10 Great Home Exercises to Become More Focused and Calm
The world of technology has served us well to make our lives easier and efficient. But the majority of us fail to realize that it comes with side effects that we have been facing for years, and what is now becoming more prominent than ever before. Imagine yourself sitting in an academic lecture. How long do you think you are going to be able to keep your attention? If you are being honest, you won’t be able to answer it in terms of hours. A few minutes is all that our attention span has been reduced to, thanks to being over-reliant on the technology.
The focus of your mind and how calm does it feel, go hand in hand. The more peaceful does your brain feel, the better you are going to focus on the task at hand. In other words, in order to prevent your mind from wandering in the unnecessary thoughts, it is important to keep it calm and peaceful. Taking this into consideration, we have taken the liberty of performing thorough research in order to create a list of 11 simple exercises that you can practice today and make your mind more calm and focused. These exercises will help you take charge again and improve your productivity throughout the day.
- Take It Slow
Imagine that you are currently at ground zero in terms of your physical fitness. The rational option would be to join a gym and workout. However, none of your coaches will ever recommend lifting the heaviest weights right from the beginning as it will cause more harm than good. The same principle applies to mental training. If your attention span is currently droopy, the best way to mend it for you is to take it slow and try to gradually improve it. A simple technique would be to use the “Pomodoro Method”. Once you have an assignment, mentally prepare yourself to work for 45 minutes straight without any break and plan ahead for a break for 15 minutes afterward. The reward of a break for 15 minutes sensitizes your brain to keep its focus for the 45 minutes without being overwhelmed.
- Remove The Distractions That You Can
There is an infinite amount of information available on the internet. So whatever pops into your mind, you are now hardwired to make a Google Search for it instantly. Talk about getting the information about what’s new on your social networks, the cast of a certain movie, the weather information for tomorrow, and what not. In a way, the availability of all of this information has increased the probability of being distracted at the times when we are supposed to be working. The problem with that is that it takes an average of around 25 minutes for an individual to return his attention to the original task after being distracted, as per a report. Therefore, a simple strategy to keep your mind calm and focused is to remove as many distractions as you can while working. Turn your phone off, or at least put it on silent. If you don’t need the internet while working, turn it off. Isolate yourself from the unnecessary noises. The lesser the distractions, the sharper and lasting will be your focus.
- It’s All Within Your Willpower
Remember that none of your strategies to make your mind calm and focused are going to optimally function if you fail to add the ingredient of your willpower. Your attention span is largely dependent on it. As mentioned earlier, there are distractions which are in your control to get rid of, but then there are the ones which are not so much in control. For instance, you may not be the only one in your office who’s working. There may be people working around you, moving around you, talking around you, such are the distractions which are not in your control to reduce. However, your willpower is still in your control. Once you have the willpower to work with your entire focus, your mind automatically does the rest in sending all of such distractions in the background.
- Let Meditation Work Its Charm
When it comes to making your mind calm and focused, nothing works wonders as meditation does. Being a traditional practice that has been around for years with literally millions of people testifying to its effectiveness, you can take it for granted that it won’t disappoint you. One of the simplest and time efficient practices that you can adopt is deep, slow breathing. Before starting with a task, sit in a silent corner in a comfortable position. Close your eyes and start to take deep, slow breaths. Slowly inhale through your nostrils and exhale through the mouth. Try to focus on getting your body filled with air and then rushing it out. Repeating this exercise for only a few minutes is a tried and tested way of making your mind calm and focusing it on the “here and now”.
- Practice Mindfulness
Mindfulness practices are a subsidiary of meditation which is [restrict] just as effective in making you peaceful and improving your attention span. There are various exercises which fall in the category of mindfulness and the idea is to choose any of these that you feel you can follow on a regular basis with ease. Among the most popular mindful practices is mindful listening. It works by pushing everything else in the background and predominantly focusing on your sense of hearing. Like the rest of meditation practices, you will need a silent, comfortable corner that is away from the noises for mindful listening. It starts with the breathing exercise and slowly shifts the focus on listening to a selected sound. If you are following guided mindfulness, you would be listening to the likes of a soothing symphony. Otherwise, any calm and peaceful sound can serve the purpose. For example, the sound of the running water or perhaps the blowing wind. Research has shown that mindful listening for a few minutes is highly effective in removing the wandering thoughts, sharpening the focus, and promoting the sense of peace.
- Physical Fitness Leads To Mental Strength
It is to be kept in mind that the physical body and the human brain are entwined with each other. For optimal functioning, the coordination of the mind and body is imperative. A sedentary lifestyle is notorious for not only hurting your physical strength but slowly diminishing your mental capacities over time as well. It has been shown with research that moderate physical exercises before an academic lecture or an exam significantly improves the attention of the students and maximizes their productivity. Physical activities are a surefire way of lending a helping hand to your mind to let go of the disturbing thoughts and distractions. It brings your attention back to the present moment, on the task at hand. Moreover, physical exercises stimulate the production of endorphins, serotonin, and dopamine in your body, all of which are known as happy hormones. Consequently, it restores your mood and promotes a sense of peace in your body.
- Exercise Your Brain
Much like a workout and physical activities are required to train your body, mental exercises are required to train your mind. It’s a simple principle, the more you use your muscles, the bigger and stronger they become. Similarly, the more you use your brain, the sharper and more focused it becomes. If you are on a journey to improve your attention span and make your mind more calm and focused, you are going to have to practice mental exercises. One of the simplest ones that you can follow on a regular basis is memorizing stuff. Instead of writing everything down or using a calculator for all of your calculations, start to use your mind instead, for the basic stuff. A word of caution though, we are certainly not supporting you to go to a work meeting without a diary because you are going to memorize the meeting minutes. We certainly don’t want you to spend your whole day trying to calculate 17.49 percent of 84.96 million in your head. As always, start slow. As we mentioned, call your brain into action for the basic, simpler stuff first.
- Read a Book
Another great exercise of your brain that is known to be effective in improving its capabilities is reading a book. And we certainly don’t mean one of those e-books that you have stored in your smartphone or perhaps the tablet. Let’s get a little traditional and walk through a nearby library to find a book that you like. The reason being that over-reliance on technology is the very reason why our attention span is diminishing with each passing day. A report suggests that as much as around 95% of the people who started reading online never actually went all the way to the end. Therefore, if you are serious about improving your attention span and making your mind calm and peaceful, it is time to make reading a book a habit for yourself. Just a few pages every day are sufficient to let the mind have the dose that keeps it sharp and active.
- Don’t Be Reluctant In Questioning
Remember the time when you were in school and there was this one kid who used to ask the most questions? You probably hated him, but he happened to be the teacher’s favorite. It was because it is only the curious mind that has the guts to ask questions about anything and everything. And curiosity is a sign of sharp and focused mind. We have already established that in order to improve your focus, it is indispensable to keep your mind active. Being curious can be another little exercise for your brain that keeps it fit. Starting from today, ask more questions, try to find the fundamental principles behind how things work, don’t take anything for granted. Let’s find the root cause of phenomena. Practicing this mental exercise will gradually start to increase your attention span and maximize your mental performance.
- Gratitude And Personal Mantra
It is highly likely that the reason why your mind is not at peace is that somewhere deep inside your subconscious, there are disturbing thoughts of the past or the troubling ones of the future. The philosophies of how humankind is slowly disconnecting from nature and losing the ability to see good in little things, start to become more prominent as restlessness and anxiety takes over our brains. Truth is, no one has it all good, and no one has it all bad either. Regardless of what you are going through in your life, there is always room to find goodness. In order to fuel your mind with peace again, all you need to do is tap into this goodness that you can find. Repeating a personal mantra based on gratitude on a daily basis can help a great deal in accomplishing this task. Activities like creating a list of things that you are thankful for in your life, or repeating them in your head can dramatically change the brain chemistry, making it more calm, focused, and content.
Conclusion
Our lives are surrounded by distractions. In a pile of unrest and anxiety, the key to living a fulfilling life is mastering the art of keeping your mind calm and focused. As you can see, it’s not a matter of joining a costly program or finding additional time to do something out of the ordinary. These practices merge well with your daily routines and don’t eat up more than a few minutes of your time every day. Considering the positive outcome, however, your investment of a few minutes can truly change your life. You may think you are doing fine already. But with these small practices, you can do so much better. Perhaps you are not aware of your true potential yourself, and perhaps, it is time to see what you are capable of.
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