How to Focus

A Monastic Guide for an Age of Distraction (Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers)

De: John Cassian, Jamie Kreiner - translator, Jamie Kreiner - selector, Jamie Kreiner - introduction

Narrado por: Mike Cooper

Distraction isn't a new problem. We're also not the first to complain about how hard it is to concentrate. Early Christian monks beat us to it. They had given up everything to focus on God, yet they still struggled to keep the demons of distraction at bay. But rather than surrender to the meandering of their minds, they developed powerful strategies to improve their attention and engagement. How to Focus is an inviting collection of their strikingly relatable insights and advice—frank, funny, sympathetic, and psychologically sophisticated.

This wisdom is drawn from John Cassian's Collationes, one of the most influential manuals for monks from late antiquity. The Collationes follow Cassian and his friend Germanus as they travel around Egypt, asking a series of sage monks how they can make their minds stronger. In response, these monks offer a range of techniques for increasing focus, including setting goals, training the body, managing the memory, using mantras, taking breaks, consulting others—and, most of all, being honest about yourself. As Cassian and Germanus eventually realize, we can't escape distraction—but we can learn how to confront it and, eventually, to concentrate.

Featuring an engaging new translation by Jamie Kreiner, How to Focus can help even the least monkish of us to train our attention on what matters most.

©2024 Jamie Kreiner (P)2024 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

The analogies

A great book for discipline with Christianity at its foundation. A quick read but make sure to take many notes.

Nothing

Boring: Of my many similar books, this one was vague and didn’t hold my interest.

reader spoke really fast and was hard to understand

This was the most unprofitable book I have read. There was nothing I could practically apply other than repeat a mantra over and over for all of you problems.