Concentration
Meditation
Meditation is a concentration exercise that strengthens your prefrontal cortex. But modern digital distraction trains the opposite—and regaining control over your focus is more valuable than ever.
Concentration
Meditation is a concentration exercise that strengthens your prefrontal cortex. But modern digital distraction trains the opposite—and regaining control over your focus is more valuable than ever.
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Heute mal ein ganz anderes Thema.
Why would someone come up with the idea to meditate? Of course, one could cite spirituality or simply relaxation. But I personally realized there was a different reason behind it.
For people who have never dealt with meditation: basically, you focus on a thought, an image in your mind's eye, or even a melody running through your head. The «goal» is to come back when your thoughts wander. Or, to put it differently, to stay with the thought, image, or melody.
Basically, this is a concentration exercise. The cool part is that the brain shows anatomical changes. Specifically in the so-called prefrontal cortex—that's the brain region directly behind the forehead. This area is trained like a muscle through this «concentration exercise». Interestingly, this has been demonstrated in meditating monks.
We live in this brain region. Because that's where we think through situations, analyze, make important decisions, and above all, gain control over our own brain—that often quite wild, untamed little horse. For us, there's almost nothing more important than a functioning, well-trained prefrontal cortex. If it—say, from an accident—breaks down or simply shows functional deficits (for example, in ADHD), things go sideways.
We know «concentration» from school, when you had to stay quiet for five minutes and somehow be productive. The truth is that «concentration» encompasses much, much more. In fact, we don't just drift off in everyday life; we often lose focus in entire life phases and fail to stay mentally focused. Example: whoever can't stay «focused» during difficult life phases risks losing their mind, making wrong decisions, or drowning in problems.
So, remember: the ability to concentrate is something wonderful! And by that, I mean—I'll say it again—not just the ability to listen to someone for more than two minutes.
What do we do today? We practice reverse meditation. I just invented the term. Meditation basically means: I have control over impulses. Reverse meditation means the opposite: I let impulses control me. And that's exactly how we train the opposite.
We put in a lot of effort at reverse meditating. All you have to do is open Instagram for a while. Impulse, click. Impulse, click. Impulse, click. Phone put down. Brain chimes in, impulse, open Instagram. And again: impulse, click. Impulse, click. This can go on for hours! And: there's not just Instagram. There are news sites by the hundreds, an endless number of YouTube videos, and so on. And every 10 minutes, another site or app wants to be opened again.
Not like this.
The sad part is the result. This erratic behavior. Being unable to stay with one thing for any length of time. Struggling to listen to someone for more than two minutes. Or, not having yourself under control.
Specifically regarding the last sentence, I often think of people who want to lose weight. Whoever wants to lose weight sometimes has to stay focused for weeks, even months. Keep at it. Not drift off. Many do the opposite: attack hard for two weeks. Then indulge in Ben & Jerry's binges the weekend after.
A trained prefrontal cortex. Worth its weight in gold.
By the way: hopefully, this prefrontal cortex is also enriched with important micronutrients, such as omega-3 fatty acids (especially DHA), zinc, and iron. Because you can also create such a functional deficit by depriving this area of the substances it needs to function. [source no longer available]:
In summary, these findings suggest that insufficient DHA intake during development can impair the development of behavioral control.
The opposite also appears to be true: [source no longer available].
Which brings us back to nutrition. DHA, zinc, iron, and other micronutrients—you don't get those for free. And there's a reason we have the largest brain of all primates. DHA doesn't grow on trees ;-)
