Welcome.
Thank you for allowing me to participate with you in your journey to internalize the concept of spanning your attention for work and studying.
Make yourself comfortable by sitting still or laying down.
Close your eyes.
Allow the muscles in your face,
Your neck,
And in your shoulders to fall.
Help relax your body and mind by just listening to your breathing.
Breathe very deeply and very slowly.
Repeat your mind of any questions,
Responsibilities,
Thoughts,
And desires by just breathing deeply and staying relaxed and still.
Take a moment and appreciate yourself for making the time to listen to this meditation.
Take a deep breath in and out.
Let's begin.
Ultimately,
Unlocking control over your focused attention will help pack your work into a more favorable and effective outcome.
Take another slow,
Deep breath in and out.
Sometimes,
It's easy to confuse the movement of multitasking for the achievement of a quality result.
Let's consider ways to help increase our attention span.
First,
Focus on one thing at a time by reducing outward distraction and interference.
Juggling multiple activities not only divides our attention among tasks,
But we may also pay an additional cognitive price to split our attention when dividing our focus by repeatedly switching tasks.
This price may show itself disguised as easily avoided errors that could extend time-sensitive tasks to take longer to complete than if we had done them separately.
Take a deep breath in and out.
An easy way to change this is to make sure that anything which may distract you is far away.
Simply put,
Minimize your work and study environment as plainly as possible when trying to focus.
Research shows that even having a phone in the room can be distracting.
Reduce the distracting noise,
The smells,
Any ergonomic discomfort,
And clutter in your work or study space.
Here's a quick tip.
If possible,
Batch all email checking,
Texting,
And social media into three pre-designated times daily,
Then turn off all device notifications.
Generally speaking,
Having your phone in view doesn't just distract you from work or study.
It will perniciously reduce your attention span if you let it.
Take a deep breath in and out.
Second,
Physically,
As you may know,
Hydration helps keep your body and mind optimized for better attention and cognition.
Strengthen your body and you will automatically strengthen your brain.
In fact,
Studies have shown cognitive control is measurably better after just a single exercise session,
Which is a large proponent to maintaining mental attention.
Take a deep breath in and out.
Third,
Increase the quality of restful sleep.
Even a single bad night's sleep can temporarily weaken cognition.
Furthermore,
Ongoing sleep deprivation can have severe and long-term consequences to focusing your attention.
Take another deep breath in and out.
Fourth,
The act of meditation is another attention-building resource.
Remember to focus on your breath when your mind wanders.
This will help ground you in the present so you can sooner relax and resume your focus.
It goes without saying that practicing meditation techniques help sustain attention as well as improve memory capacity.
Take a deep breath in and out.
Fifth,
Experience nature.
Think of exercise and meditation as both opportunities to strengthen your attention span muscles.
However,
Spending time in nature helps recharge those muscles when they've been exhausted so that you feel mentally refreshed.
For many people,
The effect can be so powerful that merely looking at or visualizing a picture of nature can have attention span restorative effects.
Let's try it now.
Imagine you are outside at night in cottage country.
You are seated in a reclining chair at the end of a dock on a private lake with no one and almost nothing in sight.
Imagine the water is still and there's a little wind and wildlife stirring around you.
Notice the only sites to be seen are the stars,
The moon,
And the darkened outline of pine trees on the horizon.
Notice the shimmering pattern of moonlight on the water.
How does this make you feel?
Notice how presently focused you are in this moment.
Take a deep breath in and out.
Whenever you feel spread thin with multiple distractions forming,
Let this mental image or one like it be your resource to help restore your attention to focus on less,
Not more.
Take a deep breath in and out.
Finally,
Here's a fun challenge for the future.
When the time is right,
Try a game of cell phone stack.
At the beginning of your next meal out with family or friends,
Invite everyone to stack their phones at the end of the table.
Whomever reaches for their device before the check arrives pays the bill.
This way,
Your combined and uninterrupted attention will be focused only on each other.
Take a well-deserved deep breath in and out.
Please take a moment to appreciate and thank yourself for the discipline you've shown throughout this meditation.
Take all the time you need to just breathe and remember you can return to this meditation whenever you please.
Remember that the more you practice this meditation,
The faster and easier it will work for you.
Thank you for taking the time to begin to internalize the concept of spanning your attention for work and studying.
And when you're ready,
Slowly open your eyes and let me leave you with these words,
It's a great day to be alive.
