Your focusing power determines the concentration ability. Increasing concentration can be a difficult task and depends on different factors, including the inner mindset and the external environment. Generally, concentration is linked with disciplining your mind to enhance focus.
However, your brain will tend to resist the efforts as it likes its freedom. You can improve concentration power by practicing 10-15 minutes of exercise every day. You can train your brain to discipline and improve the concentration on higher levels.
Why Can’t One Concentrate?
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Attention is important for memory. If you don’t concentrate on new information, then you will not be able to process and remember. The ability to concentrate may change, as some situations are difficult to analyze. Also, there are certain factors, which contribute to the concentrating process. For example, focusing on multiple tasks instead of one task, you might limit your ability to remember information.
If you are trying to perform 2-3 things at once and you can focus on any of them may in a good way, you will not able to process the information properly and miss the information.
Other factors include lack of sleep, dehydration, poor diet, physical inactivity, hunger affect the concentration ability. Certain medications such as the certain overactive bladder, sedating antihistamines, painkillers are linked to impairment of memory and concentration.
However, poor concentration is a symptom of attention deficit and mood disorder like depression and anxiety. It may also occur because of diabetes, thyroid dysfunction, and chronic pain.
Important Tips
- Before you start with concentration exercise, it is important to set the mood for it.
- Find a calm place where you don’t feel a disturbance.
- Sit with a cross-legged position on the floor or chair with a straight spine.
- Breathe deeply and relax your body for direct attention.
- Beginning you can do these exercises for 10 minutes and increase the time, after a few weeks of training.
Concentration Exercises
Count Backward
Counting is the best activity to increase concentration. Begin by choosing a quiet spot where you will not feel disturbance from everyday activities and stress. Once you get comfortable with quit place, start counting from backward. If you are a beginner to concentration exercises, begin by counting down from 100-1. Gradually you can progress to 500-1000 and include variations by skipping in-between numbers.
Counting Words
Another way is to count the words or numbers of magazines or books from one paragraph. Count the words again to make sure that you are counting correctly. You can begin with one paragraph and move to the next paragraph and move to whole page counting. You have to count with your eyes and brain without using your fingertip with every word.
Analyze Unusual Objects
While learning to concentrate your senses on the unusual object at one time might seem like a small deed, it will support your attention efforts for more time. Pick an article that takes away your curiosity and analyze it deeply. You can choose anything like wallet, a fruit, or a pencil box. Try to notice the texture, color, shape, and smell. While doing this activity, do not focus on other thoughts. Put your full focus on one object.
Water Fascination
It is a particular exercise to control the uncontrolled muscle movements. Fill a glass of water and grip it with fingers and extend your arms in the forward direction. Now, keep your eyes on the glass. At the same time, try to prevent any uncontrolled arm movement. It may seem easy but difficult as you try.
Candle Gazing
Gazing at a candle is another method of increasing concentration. It is popular from cavemen’s time. Looking at fire away fascinates the people. Flame attracts attention and helps you to concentrate on that flame.
It is a simple exercise to practice in the evening by sitting in a quiet place and lighting a candle. Focus on a flickering light. Try to focus on flame for 5-minutes.
Use Cannabidiol
You may wonder cannabidiol as marijuana, but it has major differences. Marijuana consists of two main substances. One is tetrahydrocannabinol or THC, which is a type of psychoactive compound, and second is Cannabidiol or CBD, which is a no psychoactive effect. Alternatively, CBD provides various positive properties on the body. It also benefits for increasing focus ability.
How does it help?
You may hear about Zoloft or Lexapro, which are compounds used to manage depression. CBD helps similarly and enhances the serotonin flow in the brain. Therefore, you feel less anxious and more concentrated.
Sit Still
You might like to sit on the chair comfortably after a long day. But have you ever noticed how difficult you find it to keep still?
This exercise requires you to stand still for 5-minutes. It can be better if you do it for 10-15 minutes. It may feel simple but controlling your spontaneous muscle movements is difficult. Make sure to choose a comfortable position and calm place.
Use Your Reflection
Have you seen another person’s eyes in front of you have your reflection? Yes, looking at your reflection is another way to concentrate. It gets you a sense of strength, calmness, and confidence. While having eye contact for more time with a specific person is not possible, you can do the practice by looking at your reflection. Begin by looking at the mirror by making two marks on the surface. These marks will be exact in your eyes place.
Think of these marks as one pair of human eyes, which are deeply looking into your eyes. Concentrate by keeping your head still and keep breathing deeply. Gently, you will feel the inner calmness and strength. Practice this for 3-minutes every day.
Think Without Words
Try to analyze your cognition for one moment. You will know that although unspoken most of your thought takes a shape of words. It is a simple concentration exercise, which spins around by leaving the inner verbalization.
Begin with taking a small object in your hand, for example, a decorative object or a fork. Then, analyze all sides for 5-minutes, but do not use any words in your mind. Just observe it blankly as much as possible.
Try with Chair and Table
Try to move your chair from the table and keep your hand on it, gripping your fist and place the back of your hand on the table in a way that the thumb gets doubled on the fingers. Now look carefully at your fist for some time and then slowly extend the thumb.
While doing so, keep your attention focused on this activity as if it is an important thing. After this stretch, your first finger followed by second, and do until you open all fingers.
Then again reverse the process, begin with closing the last finger of a fist to the original position of thumb closed on the finger. This exercise requires to perform with one hand and then another with five repetitions with each hand. Once you become an expert, you can increase your timings.
Relaxing muscles
This exercise makes you gain concentration from within. Begin by lying down and completely relaxing your muscles. Now focus on your heartbeat without focusing on any other thing. Imagine your heart, how it is pumping the blood to every body part. Try to think about blood is moving from your heart and flowing in streams to toes.
Think about another picture of how blood flowing from your arms to your fingertips. After practicing this exercise, you can feel how blood is passing in your whole body.
Try with Nostrils
Sit on a chair in an upstanding position, keeping your back raised. Now squeezing one finger against your right nostril, take a long full breath. Pull the breath tenderly as you check to ten and discharge the breath through the right nostril as you count to ten. Repeat this activity with the other nostril. This activity ought to be repeated 20 times at each sitting.
Focusing on Sounds
This exercise is about concentrating on sounds. In everyday lives, we keep hearing in different sounds. Try to concentrate on a particular sound, such as one voice. Then slowly switch over to the different sounds such as bird sound.
Again, switch with a different sound like vehicle sound. Keep switching between sound to sound after focusing one by one every minute. This exercise can also be done by focusing on one person or any sound created by a person. Make sure not to think about anything while focusing on one sound.
Drawing and Coloring
Making drawings and coloring is an excellent activity to keep the brain relaxed and activate the creative ability. It also improves your concentration levels and differentiating colors. Drawing helps to engage your mind on a single activity. People who make drawing are very creative and learn more like painting, sketching.
Increase Brain Foods
There are different foods to increase brain power, which helps in concentration. These foods help relieve stress.
Eat Fish
Fish is the best food for the sharp brain as it provides plenty of omega-3 fatty acids required for the brain and body. You can consume fish twice a week. Consider adding fish like Cod, Salmon, Haddock, Halibut, or Tuna.
Fish Alternative
Walnuts, Soybeans, and Flaxseeds.
Around 60% of the brain is made of fat, and half of the fat content of the brain is omega-3. The brain uses omega-3 to develop the brain and nerve cells, and these facts are important for learning and growing memory.
Omega-3 also benefits to prevent age-linked mental decline and Alzheimer’s disease. It is also helpful for managing learning impairment and depression.
Coffee
Add coffee in the brain diet to increase concentration. Coffee provides antioxidants and caffeine that help in brain functions. The Caffeine provides health benefits for the brain, such as:
Caffeine enhances alertness and keeps your brain alert by blocking adenosine, which is a chemical messenger for sleep.
It also improves your mood by promoting feel-good hormones such as serotonin.
Coffee also lowers the risk of brain diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
Blueberries
Blueberries provide the best benefits for brain health. It provides anthocyanins, which is a group of plant compounds with inflammation lowering effects. Antioxidants work against inflammation and oxidative stress and prevent neurodegenerative and brain aging diseases. Some of the antioxidants present in blueberries have discovered to build-up the brain and improve brain cell communication.
Turmeric
Turmeric is a miracle root herb for brain health. The presence of curcumin in turmeric is an active ingredient, which has shown to increase blood in the brain and benefit brain cells.
Adding turmeric in the brain diet helps to improve memory in individuals with Alzheimer’s. It may also support to remove amyloid plaques.
It also eases your depression by boosting dopamine and serotonin, which improves your mood.
Turmeric also benefits to produce new cells in the brain by stimulating growth hormones and prevent mental decline.
Broccoli
Broccoli is another healthy vegetable providing antioxidants for the brain. It provides high vitamin K and fat-soluble vitamins for producing sphingolipids, which is a type of fat good for brain health. Broccoli protects against brain damage.
Pumpkin Seeds
Add pumpkin seeds in your diet to increase concentration. It provides strong antioxidants that fight against free radical damage from its nutrients such as iron, zinc, magnesium, and copper.
Zinc is essential for nerve signals and preventing neurological diseases like depression, Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease.
Getting magnesium from the diet helps for promoting memory and learning.
Copper provides control over nerve signals and prevents neurodegenerative disorder.
Iron is essential for preventing impaired functions of brain and brain fog.
Dark Chocolate
Dark chocolate also boosts brain health. The cocoa powder provides caffeine, antioxidants, and flavonoids. These compounds help to promote memory and learning. It also enhances the age-related decline of mental health.
Oranges
Adding orange in your everyday diet provides plenty of vitamin C that helps to treat the mental decline. Eating enough vitamin C foods prevent brain diseases and increase concentration power.
Eggs
Eggs are also the best source for various nutrients for brain health, including Choline, vitamin B6, B12. Choline is essential for neurotransmitters to regulate memory and mood.
Green Tea
Green tea also boosts brain functions by improving performance, alertness, concentration, and memory.
Adding green teal provides L-theanine, which is an amino acid to promote blood to the brain and lower anxiety.
Other Tips to Concentrate Better
According to Dr. Bonner-Jackson, here are some easy tips for better concentration.
- Get enough sleep because incomplete sleep interferes with brain functions. If you have sleep disorders like insomnia, sleep apnea, then take your health expert help.
- Talk to your doctor about feelings of anxiety, stress, and depression. Your physician will guide you and telling your feeling also relieve your mind.
- Review your medication to know if that is causing you memory problems or concentration difficulty.
- Change your lifestyle and choose healthy foods. You can see above for brain-healthy foods. Eating specific foods provide essential nutrient to the brain and enhance their functions.
- Take caffeine in a limited way to concentrate better because high caffeine also interferes with brain functions.
- If you are suffering from hearing or vision problems, then correct it with doctor and medication help.
- Try to avoid multitasking because some particular task need focus to store the information in memory.
- Try to repeat the new information such as instructions, a person’s name, and grocery list again and again. Read a specific paragraph to remember it.
- Make changes to your environment by keeping off Tv, electronic devices, remove the things of noise and distraction. If your surrounding seems noisy, then visit a calm place like a park or any place.
The Benefits of Concentration
As you learn to concentrate better, it will benefit you in the following ways:
- Control your thought process
- Bring peace of mind
- Increase focus
- Freedom from annoying thoughts
- Better memory
- Increase ability to choose thoughts
- Improve self-confidence
- Improve inner strength
- Increase willpower
- Decisiveness
- Increase ability to learn comprehend instantly
- Inner happiness
- Increase creative visualization
- Deep meditation