Attention, Please!
How to Improve Your Attention in a Distracting World
KEY POINTS:
The problem: Our modern environment is challenging our attention spans and pulling our attention in many different directions.
The impact: Poor attention skills can decrease our ability to perform well in our daily lives and increase our risk of cognitive decline.
The solutions: We can improve our attention skills by practicing healthy habits including mindfulness and utilizing treatments such as neurofeedback.
When discussing concentration and focus, you may have heard that the average human attention span is shrinking. You may have even heard the expression that human attention span is less than that of a goldfish! And while that is not a scientific fact, and the statistics regarding human attention are varied, there is no doubt that today’s culture has impacted our ability to focus.
Our world has many aspects to it that pulls our focus to and fro: attention-grabbing technological devices, daily life stressors, and more.
Technology’s impact: Recent studies point to associations between excessive use of digital media and increased symptoms of ADHD, easier distractibility, and problems with working memory. Additionally, our advanced devices may lead to problems with how we handle our emotions and even how our brains develop over time!
Stressors’ impact: Whether it’s work-related, financial, social, emotional, or physical, we all have stress in our lives. But did you know that stress also impacts our ability to focus? Chronic stress may interfere with our ability to hold our attention and maintain alertness.
Problems Linked to Poor Attention
Deficiencies in attention may lead to obvious problems such as poor performance at school or work and failure to complete certain tasks in daily life. However, poor attention can also lead to lesser-known problems like increased risks of depression and anxiety and problems with executive functioning, or the control of thoughts, goals, behaviors, and emotions. Therefore, it is imperative to a healthy brain and healthy lifestyle that we work to improve our attention skills.
How to Improve Attention
While you can institute various self-regulating techniques such as the Pomodoro technique or setting time limits, it is important to be aware of your own attentional and energy levels so that you can cater your work schedule to yourself. A good way to hone your self-regulation skills is practicing healthy habits such as:
Creating a healthy sleep schedule
Mindfulness
How Brain Resource Center Can Help
If you need further help in self-regulation, neurofeedback is an effective option found to improve attention and memory. Neurofeedback is a non-invasive treatment modality that helps rewire the brain by using real-time brain monitoring and auditory/visual feedback. Neurofeedback has been studied to improve attention in people with attention disorders and in people who simply wish to improve their working attention. Through operant conditioning, neurofeedback rewards the brain with visual or auditory signals when the brain is using its attention skills.
Dr. Kamran Fallahpour of Brain Resource Center says…
“This type of intervention helps stimulate or inhibit activity in certain brain regions responsible for attention, memory, executive function, and self-regulation. The results can be profound and long-lasting.”
If you are interested in learning more about neurofeedback and how to get started, call us at 212-877-2130 or book an appointment!