Our brains need exercise just as our bodies. Without maximizing the brain’s potential and keeping it in shape, we can lose focus and struggle mentally. Here are some tips for improving focus and training yourself mentally.
- Stimulate the brain with games.
Playing certain games can help with concentration. These games include jigsaw puzzles, cards, crossword puzzles, chess, word searches, vocabulary, and memory games. Not only are games enjoyable but you can play with yourself and with others. Focusing on one task that requires mental flexing will help your mind learn to concentrate over time.
- Sleep
The brain needs rest, and the only way to rest is to sleep. Getting 8 hours of sleep at night helps the brain to rest and reset. The lower the number of hours you get, the more your brain suffers. You can also nap during the day and help rest your brain as well. Once your brain is rested, you will mentally be able to handle more than you could prior.
- Exercise
Getting the blood flowing in your body will help your brain dramatically. Moving for 30 minutes each day pumps the blood around your body, stimulating your muscles, nerves, and mind. People that exercise have been studied to be happier and able to focus at better rates.
- Dance
Dance is related to exercise, but dancing to music, outside, or with your friends gives you the feeling of happiness and strengthens you mentally. Coordination of your feet, hands, and body to a song flexes your brain and body.
- Go outside
When you spend time in nature using all of your senses, your body feels refreshed, and you can mentally focus. Put everything else down, go outside, smell the air, touch the tree, and listen to nature. Being out in nature can cleanse the mind and body and help you to focus on the important parts of your life.
- Break
When you feel overwhelmed, it may be time to stop everything and take a break. Whether that means going into nature or just relaxing in a room. You can take a break literally or take a break from all of the items filling your mind and break from those activities for a short time. Taking a break can help you focus on what you need to get done.
- Meditation
Meditation is a practice where an individual uses mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity to train attention and awareness. Meditation helps to achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm, and stable state. Meditation helps with stress and anxiety. It lowers stress, improves focus, and helps you to understand yourself.
How to meditate:
Meditation is not complicated. To properly meditate, you would want to sit down in a place that feels quiet and calm. Set a time limit as short or as long as you would like. Start to feel and think about your body and where it is sitting, how you are sitting, and where each body part is touching the floor. Feel your breath as it goes in and out, and listen to yourself breathe. Notice if your mind starts to wander but be kind to your mind when it does. Start to go back to listening to your breath. Finish meditation with kindness and thank yourself and the earth.
Extra tips for improving focus and training yourself mentally:
- Dance your heart out
- Use all your senses
- Learn a new skill or teach a new skill to someone else
- Listen to or play music
- Do math in your head
- Take a cooking class
- Learn a foreign language
- Create word pictures
- Draw a map from memory
- Challenge your taste buds
