Exercises to Improve Mental Focus

Tap to Read ➤ Mental focus is essential when it comes to getting any work done to the best of one's abilities. Let's see some of the exercises by which you can improve your mental focus. Rujuta Borkar

Sometimes you are so focused in what you are doing that no matter what goes on around you, you are able to concentrate on the task at hand and complete it with ease. You know what we are saying, right?

Say you are sitting in the living room with some calculations to draw out for your monthly bills. The general atmosphere has the TV blaring, the vacuum cleaner doing its usual rounds, sounds of traffic on the road outside et all, and yet you are able to complete the task with ease.

Why? Because you have very high levels of mental focus working for you. That is what is able to get you to work without getting affected by any of the external disturbances and noises.

That is the beauty of this handy little concept called mental focus. High levels of concentration allows you to focus on the task at hand so that you are able to pool out the best results of the same as well as multitask with ease. It also works to improve your efficiency and get the results out perfectly well.

If on the other hand, one has less mental focus, the effects of the same are apparent in the way in which the work gets done. The work will have flaws and at most times will be something where the quality is compromised. That is why it becomes important to learn some exercises that help improve mental focus.

Exercises to Improve Focus and Concentration

There are several mental exercises to improve focus and concentration and become more focused in what you're doing. This has a positive effect on the way in which you perform any task - you do not get distracted by any outside stimuli and are able to pool in to your abilities effectively well to produce the best results.

Let's get to some of these exercises that will help improve your mental focus. The best way to improve your focus is to develop the ability to be able to block all the external stimuli out and concentrate on the task at hand, giving it all your attention. These exercises should be started out with a 5 minute time limit and then taken on to 10-15 minutes.

Exercise # 1

Lie down and completely relax. Relax your mind and then concentrate on how your heart beats. Feel it pumping blood to all parts of the body and how the different bodily functions depend on it.

There will be stray thoughts that make way, but try and ignore those. In the sense, do not dwell on them. Concentrating on a single entity, allows you to develop the power to be able to focus better.

Exercise # 2

Lie down and try to count from numbers 100-1 in that order. It's simpler to count from 1-100, so don't do that. Concentrate solely on the counting exercise and do not dwell on stray thoughts.

Once you're done counting, move to a more difficult exercise which is counting backwards in multiples of 2 or 3. For example 100, 98, 96...or 100, 97, 93...It's more difficult than you think and you'll really have to concentrate hard on making this happen.

Exercise # 3

Put any object that has a definite shape, texture and other properties in front of you. Spend 5 minutes staring at the object and studying the object in all its entirety - it's shape, size, texture and other details.

Then close your eyes and try to duplicate the details in your head. Every single element should come forth. When you're done with the exercise, open your eyes and see whether you were able to duplicate the object well. Repeat 2-3 times.

Exercise # 4

Trying out different puzzles and mind exercises like sudoku or learning a new language or solving math exercises, are some of the best exercises to improve focus for children. The best part of course is that you can have a whole lot of fun while solving these puzzles.

Exercise # 5

One of the best exercises to improve mental focus is to simply carry through with some breathing exercises. This allows you to channel the energy inward and cut out all other distractions.

The simplest way of doing this is to lie down, free your mind of any stray and random thoughts and then concentrate on the way in which you breathe.

Draw in a deep breath and concentrate on how the chest and abdomen expands with the air, then feel it being transported to all body parts, then exhale and feel how the chest and abdomen deflates. You'll find that when you are doing this, the stray thoughts have no scope to come bother you.

And that's all there is to it, you know? It does not take a lot to learn these exercises and when you do, you'll see the way in which you are able to concentrate and focus better. Why would you not take the trouble to learn these then? Learn, learn.