How to Increase Focus through Meditation
Meditation has long been seen as a practice that can help to improve focus and productivity. From ancient Eastern traditions to modern Western practices, meditation has been used to help people cultivate better mental clarity teach them how to focus better.
But, while many of us are familiar with the concept of meditation and its potential benefits, few of us have really explored the ways we can use meditative practices to deepen our focus and create more engaging work.
Increasing focus will not be easy, but achievable through practice
Look – meditation is a subject of application. And like any other applied skill, one can only see its benefits with more and more practice.
Last year, my wife and I went to an ‘ashram’ for a month, and learnt to apply some of the practices that deepen our meditation. We were amazed to see the improvement in our ability to handle emotions. We have now been practising for over a year.
Not only did our arguments reduce significantly, but also our ability to work continuously with deep focus improved.
In this blog, we’ll take a look at some of the techniques from meditative practices that can be used to help us focus and do more engaging work.
However, how you can use them to increase your focus at work will depend on your practice.
Techniques to increase focus for work or studies without getting distracted
1. Mindful Breathing for Focus
One of the most basic and important meditative practices is mindful breathing. Mindful breathing involves focusing on the breath and paying attention to the sensations it brings. This helps to bring the body and mind into a relaxed and focused state, which is ideal for doing work that requires concentration.
A simple exercise like observing your breath slows your breathing down, relaxes the mind, and stills the activations in the body. It brings the body into a deep meditative focussed state.
Mindful breathing is an easy exercise that you can practise during work to take breaks every few hours. It can improve your efficiency significantly.
2. Body Scanning increases Focus
Body scanning is another helpful meditative practice for improving focus and productivity.
It involves paying attention to the physical sensations in the body and using breath to move the attention from one part to the next.
This helps to bring awareness to any areas of tension or discomfort, and to relax and focus the mind.
This is another basic ‘yoga’ technique that you can adopt in your daily life. While doing this exercise, what you are doing effectively is turning your mind’s attention inwards instead of outwards. Through scanning the body, the mind takes one step inwards, and therefore, it becomes easy to cut outer distractions.
3. Mindful Movement
Mindful movement is a great way to use the body to help focus the mind. This could involve anything from walking or running to yoga or tai chi. It helps bring the body and mind into a state of focus and relaxation, which is great for engaging in productive work.
One of the exercises practitioners taught us at the SRSG ashram was called ‘contemplative walking’. It involved walking with your full attention to the muscle movement and the commands issued by the brain to move the muscles.
It is a great way to bring a balance between your body and mind and immensely beneficial in improving your focus.
4. Guided Imagery for Peace and Focus
Guided imagery is a powerful meditative practice that involves visualizing a peaceful and calming scene in the mind. This can help to shift the focus away from distractions and worries and help to stay focused on the task at hand.
During guided meditation involving listening to and following the voice of a trained instructor, you can get into a peaceful state soon. This technique is so effective that it is widely used by psychologists during hypnosis to get patients to a highly focussed state.
During such states, the focus is so strong that the mind can remember incidents and deep rooted causes of your current problems even if they occurred at a very young age.
5. Mantra Meditation for improving Focus
Mantra meditation is a type of meditative practice where you repeat a positive phrase or mantra in your mind. This can help to focus the mind and to keep distractions at bay.
We have been practising this technique for over a year now. I can tell you through first hand experience that it builds a deep sense of satisfaction, peace, and happiness. Technically, you can practise this even if you are atheist.
Instead of your mantra, the word can be a number. In effect, by focussing your mind on the same word, you are learning to cut the mind’s nature to get distracted by multiple signals.
These are just a few of the techniques from meditative practices that can be used to help focus and create more engaging work.
Practicing these techniques regularly can help to cultivate a greater sense of focus and mental clarity, which can make it easier to stay productive and engaged in your work.
