If thoughts cannot be controlled at all and there is a tendency to let the mind linger in negative thinking over a sustained period, it is possible that depression or chronic stress can develop. When there are uncomfortable thoughts linked to stressful emotions or intense sadness, the body chemistry is altered causing tension and stress. This is an example of how powerful the mind is and how important it is to learn to control the thoughts, to focus the mind and to concentrate. It is the key to staying healthy and being more successful on all levels.
CHAPTER 4- WHAT TO FOCUS ON TO IMPROVE MENTAL FOCUS
Improving our mental focus is about establishing a routine that clears your mind to focus on one thing at a time. It starts with good physical and emotional health as a routine that becomes a lifestyle not just a habit. Improving your mental focus allows your mind and body to collaborate on preventing distractions. When distractions are eliminated your mind counteracts your body from multitasking; one of the major causes for unfinished assignments or incomplete obligations.
For some meditation helps to improve mental focus. This method helps to strength your mind’s ability to focus and guide your body through the necessary actions to accomplish your goal. Your body responses to your mind; whether your focus is about work, school or simply daily life’s purposes you need to learn to concentrate on one item at a time. Focusing on one task at a time, actually creates better results, and reduces your stress levels preventing negative effects on your body and to your mental health. Simple methods to induce focus when meditating is to control your breathing. Slow and even breaths permit your body to react to the same momentum, allowing your brain to process thoughts more clearly, while sending regulated response signals.
Another method of improving mental focus is to stay active. Mental focus is about encouraging and accelerating your brain’s process of operation. Select an activity and train your mind to start and finish by concentrating on the activity and the desired end result. This exercise helps to increase your attention duration so that you are able to complete the task. Try a crossword puzzle or a sports activity, start with something simple and slow before you advance. You will discover over time that your brain and your body begin to work as a team joining forces to improve your mental focus. Pay attention, you will begin to notice that you are completing the activity faster and with more accuracy and positive results. What happens next is that you will naturally call on your mental focus to select a higher level of challenges.
Managing distractions in your life isn’t an easy task. They are a part of life and cannot be deleted, but they can be managed. Mental focus is about being persistence and improving your mental focus is an essential function to finishing any task. You can start by using your brain power to prioritize lists or activities to be done. You need to stay focused on the list finishing each item before moving on to the next one and keep your focus on the desired results. At times it will be difficult to stay focused, especially when you are doing a task that isn’t your favorite thing to do. Take a break for 5 minutes; get up and stretch, take a deep breath and come back to the task. Do not allow too much time between the break and the return, it will cause a distraction in your mind and you will lose your mental focus.
Keeping a positive attitude can be a difficult feat from time to time, but it actually works. When your brain believes, it will send messages to your body to act on the responses. You need to have a positive outlook to help your brain decipher the message being sent or received. Ever notice how great your body feels when you are laughing? Your brain’s response is similar to positive thoughts, and automatically begins to strengthen and improve your mental focus. The reason is that your brain associates positive thoughts with predetermined results, helping you to accomplish your goals. Your brain naturally begins to form a pattern, automatically responding as you envision.
Without a doubt your health is at the top of this list for improving mental focus. It’s not just a diet or even your selected lifestyle. You need to understand how your brain and body respond to your treatment of them. You need to consider both your physical and emotional benefits when striving to improve your mental focus. Good health is about keeping a balance to deal with stress, and emotions that interfere with your mental concentration.
You need to develop habits that are positive for yourself, like listening to soothing music from time to time; it has similar effects as meditation, helping to keep your brain sharp and your senses more alert. All of these methods are connected to exercising our brains and incorporating positive effects on improving your mental focus. Your social activities and diet selections help to physically improve your body, sending nutrients to your brain in the form of nourishment.
Sleep is an effective method for improving mental focus and tends to be overlooked. Your body needs to rest each day. What most people don’t realize is that sleeping allows our body to reenergize, preparing for next set of challenges. During these daily breaks, our bodies actually go through a regenerating process that allows your mind to add, replace and retain information. Your thoughts urge your memory and concentration capacities to receive signals and expand your astuteness and brainpower for future use.
CHAPTER 5- SETTING GOALS TO IMPROVE MENTAL FOCUS
Those who feel that they are not able to focus or remember things the way that they used to may want to do something to improve that situation. There are many ways that people can go about setting goals to improve their mental focus. Those who feel that they may have a more severe problem could see a doctor and find out about some of the medications which can be used to help people improve their concentration and focus. Other than that, there are specific things that people can do and set goals for themselves which gives them something to look forward to over time.
One of the first things that people can do is to make sure that they have all of the items that they need before they sit down to do something. This allows people to focus on the task at hand without letting their mind wander to the things they may have forgotten, so putting together a list of everything that is going to be needed for each task gives people better focus on what they are supposed to be doing. Those who are trying to get something done while they are on their computer also want to make sure that they limit their distractions. Turning off things like social media websites and turning off cell phones is a good way to really focus on the task at hand. Also, it is better to have a separate computer to get some work done, in which people don't have any games downloaded.
While many people prefer total quiet when they are working on something, there are others who can work better when they are listening to some music. Finding what works the best is a goal that people can set, as well as other conditions that make it easier from them to work. It is important to find a very well lit space to work in. Those who have a specific that they go when they need to concentrate will have a better chance of staying focused when they are sitting in an area where they only do work. This is a good way to help stay focused. Additionally, those who want to focus better they need to have a specific schedule set up. This could include trying to remember to put everything that needs to be done written down in a calendar or a day planner.
Remembering to write everything down is important. Those who want to set up chunks of time that they can devote to studying or doing work will do better. People should usually go about twenty to thirty doing their work before they decide to take a break. Also, those who are considering the best ways to remember things should go over them within twenty minutes before they go to sleep. That will help people to go back over them in their sleep. Those who are studying for an important test can use this strategy to help them to remember some of the points that they have had the hardest time remembering during the day.
Those who want to talk to a doctor about what has been happening to them may consider talking about medication which helps with ADHD or ADD. These medications work to improve learning, concentration and focus. It can be used to