You're thinking about concentration wrong

Shift your perspective to improve your concentration + course announcements for therapists

Before getting into the concentration piece, I’m announcing two courses! The first is my Pragmatic Mindfulness Skills For Therapists and Guides, where I explore how we can systematically implement mindfulness and meditation skills into therapeutic work. If you guide others and want to learn a rigorous framework and targeted practices to help, check it out! (I’m aiming to start this course in a few weeks, just trying to organize a good time for all the interested participants… reach out if you’re interested!)

Second is A Jungian & Archetypal Seminar Series by my good friend Pat Davis. Pat loves depth psychology the same way I love meditation and mindfulness (I also really love depth psychology, but admittedly not as much as Pat does). We studied together at school, and after graduating Pat was so hungry to immerse himself deeper into Jungian and Archetypal study that he joined an MA/PhD program at Pacifica Graduate Institute (the leading educational institution for depth psychology).

We have both made these offerings relatively affordable as well as offering sliding scale. We also happen to be starting these around the same time (but on different dates/times). Take them both! Or if that’s too much—just take mine. No really I won’t be offended if you choose Pat’s course over mine, I am also considering taking his course if I can make the time for it (and he will likely join mine).

Just two guys who really love therapy

A Shift In Perspective Can Bring Immediate Improvements To Your Concentration

Everyone has been complaining about their attention spans these days! I hear this from friends and clients all the time, that they can’t seem to focus at all, and often fall behind on work, compounding their stress, which actually makes it even harder to focus.

On one hand, there’s some practical things we can do to help. Things we absolutely should do if we want to regain our focus. We need to minimize our distractions, setting up barriers to our dopamine stimulating addictions, whether this is social media, news sites, games, etc.

Distancing ourselves from these things is an important first step. Taking the time to block apps when you should be working, or putting your phone out of reach and sight, are small but powerful actions you can take. You need to protect your peace!

But you will likely still struggle to concentrate on your task, and that’s where these tips that I learned from meditative traditions and also my own challenges with ADHD, will really help.

Note: if this is something you are serious about transforming, I made a whole course on this years ago. It’s the result of deep study and a lot of trial and error. I distilled the core techniques I used to transform my own distractible nature, and I’ve received a lot of feedback from people who have done the course with similar results. It’s just $33, buy once for lifetime access (no subscriptions or anything like that). Check it out!

The mindset shift around concentration

I have to admit, that even just the word “concentration” still brings up a subtle discomfort in my body. I think that, growing up ADHD, I have Concentration Deficit Trauma (a term I just made up right now, but I’m sure many of you will relate to).

You see, when I really needed to get something done, I would wait until the last possible minute, and then that sense of urgency would give me enough energy to force myself to focus enough to get it done.

But as I got older, and learned mindfulness skills, and studied ADHD and explored my own experience of it, I learned something really important.

There are different ways to concentrate, and I had an unconscious belief that concentration was the result of effort, and when I used this approach I would use up all my mental energy trying to focus, and get mentally exhausted, which made it even harder to focus, resulting in stress and frustration.

The best way to concentrate, and the only truly sustainable way to stay concentrated, is to develop concentration as a direct result of relaxation.

Any truly experienced meditator can tell you this, that the times they feel most focused and concentrated in their meditation practice are also the times when they are most relaxed.

And so the irony of concentration is that the more we try to focus, the more effort we put into being concentrated, the harder it actually becomes.

Instead, we actually have to learn how to relax, which is a whole other approach.

So when you have some important work to get done, when it comes time that you need to be focused on a task, you need to, first and foremost, prioritize your relaxation.

When you take this approach, you start to see all they ways in which you aren’t relaxed. The tension in your shoulders and jaw, the restlessness in your abdomen, the thoughts racing through your head...

My practice of meditation and mindfulness has been very fruitful largely because I have learned strategies to relax my body and mind. This is what it’s all about. Or at least, this is the foundation of meditation and mindfulness practice.

Relaxation is a skill that can be learned. You can even learn to relax in the midst of stress and chaos. This is a true game changer. You might even call it a life hack, but it’s not really a hack, because you actually have to work for it, you actually have to practice the skills.

This is one of the things I’m focusing on in my upcoming Pragmatic Mindfulness Skills for Therapists and Guides Course. But it’s also the focus of my Meditation for ADHD Course.

This essay wasn’t originally intended to be a sales pitch for my Meditation for ADHD Course, but it’s sort of turned into one. I really did put so much time and thought into that course, and the ideas and techniques in it are the things I still use to this day—every day.

Thanks for reading!