person is angry, then his eyebrows lower, he compresses his lips, and a deep wrinkle lies along his forehead.
- If your interlocutor is disgusted, the corners of his lips will rise, his eyes will squint, and his nose and forehead will wrinkle.
- When experiencing fear, a person will open his eyes wide, open his mouth slightly and raise his eyebrows.
- If he feels happiness, then the corners of his mouth are raised and his eyes narrow.
- During sadness, the eyes are also narrowed, the eyebrows and mouth droop, and the chin trembles.
- If a person is surprised, then his pupils are dilated, his mouth is slightly open, and his eyebrows are raised.
- Contempt is expressed by squinting the eyes and lifting one corner of the mouth.
What does it depend on?
As I already said in the article about how to deal with inattention , that initially your attentiveness depends directly on your well-being, namely:
- Dream. Doctors recommend sleeping at least 8 hours a day, but everyone has their own individual norm that should be followed. It is difficult for the brain to tune in to work when there is a lack of energy, so concentration of attention is out of the question. If you have difficulty getting proper sleep, you can read my article “What to do if you wake up very early and don’t know what to do about it?”
- Nutrition. If you eat too much fatty food, or with a high sugar content, your body will not be able to actively expend energy, which will lead to laziness or apathy; you simply will not have the strength and need to switch your attention to external stimuli in order to receive new information.
- Walks in the open air. Oxygen is necessary for the active functioning of the brain. Have you noticed how after a walk in the fresh air your head becomes more “clear” and it is easier to concentrate afterwards? That is why at school children are asked to spend recess outside.
- Sports activities. It is not necessary to visit the gym or group classes; it will be quite enough if you do daily exercises to keep your body in good shape. Then attention will be activated.
- Calm. When under stress, a person usually has too high levels of anxiety, fear, anger, disappointment, surprise and other feelings. There are a large number of thoughts in the head, they are confused and interrupt each other, so sometimes a person may not even remember, for example, where he was and what he did for the last half hour, because he did not track reality while experiencing an emotional outburst. So these methods should be started when you are calm.
Expand the fullness of your first impression
Let's say you are crossing the street at an intersection. Cars slowed down at a red light. Take a look at them, take a closer look. After you have crossed the street, try to reproduce what you saw in your memory and answer the same questions as in the previous exercise. Practice to achieve a more complete and detailed recording of what you see.
Another variant. You enter a familiar classroom or office where several people are already present. Within 10-15 seconds, take a closer look and take in the room with your gaze. Then distract yourself, sort of go inside yourself and try to answer approximately the same questions: how many people, men, women, what age, what are they wearing, facial expressions, what has changed in this room since the previous time?
After this, check the accuracy of your observations. While practicing, gradually reduce the observation time to two or three seconds, but achieving the same completeness and detail.
General concepts
If you approach someone from your family and ask them to describe in detail what a garage at their dacha looks like, you will be surprised that people simply do not pay attention to some seemingly obvious details. Someone will speak out against it and say that paying attention to details is an overload of memory and cluttering the brain with unnecessary information. On the one hand, this is true, but on the other hand, it is a good habit. Firstly, such skills will allow you to quickly grasp the essence and make an analysis, and secondly, they can be an excellent help in resolving unfavorable situations. So character traits or personality traits such as attention and observation are more important than ever.
Stay in the present moment.
It's easy to get distracted by electronics, intrusive thoughts, or noisy environments, but they can make you less observant. Instead of disconnecting from your surroundings, try to focus on where you are at the moment.
Instead of listening to music, describe your surroundings. On a bus, you might notice that there are five people on it, that the bus is rumbling and noisy, and that there is a dusty smell.
As you walk, listen to the sounds of nature, such as birds singing or the wind rustling through the trees. Think about how the sun feels on your skin or how brightly colored the flowers are.
What is mindfulness and attention?
First of all, mindfulness presupposes a certain attitude towards the people around you. This is not only the ability to observe, but also to react in a timely manner to the state of others, to be sensitive and understanding. Mindfulness has a significant impact on cognitive functioning, intelligence and intelligence, and also has a positive effect on work performance. But the concept of “attention” already has a different character - it is a selective focus on a specific object and complete concentration on it.
Pay attention to small details.
Often people only notice large objects that surround them. As you walk through the day, try to find smaller features that may surround buildings, landmarks, and large spaces.
For example, you may be in a store. What does this sign say? Is there anything on the windows? How many carts are lined up outside?
If you walk around your neighborhood, you might explore different mailboxes, lawn decorations, plants, or toys in the yard.
Studies
Attention and vigilance are important in learning. Starting from early development, long before school, a child’s observation skills must be trained through all kinds of games and activities.
If a child grows up in his own world, hardly noticing his surroundings and not attaching importance to what is happening around him, this will affect both his intelligence and his further studies at school. After graduating from school, when choosing a profession, a teenager should be able to notice and analyze his inclinations and abilities. He will be able to easily decide on a place of study if he observes people of different professions and correlates them with his desires and capabilities. Attentiveness will help your child study well, grasp material on the fly, and become a well-rounded person. Also, during the educational process, insight will help the child establish good relationships with teachers, understand and be able to satisfy their requirements. Irina took exams in her third year at the university. One of the subjects was Russian literature, the teacher of which was very picky and tried to “fail” students he didn’t like. Irina noticed the teacher’s tricky questions and saw that even well-prepared students were confused and received low grades. The girl decided to observe what the examiner did not like about the respondents. She listened carefully and analyzed the previous students' answers. After a while, she realized that the teacher reacted negatively to the tone of the examinees: when they began their answer confidently, and after his questions began to wilt and get lost, he gave a low mark. Coming out to answer, Irina deliberately chose a calm tone, no different when answering an answer that she knows well or when she doubts it. To the girl’s surprise, her method worked and the teacher not only did not try to “fail” her, but also tried to help answer some of his questions himself; in the end, Irina received a good grade.
Identify any strange sounds or smells.
Instead of ignoring new sounds and smells, try to guess what they are. If possible, examine the source to see if you were right or wrong.
For example, if you smell something, guess what food it is. Does it smell like meat, spices or baked goods? Is he close to you, weak and distant?
If you hear a knocking noise, assess your surroundings. Is it coming from a certain wall? Is it a consistent step or an erratic rhythm? What can someone do to create noise?
Evaluate everything you notice.
When you try to observe something, try to determine how much and what is there. These numbers will make you pay more attention to the size or number of objects. Over time, you will be able to count objects faster.
For example, instead of “I saw some children playing outside,” you might write, “I saw four children playing outside with the same ball.”
Instead of saying, “I had to sign a bunch of paperwork,” keep track of what you did. You may notice that you signed your name four times on different documents.
Why is it important to be attentive?
Attention is needed in any area of human activity - at school, at work, while reading, assimilating information. There are 3 main reasons why it is important to be careful:
Improved self-organization
In the constant flow of information, the chaotic structure of modern life, oversaturated with events, it is important to be able to concentrate on one object or task. This skill allows you to quickly and efficiently solve a problem, get out of a difficult situation, and make the right choice. The ability to cut off the unimportant, highlight the main thing and constantly keep it in focus - this is the only way to achieve success in modern life.
Increasing stress resistance
His emotions, namely the level of happiness and stress, depend on how skillfully a person manages his attention. When we have our head in the clouds, cannot concentrate, think about everything and nothing at the same time, the brain gives an impulse that triggers anxiety.
If a person knows how to concentrate and is attentive, then the part of the brain responsible for fears and anxieties - the amygdala - reduces its activity. An attentive person is calm, peaceful, and stress-resistant. He does not succumb to panic attacks, makes more informed decisions based on perceived and analyzed information. And without attentiveness this would be impossible. This is why brain training is so popular today. In terms of demand, it even surpasses physical training.
How to be a considerate person
Achieving success
It is believed that the ability to maintain attention, not be distracted by trifles, and highlight the main thing is the most necessary quality in the modern world. The media, the Internet, advertising and political campaigns - everything today is aimed at captivating our attention, leading us and, to some extent, controlling our consciousness. Therefore, a person who knows how to control his attention has a greater chance of achieving success in life.
Practice mindfulness meditation daily.
To meditate, sit in a quiet, comfortable place. Close eyes. Focus your attention on your breathing. Don't dream or think about your life. Instead, hone your senses in the sensations around you. What do you hear, feel and smell? Start with five minutes and work your way up to 20 minutes of meditation a day.
If you start to lose your mind, it's okay. Simply direct your concentration back to your breath.
At first you can only meditate for a few minutes, but over time you can increase the duration.
Range of application
There are countless examples of this in every occupation and activity. The two cases below will show the range of application of observations.
- One day in a small town in upstate New York, a fireman named Eric Hawk was cleaning the valves. One of the valves accidentally fell into a trash can with chemicals. Hawk took an old stick to fish the valve out of the bucket. When he succeeded, he noticed that the stick became clean. Chemicals cleaned it of dirt and paint. Driven by curiosity, Hawk tried applying chemicals to an old chair. It also cleared up. Since that serendipitous discovery, Eric Hawk has built an entire wood furniture cleaning business, Daily Chemicals Corporation. Today this corporation has 200 subsidiaries in 35 states. And all this thanks to a random fact that any other person might not have paid attention to. 4
- In the late 1950s, John T. Molloy was an elementary school teacher in Connecticut. He began to observe that there was some connection between the shoes a teacher wore and how well his students learned. A teacher who had shoes with laces got better results from his students than teachers whose shoes did not lace up. Molloy was intrigued by this strange connection. He began to conduct experiments. As a result, he found out that the light gray work clothes of the Boston Strangler (Boston Strangler, the killer of thirteen Boston women in the early 1960s - Translator's note) inspired confidence among his victims. He also found that secretaries carried out the instructions of people whose dress and manners conveyed high office and authority much more willingly than the instructions of people in shabby clothes. These observations helped Molloy found his thriving business, Dress for Success. Its services are used by numerous businessmen and entire companies. 5
For most people, being observant is unlikely to result in the same luck as in the cases of Hawke and Molloy. However, it can help us treat people more carefully and learn more about the world around us.
That's how absentminded he is!
Stress, overwork, insufficient sleep, lack of fresh air, alcohol abuse, smoking, frequent use of certain medications (especially painkillers, sedatives and sleeping pills), and vitamin hunger often impair memory.
But it’s enough to quit smoking and alcohol, start eating right, going to bed earlier, walking more often and making friends with sports, and episodes of forgetfulness will evaporate as if they never happened. An article on the topic “Brain gymnastics”: 6 exercises for the mind and performance Limiting, by the way, requires not only junk food, but also increased stress. Any overwork (both physical and mental) has a bad effect on the ability to remember, so take breaks from work more often, move more and try not to take work home. You won't earn all the money.
It is also worth limiting unnecessary information. After all, its excess, as is known, leads to superficial perception. So, if you surf the Internet or watch TV from morning to night, then don’t be surprised that your poor brain is no longer able to concentrate on anything else and retain anything important. Give yourself at least one “day off” from gadgets. Try to “forget” your mobile phone and tablet at home for the whole day, and at work do not give in to the temptation to use the Internet outside of work purposes. In the evening, try not to turn on the TV. And you will be surprised at how much calmer you have become and how long and busy the day can be, how much attention you can pay to your loved ones.
Write down everything you notice on a daily basis.
Do this throughout the day as you notice certain things. This will keep your observation focused in the moment. Write your comments in a notepad. Try to be as specific as possible:
- What did you saw? Was it a certain color, size or shape?
- Where was the object? How was it placed in relation to other objects?
- What sounds were around you?
- What sensations did you experience?
- Who was there? What did they wear? What they were doing?
Brains, cook!
During our school and student years, we regularly strained our brains: we learned poems and rules, crammed theorems, memorized foreign words, and wrote expositions. But, as adults, we abruptly stopped doing all this. But memory needs regular training. So that it doesn’t let you down, don’t be lazy in memorizing poetry, solving crosswords, learning something new: be it notation or a foreign language.
Article on the topic
Anyone can become a genius, or Who are counter people? Get carried away with puzzles, crosswords, put together puzzles, complete tasks to increase your attentiveness - all this is a great workout for your head. Don't neglect computer games. In particular, such a classic game as “find a pair”, where the player is briefly shown cards with pictures, and then closed and asked to find the pairs. This fun is very useful because it uses parts of the brain important for memory - the temporal lobe and hippocampus. By the way, you can do all this with your children.
In general, doctors believe that memory problems are most often problems with attention. So learn to concentrate. To achieve this, try to get into the habit of not doing anything automatically, but always being collected.
