Insight
| Our innate human ability to concentrate is becoming a rarefied skill.
Wandering eyes distract our focus. Though it may feel like our eyes are fixed while staring at a screen – moving words, images and sounds will still create the “saccades” (or quick eye movements) that send your mind wandering and influence brainwave activity.
I remember the moment I truly felt the power of “Drishti” in my yoga practice – and experience how the benefits it produced transferred to other areas of my life. Drishti is a small point of focus where you can rest your gaze (softly, not staring) and hold your concentration while being aware of your other movements. It allows you to control where you place your attention.
With the eyes as extensions of our brain via the optic nerve, neurological activity is directly related to how our vision tracks external stimuli; and can even be a predictor of higher brain functions like decision-making and truth-telling. If you hold your gaze in place, your system stabilizes, the mind becomes alert and you can then have more control of where you sustain your attention.
The best standalone concentration practice I ever took-on might sound mundane on face value, but it had exponential effects on my ability to focus. Mostly because: I couldn’t hack it! This was the simple practice of counting backwards; first from 100 and eventually down from 1000 after 12-weeks of training without wavering. Sound easy? I dare you try even backwards from 300 right now, and start over if you mess up numbers, cadence or attention. Boredom is the first predictor of poor focus. If you’re someone who easily gets bored, needs novelty to keep your attention, or can’t keep sustained eye contact during a conversation…then you might want to exercise this innate capacity.
Inspiration
Concentration practice was only one of several within the comprehensive Weightlessness Process, but probably the main indicator of whether participants could make it through all the other parts of training. As is true in life – without an ability to focus – we become wandering minds to the whims of the designed attention-industries. Perhaps it’s time to take back and hone what’s yours. I highly recommend the W Process as a way to systematically build the capacity for focus, strength, adaptability and flow. Sign up for a tribe here: www.weightlessness.co.
And if you made it this far, way to concentrate!
If you want to hone this superpower even more with your productivity, HERE are some apps.
11 Best Focus Apps in 2023 | Clockwise
Innovation
Remember the era of “glassholes” (or at least, what ‘some’ would call the early adopters of Google glasses as they focused more on their data streaming lenses than the real world in front of them?). Those geniuses were of course onto something — but imagine a similar invention that honed your focus on a task. More to the tune of blue blockers but distraction blockers that would give the luxury of side blinders to simulate tunnel vision on what’s in front of you. How might we design for purposeful tunnel vision so that we can stay focused for longer?
#focus #attentionactivism #designsprint #flowcoaching #founderflow #lifehacks #coachingsprint #weightlessness
