Being able to sustain our focus is a big bonus…
…in many ways, as it turns out.
Just as with strengthening any muscle, a more powerful ability to focus can help our memory, cognitive ability, capacity to update information, our recall and processing speed.
Surely these are skills it’s valuable to have more of? If your answer’s yes, read on for my top four mental-focus strengtheners –
- Meditate – 10-20mins a day has been shown to help our attention span.
It doesn’t need to be fancy – simply 10mins focusing on our breathing; ideally at the start and end of our day is a splendid place to start.
- Engage when reading – especially when for longer articles or books, it’s valuable to invest the time to finish what we begin reading.
This allows our minds to track with the information, pick up and process more complex concepts, and reduce skipping from task to task.
Michael McQueen puts this beautifully in his book ‘Momentum’ where he explains that these days our nervous system is bombarded with up to 2 million bits of info per second.
This is one of the factors contributing to our attention span now being 8seconds – one second less than a goldfish.
- Practice exquisite listening – this has been a classic area that I’d attempted to multitask (eg whilst on the phone).
However when we honour our listener with our attention, both of our abilities to think with the information being shared improve. Not to mention the corresponding benefits to rapport and trust, and reduced tendency to interrupt before the person’s finishing expressing.
- Be curious – hobbies help to stimulate other areas of our brains and encourage inter-neuronal communication.
We can literally build new pathways in our brains (expand them) as well as practice being able to grasp new concepts more deftly.
I remember when I was 17yrs and moved away from home to study, my landlady – who was a dear friend and support to me – once encouraging me to take a break from my study. She said ‘all work and no play make Fi a dull girl’.
Wise words indeed 🙂
Take Away – Fancy eating your way to being more productive? Click here for some inspiration if you missed last week’s blog – 4 Foods to help us be Productive.
Fi Jamieson-Folland D.O., I.N.H.C., is The LifeStyle Aligner. She’s an experienced practitioner since 1992 in Europe, Asia and New Zealand as a qualified Osteopath, Integrative Nutrition Health Coach, speaker, educator, writer, certified raw vegan gluten-free chef, and Health Brand Ambassador.
