Focus

Hi. How can I dramatically increase my focus and shut down all unwanted thoughts and feelings so that they don't get in the way?

...get in the way of what?

Sometimes unwanted thoughts and feelings have a very sound purpose. You might want to throttle your spouse in an argument, and be dissuaded from that course of action by thoughts of pleasant times together and unpleasant experiences in the prison showers.

Imagine a dial and turn your internal dialogue down. Use the swish pattern to get rid of unwanted visual pictures.

Also what do you mean by the word focus? Focus on outside experiecnce or inside experience?

Take a nap.

Venus

My fave...listen to some music on my iPod while weeding the flower garden. Works every time. Clear mind--beautiful garden!

John,

How are you doing? Are you making progress?

As you go through your day there are huge stimuli for your brain to handle, 2 billion pieces of data per second (I dont know how these things are counted but thats the number 'they' say!)

So, to manage all these bits we have a filter system that allows these 2 billion bits through to the subconscious but some bits are caught in the filters and will alert you as to what is going on. What is filtered can be split into 3 catagories.

1. It is important to your survival.

2. The data has a novelty value or

3. It has a high emotional content.

Is your distraction coming from as a result of this filter? Is what pops in to your head catagorised as anything from the above?

I suspect not.

So, maybe the distraction is coming from within you. Could what you describe be called 'mind-chatter'? Too many voices wanting to butt in?

I have just stuck 'mind chatter' into Google and many self help pages are there just waiting to analyse and fix you.

If it is not mind-chatter then I agree with Adrian, the interruption to your focus may well be there for good reason. Give that voice a name and have a chat with it, see what it wants! It may not be acting like an alarm bell but more like a snooze alarm that still is not going to go away until you deal with it.

I find writing things down is a great way to manage this 'snooze button' reminder thing in my head. Once it is written down along with a deadline for it to be done, then I no longer need the interruption and my focus can remain unbroken.

Let me know your thoughts,

Matt

...get in the way of what?

Sometimes unwanted thoughts and feelings have a very sound purpose. You might want to throttle your spouse in an argument, and be dissuaded from that course of action by thoughts of pleasant times together and unpleasant experiences in the prison showers.

Sometimes I find that they are a distraction. I need to be able to focus all of my attention on something and not have ANY of it diverted to other things. I need to be able to do this for long periods of time.

Imagine a dial and turn your internal dialogue down. Use the swish pattern to get rid of unwanted visual pictures.

Also what do you mean by the word focus? Focus on outside experiecnce or inside experience?

Swish pattern????

How can I make the effect of the dial extremely powerful? I mean focus on what I have to do. For example: I will have a task to do. However, there are sometimes feelings that I experience that are counterproductive to me getting the task accomplished. Thus I need to be able to eliminate the unhelpful feelings and thoughts and narrow my focus so that it is only on completing the task.

Take a nap.

Venus

I wish it were that simple lol! Unfortunately, I need to be able to focus at a moment's notice without having the delay of finding a place to nap.

My fave...listen to some music on my iPod while weeding the flower garden. Works every time. Clear mind--beautiful garden!

If I had that kind of free time I would. However, I need focus much sooner than that.

John,

How are you doing? Are you making progress?

As you go through your day there are huge stimuli for your brain to handle, 2 billion pieces of data per second (I dont know how these things are counted but thats the number 'they' say!)

So, to manage all these bits we have a filter system that allows these 2 billion bits through to the subconscious but some bits are caught in the filters and will alert you as to what is going on. What is filtered can be split into 3 catagories.

1. It is important to your survival.

2. The data has a novelty value or

3. It has a high emotional content.

Is your distraction coming from as a result of this filter? Is what pops in to your head catagorised as anything from the above?

I suspect not.

So, maybe the distraction is coming from within you. Could what you describe be called 'mind-chatter'? Too many voices wanting to butt in?

I have just stuck 'mind chatter' into Google and many self help pages are there just waiting to analyse and fix you.

If it is not mind-chatter then I agree with Adrian, the interruption to your focus may well be there for good reason. Give that voice a name and have a chat with it, see what it wants! It may not be acting like an alarm bell but more like a snooze alarm that still is not going to go away until you deal with it.

I find writing things down is a great way to manage this 'snooze button' reminder thing in my head. Once it is written down along with a deadline for it to be done, then I no longer need the interruption and my focus can remain unbroken.

Let me know your thoughts,

Matt

Hi. I am doing fine. Thanks for asking. The thoughts and feelings are not necessarily "mind-chatter". They are feelings that are counterproductive. For ex: I need to move quickly to get some thigns done. However, the feeling may be of going slow and of being unfocused. I need to eliminate them.

Hi John,

For ex: I need to move quickly to get some thigns done. However, the feeling may be of going slow and of being unfocused.

There are positives elements to what you say. A person who has the ability to deal with a scenario that requires precise and quick reactions may look mind-blowingly fast to us but their own state of mind is calm and unfased. For example, a fighter pilot is digesting huge amounts of info and planning, doing, evaluating, planning, doing without breaking a sweat and their pulse not going much beyond a resting speed. That is because they have reached levels of competence in their tasks that it becomes a subconscious act and doesnt need the conscious mind to moitor or narrate the action.

You may need to move quickly and indeed your mind may be going slowly but you don't need a quick mind to walk fast?

I am not out of ideas to help you yet but I do want to pinpoint what help you need before we try and give it to you. Could what you experience be described as

lack of concentration?
short attention span?
an understimulated mind?
or are you simply trying to use your brain in a new(ish) way and are expecting too much too soon?

rsvp,

Matt

Hi John,



There are positives elements to what you say. A person who has the ability to deal with a scenario that requires precise and quick reactions may look mind-blowingly fast to us but their own state of mind is calm and unfased. For example, a fighter pilot is digesting huge amounts of info and planning, doing, evaluating, planning, doing without breaking a sweat and their pulse not going much beyond a resting speed. That is because they have reached levels of competence in their tasks that it becomes a subconscious act and doesnt need the conscious mind to moitor or narrate the action.

You may need to move quickly and indeed your mind may be going slowly but you don't need a quick mind to walk fast?

I am not out of ideas to help you yet but I do want to pinpoint what help you need before we try and give it to you. Could what you experience be described as

lack of concentration?
short attention span?
an understimulated mind?
or are you simply trying to use your brain in a new(ish) way and are expecting too much too soon?

rsvp,

Matt

Lack of concentration and attention is part of the problem. I need my mind to only think about that I want it to instead of thinking about extraneous and counterproductive thoughts.
This is not really "new". I just need it to happen whenever I want. Such an ability would be a huge productivity booster.

Thanks,
John

The issue here is that you are judging certain thoughts as being extraneous and counterproductive. Problem being, we have no real way of knowing whether such thoughts are necessary. It may be that the brain has to generate a whole bunch of thoughts in order for you to have some apparently useful ones: one thing we do know about thinking is that it is associative. What this means is that you might have a sequence of thoughts that goes grapes - wine - dinner - dinner with friends tonight at 8, remember to buy some cheese...now, the last thought is the one that's 'useful' in that it contains a reminder and an action to do, but you wouldn't have got there without the stuff preceding. See? Appreciate everything you find in your mind, and you'll get on much better with it. And maybe what you need is more in the direction of goal setting than focus...

Are there some things that you can focus on? Games, films, books anything else?

If there are then you know how to focus. You just don't know how to apply it to a particular task yet.

Build up the motivation for that task until it becomes intense and the focus will follow.

Visualisation,anchors and time lines are good tools to build the motivation.

Hi John

This is going to be the less technical reply your going to get- "STOP THINKING" get the F***ing job done- if you have more than one thing to do- prioritise- what your doing then do that one thing- your focus will come automatically as you get on with it.

Not the most elegant way of making the point- yet just do what you are meant to be doing and stop f**ing about..

PS I would give myself a thumbs down- yet I can't so will you lot help- I want at least 30 thumbs down.. anything less than that really means its a thumbs up post lol


You might like to check out flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and indispensable guide to the topic of mental focus and well worth a read for anyone involved with learning.

Amazon.com: Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: Books

Flow-Psychology-Experience-Mihaly-Csikszentmihalyi [Amazon UK | Amazon US]

You might like to also check out the Education, Schooling and Learning. The Learning Web as it as some ideas to help with concentration and memory training which is another path of developing focus.


How do you know when you are focused?

What happens to your way of thinking when you pay special attention to something you like?

What are you not thinking about when you not thinking?

What wound not happen it you did not think about not thinking?

How do you tell the difference between your coat, car, bike, cell/mobile phone? etc. and some one else's?

I think you focus very well- I just don't think you take the right actions- in the directions you want- how would you walk from your house to the town centre? what streets? and other land marks would you have to walk by to get there? if you can work that out in your head- it's just a matter of taking the actions- to get the job done.

ps. the questions are for you I don't need to know the answers


J

Jay,

I just want you to know that even though I am nearly completely opposed to the idea of "thumbs down" (which means I am not really opposed to it, am I?), I gave you and your green gelatinous glob a BIG OL' THUMBS DOWN, MATE!!!

How's that for team spirit, eh?

Cheers,

Phil

Me too! Because Jay, being a sneaky shamanic type you know that all that so-called negative energy is really just the 'energy of attention' that in the hands of the sorceror can be used equally for positivity through the sacred process of....

Trance-Mogrification!!

Thanks guys lol

Phil The Music Teacher- sounds like a camp assassin *WINK*

Trance-Mogrification!! does that come with omega 6 and 3s lol

Keep being super stars guys

J

Phil The Music Teacher- sounds like a camp assassin *WINK*

No, but if you hum a few bars...