I still struggled a little with maintaining the process over product ideal. As a bit of a perfectionist I found myself spending too long making sure everything worked exactly how I wanted it to and looked the way I wanted it to as well. This meant that I did not get to implement one of the ideas that I wanted to into my blog post pages - the drop down menu bar.
Before reading the chapter on mindfullness meditation I was under the impression that the majority of what meditation had to offer was in the realms of calmness and relaxation - "being one with yourself". I seem to have understood the practice relatively well in terms of what is done to achieve effective meditation, however, I did not understand the end goal of the exercise completely nor how these aspects could help encourage personal growth.
Most of the new knowledge I gained from the chapter was about the affect that meditation could have on your ability to concentrate. The more immediately practical benefits of meditation had not been apparent to me before reading this chapter and the practice seems more interesting to me as a result. I think that the ability to control concentration, as someone who is easily distracted, could be of huge benefit for me especially in a work environment. I had also not heard of the health benefits meditation can supposedly provide. Although while I understand the benefits of a positive mindset on ones health I still struggle slightly with the notion that some diseases might be cured more effectively that others through the affects of meditation.
The most standout meditation practice for me was the basic breathing technique. As someone who does not find much time to sit and relax, finding two minutes to concentrate on breathing while focusing on maintaining concentration on my abdomen or nostrils seems to be the most accessible form of meditation.
I found the idea of the attentional blink interesting, especially in relation to the benefits that meditation might have in reducing blink time. I have noticed the phenomenon before and the idea of reducing this time is interesting to me.