Welcome to this meditation to increase your focus and boost your attention span,
Your attention to something that is important for you right now.
So usually our attention span is quite short.
Research studied that our attention span is decreasing and decreasing and right now the average attention span is 8 seconds.
8 seconds,
Which is not a lot.
So when we want to focus on something that is important for us,
When we want to release tension and we want to deepen our practice of meditation,
Our mind stands in our way sometimes.
Our mind that gets lazy and bored quite quickly,
It wants to have action and wants to consume information and stimuli all the time.
Because usually we are used to and sometimes also quite addicted to the hormones that every information that we get,
Every insight,
Every distraction that we get,
That those stimuli create the hormone of dopamine inside us.
The hormone of being curious,
Of getting things done,
Of being happy.
And combined with the hormone of adrenaline that increases also when we have more and more stimuli around us,
This mixture is quite attractive for our brain.
And it wants to get it over and over again.
So training ourselves to focus on something can create boredom in our mind.
And when we come to a point where we realize that our training pays off,
That we learn how to focus more on something that is important for us,
On a feeling,
On a task,
Independent,
What's important for you right now.
When we overcame this tipping point of boredom and laziness of our mind,
We feel so much more growth,
So much more relief,
And so much more joy,
And persisting with something for longer than eight seconds.
So for this meditation,
I invite you to take a posture that feels really comfortable for you.
Don't force yourself to sit,
Or don't force yourself to cross your legs,
Or even sit in a lotus position.
You can lay down,
You can sit on the couch and really take a posture where you feel this is comfortable.
And once you've found your posture,
Once you've found your seat or your laying position,
I invite you to open your mouth and breathe through your mouth,
Even if it feels a bit unnatural in the first moment.
Breathing through the mouth opens up your jaw and relaxes the muscles around your jaw.
So take a few very deep and releasing breaths through your mouth,
All together.
Let's inhale through the mouth,
And with a sigh exhale all the air.
And another one,
Inhale through the mouth,
And exhale through the open mouth with a sigh.
Just as you're coming from a long day and sitting on your couch and you just let go everything from the day.
Another one,
Inhale through the mouth,
And let go everything with the exhale.
Keep on breathing with your mouth open and relax your jaw.
Bring your attention to your jaw,
To the muscles around your teeth,
To your lips,
Your mouth.
And observe how your jaw feels like at the moment.
Observe if there's tension or relief.
Observe if there's a pleasant or unpleasant feeling in your jaw.
And every time you feel some tension or you feel some irritation in the situation right now,
Use your exhale to let go of the tension with a sigh.
Observe your neck.
And if your neck feels a bit tense,
I invite you to let your chin drop a little bit to widen the space of your neck.
And just observe the feeling of your neck.
And when your mind gets bored by this observation and is distracted by other thoughts or distractions outside,
Then gently invite it for this little experiment and bring it back to observing your neck.
Maybe you feel some hair on your neck.
You feel the air,
The skin of your neck.
And now bring your attention to your chest.
And feel how your chest feels.
Feel how it's moving with your breath.
Feel the clothes you're wearing.
And feel how your chest feels right now.
See if there's any feeling pleasant or unpleasant feeling in your chest,
If there's tension or softness.
And usually when we force ourself to focus on something,
And it feels very,
Very hard sometimes to keep on concentrating on things,
Then we increase the tension in our body and we create more tension in our mind.
And this actually blocks our concentration even more,
So it feels even harder to focus again.
So taking a break and taking time to release this tension in your body with every exhale,
With every sigh in your exhale,
Clears your mind to keep on focusing,
Keep on concentrating on things again.
And with your open mouth you release a lot more than breathing through your nose,
You release a lot more tension.
And with every sigh you release the tension and energy that is blocking you to give the positive energy more space.
So stay with your tension in your chest and observe your chest.
And then slowly bring your attention to the sitting bones.
Feel how your sitting bones are touching the floor,
The couch,
The bed,
Or wherever you're sitting or lying on.
And observe the touch,
Observe how you feel grounded,
How you feel hold and secure by the ground.
And now with your open mouth,
Try to create a smile on your face.
Keep your eyes closed and smile.
And send the smile throughout your body in every cell,
From the top of your head,
Through your chest,
Into your belly,
Into your hips,
All the way down into your legs and into your feet.
And take a last moment to rest in this pleasant feeling of smile to your body.
And then with your next inhale,
Lift up your arms over your head and rotate your wrists a little bit.
Roll your shoulders to the front and to the back and activate your arms.
Activate the energy in your arms again and turn around your head a little bit to activate your neck again.
And then slowly open your eyes and when you're ready,
Stand up and shake yourself a little bit.
Shake your hands,
Shake your feet,
Do a little dance for a few breaths to release all the tension last time and create some new space for focus and concentration so that you're ready for the next thing you want to focus on.
I wish you a really,
Really wonderful concentration time and a wonderful day.
Thank you for listening.
