Meditation and Attention Skills.

In my previous post I highlighted one of the major obstacles people face when developing a meditation practice - a lack of clarity around the “reward”. In this post (and the next few), I want to focus on tangible benefits a person will experience if they are able to start a practice and maintain consistency. 

The first benefit is an improvement in attention. 

It is no surprise that most folks in the modern world have real difficulty trying to focus. We cruise around with things buzzing endlessly in our pockets (and now on our wrists) that makes “settling in” to an activity or a moment almost impossible. 

To actually be where you are is now an uncommon and particularly noteworthy trait in people. It feels rare and exciting to meet someone who feels deeply grounded in the present moment.

In the next post I’ll talk more about this idea - how meditation can help someone really feel the human experience, but in this one I’ll just focus on focus. 

Experiencing the inability to concentrate is awful. You feel scattered and directionless - creating this depressing combination of not knowing where you’re going and that you’re also doing a bad job on the path that you’re currently on. Lack of focus is also just terribly inefficient, often turning really basic tasks into partially/poorly completed marathons. Most importantly though, it makes life unenjoyable. It’s cliche, but if you never are where you are, life really does just pass you by. 

Although both your genes and early life experiences play a role in your ability to focus, a person can train attention skills in a variety of ways, meditation being a proven method. 

I like introducing the practice of meditation to clients as just that - a cultivation of attention skills. Not only is it profoundly true, but it also removes some of the “woo woo” factor by grounding the practice with a more tangible outcome. 

For folks feeling like their wheels are constantly turning but often with little to show for it, looking to increase time in stillness should be step one. 

There is now plenty of research supporting the claim that meditation improves attentional abilities (and self-regulation, cognitive performance, etc.).  The science behind this is especially cool because we are now able to actually track the neurophysiological functions at play during meditation and witness the neuroplasticity that leads to attentional skill development. 

Finally, even more important than improved day to day task completion, if an individual is able to develop consistency with a meditation practice, they will develop greater clarity around their “why”. More time spent in stillness increases awareness of how an individual’s life is unfolding - becoming conscious of thought/action patterns, quality of relationships, etc. In earlier posts I’ve talked about the importance of tying daily activities to something deeper - meditation is crucial here. Increasing time spent in stillness will gradually pull day to day action into greater alignment with the Self. 

“Nowhere can a man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own Soul” - Marcus Aurelius

P.S. In a future post I’ll go into practical strategies for implementing a contemplative practice as well as create some nuance between different styles of meditation, particular benefits of each, define commonly used terms, etc. For this post (and the next few), the goal is to just pique interest in developing a practice by detailing the many benefits.