The Lathe as Meditation: Finding Focus in a Distracted World
I can tell when a student has found it, the moment when everything else falls away, and there's just the wood, the tool, and the shape taking form. Their posture changes. Their breathing steadies. The outside world stops mattering for a while.
It's not emptying the mind (that could be dangerous). It's filling the mind with one thing so there's no room for anything else. The spinning blank demands attention so thoroughly that anxious thoughts, tomorrow's worries, yesterday's regrets simply can't compete.
This is what psychologists call "flow”. It’s that balance between challenge and skill where time distorts, and self-consciousness disappears. Woodturning is almost purpose-built for it. There's immediate feedback (the cut is either clean or it isn't), a skill level that can constantly improve, and problems that require genuine engagement to solve.
The lathe won't let you multitask. Try thinking about your email while taking a cut, and the wood will remind you, possibly with a catch or a torn surface, that it needs your full attention. This forced presence is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
I spent years as a photographer and designer, working with images and layouts on screens. That work required attention, indeed, but it was interruptible attention. I could pause, alt-tab to something else, and come back. The creative flow was fragmented.
Turning is different. Once you start a cut, you're pretty much committed until it's complete. There's no pause button. The wood is spinning, the tool is engaged, and you're in dialogue with the material until you choose to stop. That continuity creates something that fragmented digital work never could.
In my book "A Maker's Mindset" (scheduled for publication in June), I write about making being never really about the object; it's about attention. The bowl, the tool, the line, even the mistakes. They're all ways of learning to listen more deeply. You start by trying to control things. You end by learning to let them be.
What would it mean to spend an hour, a day, giving something your complete attention?
Class Recommendation: Our Sunday Studio Sessions provide regular, unhurried time at the lathe – the conditions for finding that meditative focus.
Book: https://www.thewoodturning.school/intermediate/sunday-studio
Watch: https://www.youtube.com/@msabansmith
Cross-Reference: Related: 'What Woodturning Teaches That Nothing Else Can' on The Woodturning School blog (Tuesday 3rd February)