Welcome,
Everyone.
It's so good to have you here today.
In today's meditation,
We are going to talk about attention training.
It's also called neural training.
And this is what we think of when we think of focus.
And I want to name.
That focus does not mean that you are never distracted.
Our attention will wander and we The practice of attention training is really more about noticing when it has wandered.
And being able to bring it back.
So today we're going to experiment with two different meditation techniques for neural training.
And I would really invite you to think about it like this.
I really love this metaphor.
If you imagine going to the gym to work out your biceps,
For example.
The goal isn't to just pick up the dumbbell and hold it perfectly still for five minutes to train the bicep.
The curl is the rep.
So if you extend it,
When the bicep is released and then you curl it and that's what what builds the rep.
That is really similar to this neural training,
Which essentially imagine if your mind wanders 20 times during a meditation and you bring it back 20 times,
You did not fail at focusing,
You just got 20 reps.
That's the way I like to think about it.
So this core idea of.
You focus your attention,
Your mind wanders.
You notice it's wandered.
And then you return.
And every return is a rep.
So I invite you to get into a comfortable position.
See if you can feel your posture settle in in a way that supports you for the next 30 or so minutes.
Allow your feet and your body to be supported.
And allow them to really melt into the support.
And see if you can give yourself three or so grounding breaths.
Seeing if you can Keep a longer exhale than inhale.
To really allow your nervous system to calm down.
And bring yourself here and now.
And see if you can feel the muscles in your body.
Just surrender or relax just maybe 1% more than they are right now.
Inviting some softness Now the first tool we're going to explore today is called the anchor.
And there's many different ways of doing this.
We know that attention is selective,
So we're constantly filtering more information than we can consciously process.
So this practice exercises our ability to sustain our attention.
And then redirect our attention when the mind wanders.
And the research on mindfulness training does suggest that this practice can improve both attention and executive control.
So as we enter into this practice,
I invite you to close your eyes if you're not already there.
And I invite you to choose an anchor.
That will be your anchor for the next three minutes.
And specifically for this first round,
I'd love to invite you to try using your breath as an anchor.
That anchor is just the focal point of your attention.
So maybe it's the sensation of your breath coming in and out of your nostrils.
Maybe it's the sensation of your chest moving up and down as you breathe.
Or maybe it's the feeling in your belly.
But I invite you to try one of those three points of contact or maybe another,
Maybe you feel the breath in your lungs,
Maybe you feel it move in your back body.
Just wherever you notice your breath.
For the next three minutes.
We are going to practice keeping our attention on our breath.
And when it wanders,
The goal is to notice that it's wandered and return your attention back to the breath.
So beginning our three minutes.
Now and I will check in when we're about halfway through.
And if your attention has wandered from your breath,
Just a reminder to very gently and without judgment Notice that it's wandered and bring it back to your breath.
And taking a deep exhale out.
And a deep inhale.
Letting go of that anchor.
Giving yourself a chance to reset.
Recognizing the effort and the reps that you put into bringing your mind back to your anchor point.
And as you let go of the breath as an anchor,
I invite you to open your eyes and gently see if you can find one stationary point.
Or object.
That can be a visual anchor for the next three minutes of practice.
So one.
Point that is not movable or not moving.
And see if you can Zone in on that one point of contact.
And we are going to use that as a visual anchor.
And we'll do this for about three minutes.
And I invite you to drop in and practice giving this anchor point,
This visual anchor,
Your full attention.
Notice when a thought or a sound or a sensation has taken your attention away from this object.
No need to judge or analyze yourself,
Just simply returning your attention to this object.
This visual anchor.
Allowing yourself to become interested in the details.
Give yourself about one more minute here for this practice.
You And on your next exhale,
I invite you to really empty out your lungs.
And take a deep breath in.
And let go of that visual anchor.
Maybe take note for yourself.
If you found the breath anchor or the visual anchor to be more effective for you.
And just recognizing that every time you get distracted,
It creates the opportunity for that rep.
And that's really what we're after is building that muscle.
So the next practice that I want to invite you into is called attentional aperture.
And if you think of a camera lens as a metaphor,
You know that we can intentionally change the aperture of our attention,
And this is really a healthy exercise for the brain.
When you have a narrow aperture,
You're focused on one object,
One sensation,
One task.
When you have a broad aperture,
You have more of a broader visual field.
You might notice more sounds.
You might notice your body in space or your environment.
Think of it like your peripheral vision is kind of that broader aperture.
And neither is better.
There's not a better way of seeing.
They're just useful for very different things.
So if you think about a narrow aperture,
This is helpful for concentrating,
Reading,
Writing detailed work.
And broad aperture is really helpful for orienting,
Resetting,
Getting perspective.
Coming out of tunnel vision.
Um,
Similarly,
You can use this exercise,
Um,
In times of high stress.
If you find you're feeling anxious and particularly is helpful for anxiety is to broaden your aperture.
If you think of fight or flight mode,
You tend to get more narrow in focus and it's very helpful if you're trying to escape a lion attacking you and it can be very useful if you're trying to get out of that into your parasympathetic nervous system.
To broaden the aperture.
And we're going to practice this today.
So we're going to practice this with eyes open.
And I invite you to choose one point to focus on.
And once you've found that point,
I invite you to really take in its shape.
See if you can notice the texture.
What do you notice about the color?
How is the light illuminating it?
Even if it's far away,
Can you imagine its smell?
Can you imagine what it would feel like to touch this?
Allow everything else to become background.
Really leaning into this narrow focused lens.
Giving yourself about 30 more seconds here.
Now I invite you to let your gaze soften ever so slightly and notice the objects around this object.
And see if you can move very slowly into a broader aperture,
Starting to notice all of the things that are around this object.
Broadening,
That peripheral vision.
See if you can notice the sounds.
Both near and far.
Notice the temperature in the room.
Feel your body in the chair.
Feel any sensations on your skin.
Keeping that soft gaze.
Noticing all that you can notice in the space around you.
Sensing the room as a whole.
Maybe even imagining yourself in the room.
What's behind you.
This is what it feels like to be in a broad aperture.
And giving yourself about 20 more seconds here in this broad aperture.
And taking a deep breath.
To let that go and see if you can settle somewhere in between the two.
The more of a relaxed,
Aware present state.
And just noticing.
For yourself if you could feel a difference between those two states,
The narrow and the broad.
Noticing if one was easier or more comfortable.
And now trying to imagine a scenario in which each of these modes might be more useful for you.
So with our last five minutes here,
I want to.
.
.
End with a bridge into the rest of your day.
Attention isn't just about concentrating harder,
It's about directing what gets priority.
And in everyday life,
We notice our attention only after something has captured it.
So a notification,
Maybe an email,
Maybe a video.
An instant message,
A browser tab,
A thought,
Someone walking by your desk.
And attention training creates a tiny choice point.
You notice the distraction,
You choose where you want to direct your attention,
And then you direct your attention there.
So it's that choice point,
That middle step.
Instead of immediately directing your attention,
Making the choice to direct your attention.
So if helpful for you,
I want you to just consider a few ways where you can explore reducing the competition for your attention.
So it may be helpful to close your eyes here and just imagine yourself moving into the rest of your day.
What are you really trying to focus on?
And what is competing for your attention?
Maybe you need to close some tabs.
Maybe you need to keep your phone out of reach.
Maybe it's just having one task visible at a time.
If you tend to get Distracted by sound maybe headphones could be supportive.
Maybe a timer.
If you run anxious or you want to be more in your body,
Maybe there's one intentional deep breath before beginning a project,
Thinking of all the things that could just really help.
Imagining as you go about your most important work,
What's in front of you.
And what should not be in front of you.
What distractions have you removed?
And what's the first concrete action?
You want to take.
Give yourself a deep Cleansing breath.
Imagining yourself here at the beginning.
And maybe you silently complete this sentence.
For the next.
Blank minute.
My attention goes to blank.
For the next blank minutes,
My attention goes to blank.
And just remembering that you don't have to keep your attention there perfectly,
You just have to notice when you fluff.
And come on back.
And as we close out our practice today,
Just a reminder and a summary.
When you're really looking to deepen your attention,
I invite you to choose an anchor,
Giving your attention somewhere specific to go that builds the rep.
The second tool we talked about was changing the aperture,
Moving intentionally between narrow focus and broad focus.
And lastly,
Just remembering that when your attention wanders,
You just come back,
And coming back is that rest.
We get to practice this one day at a time,
One return at a time.
Thank you so much for being here.
I appreciate you all.
