Focus

Sharp your attention 

 The capacity to concentrate is the only thing that we could all certainly use a lot more of. But telling yourself to stay focused on a task, especially a mundane one, is often easier said than done. The positive news is that you can concentrate on the work at hand using a variety of methods. But first, before digging deeper into this article, I want you to read my these two articles Break up with your bad habits and Confidence because our topic for today involves around these two simple words, you're going to say.. But how? I don't see anything related to bad habits and confidence while talking about focus! Well dear reader, those are one of the main and hidden causes of being distracted. Bad habits = distraction. Lack of confidence = less focus. Especially for teenagers, we all know that the teenage phase can be so hard and here where the bad habits take place. I'll tell you how. Numerous undesirable behaviors prey on your attention. If you don't know what they are, they will eventually reduce your productivity. While spending hours in front of a computer screen is bad enough, other behaviors might be just as harmful to your ability to concentrate. Such as: 

Too much thinking: Huge objectives undercut modest efforts and lead to greater disappointments. What I mean here is to be certain and clear about your goals and what you must do to fulfill them. How so? As the saying goes "If you don't know where you're going, any road will lead you there". There are two things that you must do. Recognize the behaviors that will produce those outcomes first, in order to put yourself on the correct course (the crucial drivers). Second, divide those tasks into manageable bits and determine what you must accomplish each week to reach your goal.

Procrastinating: The first enemy of your success is procrastinating. Many ambitious and inspiring people's hopes and objectives have already been put to death by it. Whenever you catch yourself about to procrastinate ask yourself; "How will this influence my life if I continue to procrastinating on this activity, project or goal?". Really, think about it... How will it affect your finances? your self-worth? your health? your relationships? or even your job? Visualize your feeling or the things you'd lose out on if you didn't accomplish your goals as a result of your continued procrastination. This can help you conquer procrastination much more quickly by making the pain of it greater than the pleasure.

Worrying too much about what others think: and this is what I meant by saying confidence. Look at what Elizabeth Gilbert said in her book Big magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear with the title "Nobody's Thinking About You" which I have recently read " Long ago, when I was in my insecure twenties, I met a clever, independent, creative and powerful woman in her mid-seventies, who offered me a superb piece of life wisdom. She said: "We all spend our twenties and thirties trying so hard to be perfect, because we're so worried about what people will think of us. Then we go into our forties and fifties, and we finally start to be free, because we decide that we don't give a damn what anyone thinks of us. But you won't be completely free until you reach your sixties and seventies, when you finally realize this liberating truth --nobody was ever thinking about you, anyhow". They aren't. They weren't. They never were. People are mostly thinking about themselves. People don't have time to worry about what you're doing, or how well you're doing it, because they're all caught up in their own dramas." And yes, this is so true. In fact, researchers found that when people were told that someone liked their musical preferences, the reward area in their brains becomes activated. It only becomes an issue when you're preoccupied with concerns about your reputation; when choices about what to dress, who to hang out with, and even what job to pursue are all motivated by the need to avoid appearing foolish and stupid. So if you want to know how to build that confidence and to stop worrying about what people will think about you, read this article written by me for more information and efficient techniques; Confidence.

But hey!! We won't stop here and this is not over yet! Don't think that improving from your self-esteem and throwing away your bad habits are enough to focus more! Nope buddy. It's true that they are the main causes of distraction and the decrease of self confidence and the very first little steps to take in order to improve our attention and focus, but that was only a part of the process. It's now when I am going to start the real talk. Many of you, don't know that a strong focus is based on three fundamental things:

• Mental strength

• Clear thinking patterns

• Mindfulness and awareness

 Let's go step by step. What does mental strength mean?

Your focus muscle is your mental strength. Still not clear? Okay, let's go further. How well you can concentrate, maintain your attention, and maintain your mental energy is determined by your mental strength. When you devote all of your energy to achieve your objectives, it means that your mental strength is being used effectively. Many Western concepts of mindfulness have been inspired by Eastern religious meditation practices. Some Buddhist meditations, for instance, concentrate on the supreme emptiness that penetrates all else, but in Zen meditation, the emphasis is on being aware of everything that is going on around you rather than thinking about anything in particular. Some Zen masters keep their eyes open while meditation. But how to develop this muscle?

 You need to practice resistance training and activities that challenge your mental strength beyond what it is comfortable. For example, despite being exhausted, find the strength to finish washing the dishes that have been left in the sink or to make your bed. I hope this is clear enough. Now let's move to clear thinking patterns;

 Do you recall when I talked about overthinking at the beginning of this article? That's what clear thinking patterns is about. Mental energy is required for thinking. We spend a lot of time and energy overthinking or worrying about unimportant issues and as I said it's a bad habit we have to get rid of. Too much information causes our brain to frequently struggle with comprehending the essential data. Here our duty is to carefully separate the ideas and pay attention just to the ones that are helpful while disregarding the others. To make the most of every piece of information, you must implement a clever information management system. When you're searching for information on the internet for example, have a clear focus. Plan ahead and decide what precise facts you want to look for online and keep a writing pad or external digital file to gather the necessary data. And skip through the irrelevant sections which will save you a lot of time. Now after analyzing what mental strength and clear thinking patterns mean, it's time to discuss mindfulness and awareness; Actually, the practice of mindfulness involves intentionally on paying attention on the present moment and on both one's internal and outward experiences, such as thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations, as well as the surrounding environment. Your capacity for mental self-control, distraction avoidance, and awareness are all linked. You can follow these essential components which can be used to raise mindfulness and awareness:

             → Clear intention: Being conscious of what you're doing and why you're doing it directly relates with having clear aims. Instead of controlling their ideas, most individuals let their ideas control them. It implies that they silently follow every type of thinking without truly realizing it. The danger of being confined by one's own thoughts, though, is that they can cause tension, anxiety, and fear. If the mind is not controlled, it may be dangerous. You're paralyzed by a cycle of self-doubt that prevents you from doing anything new. You can't perceive the world or make the essential progress toward achievement if you think that way.

            → Setting priority: Only those who have clear intention may set priorities. Otherwise, everything appears to be essential at ones. You must organize your tasks consistently in order to set priorities. You rank them according to their significance and usefulness. This helps you to use your resources and energy as effectively as possible. You start by concentrating on the situation's most important features. Then you go forward until all of your resources for that day have been used up. This manner, the most crucial work gets the most attention.

1. Let's say you want to lose weight. So set out by laying a clear goal that you wish to lose weight

1. Now decide what has to be done in order to accomplish your goal. You can list all your alternatives, including dieting, working out, giving up junk food, running, etc.

1. Next, divide your choices into "must haves" (like giving up junk food), "should haves" (like working out, running, etc.), and "good haves" (like dieting).

 And voilà!! You have just put priorities to your goal.

• Focus on your breathing when you feel distracted: 

• Make creativity part of your daily routine: 

•  Enjoy every mouthful:

Another thing before closing this topic, is that you have to adapt mindful habits; 

You must first understand your thought process in order to properly understand your emotions. Knowing what thought or deed caused a strong emotion, like anger or grief, will help you cope with that emotion better and prevent you from responding rashly. Such mindful habits can help you approach a difficult circumstance in a fresh way and can greatly enhance your disposition. New neutral networks in the brain are developed more quickly when mindfulness is practiced. By building neutral networks, you are effectively retraining your brain to come up with new and improved ways to manage tasks and deal with stress and emotions. Additionally, you are aiding yourself in sharpening your attention. Here's how to make mindfulness part of your regular routine:

 When you are distracted, breathe using the 4-7-8 pattern. Breathe in deeply as you count to four, hold your breath as you count to seven, and then gently let it out as you count to eight. This pattern will be repeated a total of four times. If you become sidetracked during the attentive meditation, simply come back to the breath and the counting.

 It simply feels so. damn. good to create. I didn't want to make myself a rigorous objective when I made my daily schedule, such as "complete one painting a day,  edit images for one hour, come up with x numbers of thoughts a day". I try to concentrate on the joy of creation instead of the tension that would have resulted from it, as I know from previous experience. Usually, as soon as I begin going, I enter a state of creative flow. The rest comes naturally.

read How to be creative

 Eating may easily be reduced to the actions of biting, chewing, and swallowing. Who hasn't consumed a plateful of food while being completely unaware of their actions? However, eating is one of the most enjoyable activities we do as humans, and doing it deliberately may make it a much richer experience. Try Breathing before eating: We frequently carry out one work immediately after another without stopping or taking a breath especially if it's our favorite dish! But we have to slow down and provide a more peaceful transition to our meals by pausing.

Next step is Listen to your body: After you've breathed, focus on the physical feelings in your belly. Ask yourself "How hangry am I?" on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 denoting a lack of physical appetite and 10 denoting extreme hunger. What physical symptoms (such as a feeling of emptiness in the stomach, shakiness, a lack of desire to eat, a growling stomach, etc.) indicate whether you're hungry or not? Focus on listening to your body, not your thoughts, and try not to worry about when you last ate or the time. Then Eat according to your hunger: You may make more deliberate decisions about what to eat, when to eat and how much to eat now that you are more aware of how hungry you are. After this, you can practice Peaceful eating: Next time you eat take it more slowly and continue to breathe deeply, if you're not at ease, it's difficult to digest or enjoy your food. And the last step is called If you don't love it, don't eat it: In which you experience the taste, flavors, textures, and level of satisfaction you are getting from a particular dish by taking your first three bites slowly and deliberately. Think carefully about what you want to consume and base your decision on that.

And my dear readers, we have come to an end. I know trying to stay focused is so challenging but you may escape the never-ending cycle of feeling busy and stressed all the time by learning to focus better. Even though you won't always be able to maintain complete attention, using the above-mentioned techniques can help you achieve your objectives and master any work.

All the best