This is where mindfulness practice comes in. Small studies suggest that mindful meditation can be a useful strategy for calming a racing mind and aiding in the maintenance of laser-like attention. In fact, just a few minutes every day can have a significant effect.
By the way, the term "meditation" refers to a variety of spiritual and relaxing techniques. There are many different types of meditation and methods for doing them.
Within this broad category, neuroscientists have explored how two particular meditation practices—focused attention (FA) meditation and open monitoring (OM) meditation—can be utilised to improve cognitive processes. You may help your brain to pay more attention, concentrate more, and focus more by developing a regular practice of either one.
A glance at each is provided below.
How can you meditate while paying close attention?
There are four main components to this kind of mindful meditation:
focusing attention on a certain object or sensation while sustaining it; recognizing distractions and mind wandering; disengaging from distractions; and returning your attention to your focal point while rephrasing the distraction as "just a thought."
This type of meditation involves maintaining your attention on a specific item or sensation, such as the flow of air through your nose while you breathe. You must continuously assess your concentration level if you want to maintain this focus. If your thoughts start to wander, you recognize the distraction and bring them back to your focal point.
Don't allow the notion to linger, for instance, if you notice that your attention has changed from your breathing to a meeting that is scheduled for later in the day. Redirect your entire attention to breathing.
In what ways might the frequent practice of this help you focus? It supports three abilities crucial for controlling attention:
noticing distraction while holding onto your focal point
Letting go of a distraction
swiftly redirect your focus to your main idea.
As you develop your FA meditation techniques, you can recognize distractions and return to your target of focus more rapidly. Concentration eventually becomes practically effortless. This translates into a better ability to focus on information that is pertinent to your goals in daily life and to do so even in the face of competing for input. You can transition between things more easily and without becoming sidetracked.
How can you put open monitoring into action?
Focused attention meditation and another form of mindfulness differ in the following ways:
nonreactive observation and naming of experience.
awareness of automatic subjective interpretation of thoughts and emotions with a detached perspective.
In this more complex meditation technique, you let your attention flow from one moment to the next without concentrating on any one thing or experience. Instead of merely viewing a continual stream of experiences, the technique enables you to tune out all outside noise and fully immerse yourself.
Gaining a clear awareness of hidden areas of your mental life is the aim of OM. By training your brain in this manner, you may more easily recognise and alter your thought processes and emotional routines. As a result, you're able to take proactive rather than reactionary action.