Watching the work of Sherlock Holmes or detective Monk in TV series and films, you involuntarily get disgusted: “Well, how do they manage to notice and solve everything? And what about me? But nothing. Mindfulness can be trained in the same way as muscles. More effort means better results.
Necessary
Free time and desire
Instructions
Step 1
It is better to start classes on the development of observation with hearing training. Yes, yes, not from sight, but from hearing. The fact is that through the eyes a person perceives from ⅔ to ⅘ information about the world around him. And only the rest falls on the sense of smell, touch, taste and hearing. However, only hearing is the same "long-range" sense as sight, so it is easier to learn to segment perception from hearing.
Step 2
Sit down, close your eyes and divide the audible world into several conditional zones: apartment (internal sounds), street (nearest external), district (farthest). Concentrate and switch your hearing in these areas. Teach yourself to only hear sounds within one zone. You should train until this switch is easy for you, and memorizing the sequence of what is happening within 5-10 minutes will be absolute. Experience shows that an unprepared person achieves similar results in about one and a half to two months of daily training.
Step 3
Now you can start training your eyes. It has two components. First you need to practice on inanimate objects, then on animate objects. Having chosen an object or person, consider it from all possible sides for 1-5 minutes. Pay special attention to small details: scuffs, grease spots, highlights, degree of deterioration, articulations of parts, fine wrinkles, muscle development, skin and teeth color, etc. Try to notice what the eye did not catch before. The easiest way to approach observation is from the standpoint of a critic, as if looking for defects or defects in objects.
Step 4
Remember: all objects are in some space for some time (which means they move, deteriorate), and also interact with each other (leave mutual traces, exchange particles of dirt, dust …). With each workout, you will find traces of these interactions faster, and the connections between them will be tracked more effectively.
Step 5
The next stage is training of proper observation: attention and logic. At this stage, any object that you choose for practice should be considered in an already known coordinate system: space (including lighting, position relative to other objects and interaction with them), time and constituent parts. The main mistake common to all novice admirers of deduction is setting the investigation in front of the reasons: after all, you want to immediately reveal some "secret", while subtle observation depends on the ability to notice simple, but non-obvious things and make the only correct logical conclusions.
Step 6
Since the principles are already known, you can go to examples. Here is an office table in front of you. By the way it stands, how strongly the flooring is pressed under it, the marks on this coating, changes in the color of the polishing of the table, barely noticeable abrasions from a retractable chair, accumulations of dust, looseness of the hinges of the shelves, greasy ends, etc., how long the table serves its owner, where it stood until its real place, in what clothes they most often work for it, how often do the cleaning ladies and the owner look inside and tell something about his character (for example, if the table is almost new, but worn a lot of sliding and sliding chairs).
Step 7
Or, for example, there is a lamp on the table. It is unlikely that you have previously looked closely at the bends and breaks of its wire, but now, having examined them carefully, you can say with fairly high accuracy how often it was rearranged from place to place, and guess why. On the traces of heating next to the light source itself - an "owl" or "lark" is its owner. By fresh and old dust or its absence - how carefully he keeps order.
Step 8
And if you happen to have a chance to talk to the owner of the table and lamp, pay attention to how he sits, stands, walks, talks, looks, breathes, smiles, frowns, smokes, puts out a cigarette. Who is he - a misanthrope or a life-lover, a pedant or a slob, is he happy in his family life, does he go in for sports, looks to the future with optimism, or does he only dream of being alone and alone? Surely after training, you will learn a lot more about your counterpart than he wants to show and tell, which is not bad at all for a beginner Holmes!
