Do you find it difficult to focus when meditating? Perhaps your thoughts wander in all directions when you come to sit in quietness, or maybe you want to know how to harness your attention for even deeper states of peace? Well, you’re not alone; the average human attention span has decreased in the last 20 years, from 2 minutes 30 seconds, to just 47 seconds.
Perhaps the age of Tiktok, endless social media scrolling, or a society that prizes ‘doing’ over ‘being’ has affected our ability to hold deeply sustained attention for long periods of time, or perhaps it’s the fast-paced way many of us live today that means our minds may find it difficult to focus.
No matter how you want to use your focus – from meditating to winning your next sports event, being present when spending time with your family, or simply shifting your thoughts from unhelpful and anxiety-inducing, to useful and positive – we can all benefit from improving our focus and concentration a little more. Research even shows links between lack of concentration and depression, as well as an inability to focus the mind with feelings of anxiety.
Thankfully, there are simple and effective ways we can improve our focus and concentration, taking us from a chaotic and chattering inner dialogue, to calm, stillness and total presence. Those deep inner pools of peace and focus do exist within us somewhere (no matter how far away they may seem sometimes!) so let’s discover the keys to accessing them.
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: Stilling the mind
Yogis have been experimenting for thousands of years with many ways to focus the mind, and even ancient texts like The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and the Bhagavad Gita centre around reducing distractions and focusing the mind. The second sutra of The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali reads:
योगश्चित्तवृत्तिनिरोध
“yogas chitta vritti nirodha”
“The restraint of the modifications of the mind-stuff is Yoga”
‘Chitta’ refers to one of the four aspects of consciousness (the other three being manas, buddhi and ahamkara). Chitta allows for subjective experience, emotional reactions, and perceptions. It essentially determines our likes and dislikes, our expectations, plans, and often our anxieties. When you notice your mind judging or worrying whilst you’re trying to relax in Savasana at the end of a Yoga class, this is your chitta. Think of it as the ‘chitta-chatter of the mind’.
‘Vritti’ translates roughly as ‘modification’, ‘fluctuation’ or even ‘whirlpool’, and refers to the movements of our thoughts; the way our mind can change from one day to another, our desire to have something, and pretty much anything that disturbs our sense of peace. The idea within this sutra is that through the practice of Yoga, we can calm the chitta vrittis and return to our natural state of stillness and calm, just as a peaceful lake returns to stillness after a storm.
The Bhagavad Gita: Calming the wild horses of the senses
The Mahabharata is one of the longest Sanskrit epics of ancient Hinduism, and within it, we find the Bhagavad Gita. This metaphorical text is rich with wisdom and teachings, much of it related to the inner workings of the mind. In the Bhagavad Gita, we find a chariot harnessed to five horses. These horses represent our five senses of sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing, and the charioteer’s reins represent the mind, and the person holding the reins represents human intelligence.
You’ve probably experienced how difficult it is to focus on a conversation or connection you’re having with a friend sitting next to you when your mind is distracted by what you can see, smell, hear, feel or taste. Well, the same goes for our ability to connect to our spirit or soul – it’s difficult to hear our own inner truth and spirit when the horses (senses) are out of control. Our job is to calm the horses, and gently coax our senses away from distractions, so we can finally focus our awareness on where we want it to go.
Cultivating Eka Grata or ‘One Pointed Focus’ with our breath
Through the practice of yoga, we can gradually still the mind and harness our attention to go exactly where we want it. The ability to focus the mind in one single direction is known as eka grata or ‘one-pointed focus’. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali give us a guide to focusing the mind and cultivating eka grata, so that we can access deep peace. It does this through several stages known as the eight limbs of yoga; Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana, Samadhi. The stage of pratyahara refers to ‘sense withdrawal’, when those wild horses of our senses are calm, and we can turn our focus inward, instead of having our awareness pulled in all directions.
5 ways to improve your focus
1. Cultivating Pratyahara
One of the ways to cultivate this inward state of one-pointed focus is with Pranayama – breathing techniques. Before we turn our attention to specific ways you can practice improving your focus and attention to calm your mind and senses, try this breathing technique to help cultivate pratyahara:
- Sit or lie down in a comfortable position
- Allow your mind to wander for a moment, noticing your thoughts
- Watch your thoughts pass by without getting caught up in them, just as you might watch clouds drift across the sky.
- Observe the thoughts coming and going one by one
- Let your thoughts keep drifting by, as you turn your focus to your breathing
- Notice the rise and fall of your stomach as you breathe
- Notice the expansion and relaxation of your ribs as you breathe
- Notice the air moving in and out of your nostrils as you breathe
- Breathe very softly, as though you are trying not to disturb even the fine hairs of the nostrils. Maintain your awareness of the air moving in and out of your nostrils as you breathe
- Give all your attention to the feeling of the movement of air through the nose
- If thoughts enter your mind, simply let them pass by like clouds in the sky
- Maintain your awareness of the breath moving in and out through your nose
- After several minutes, bring your awareness to the space around you again to finish this practice
2. Reduce distractions
It may seem obvious, but one of the biggest blocks to focusing is the fact that we’re constantly inundated with distractions. The average person checks their phone almost 150 times per day according to some research, and other findings even suggest figures of around 344 times a day (that’s once every four minutes!). If you’re permanently glued to your phone, this could be having a huge impact on your ability to focus.
Whether you want to improve your focus when working, meditating, competing, engaging in conversation, reading or simply relaxing and practicing mindfulness, having your phone incessantly demanding your attention is not helping. Cal Newport, author of Deep Work, recommends putting your phone in an entirely different room if you want to spend a meaningful amount of time focusing on a task.
Another less obvious distraction is simply the state of clutter around us. Ancient practices such as Feng Shui or Vastu reason that our homes not only mirror our states of mind, but can influence the mind too. A cluttered and untidy home is said to disturb the flow of Qi or ‘energy’, whilst a tidy and clean home is conducive to calmness, peace and a greater ability to concentrate on what we want.
The first step to improving your focus and concentration then, is to work on removing the distractions. What can you see around you that is a potential distraction? What can you do to remove even one of these distractions?
3. Use the power of sound
Whilst some sounds can be distracting, others can actually actually enhance our ability to focus. Studies show that low levels of white noise can help improve concentration. When researchers played white noise at a volume of 45 decibels (a little quieter than the volume of a normal conversation), this induced sustained attention and creativity (no need to use headphones). When the white noise was played louder (at 65 decibels) however, this seemed to increase feelings of stress. So be sure to keep the volume low if you try this method. Binaural beats frequencies can also be used to improve focus. The lower Beta frequencies of between 14 to 30hz can help increase concentration and alertness, whilst 40hz can be helpful for enhancing learning ability. Try playing these frequencies to see which works best for you.
4. Nutrition to improve your focus
The brain’s preferred source of fuel is glucose (found in carbohydrates and sugars), so if you notice your mind starts to wander and focus fades at specific points of the day, this could indicate your blood sugar levels are dropping, and your brain needs refuelling. Whilst the brain represents just 2% of our bodyweight, it accounts for 20% of our daily energy use. Throughout a typical day, the average person uses roughly 320 calories just to think, and tasks that require more brain power may actually burn even more calories. Chess grandmasters who use a lot of thinking power during multi-day tournaments for example, can use up to 6,000 calories a day, even though they’re sitting for most of the time!
The key to a clear and focused mind when it comes to nutrition, is to avoid the things that cloud the mind (alcohol, processed foods, and huge portions that leave us groggy), and to consume the things that fuel the brain well. Some of the best foods to help improve concentration and even memory include berries, fatty fish like salmon for their omega 3 content, green tea, moderate amounts of coffee, eggs, nuts, pumpkin seeds, and green leafy vegetables.
Tyrosine is an amino acid that can also help improve focus and alertness, and you’ll find it in foods such as cheese, soybeans, fish, chicken, nuts, eggs, beans, dairy and whole grains. Keep your blood sugar balanced so that your mind stays clear by combining carbohydrates with fats and protein, which will help prevent blood sugar swings, and take a short walk outside in the fresh air after lunch if you often experience an afternoon slump.
5. Using your vision to improve focus
There’s a lot of science behind our vision and where we choose to look, and how focused we feel. If you sit at a laptop to work for hours a day, the position of your screen could be causing you to feel drowsy and distracted. When our eyes are directed downwards – even slightly – this can make us feel tired, whilst directing our eyes slightly upwards can improve alertness and ability to focus.
Ancient yogis knew about the power of our vision to improve alertness thousands of years ago, when they cultivated Shambhavi mudra. This age-old practice is said to reduce stress and depression, as well as strengthening the eye muscles, preventing mood swings, enhancing focus, and preparing for meditation. To practice this mudra technique, sit in a comfortable position with a lengthened spine; roll your eyes upwards to look at the centre point between your eyebrows and focus here for a few moments – up to a maximum of 5 minutes. The point between the eyebrows is known as the Ajna Chakra, representing intuition and insight, whilst according to Traditional Chinese Medicine, this is an acupressure point known as Yin Tang, which can help stabilise the mind, reduce stress and anxiety, and improve concentration.
If you’re still reading by now, you’ve already demonstrated an ability to focus your mind for around 6.7 minutes! (the amount of time it generally takes to read 2000 words). To help improve your focus and concentration further so you can direct your attention exactly where you want it, try these tips and let us know which works best for you.