How to increase concentration - effective tips. Causes of impaired concentration in adults

Attention disorders can occur in both children and adults. Many cases of the development of this problem in childhood with its subsequent deepening in older age have been recorded.

Experts characterize attention impairment as a process of narrowing the amount of attention (a person is distracted by side irritations), as well as a decrease in the coordination of actions performed.

Types of inattention

Impaired concentration and attention can be divided into 3 categories:

1. "Fluttering attention» or absent-mindedness can be described as a process of uncontrolled switching of attention to stimuli, as well as poor concentration. This type is usually present in schoolchildren, but can also occur in older people, usually when they are very tired.
2. "The Scientist's Inattention"- difficulty switching attention from one process to another, as a result of very deep concentration on the process or on one’s thoughts. A person with this type is characterized by the presence of obsessive thoughts.
3. "The Absent-mindedness of Old Men"- a condition characterized by poor concentration of attention and the ability to switch it. The disease occurs in cases of constant overwork, oxygen starvation of the brain, and also in people, mostly elderly, who suffer from cerebral atherosclerosis.

Attention deficit in adults

Not only a child, but also an adult can have this syndrome.
Constant absent-mindedness, poor self-organization, forgetfulness - this is what this can lead to.

To overcome this psychological disease, you must first understand its root cause.

This diagnosis is mainly made in children when they are still young. school age, and then it manifests itself in older age. But sometimes the symptom is first diagnosed in adulthood.

The process of the disease is also unique; the symptoms of adults are categorically different from those of children.

With Vikium you can organize the process of training concentration according to an individual program

Diseases that cause concentration problems

The list of such diseases includes:

• depression;
• hypoprosexia;
• hyperprosexia;
• paraprosexia;
• epilepsy and head injuries.

Epileptics and people suffering from depression have so-called slow and “stuck” attention. In this case, there is a decrease in the activity of nervous processes and an inability to switch attention.

Hypoprosexia causes decreased concentration. Its variety is aprosexia, in which, in the case of numerous distractions, concentration and the ability to concentrate are completely absent.

Excessive concentration of a person on one thing, for example on just actions or thoughts, is characteristic of hyperprosexia. This is the so-called one-way focus of attention.

With paraprosexia, concentration deviations may occur, which are characterized by the appearance of delusions and hallucinations. This occurs due to the fact that the human brain is constantly tense, and this leads to such consequences.

This effect can be observed even in a completely healthy person, for example in athletes who experience enormous moral stress.

So a runner, waiting for the “start” signal, concentrating very much on this, can hear the signal in his head, even before it sounds in reality.

Symptoms of poor concentration

Poor concentration in adults has different forms:

1) Inability to focus on one task or matter. You can easily be distracted by an object or sound, causing you to switch to another object or perform another task. IN in this case there is “freezing” and “wandering” of attention. A person is unable to concentrate on completing a task, does not pay attention to details, and cannot focus, for example, when reading a book or when conducting a dialogue.

2) Another manifestation of the disease is the ability to concentrate on one thing. An example is listening to music or reading a book, during which we do not notice anything around us. In some cases, this disadvantage can be used for work purposes, but we should not forget that this can sometimes cause inconvenience to you and those around you.

3) Poor self-organization, as well as constant forgetting, are a sign of poor concentration. The consequences are:

• Constantly postponing work tasks;
• being late for work, etc.;
• systematic loss of things, forgetting their location;
• poor time orientation, inability to estimate approximate work time, etc.

4) Impulsivity is another sign of the disease. This may be accompanied by not understanding parts of the conversation, or experiencing the interlocutor. You are able to say or do something first, and only then think about the consequences. Tend to perform actions that can cause addiction.

5) Emotional problems can cause anger and frustration in patients. Symptoms of this form of the disease:

• constant change of mood;
• inability to motivate yourself and stay motivated;
• low self-esteem, lack of acceptance of criticism;
• hyperactivity;
• constant feeling of fatigue;
• frequent nervous excitement.

Hyperactivity in adults occurs much less frequently than in children, and this symptom does not always indicate a violation of concentration.

If these symptoms are present, you should contact a specialist in this field for examination and clarification of the problems.

The main doctors who can determine the degree of morbidity are a neurologist, psychologist and psychiatrist.

Only after consulting doctors can the problem and treatment methods be fully determined, since this can only be specified in an individual case.

Prevention

In connection with the reasons stated above, it is clear that the factors influencing the impairment of concentration are quite numerous and varied, and therefore it is impossible to give monosyllabic advice on how to avoid this.

At the same time, prevention is in your hands. After all, we know that it is better to prevent than to eliminate the consequences. On our resource you can take a course of exercises to concentrate your attention, with the help of which, if possible, you can avoid situations that require the participation of doctors.

Let us help you cope with absent-mindedness and inattention! Simple techniques and actionable tips you can start implementing right now. Do exercises to develop attention, regularly consume foods that increase concentration, and the results will not keep you waiting! Read the article for details.

What is attention?

Attention, from the point of view of psychology, is a process in which a person’s consciousness is directed and focused on a specific object. In order to look at a picture or a car passing by, we use our attention. This process is part of life. If a person did not have attention, we would never have known about Newton's theory, or about periodic table chemical elements Mendeleev.

The senses “show” us information about the outside world, but without attention we would simply not have time to notice this flow of information, and our cognitive sphere would remain undeveloped.

What are the properties of attention?

Attention as a mental process includes the following properties:

• sustainability
• switchability
• distractibility
• volume
• concentration
• distribution

Concentration is the most important property for those who constantly use the intellectual sphere in their work. When you are focused on a specific task, you easily see possible solutions, are able to quickly assess the current circumstances and make the right decision.

It’s not for nothing that many executives and managers specifically attend training to improve concentration. The exercises that are demonstrated there help you think clearly, notice any details, and use them to achieve your goals.

How to increase concentration?

To increase concentration, special techniques are used. They are not very complicated and do not require special materials. On the contrary, their simplicity may surprise you. But remember, it takes time to achieve results. Doing them once will not give you anything; regular exercises are necessary.

Exercises to develop concentration

1. Exercise “Clock”.

To perform this you need a watch with a second hand. Place them in front of you, sit comfortably, watch the second hand. As soon as you realize that you have been distracted, or extraneous thoughts have entered your head, record how long you managed to concentrate and start monitoring again. A good result would be to maintain attention for 2 minutes.

2. Exercise “Cardiogram”.

To perform this you need Blank sheet paper, pen. Sit so that you are comfortable writing, begin to slowly draw a line on a piece of paper. Just follow it; if you get distracted, make a peak upward (as it usually looks like on a cardiogram), and return back to the straight line. Continue for 3 minutes. When finished, count the number of peaks (distractions). At good level concentration in 3 minutes there will not be a single peak.

3. Exercise “Reflective reading”.

When you need to understand uninteresting or difficult text, use this technique. Work in it is not on quantity, but on the quality of perception of the material. Sit comfortably, read, thinking about every word. As soon as you are distracted, make notes in the margins with a pencil. A couple of deep breaths - and start from the place where the mark is. For the first time, read 1 page, look at the number of distractions. If you read regularly like this, then after 1-2 weeks you will already see that you are much less likely to be distracted, and the material is remembered better.

4. Exercise “Color words”.

To do this, print out the names of the colors on a piece of paper. different colors. For example: Black , White, Green , Red , Blue. Place this sheet in front of you, name the colors of the words, not what is written. It is difficult to do this the first time, but daily training will increase your concentration and complete the task without errors.

5. Exercise “Beads”.

To complete this you need beads with big amount beads Sit comfortably, look at the beads. Select one and count the rest from it. As soon as you get distracted or lose your way, record how many beads were counted and start again.

Remember, a problem is solved faster when an integrated approach is taken to it. If you notice yourself absent-minded and inattentive to details, then you should not only complete tasks to increase concentration, but also... How much time do you spend sleeping? Are you eating right? Do you include vitamins in your diet? Do you go out into the fresh air?

Adequate sleep and a balanced diet are also means of increasing attention. Consuming certain vitamins, or foods that contain them, improves brain function, making it much easier to concentrate. In addition to what is presented in this article, find out that they also perform a similar function for our brain.

What vitamins affect concentration?

• B vitamins (B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B9, B12)
• vitamin E
• vitamin C
• vitamin D
• vitamin P

Products that increase concentration:

1. Sea fish(salmon, pink salmon, hake, sardine). It is rich in saturated fatty acids Omega-3 and Omega-6 and contains vitamin D.

2. Natural, unrefined oils (olive, corn, sunflower). They contain vitamin E, which improves the perception of new information.

3. Products containing whole grains (rye bread, cereals, whole grain cereals). They contain sufficient quantities of B vitamins, which are most important for the brain.

4. Peas and legumes. Contains B vitamins.

5. Animal products (eggs, liver, red meat, dairy products). Contains B vitamins.

6. Fresh fruits and vegetables (orange, kiwi, currants, sorrel, cauliflower). Rich in vitamins C, R.

If you are seriously aiming to increase your concentration, act comprehensively in all directions:

1. Balanced diet, including vitamins necessary for the brain.

2. Regularly perform special exercises.

3. Control of physical condition. Be calm, unhurried, erratic movements and fussiness do not contribute to concentration. Regular exercise will suit you to relieve stress.

4. Setting priorities. Decide for yourself what is important and what can wait. Act according to your chosen priorities.

Today we will talk about how to develop concentration, about methods for improving it, the word “optimization” involuntarily comes out :), but, as you understand, this post rather relates to psychology and life hacking, although, of course, it touches on Internet marketing.

Did you know that while reading a person’s attention is quite scattered and susceptible to external stimuli. On average, from 20% to 40% of the total time spent doing this activity, you are soaring in a completely different place.

But if, in the case of absorbing information, there is always the opportunity to go back and re-read the missed material, then in the work process the negative effect of losing focus on a specific task is much more significant. How to develop concentration to increase your efficiency?

Distraction of attention negatively affects the quality of work and the time it takes to complete it. Consciously controlling attention on a specific goal is a rather difficult task and, as practice shows, exhausting, but knowing the principles of functioning and physiology of the central nervous system, and in turn, concentration, you can easily cope with this problem.

2 parts of the brain responsible for controlling attention

Before moving directly to the question of how to train concentration, to the reason for absent-mindedness and a decrease in the ability to concentrate on a specific task, we should understand how our brain functions. Daniel Kahnman in his book “Thinking Slow, Deciding Fast” divides the brain into 2 systems (conventional name: System 1 and System 2)

System 1 - our subconscious - functions non-stop without our efforts; reacts to external and internal stimuli, as a result of which it generates a urge or impulse to take a certain action - for example, turn around when you hear your name. System 2 (consciousness) represents critical, rational and conscious mental processes and is a kind of processor of urges emanating from System 1 - if we return to the example of a person’s reaction to turning around when they hear their name, then it is System 2 that makes the decision to either respond or ignore the potential interlocutor .

To summarize briefly: System 2 is responsible for all processes that require awareness and willpower, while System 1 is the reflective, subconscious part of the brain, directly responding to external stimuli and creating certain urges to action. In this picture you can clearly see the functions of both systems.

(System 1 is the red part of the brain; System 2 is the gray part of the brain.)

Causes of loss or deterioration of concentration

System 2 of our brain is responsible for thought processes, and it is with the help of our consciousness that we concentrate on a specific task or object. The fact is that our conscious thinking is influenced by many external sources of distraction or interference, which in turn makes the task of focusing quite difficult.

In his book Focus: The Hidden Power of Excellence, Daniel Goleman divides sources of distraction into two types: sensory and emotional.

While sensory stimuli - noise, visual stimuli, etc. - can be eliminated quite easily by physically eliminating them, the emotional causes of loss of concentration caused by System 1 of our brain are eliminated in a completely different way.

Emotional stimuli (internal dialogue, stream of thoughts about events in our lives) are caused by pressing problems, stress, frustration, etc. - we all know how difficult it is to get down to work when the emotional burden of domestic problems completely occupies our mind, and you are tormented by the question of how to increase attention.

Attempts to forcefully forget about problems and concentrate on the task at hand will further deplete mental reserves and, most likely, will not be successful. In addition, our mind has the inherent ability to focus specifically on negative and disturbing tasks and events, since they are extremely important, and System 1 strives to solve them as quickly as possible.

In this case, you should not try to block the source of discomfort - quality recovery and rest are in the best ways regenerate mental capacity and improve concentration.

How to restore concentration?

Your brain needs recovery and rest just like your muscles after a grueling workout. physical activity; like the body, the mind will not be able to function fully if it is overloaded and exhausted. But if the body requires a certain period of time to fully regenerate, mental resources are restored in simple, pleasant and effective ways. How to develop concentration?

The exercises described below are worth incorporating into your daily routine to help prevent distraction and maintain healthy System 2 functioning.

1. Meditation

Since the goal of meditation is to focus your attention while recognizing the very fact of your absent-mindedness, constant effort will very quickly have a positive effect on the quality of concentration - soon it will be much easier for you to concentrate on a specific task and prevent loss of attention. In addition to improving concentration, meditation helps reduce stress levels, improve memory and creativity, and also increases the amount of gray matter in the brain - which as a result has a positive effect on emotional stability and positive emotions.

How to increase concentration? Effective advice regarding meditation: do not assume that it requires spending several hours out of this world - by devoting 10-15 minutes to meditation at work, you will be able to quite effectively restore and clear your consciousness.

2. Walks in nature

The author of the book “Concentration: The Hidden Ingredient of Excellence,” Daniel Golman, advises spending time in nature - walking helps restore nervous processes through a kind of disconnection from hustle and bustle and worries; Also, during the experiment, it was proven that a walk along the city streets is inferior in its benefits to time spent in the park - a place that is more distant from stimuli and less stimulating to mental activity. The closer you are to nature and the further you are from the bustle of the city, the better you will be able to restore your “mental tank”.

3. Plunge into your favorite activity

How to increase your attention level while having fun? By immersing yourself in your favorite activity, you will easily be able to restore the resources of your rational thinking system, while your attention will be focused on a simple, low-mental task. For example, playing a popular and beloved application Angry Birds, you will give your full attention to a simple and fun game, while the internal dialogue that consumes mental resources will be stopped, allowing your mind to recover.

Instead of a conclusion

Both the quality of our work and the ability to complete it in general depend on our ability to concentrate. In addition, the inability to focus and absent-mindedness not only negatively affect performance, but also emotional and mental health, which worsens even more as a result of attempts to concentrate by force of will.

Remember the ways of mental regeneration and the basic principles of brain function and how to improve attention. The exercises in this article may be useful to you.

For the healthy and effective functioning of consciousness, the well-being of mental resources should be monitored as carefully and carefully as the body. Keep your mind in good shape and it will thank you. efficient work, good mood and creative ideas.

I start with such a long scientific title new article. Do not rush to close the page if the term attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is not familiar to you, because what it means is quite widespread among people, despite the little knownness of the concept itself. In the West, this syndrome has long been the subject of heated discussion and scientific controversy. Many scientists express doubt that this syndrome can be recognized mental disorder and prescribe appropriate treatment. Some generally deny the existence of such a syndrome as a psychological phenomenon.

Here I will explain how to get rid of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder you or your children, based on the example of your own getting rid of the syndrome.

Attention deficit - myth or reality?

In this article, I am not going to refute the opinion of opponents of the diagnosis of attention deficit disorder, nor will I prove the concepts of its supporters, since I do not have any competence to participate in academic disputes. Yes, I don’t need it. Because, within the framework of the issue I’m considering, it doesn’t matter at all whether such a phenomenon exists in the form of a disease or whether it’s just some character traits. It is indisputable that there are certain mental traits or personality traits, or symptoms of a disorder, or all of these together, which together are generally accepted, in certain circles, to be called attention deficit. And it is impossible to deny that many people have problems with , they are fussy, cannot sit still, constantly fiddle with something in their hands, and cannot stand in line for a long time. This is a fact, but what to call this fact and whether it is a disease or something else is not such a big deal for solving a private problem.

It is also a fact that the above-mentioned traits can lead to major personality problems and in every possible way hinder the development of the individual. As a rule, all this begins to manifest itself in childhood and then can progress into adult life, as, for example, it was with me. This peculiar illness joins the list of my past psychological “illnesses”, such as panic attacks, emotional instability and anxiety. I got rid of some of these ailments completely, some partially, but at the same time I made tangible progress towards getting rid of them, and I am sure that in the future I will be able to completely eliminate them.

In short, this experience of self-relief from many psychological problems and the accompanying personal development made this site that you are reading now possible.

As for attention deficit, I will explain in detail what it is. I’m not going to scare you with any diagnoses, like you lived and lived, and then, suddenly, it turns out that you have some kind of disease or syndrome with a tricky name: “Thank you, Nikolai!” - you say. No, I’ll tell you what this could mean, and you can decide for yourself whether it’s dangerous for you or not. Often people themselves do not suspect that they have such problems, just as I did not suspect, considering this fussiness and eternal haste to be quite natural. And of course, I will tell you how to get rid of it, based on my experience.

If you have been reading my blog for a long time, then you may have seen an article about the feeling of boredom. Many of the provisions in this article are similar to the one you are reading now. Let me explain the difference between chronic boredom and ADHD to avoid confusion. The first stems, to a greater extent, from some personal aspects, our hobbies, aspirations, habits, while the second relates more to the work of our nervous system and fixed patterns of brain function.

If boredom is a symptom of spiritual limitation, inner emptiness, then ADHD is rooted in some habits of the mind to absorb information in a certain way. Boredom manifests itself over a long period of time, ADHD over a short period of time. Both are very dangerous for the individual and, to a large extent, are interconnected and separating one from the other is not always easy; often chronic boredom and ADHD appear together. So I recommend that after reading this article, read it to have a complete understanding of the problem.

How to tell if you suffer from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

The following “symptoms” may indicate that you have this syndrome:

• It is difficult for you to sit still for a long time without doing anything: you feel the need to constantly occupy your hands with something.
• You have difficulty maintaining attention on any long-term process; you constantly want to be distracted.
• You have a hard time waiting your turn: when you are standing in a store, waiting for your dish in a restaurant, or when participating in a conversation. In a dialogue, you mostly speak rather than listen to your interlocutor.
• You have a hard time listening to someone to the end.
• You are talkative and often jump from one thing to another in a conversation.
• You feel a constant need for aimless movement: spinning in a chair, walking back and forth, etc.
• Spending your leisure time on the Internet is characterized for you by a largely chaotic jumping from tab to tab, from one client window to another: they answered in ICQ, then immediately updated their mail, went to the site, without finishing reading the post they moved somewhere else, and this is how the main part happens your time working on the Internet.
• It is difficult for you to finish what you start; your work is in full swing, only in moments of short-term inspiration, when you are very passionate.
• Your hands or mouth are always busy with something: cigarettes, mobile phone or a tablet with a game, seeds, beer, etc.
• You can't spend time quietly when you're not doing anything, like lying on the beach for a long time or reading a less-than-exciting book.
• It is difficult for you to methodically and consistently think about something, without jumping from one thought to another.
• You experience impulsiveness in decision-making; you want to decide everything at once, right now, without waiting for more suitable circumstances for this decision. If you have some need, you can’t wait to satisfy it right away, you want to implement the idea right away and not wait necessary conditions to solve the problem that just appeared. As a result, you tend to make impulsive purchases, buying things you can’t afford. It is difficult for you to plan your life in advance, breaking it into temporary stages, and then stick to this plan. You want everything at once and now.
• As a result of some of the above points, you are experiencing problems in self-organization, creating order in your life because you do not know how to plan, wait and endure.

Don’t be alarmed right away if you see several of the above points at once. Many disorders are characterized by symptoms that are expressed in one way or another in normal people, it’s just that in case of disorder they manifest themselves more intensely, they have big influence on the patient’s life and always exist in conjunction with accompanying symptoms. It is because of this that many people, after reading about the symptoms of depression, get scared and make such a diagnosis for themselves, since many people, for example, feel inexplicably sad. But this is not depression yet. It involves a range of chronic symptoms.

So does attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It is difficult for all of us to hold attention for a long time on what does not occupy us, for example, reading boring professional literature. This is normal, because we are not robots. You should not immediately diagnose yourself if you observe something from what I have listed in yourself. You need to think about it when:

1. There is a clear fact of deviation from the conventionally “normal”. For example, during a lecture, almost everyone sits quietly and takes notes, but you are constantly fidgeting and cannot sit still and listen. Your friends can focus on work, but you can't. You talk the most in the group, etc. In short, you see that you are not like others.
2. ADHD symptoms are interfering with your life. Because of this, you experience difficulties in communication, in learning (you can’t concentrate), in work, in trying to relax (you are tense and twitching all the time), in organizing your life.
3. You have identified most of the listed symptoms of ADHD.

If these three conditions are met, then you most likely have what is called attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. So that you have the opportunity to compare, I will say that some time ago I experienced all of the above symptoms (on the one hand, and no wonder, because I copied them, in part, from myself), and in a rather intense form.

Now the picture is completely different. I still find it difficult to concentrate; I often want to be distracted (for example, from writing this article). But now it is much easier to control, I find the strength to resist these restless urges and finish what I started without being distracted. Now I know how to endure long waits, relax, not make impulsive decisions and not maintain aimless physical activity.

Thanks to this, I got rid of many ADHD problems, which include:

• Increased nervous excitability.
• Tension, inability to relax.
• A lot of tasks abandoned halfway and the accompanying problems (the danger of being expelled from the institute, sanctions due to unfinished work).
• Problems communicating with people.
• Difficulties in learning, mastering a craft, learning new things.
• Bad habits: smoking and alcohol, “information hunger.”

How I got rid of it and how you can get rid of it will be discussed further.

Getting rid of ADHD

I don't think attention deficit is an ancient phenomenon that dates back to ancient times. In my opinion, this is mainly a product of our time, the current and past centuries. Avalanches of information rage furiously in our lives. And the mad rush and bustle set the rhythm public life. Under the pressure of these factors, the brain begins to multitask and gets used to constant activity, which it can no longer do without. The constant, chaotic, restless switching of the mind from one subject to another is fixed in us as a kind of mental reflex that begins to work constantly. We become unable to direct our energy; it begins to be scattered across many different tasks and unnecessary actions.

In the West, they are trying to “treat” ADHD with psychostimulants and even give it to children (The use of Ritalin in the prevention of ADHD is the subject of fierce debate, the drug has been withdrawn from circulation medicines in many countries, including Russia). The medicine causes side effects and addiction, akin to amphetamine. I strongly doubt the therapeutic success of such “treatment”. In my opinion, this is an attempt by doctors and patients to ignore the causes of the problem and come to an easy, but unreliable solution. Doctors do not want to understand the individual causes of the problem or simply do not know what to do, and patients do not want to work on themselves or with their children; both sides are happy with a simple and quick solution.

It is obvious to me that in order to eliminate ADHD it is necessary to carry out great job, eliminate the cause of the disorder and this will give a much greater effect than all medications and will not cause harm and addiction, unlike the latter. For me, this is as obvious as the fact that in order to work with the underlying causes of addiction, no nicotine patches or pills will help you until you understand why you smoke.

These truths sound terribly banal, but what’s even worse is that they are not accepted by most people, despite their simplicity and obviousness. If the causes of ADHD are chaotic consumption of heterogeneous information, anxiety and bustle, then you need to get rid of these causes before talking about any pills! I got rid of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder with the help of simple method directly counteracting the symptoms of this disease. This principle is that you should try to do the opposite of what your ADHD “tells” you! That's all! Everything is very simple. Let me explain in more detail.

Methods for getting rid of attention deficit

Take care of yourself

You must develop the habit of taking care of yourself. How to do it? Follow the recommendations that I will give below and you will have this habit. It is needed not only for working with ADHD, but, for example, for self-knowledge. I described this topic in detail in articles and in my self-development program; you can read these articles after you complete this one.

Avoid aimless activity of your body

Watch the position of your body and its members. If you catch yourself fidgeting in your chair or fiddling with something in your hands, stop it and try to sit quietly. Implement this principle in your daily life. If you are waiting for a dish in a restaurant that has not been brought for a long time, sit straight, do not fidget, keep your hands in front of you on the table, place them palms down and try not to move too much. Get rid of the habits of biting your lips, picking your nails, chewing your pens, etc. These habits are markers of ADHD and by giving them permission you are cultivating the syndrome. Watch your posture, let it be almost motionless if circumstances do not require movement.

I’ll say right away that at first it will be difficult, when you try to follow these recommendations, you will feel a force that is bursting you from the inside, making you move and fuss, this is the “energy” of ADHD. It’s as if you are trying to block a rushing stream of water with your body and have difficulty holding it back. Nothing, be patient, then it will be easier, the flow will gradually, as you follow the recommendations, turn into a thin stream, and your body, which blocks it, will become wider and stronger.

Maintain information hygiene when surfing the Internet

One of the causes of ADHD is constant chaotic wandering in the information space. Such wandering, jumping from one thing to another, leaves a “cast” on our thinking, so that we can no longer concentrate on something else. Therefore, you need to gradually get rid of this reason. Organize your work on the Internet in such a way that it does not turn into moving from tab to tab. To do this, limit your stay in, for example, set aside a certain time for this, “until 15.00 I don’t go into contact or Twitter, and at 15.30 I finish my visit to social media. networks and again I don’t go there until the evening.”

By the way, widespread activity in social media. networks appears to be one of the causes of ADHD. Because social media, by their very structure they organize our receipt of information in such a way that it is consumed by us in small and heterogeneous portions, quickly and intensively. We read the news, went to a friend’s page, simultaneously started an audio recording, published a tweet, and all this in 5 minutes. It's like eating a lot different foods at the same time: they ate a piece of fish, immediately ate a cucumber, reached for ice cream, put a shrimp in their mouth and washed it all down with a sip of kefir and coffee. And then, indigestion.

The brain also gets very tired and worn out from the intensive receipt of various information in a short period of time, just like the stomach from digesting a lot of food. That's why they're harmful social network. If you spend time on the Internet, then it is better to let information come to you in larger portions and with a larger time interval. Read long articles on Wikipedia or somewhere else, and look at paintings for a long time. There is no need to interrupt this process and frantically monitor the update of your personal mail or social network page and press the F5 key.

During this time, turn off your ICQ and Skype so as not to be distracted by them. And in general, when using these clients, try not to write there to your friends on every possible occasion; also, remember that you are not obliged to respond there immediately after someone writes to you. First, finish what you started, and then write, unless it’s something very urgent. Remember, when something distracts you from some process, it is carried out with much less efficiency, this is a scientific fact.

Force yourself to focus

Read books without being distracted by extraneous stimuli. The more boring the book, the better you train your ability to concentrate. But many boring books are quite useful, so let this exercise also serve as a good reason for you to learn new things and improve your professional and personal qualities. Mark the time during which you should not be distracted, but only read, let it be an hour or two. You can measure this in number of pages read, however you like. And until this time passes - no extraneous matters! The same applies to your work and affairs. Do all this without distractions and time yourself to complete it. (First of all, read this article to the end, with short breaks if necessary, but without being distracted by external stimuli)

Pay attention to what people tell you, learn to listen to your interlocutor. All this is very difficult at first. Attention will constantly drift to the side, but don’t let this upset or irritate you, just when you realize that you are distracted, calmly turn your attention back to the subject of concentration. Slowly but surely your ability to concentrate will improve.

Talk less irrelevantly

In the company of other people, you don’t need to say everything that comes to your mind, interrupt and rush to speak out. Calmly listen to others until the end, try to speak to the point and on the topic. Pause before answering and think about your answers. No need to chatter, keep an even and calm intonation.

Quit bad habits

Smoking is the biggest ally of ADHD: a cigarette takes up your attention and hands and only contributes to the development of the syndrome. People often start smoking out of inner restlessness and the inability to sit still and do nothing. This was the case for me, for example. I haven't smoked for a long time. You can then read the article on my website about how to quit smoking, the link I gave above.

Drink less alcohol. Have you ever wondered what the phenomenon of so-called beer alcoholism is? Not only in the love for the foamy drink, as such, but in the fact that beer, as a light alcohol, allows you to take sips often, as a result, your hands and mouth are constantly busy. And if you also smoke during pauses, chat between puffs, and look at the screen with one eye, then this takes up all your attention and only contributes to the development of attention deficit, in addition, it is also very harmful. So try to avoid noisy gatherings in bars drinking beer and cigarettes, rather rest in silence and try to relax.

Learn to tolerate the wait

Try to relax, don’t fidget while standing in line, don’t run out to smoke every 10 minutes because you have nowhere to go. During this time, try to relax.

Take long, relaxing walks

A measured walk on fresh air It helps to relax and get out of the rhythm of ADHD. So after work, instead of continuing to bombard your brain with new pieces of information (the Internet, TV, conversation), take a calm walk down the street, maybe even alone. Try not to think about problems today In general, think less and look around more, noticing your surroundings. Thoughts flow calmly and measuredly, try to relax as much as possible.

Meditate

This is perhaps the most effective and trouble-free method for the prevention of ADHD and many other unpleasant ailments! I’ll tell you now how meditation works. Have you noticed what all of the above methods have in common? This is the principle of counteracting ADHD symptoms that I mentioned above. You do the opposite of what attention deficit disorder forces you to do and this is how you get rid of it: if you want to twitch - you force yourself to sit still, there is a desire to switch from tab to tab - you control yourself and do not allow this, it is difficult to listen to a music album to the end, you experience strong gusts to get up, you don’t do it, that’s all.

Meditation is a session of relaxation and concentration that has extremely positive influence on the psyche and fully implements the principle of counteracting ADHD! When you meditate, firstly, you try to direct your attention to some object (an image, a physiological process in your body, a phrase in your head), thereby developing concentration skills, and secondly, you calm down, sit for about 20 minutes in a motionless, relaxed position. You will really want to get up and interrupt this process, your body will want activity, but you will fight this desire, pacify it and again direct your attention to its subject!

Is it possible to think of best exercise in order to learn to be relaxed and cope with internal anxiety?! Meditation helped me a lot, and not only in eliminating ADHD, thanks to it all the work on myself was done, during which all the positive metamorphoses occurred in me and I was able to formulate the conclusions that fill my site and, in particular, this article.

Meditation is not magic, it is a simple exercise that anyone can do. To find out, read the article at the link.

Information starvation

In one of them, I described an exercise that will be very useful for people with ADHD!

If your child has ADHD

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder often begins to appear in childhood. But remember that when you are trying to determine the clinical picture in a child, make allowances for the fact that children are always more active than adults and it is more difficult for them to sit still and maintain attention than for us. What is abnormal for us may be normal for a child. So there is no need to sound the alarm if you find ADHD symptoms The child has. It’s okay, you calmly work with him, using competent and gentle educational measures.

If your child is too active and distracted, then all the advice that is suitable for an adult will help him. Take him for long walks, teach him to do activities that require concentration (chess, reading, airplane modeling, etc.), control his leisure time spent on the Internet, develop his memory and concentration, teach him to watch his body movements and calmly explain to him in simple words about all the bad things that will happen to him if his anxiety and absent-mindedness carry over into adulthood. The main thing is not to put pressure or force; find the line that separates wise education and aggressive dictatorship and do not cross it.

And if you teach your child to meditate from childhood, it will be absolutely great! Already upon reaching maturity, he will not have all the problems that we could experience: problems with nervous system, restlessness, impulsivity, anxiety, irritability, bad habits etc. Only if an adult needs to meditate for 15-20 minutes per session, then 5-10 minutes will be enough for a child.

Don't worry if working with your child does not immediately lead to the desired result. Don't lose your patience. Most children's, as well as adult, problems can be solved, but only if you do not turn away from them, do not ignore their causes, do not leave them to the arbitrariness of careless doctors, but work with them consciously, methodically, independently.

Exercises and tips to improve your mindfulness. Train your attention and good results will not keep you waiting.

Do you remember the children's poem by Samuil Marshak about the absent-minded citizen from Basseynaya Street, who constantly forgot and mixed up everything, and wore a frying pan on his head instead of a hat?

But if this citizen knew, how to increase mindfulness, then there would be much fewer problems in his life.

If you don't want to repeat the fate of this literary hero, exposing yourself to public ridicule due to your inability to concentrate, then this article will definitely be useful to you.

Why do you need to train mindfulness?

Some people think that if they don’t leave the house wearing different socks and are able to remember the face of a new employee the third time, then they don’t have any problems with attentiveness and don’t need to train anything.

How wrong you are.

Seeing the full picture without paying attention to details is impossible.

If you are not able to concentrate on details at all, then run and train your mindfulness.

Well, imagine that you witnessed some crime and, as an honest person, decided to report it to the police.

But due to your carelessness, all you can say about the criminal is that it was a man.

You didn’t remember his hair color, height, approximate age, or what he was wearing.

You stand in front of a police officer and understand that you will not be able to create a composite photo or identify the criminal, even if the police arrest him.

Because of your carelessness, there will be one more criminal on the city streets.

Of course, jokes aside, but attentiveness is a vital thing that helps in professional life, and in personal.

I think those who are not very good at concentrating their attention are now nodding their heads in agreement.

This is why developing mindfulness is a top priority for absent-minded people.

Simple but effective ways to increase your mindfulness

I understand that doing special exercises is boring, it’s a waste of time, and it’s so difficult to force yourself to do something.

But mindfulness alone will not improve.

If you are really trying to figure out how to develop mindfulness, it will take some effort to achieve the goal.

Here are a few to get you started simple ways, thanks to which you can train attentiveness:

Keep a diary.

But try to make sure that these are not snotty experiences of “life is a poop, no one loves me,” but descriptions of events that happen to you, portraits of people you meet, buildings that impress you, etc.

Re-read what you wrote from time to time and make changes if you remember any details.

If you have problems not only with attentiveness, but also with memory, then write down the first and last names of people you have recently met(you can even add a small description), addresses and phone numbers, to-do and shopping lists, etc.

Constantly work with notes, correcting mistakes.

Achieve the effect of constant presence.

How many times have you drifted off with your thoughts somewhere far away, disconnecting from what your interlocutor is saying, or hiding behind dark glasses and headphones from the noise of the minibus, completely withdrawing into yourself?

Stop doing this.

As soon as you catch yourself thinking that your thoughts are floating somewhere far away, immediately come back.

What prevents us from improving our mindfulness?

Naturally, our main enemy is ourselves and our laziness.

The easiest way is to get rid of it with the phrase “I was born this way” and stop working on yourself.

If you like this cowardly position, then I have no objections.

If you do not want to play the role of an absent-minded person all your life, then you will have to work hard to.

If we talk about other factors that harm our attentiveness, then these are:

Various distractions.

Take, for example, the Internet.

No matter what page of the site you open, annoying advertising keeps popping into your eyes.

If you are just killing time on the Internet, then this is one thing, but all this terribly interferes with your work.

Fatigue.

Concentrating in the first half of the day, when you have slept well, is much easier than in the evening, when you are already quite tired.

You can remain productive and attentive throughout the day if you get enough sleep and proper rest.

5 Special Exercises to Increase Attention

Trying to find the answer to the question “How to improve mindfulness?”, persistent people are willing to spend their time and energy doing special exercises.

If you are one of them, here are some simple but effective techniques:

Look for 10 seconds at an unfamiliar picture with lots of details.

Now close your eyes and try to list all the details you remember.

If you named less than 5, then you will have to train attentiveness for a long time.

Take it to the left and right hand by pencil.

Draw geometric shapes with both hands at the same time.

Try to keep the size and shape of both designs the same.

Look at this number: 489561348526419569724.

Now tell me, which of the three numbers that come in order add up to 15, 12, 22, 11, 13?

Place it near the TV on which interesting going on gear, watch with second hand.

Now look at the second hand for 2 minutes without looking at the TV screen.

When the time is up, retell to yourself what happened in the program while you were looking at your watch.

If you cannot remember anything, then you have not yet managed to develop mindfulness.

Take a long word, for example, "parallelogram" and make up its letters maximum amount small words.

The video below shows 3 more effective exercises

for mindfulness training:

How else can you improve your mindfulness?

I'm sorry if you have the misconception that mindfulness training is necessarily boring.

But this can be done with the help of an interesting game.

For example:

Game "Find the differences".

If as a child your parents subscribed to magazines for you, then you know that in almost every issue two pictures with slight differences were printed, and the kids were asked to find these same differences.

It’s interesting to play it even as an adult, especially since there are tons of pictures on the Internet that suggest training attentiveness.

For example, there are many such online games on this site: http://www.123igry.ru/igra/naidi_otlichiia_v_kartinkakh1/

1. Game "What has changed."

   Meetings with friends don’t have to turn into terrible drinking bouts.

   You can spend your time usefully, especially if one of your friends suffers from a lack of mindfulness.

   For example, in our company we loved a game that helps train attentiveness: one participant leaves the room, and the rest exchange items of clothing or accessories; when the participant returns, indicates what has changed.

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