Social Media Is Innocent From Our Short Span Of Attention..

You?would think that losing attention and lack of focus is some modern issue related to the unending connections we are tied in, however the fact is contradicting with that. In the medieval times for instance there were monastics, there were monks who were complaining that even though they had left all their sort of worldly goods, their family relationships and now committed to spending their time connecting with God and in prayer; their minds were thinking about lunch, and they were fast forwarding to the next event in their day. That means that this incessant distractibility that we experience is for sure probably exaggerated by our modern context but it's not solely the result of our modern environment.

For creativity and innovations to born, our mind wonders. It is a?unique human?characteristic?that our brain was built and designed for distractibility. So, the fact that we have this wandering mind that roams around everywhere, is a feature of a design and not a flaw.?

What?is attention??

Attention is not just simply a brain resource, but it is something that allows us and fuels our capacity to do things like thinking, feeling, and regulating our mood and our emotions as well as connecting with others.?In fact, we've been using the term attention when we refer to focus, so we direct our focus towards something and whatever it is that we focus on, we give it our privileged attention, to?break it down; there are three main systems of attention (The Orienting, The Alerting, the Executive) systems:

• ??????The brain's Orienting System, think about it like a flashlight, that wherever you direct that flashlight, you get privileged access to that focused information. what's really cool about this system is that you don’t not only direct it toward the external environment, but we can direct that flashlight internally if you have a train of thought. Essentially you are taking that flashlight and shining it on that conceptual content and then following it so it stays at the center of your mind, of your conscious experience, so we can direct the flashlight toward thoughts, emotions, memories, and even bodily sensations.?

The issue that the flashlight sometimes feels like a "Searchlight" like it's not staying in one spot. it just keeps jumping to one thing and move to another. It is like a strong beam, not only can we direct it externally and internally; but it gets distracted, gets magnetically pulled and yanked away by the ping of your phone or whatever text notification.

• The Alerting System is like a flood light and unlike the orienting system which is privileging certain kinds of content. The flood light, the alerting system is advantaging the present moment, what is happening right now I need to be alert to. It is broad receptive, and therefore it has a very low signal to noise ratio when one must be vigilant and alert of what's happening right now. It is quite different than the other notion of attention of the orienting system; with this, attention is narrowing and selecting.
• The Executive Control and the term executive is used in cognitive neuroscience because it really is like the executive of a company. Executive job is not to go in and do every single task that an organization is supposed to do. It is to manage and oversee; to ensure that our goals and our behaviors are aligned moment by moment and then to guide course corrections when things are out of sync. The metaphor used for this system, is a "juggler" that is trying to keep all the balls in the air, dealing with a multiplicity of demands and not only holding goals in mind; but using those goals to guide what the flood light and the flashlight do.??

All the three systems set to work together in this coordinated fashion to allow us to have the full experience of our attention. what is important not only awareness and acknowledging of these systems and their existence; but being able to fully engage in these systems as we need them, and a better and more fluid coordination between them as we execute tasks in our personal and professional lives.

How?to train your brain, to maintain or regain focus when we are tired, burnt out or overwhelmed?

The mind's muscle is one that can use some mental workout.??

Mindfulness Meditation

The broad description of meditation is engaging in certain kinds of mental exercise to cultivate specific mental qualities. The specific exercises you do and what mental qualities you are intending to cultivate differ based on various types of meditation traditions. So, for example Christian contemplative prayer, Sufi prayer, Compassion Meditation or Transcendental Meditation; these are all part of the world's wisdom traditions and they really are from a cognitive neural science perspective are considered a workout routine for the mind that's going to result in a certain kind of transformative effect; at least that's the strong hypothesis from the wisdom traditions themselves.

When?it comes to mindfulness meditation, it is all about paying attention to our present moment experience; so being in the here in the now without editorializing or reacting.

The mindfulness very foundational practice would be;?you start with one minute,?take a seat in comfortable upright alert posture,?pay attention to your breath related sensations,?and you could close or lower your eyes, so you don't have more distraction around you, focus on the coolness of air moving in and out of your nostrils, your abdomen moving in and out, whatever it’s; a body sensation tied to breathing for the duration of the practice, when you notice your mind has wandered from breath related sensations -"it is normative"- redirect it back.?

So essentially, mindfulness meditation is about these three steps; (Focusing, Noticing and Redirecting) and then repeat. People who meditated for 12 minutes a day under high demand circumstances, did not decline in their attention and protected their mood and as for their perceived stress levels; it wasn't even bouncing back from attentional decline, as it was that they didn't decline at first place, they didn't have Resilience they had?Presilience.

We are constantly dealing with our surroundings, our thoughts, other people and managing tasks; so, acknowledging and being aware of the three systems' functions "Flashlight, Flood light and Juggler" and their importance in the interpersonal domain, and for cognitive functioning decision making, will help you stay on top of your task and will allow you to stay focused the most.?

So be aware of your awareness.

Adapted from "Peak Mind" book, for?Dr. Amishi Jha

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