Mental Exercises to Boost Concentration
As with all other kinds of exercises, mental exercises can be very
monotonous. They require you to patiently stick with the routine and
persevere. But once you do, the results can be astonishing. When it comes
to exercises, our mind, or to be more specific, our brain is just like, our
limbs. You work out your arms regularly and they become more and more
strong. Similarly, these mental exercises can make your mind sharper and
the level of concentration shall go up. Listed herein below are some of the
most effective mind exercises for you. But first….
Think of Your Mind as a Muscle
This is important when it comes to strengthening up your focus and
concentration. You mind is an “attention” muscle in much the same way
as you have physical muscles in the rest of your body. Both types of
muscle are limited in the amount of strength they have at a given time – if
they are used regularly, they will strengthen up, f not used regularly, they
will atrophy and, when they are used, they need rest and recuperation
afterwards.
Just before you begin a good workout at the gym, you may get a feeling of
doubt that you can actually do it. The same goes for your mind when you
are about to tackle a difficult piece of work. You have to set your mind to
the job and buckle down to doing it.
Your mind will probably start to wander halfway through the work
something else will grab your attention probably, something that seems
much more exciting and, nine times out of ten, you will allow yourself to
be distracted. But, if you tell yourself that you have to get on, you have
dig in deeper, you’ll be surprised at just how much more your mind has to
give.
The following exercises are designed as a kind of brain workout to
strengthen up your attention. Let’s face it, you won’t build up muscle
strength by sitting around all day and you certainly won’t build up mental
strength if you limit your focus. Your mind needs exercise and it needs
resistive exercise in much the same way as your body needs resistive
exercise. Your mind needs to be challenged in order to stretch it and, in
the process, your mind muscle will grow focus fibers. These exercises are
designed to increase your focus so that you are able to take on heavier
mental limits:
Increase your focus gradually
You don’t throw yourself into a heavy physical training program without
building up to it and the same goes for your mind. You need to gradually
increase the strength of your mind muscle so that it is able to take on
more. This is where the “pomodoro” method comes into play. This is a
method where you set yourself a timer, say for 45 minutes, and you work
until the timer goes off. Then you can take a 15 minute break. But, if your
focus isn’t up to scratch, you don’t want to be diving straight into it. So,
set yourself a 5 minute timer. Focus completely on your work for those 5
minutes and then have a 2 minute break. Do another 5 minutes, followed
by another 2 minute break. Each day, add another 5 minutes to the timer
and another 2 minutes to your break. By the time 9 days is up, you
should be focused enough to work for that 45 minutes without stopping,
before rewarding yourself with an 18 minute break. Once you get settled
in to that routine, you can work on lengthening the time you work and
reducing the time of your breaks – but not to the extent where they
disappear altogether.
Write a to-do list for your distractions
The internet is a wonderful thing but, because we can find out just about
anything we want on it, we have a tendency to look something up the
minute we think of it. Consequently, our focus and attention is drawn
away from what we are doing. That might sound ok, because you only
want to check the weather, it’ll only take 2 minutes, right? Wring. Not
only do you run the run the risk of being tempted to just check your
Facebook page or your email while you are online, it also takes, on
average, 25 minutes to get back into your work. Plus, the fact that your
attention is shifting backwards and forwards really does drain your mind
of its strength.
So, when you think of something you might want to check on the internet,
right it down on a piece of paper and push it to one side until you are on a
break or you get home.
Build up your willpower
Willpower is a wonderful thing – when you’ve got it. It allows you to
ignore those distractions, to push on with your task until it’s finished and
not get sidetracked at all. Strengthening your willpower takes time but
the best way to do it is to tackle large goals and use the pomodoro method
we talked about earlier, gradually building up the time you spend on that
goal. Another method that has been proven to work is to switch hands. If
you are right-handed person, switch to using your left hand for a while
and vice versa.
Practice being mindful all day
You should get into the habit of dedicating between 10 and 20 minutes of
each day to meditation, as a way of clearing your mind and opening it up
for the day ahead or closing it down after work. On top of that, practice
being mindful all day as well. All that is, is concentrating your entire focus
on one task at a time, slowing down and thinking about all of the
emotions you feel while you are doing that task – physically and mentally.
This will work to strengthen your attention span for those times when it
is really needed and it can help you to push away unwanted distractions.
Exercise your body
Physical exercise has been shown to have a beneficial effect on mental
strength and health. People who get involved in moderate exercise before
they take a test or buckle down to a task have much better attention spans
than those who don’t. This is because exercise boosts your brain’s ability
to ignore any distractions and increases your willpower as well.
Take your time reading
With so many people using tablets, smartphones and e-readers these days,
it’s created a culture of people not finishing what they start. Let me
explain that – a recent research showed that only around 5% of people
who start reading an article or a book on one of these devices will never
finish it. And 38% will never get beyond the first couple of paragraphs. So,
the fact that studies show, with all these electronic devices, reading has
gone up by 40%, means nothing. In real terms, there is less reading going
on and more scrolling through pages instead.
That’ a real shame because reading long articles or books can really
strengthen the mind. Long articles may not automatically mean that they
are better, sometimes there is a great deal of information, complex
information that must be stretched over a long article or a book. To skip
something because it looks too long is a definite no-no and can result in
you missing out on a ton of useful information and brain stretching as
well. Pick up a book tonight and really try to get into it – it will do you
the power of good.
As well as that, try to find the time to read two or three long informative
articles a week. They will really broaden your mind, and you’ll be
surprised at what you can learn along the way as well!
Be curious – always
The more curiosity you have about the world and about things around
you, the better your concentration will be. Try this little experiment to
test out how being curious about something can make your ability to focus
on it last longer:
Draw a dot on a piece of paper and put it in front of you or pin it to
a wall. Now concentrate on it. One of two things will happen – your
field of vision will blur so that you will not really see anything or
you will find yourself looking at anything but the dot. However,
ask yourself some questions about the dot – how big is it, what
shape, what color, etc., while you are looking at it, successive
questions in your mind and you will find that you concentrate on it
for much longer.
Charles Darwin was one of the biggest masters of this – he could spend all
day just staring at flowers, plants or animals. He had a curiosity about
things that never dies and, by looking at something for hours, he could
learn more and more about it, simply by asking himself questions about it
and by looking at it from different angles and perspectives.
Practice attentive listening
Focus isn’t just about your working habits, it’s also an essential life skill.
To be able to concentrate your attention on family or friends without
your mind wandering is a useful skill to learn and, while you are focusing,
you are strengthening up your mind muscles. When you are talking with
people in future, practice really listening to them, focusing all of your
attention on them and not on your phone or the game on the TV.
In a short while, we are going to look at some concentration exercises that
you should make a point of practicing. In order to get the most out of
these, follow these tips:
- Find somewhere quiet where you can be by yourself and not be
disturbed. - Be comfortable – most people find it easier to sit on a chair or you
could sit cross-legged on the floor. You must sit with your spine
erect though - Take some deep calm breaths and relax your entire body, bit by bit,
by pointing your direction to each muscle in turn, starting from your
feet and working up to your head - Practice all of the exercises for 10 minutes to start with. After a few
weeks you can start increasing the time to 15 minutes and so on - Do the exercises in the order they are listed in.
- Start with the first exercise and practice it every single day until you
can do it without being distracted and without your mind
wandering elsewhere for at least three minutes continuously - If you do get distracted, start again until the 10 minutes has passed
- Be very honest with yourself – only move on to exercise two when
you are happy that you have mastered the first one properly and
have practiced it without being distracted - Do not set yourself a timetable as this will just end up frustrating
you. If you set yourself a task of practicing a specific exercise for,
let’s say 5 days. Two things are likely to happen – first you will be
disappointed if you can’t master it within those 5 days and second,
you will move on to the next exercise before you already to. - Remember that mastering these exercises can take days, sometimes
weeks or months - Focus your whole attention on the exercises and do not allow
yourself to think about anything else. Make sure you do not fall
asleep or go off into a daydream. If you do find your mind
wandering onto something else, stop and start again. Once you are
proficient, carry on with the same exercise but for a longer time and
try to do two sessions in one day - Never do too much to start with and certainly do not try and do all
the exercises at once. Take it easy and don’t overdo it - Don’t be disheartened if you do find it difficult to concentrate or are
easily distracted. Nobody gets it first time around; all you need to
do is persevere and never, ever give up. Remember this – even
those who have powerful concentration skills had to start at the
beginning and learn how to exercise their minds as well.
It really doesn’t matter if you have a low level of focus and concentration
to start with. Just like your body, when you go to the gym, your mind
muscles can be exercised and strengthened as well – it just takes effort and
training.
Given time, you will find that your concentration skills are much better,
that you will be able to focus on your given tasks and will be able to
concentrate, no matter where you are. Even in circumstances that are
trying, you will be able to focus and concentrate your thinking while
staying calm and collected as well as fully relaxed.
To get the full benefit of these exercises you should practice each one for
an extra week after you feel you have mastered it:
Count the words
This is one of the simplest mind exercises ever. Take the newspaper, pick
an article and start counting the number of word in the first paragraph of
the article. Redo it once again to ensure the figure is correct. Go on to the
next paragraph. In this fashion, cover the entire page. You can also use a
book or magazine for this purpose. There is only thing that you should
ensure; do not count with your fingers. The whole exercise should be done
with the eyes alone.
Count backwards
This one may sound simple, but only deceptively so. In your mind,
without saying the numbers out aloud, start counting backwards. Easy?
Then try this, start counting again from 100, but skip the 4 digits in
between, for example 100, 96, 92 etc.
Fruity technique
Sit down on a chair, pick a fruit of your choice, and hold it out in your
palm. Now completely concentrate on the fruit. Run your eyes over it,
think about its smell, visualize in your mind its taste, the texture, the
sensation of biting into it etc. Do not think about the ancillary matters like
the price, the store from which you bought it etc. The idea is to block out
every other thought from your mind and think about the fruit at the most
elementary level.
Glass of water
Take a medium sized glass of water and sit down on a chair. Extend an
arm outwards and place the glass on the outstretched palm. Any tremors
or shaking shall be visible by the ripples on the surface of the water. Now
concentrate hard by looking at the glass. When you do this, your arms will
steady themselves. Shift the glass into the other hand and repeat the
procedure.
Look but don’t think
This is a slight variation of the “Fruity technique” given above. In this case,
pick up a small object such as pen, pencil or paper clip and look at it,
concentrating hard. But do not think about it. Just keep looking at the
object without thinking anything about it. It may be a bit tough in the
beginning, but you will improve with time. Keep doing again and again
and it will work wonders to the level of concentration.
To color or not
This exercise is on a higher level and will work out only if you have
mastered the ones given above. What you have to do here is, draw a
geometrical figure on a sheet of paper. It can be circle, triangle or
rectangle. But whatever it is, make sure it is small and not overtly huge.
Now fill the inside of the figure with a bright and contrasting color such
as red or yellow or black.
Then comes the tough part, look at the picture in front of you and
visualize the figure alone. Ignore the color, ignore your surroundings and
completely block out any thoughts from your mind. Simply look at the
paper and imaging the figure or outline of the picture.
The Chair exercise
Okay, now here it is, just sit. That’s all there is, just pick a straight back,
comfortable chair and sit. Well a bit more actually, make sure that while
sitting, you are not moving a muscle. Your body shouldn’t move a
millimeter except your chest and nostrils, for breathing. This may sound
effortless to you, but it is actually a tough one. You may not be able to do
it for more than five minutes at a stretch, but practice hard and fix a
target of fifteen minutes. It is a kind of compound exercise because if done
properly, it can relax your complete body.
Breathing in and out
You may already know of this but its effectiveness warrants it a place in
any list of mental exercises to improve concentration. Sit upright on a
chair or on the ground, with your head and back in a straight line. Press
your index finger against your right nostril and breathe in gently through
your left, mentally ticking off ten seconds. Now remove your finger and
exhale through your right nostril, again taking ten seconds to do so. Now
repeat the whole procedure with the other finger and left nostril. This
exercise should be done a minimum of 20 times at a stretch.
Noise cancellation
Noise is one of the biggest reasons why we cannot concentrate and focus
properly. So let us tackle it head on. The ideal place to do this will be on
a park next to the road. Close your eyes and take a stock of all the sounds
around you. Now, pick a sound and concentrate on it, blocking out
everything else. After two or three minutes, switch your focus to another
sound and concentrate on it, ignoring everything else in turn.
Blank out
We have kept the most difficult one for the last. Intentionally blank
yourself out. Do not think of anything for a minute. Completely block out
everything from your mind. This may prove to be extremely tough in the
beginning, but don’t give up. Keep working on it and gradually increase
the time period to five minutes and from there to ten and so on. There is
only one principle to this exercise, your mind should be completely free,
and not even a single thought should invade your mind. The time of the
day, where you are, what you are doing, what you have to do etc. are all
thoughts that tend to barge into our mind when we try to blank out. But
resist such thoughts by gaining mastery over your thought process.