E07 - How focus can be trained with attention meditation

Hi everyone,

My name is Lemmy and this is my story of how I became The Attention Master.

In Episode 7, I want to help you train your ability to focus.

Here is what you are going to learn today:

• Get a new perspective on what focus really is

• How to practice focus

• How to easily make time for meditation

This week’s community challenge

1. Understanding the nature of focus

It's important to realize that focus is not a static state. It's normal to drift in and out of different levels of focus. So, don't put pressure on yourself to maintain constant focus.

Returning repeatedly to a state of focus from a state of distraction is an important part of improving your ability to focus. A good analogy is driving a car: you try to stay between the lane lines. Each time you drift, you correct your course.

2. Focus can be trained

Lucky you, returning to focus can be trained through a form of meditation that perfectly mimics a deep work situation. It’s called Focused Attention Meditation.

In attention meditation, you close your eyes and focus on your breath, body, or an object around you. Only one thing though, just as you want to focus on only one task when you deep work.

3. Why it works

This helps to rewire the brain’s circuits. Your brain learns that drifting away is immediately followed by focusing back on what you were doing.

4. The Protocol to take ACTION

Even short meditations are wonder weapons. In addition to focus, they help you with mood, energy, sleep, cognitive performance and happiness.

The tricky part is: How do I make time for meditation?

Well, they are a great way to go from break to work mode, or from work to leisure time.

So the end of your lunch break or your commute on public transportation are great times to practice meditation and start small. The same goes for in-between meetings, or in general at the end of a long meeting or deep work session when your brain signals that you are exhausted.

Mindlessly scrolling is NOT a break. If you spam your brain with (screen) input every minute of the workday, you will end up with no mental resources at night. It comes at the expense of the things that are important to you, because it makes it almost impossible to be social, creative, or driven.

In general, all those little moments when you pull out your phone are GREAT moments to meditate. The question that might sound familiar to you is: How do I remember?

Don't worry, I've got your back. Every good action needs a trigger. That's why I'm going to provide a different visual with every community challenge from now on. If you add it to your lock screen, you'll see it every time you open your phone.

Then it's your choice: Screen time or life time?

Here's the Meditation Visual DOWNLOAD and below is a video showing you how to add it to your lock screen.

Let me know if this works for you via
our brand new Whatsapp community
& see ya next week
Lemmy

Recap:

• Community Challenge: 5 minutes daily Focused Attention Meditation

• Focus is not a static state. Drifting in and out is normal.

• The master skill is to return to focus as quickly as possible.

• Focus can be trained.

• Attention Meditation is a great tool for it.

• >50% of the moments you pick up your phone are great moments to meditate. The excuse “I don’t have time” really doesn’t count here.

Sources:

• Huberman AI

• Neuroscientist: Do this 13-minute meditation to maximize FOCUS and Concentration