The balance between concentration and wandering

When we are more focused, we share two common characteristics with all humans, or at least the vast majority of us. On the one hand, our emotional state is more stable and positive, and we don't even notice it. In addition, in a similar way, we are able to silence noises and distractions from the environment around us. On the other hand, once we are distracted, we are more negative; the emotional state is lower and, additionally, we are not aware of what we are thinking most of the time.

Distraction causes the wandering mind to go to places where we normally immerse ourselves in worries, fears, and situations that we need to resolve quickly. So occasionally, when we wander, we come up with solutions to some of these problems in simple ways. While the mind can go to more positive thoughts and to instances where we imagine things unrelated to our lives, in general, we are mentally occupied with what worries us. So, the next time you are on public transportation and think that the biggest distraction is the gossip that the person in front of you is telling, think again.

Interestingly, our attention span and wandering mind are so amazing that we don't immediately notice when we get distracted. It takes us a few minutes to realize that we're not listening to the podcast or paying attention to the conversation we're in. Some people are more capable of noticing this; we call this self-awareness. While it's not particularly bad not to notice, it does help us refocus our attention back to what we were originally focused on. The reason this happens is that the region of the brain responsible for attention is the same one that sends our brains into a drift, making it difficult to notice the transition once it happens.

Returning to our attention and how changing distraction into attention requires self-awareness, studies show that those people who are more able to do this are also more likely to listen to their emotions better and to fluctuate from one state to another more quickly. Now, how to improve this aspect is neither complex nor easy; it is rather about starting to evaluate the sensations that surround our mind, being aware of what we feel in the now. For example, we need our mind to be able to inhibit the noise of distractions to be truly focused, and that implies that in these cases we are going to learn to be aware that, for example, although we are upset that I lost my cell phone, the fact that I feel that way is not going to change the event. Self-awareness helps us determine that, in fact, I have a mood that fluctuates but at the same time, it allows us to detach ourselves from it in order to continue with the things we have to do.

Now, although we cannot go on nature walks every day, we are able to breathe and, instead of thinking about the report we are doing, concentrate on our breathing for a few minutes. For example, we can go get a coffee at the café next door and try not to think about anything. Every time we are able to close the door to the need to concentrate, it helps us to release the fatigue that comes with being concentrated in some way. That is why, when people talk about spiritual retreats or similar, they often ask us to turn off our cell phones, not to think about the outside world or the events we have to do, but rather about the now and the present immediately in front of us. This attention directed to the now frees us from the worries of work or studies.