Impossible to concentrate!

by highdose 10 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  highdose

  looking back on my time as a JW i found that i sat at the meetings just willing the time to go past and just trying to get through it. There would be a blip were i would concentrate on getting my answer in, just so that others didn't look down on me even more than they already did, but after that i would go back to sleep.

  The thing is i was a very serious JW, and really did want to pay attention... i just found it to be impossible, 5 mins at the max and then drift away...

  i even perfected the art of staring intently at the speaker while having my mind very much elsewhere. and i wonder now how many JW's are actauly listening at all?

  Certainly when i've informed them recently of the new light, none of them had actualy heard of it!
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  wantstoleave

  Lol I was pretty much the same. My mind always wandered. I remember as a kid dad telling us not to let this happen. To quickly redirect our thought back to the information. But it was hard. He'd ask us after every meeting on the car ride home, 'what did you learn?'. I hated that part. So I'd spend my last few mins of meeting time preparing in my head what to say to dad...lol. I think there will alot who don't pay attention.
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  oompa

  i could not and so could not sit there in long doses...would walk around a lot...lobby, coatroom, bathroom, parking lot....started writing a book during all the meetings and people thought i was an intense note taker!!!........then became heavy user of library....i would hear something ridiculous and shoot back there..........research my heart out...use the computer......elders finally told me it was "bothering some of the brothers, and could you do that after the meeting"....i said "really? well sorry but my memory really sucks so i have to look stuff up right away"......and walked off

  then when i foolishly went back to a few meetings for wifes sake after two years....i so enjoyed texting my apostate friends during the meeting!!!.....was very discreet about it...........oompa
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  wobble

  I was similar to Oompa, walking around,library etc. I could daydream while looking attentive,like you dear Highdose, I had perfected the art of listening with half an ear, so could chip in with an answer if there was something I wanted to say.

  My B.I.L (long faded ex-Elder) said to me the other day "Do you remember when you were on the platform,and you looked at the eyes of the audience, only one or two were, possibly, listening ?"

  I think he was right, I think nearly all dubs are with Homer Simpson,as he said to his preacher, "but when you were up there going Yadda Yadda Yadda , I wasn't listening"

  Love

  Wobble
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  WTWizard

  It is designed that way. They are talking about how each of 15 deals, classes, and so forth applies to each of us. Trouble is, each one is virtually identical to each other--a complete waste of time to learn about. They also make up such complicated structures of rules--what exactly constitutes "loose conduct", what conduct is questionable, what "marking" means, and so on. And, the obligatory "do more" talks and "if you do real things, you are going to die and get into serious trouble" talks are impossible to pay attention to.
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  cantleave

  I have got to go to a meeting tommorow , both the Patronising Talk and Craptower Study. I haven't been to a whole meeting for over a month. I will struggle to keep awake even though I will get an extra hour in bed thanks to the return of GMT.
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  ssn587

  Most all of the meeting are very boring and just recitals or rehashes of rehashes.

  cantleave we dont go back to normal time until 01Nov09 no this weekend.
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  cantleave

  ssn587 I'm in the UK clocks go back tonight.
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  finallysomepride

  When I was little my dad would tell us kids how important it was to pay attention to the speaker, must have been really important to him....he always went to sleep during the meetings, especially the week night ones, I really do understand why he would sleep through much of the boring talks he did have a demanding physical job.

  Me, I used to sit there pretending to pay attention, looking directly at the speaker but my mind was on another planet.

  The watchtower study, rarely found any interest there, would spend my time reading the awake articles.

  Assemblies I would walk around, spent at most about 1/2 hour in my seat, great if I could get on security then I had a good excuse.

  On the rare occasion I actually got a chance to give a 5 minute talk from the stage, I once payed attention to who was actually listening and it wasn't very many, most had a blank look on their faces.

  Damn I wish we had daylight saving here in Queensland, Australia, it's light at 5am& dark 6.30pm
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  Black Sheep

  This pretty much sums up me at a meeting