How to Improve Focus

Buddhist Monks are the world champions of focus. Through thousands of hours of meditation, monks achieve profound changes to their brains that enable them to better regulate stress and boost focus. If our goal is to improve focus, we should look at Monks as the ideal. However, most people don’t have thousands of hours to practice meditation, so what can we do about it? Fortunately, studies show that we can derive many benefits from shorter meditation practices. One study found that the amygdala, which is a key component in the brain's stress response, shows less activity from 30 hours of meditation practice. Studies have also observed that just seventeen minutes of meditation practice can reduce attentional blinks, which can be thought of as lapses in our attention. According to Daniel Goldeman, author of Altered Traits, “Improvements in attention after just two weeks of practice include better focus, less mind-wandering, and improved working memory.” To get started now, there are 2 basic types of mindfulness training Single point focus and contemplative. Single point focus is the commitment to focus on just one thing. It can be anything, for example: a sound, a mantra, or your breath. When your mind wanders, which it will, it's the practice of refocusing on that one thing. The breath is a good starting point. Focusing on your breathing and refocusing when your mind wanders, again and again. Think of each time that you refocus after noticing your mind wander as a mental rep that strengthens your mind, similar to how a bicep curl strengthens your muscles. The second type of mindfulness training is called contemplative. A contemplative mindfulness practice is involved with observing and watching without judgement or crique. Simply observing our thought stream. If you want to access guided meditations and other mental training practices, click the link in the description to download Athlete Equanimity, the world’s best mental training application. The application uses cutting edge research to provide you with the best evidence based mental training strategies used by the best athletes and sport psychologists in the world. Link: Coming soon. Sources: Altered Traits by Daniel Goleman: https://amzn.to/3qbtoqL