How to get started / first tips

A recent survey by the University of California estimates that we are bombarded with 34gb of information a day, twice as much as 30 years ago.

Office workers are interrupted on average every three minutes.

Harriet Griffey, journalist and author of The Art of Concentration says “The digital generation considers constant interruptions normal and these days we expect to multitask, which spreads concentration very thin and can be counterproductive.”

Meditation has the power to help improve your concentration, increase focus and even be used as a tool to overcome procrastination.

So how do we meditate to improve concentration

There are lots of virtual and “real-life” meditation services out there. A lot of the smartphone apps have trial periods for free, so try a few and see if you like their approach.

We like Headspace (App/Subscription) – it’s a great service with some excellent tutorials, narrated by a super calm sounding guy, apparently a former Tibetan Buddhist monk. See their charming video introduction below.

Other apps we like include Buddhify, Breathe and Calm.

How do I actually meditate?

Many suggest starting to meditate with focusing on your breathing. Simply notice your breathing, the inhale and exhale. You can do this while standing, but ideally, you’ll be sitting or even lying in a comfortable position.

Headspace’s guide to meditation suggests

Begin by sitting in a quiet place, closing the eyes, calming the mind, and focusing on the breath. But there’s more to meditating than sitting quietly and breathing. When we meditate … we are training the mind to stop being easily distracted and instead be more focused in the present moment. Using the breath as our anchor in the moment, we simply sit and gradually learn to let thoughts and feelings come and go.

It’s completely normal when we start to meditate for the mind to jump all over the place. The mind’s nature is to think, so it’s going to think — meditation is not about stopping thoughts. We sit and practice to observe our thinking without getting caught up in our thoughts and emotions. We learn to tame this restlessness by developing an awareness for those moments when our attention has wandered off. Each time we notice we’re distracted, we build our awareness, and we bring our attention back to the breath.

So when you start distracting thoughts are going to come up – when that happens you let that thought pass and return to the object of focus. Sounds easy huh? Somedays it might be, some it will harder. The main thing is to keep at it.

One technique to help let go of those disrupting thoughts, is to imagine being stood on the side of a busy road, your thoughts are like the cars passing by – don’t get caught up in each car, or try to read the number plate, instead just let them go, noting them (acknowledge that they exist without engaging them) and getting back to concentrating on your breathing / or focal point.

It takes practice but simply quieting the mind can bring you a great sense of peace and happiness.

Good luck!

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