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Alan Hall

Still Points, Turning Worlds

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Factual: Health & Wellbeing

31/05/2010

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Still Points, Turning Worlds

The ability to concentrate and the allure of daydreaming come into dual focus.

Producer Alan Hall explores the complementary skills of daydreaming and the ability to concentrate. From 2010.

When WH Davies wrote his celebrated poem 'Leisure' over a century ago, the myriad stimuli assaulting people's senses now and the demands that sap humanity's powers of concentration in the digital age were unimaginable. But he rightly gauged the detrimental impacts to the human spirit of failing to find moments of peace in a busy world: 'a poor life this, if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare'.

In this 'composed feature', producer Alan Hall embroiders together the experiences of a range of people for whom still points and daydreaming provide an escape from the increasingly invasive nature of the turning world about us and offer a foundation for reflection, rejuvenation and creativity.

Hearing from Canon Lucy Winkett of St Paul's in the heart of the City of London, an installer of 'energy pods' that offer 'corporate fatigue solutions', an hypnotherapist, staff and pupils from a school that champions 'the Pause' and Kieran MacFeely, a singer-songwriter from the world of pop music (or 'high-end racket') who sought out the peace of the countryside. 

'Still Points, Turning Worlds' relishes moments of reverie in an attempt to reclaim the powers of concentration.

Producer: Alan Hall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in 2010

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