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SCIENCE4 simple exercises to strengthen your attention andreduce distractibilityJun 8, 2018 / Rebekah BarnettMengxin LiCreate PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF APIPDFCROWD

Our attention gets hijacked by everything from the stress in our livesto the ding of our phones. Neuroscientist Amishi Jha shows how wecan cultivate the ability to focus on what really matters.“I think, therefore I am distracted.”If Descartes were writing today, this is what his famous aphorism might have become. We’reliving in an age of distraction, battered by our own customized waterfall of notifications,alerts, texts, videos, bingeable TV, and more. It’s not surprising our minds often feel like ajumble.But it turns out we’re not at the mercy of our runaway minds. Amishi Jha (TED Talk: How totame your wandering mind), an associate professor of psychology at the University of Miamiand the director of contemplative neuroscience for the UMindfulness Initiative, studies thebrain’s attention mechanisms, and she’s found there are specific exercises we can do tostrengthen our ability to pay attention. Here, she explains how you can get your wanderingmind back under control.Our attention is fragile. Jha likens our attention to a “a flashlight you can direct to whateveryou choose.” Since research indicates our mind wanders 50 percent of our waking hours, itmeans most of us are walking around with darting, flickering flashlights. Internaldistractions — everything from job stress to a craving for alcohol — and external distractions— like a thunderstorm weather alert on our phone screen — easily disrupt our attention.Whether the interruptions are significant or silly, they are “a basic hijacking of ourattentional resources away from the task at hand,” she says. This lack of attention hasserious consequences for all of us, but especially for people in high-stakes fields likemedicine, the military and criminal justice.Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF APIPDFCROWD

So, how do we gain control of those flickering flashlights and achieve focus? “That’swhere mindfulness training comes in,” says Jha. She describes this training as a “portablebrain fitness routine to keep our attention strong.” She has tested the effects of such trainingon subjects in high-stress groups, like athletes and military personnel. Her research hasfound that the attention of someone who hasn’t had mindfulness training declines whenthey’re under intense stress, but in people who’ve had training, their attention remainsstable. What’s more, in people who regularly do mindfulness exercises, their attentionactually gets better over time — even when they’re under stress. According to Jha,researchers have started to uncover other benefits associated with mindfulness, includingreduced anxiety, protection from depression relapse, and improved working memory.What is mindfulness? It’s about paying attention to the present moment with awarenessand without emotional reactivity. “It doesn’t require any particular worldview or spiritual orreligious belief system,” says Jha. Mindfulness training can be broken down into two majorcategories: focused attention and open monitoring. They’re very different, yetcomplementary, practices.Focused attention exercises cultivate your brain’s ability to focus on one single object,like one’s breath. To do mindful breathing, sit in a comfortable, upright position and focusall your attention on the sensation of breathing — “for example, the coolness of air moving inand out of your nostrils or your abdomen moving in and out,” says Jha. “Focus on somethingthat is tied to your sensory experience. When your mind wanders away from that sensation tointernal mental content or an external distraction, gently return it to the breath-relatedobject.” Don’t be surprised or disappointed if you find yourself retrieving your mindhundreds of times during a 15-minute session. Think of your brain like a puppy you’retraining to walk on a leash. Gently redirect it every time it darts away.Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF APIPDFCROWD

Another focused-attention exercise is mindful walking. Notice the sensations of walking— “your feet on the ground, the wind caressing your skin, sounds in the air,” says Jha.Walking can take place either indoors or outdoors. You might find this activity easier thanmindful breathing; go with whatever exercise works best for you.One final focused-attention exercise is the body scan. Remember the idea of yourattention being like a flashlight? “A body scan is essentially taking that flashlight anddirecting it systematically through the entire body,” Jha says. Start by focusing yourattention on your toes, taking note of whatever sensations might be there. Tightness?Tingling? Warmth? Cold? Next, you can move on to the soles of the feet and the heels, thenthe legs, stomach, and so on, slowly moving your flashlight up your body. After you have agood grounding in focused attention practice and can keep your attention on a particularobject or set of sensations for a period of time, you can move on to open monitoring.Open monitoring helps you learn to pay attention to what’s happening around youwithout becoming attached to it. This practice is not about paying attention to a particularobject or objects. Instead, it’s about remaining open to any experience — internal or external— that arises, and allowing it to wash over you. “You don’t process it, you don’t think aboutit,” Jha says. “You just notice its occurrence and allow it to dissipate.” To do this, sit in acomfortable, upright position and try to be aware of any sensations, thoughts or emotionsthat emerge, without holding on to them. It might help you to label what comes up by usingwords like “planning,” “worrying,” “judging,” “remembering.” You can do this silently orout loud. After you name it, let it go. Think of what you’re doing as like watching cloudsmove in the sky and observing the different shapes they make — but in this practice, you’rewatching your thoughts travel through your mind. And yes, there will be times when you feellike you keep getting hooked on a particular thought or sensation and can’t seem to drop it.Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF APIPDFCROWD

Says Jha, “If you find you’re so lost in thought that you can’t do the open monitoringpractice, go back to doing a focused attention exercise to steady yourself again.”People generally start to see benefits when they practice for about 15 minutes a day, 5days a week, for around 4 weeks. “If you do more, you benefit more,” she says, “but if youdo less than 12 minutes a day, we don’t really see any benefits.” If you try any of theseexercises and have trouble keeping your mind still, know that that’s a common experience.Jha urges people not to feel discouraged — as with any new activity or sport, you need topractice. “The mind will wander, and that’s completely fine. It’s not about not letting themind wander; it’s when the mind wanders, to gently return your attention,” she says.Start small. “Begin with whatever you consider a reasonable goal and cut it in half, andmake a commitment for some period of time,” says Jha. Your goal might be as simple asvowing to stop every day and take the posture of one of the practices, says Jha. Chances are,once you sit (or walk), you’ll decide to stay for a while. Whatever your initial goal, commit tothat for a month — and congratulate yourself for making it! — and then gradually increaseyour practice time until you’re doing it for 15 minutes, 5 days a week. Finding a mindfulnesscommunity, whether virtual or in person, can help you stick to the activity. What’s mostimportant, says Jha, is to make sure “you really support yourself to create the habit ofpracticing,” whether that means setting multiple reminders for yourself or finding a quietspot and time at your home or workplace to sit.Jha has seen the positive impact of mindfulness training on the many people she’sworked with over the years. One thing that struck her is how much the military personnelsay it has improved not just their ability to work under pressure but also their home lives.Many told her that they’d struggled to be present with their families after returning fromCreate PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF APIPDFCROWD

deployment. But after mindfulness training, they found they were better able to be presentwith their loved ones — which is something most of us would like to do, too. “This idea ofbeing present to the people around us when we really want to be present — it often escapesus how to do this,” says Jha. By reclaiming our own attention, we can more fully connectwith the people who matter to us.To see a list of mindfulness resources from Jha, go here. To help you get started, she suggeststrying the apps Insight Timer, Headspace and 10% happier. Additional resources for onlineand in-person mindfulness courses can be found at the Center for Healthy Minds, the PennProgram for Mindfulness, the Contemplative Sciences Center, Duke Integrative Medicine,Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at UCSF, the UCSD Center for Mindfulness, the UMassCenter for Mindfulness, the UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center and the Osher Centerfor Integrative Medicine at Vanderbilt.Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF APIPDFCROWD

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alerts, texts, videos, bingeable TV, and more. It's not surprising our minds often feel like a jumble. But it turns out we're not at the mercy of our runaway minds. Amishi Jha (TED Talk: How to tame your wandering mind), an associate professor of psychology at the University of Miami