How to Improve Mental Clarity and Focus
By TRISOFT team
Your mind is a powerful tool. Mental focus, along with intelligence, have been proved to be two of the most important factors of future success. But while intelligence is somewhat inherited and its development is relative along the way, mental focus is something we can and must improve. You brain is trainable, powerful system — as long as you keep making efforts to learn and experiment new things, the strength and stamina of your focus can grow over time. The more you can cultivate your ways to better focus, the better you can control your impulses and make productive long-term decisions.
However, with our busy schedules, with social media, news and many other distractions, it’s more and more difficult to achieve the level of mental clarity, of focus, that we want and believe it would prop us higher in our careers and our personal lives as well. Little children are completely absorbed by smartphones and tablets, adults can’t stand to be alone with their thoughts for more than a few minutes and concentrating on anything more difficult proves exhausting. It’s not a desirable state of things, but there are ways to change them for your own sake.
Let’s see how sleep, diet, as well as physical and mental exercises, and also meditation can prove effective in our quest to a clearer, more focused mind.
Maintain a healthy diet. The first thing you need to know about mental clarity is that it needs a good-working body to develop and thrive. If physically you are feeling great, then your mind is free to work and explore the more creative sides of things. A few keys in your diet should include well-balanced, low-sugar and regular meals throughout the day. Also, an Omega 3 fatty acid called DHA has been discovered to be essential for the development of the human brain, so you should definitely try to include it in your menu. If you look it up you might find it referred to as brain food as it improves your memory and focus and, as it seems, it has a good effect on Alzheimer’s disease in early onset patients. DHA can be found in salmon, tuna and also seaweed, walnuts, flax seeds, tofu, brussel sprouts and cauliflower. So…Bon appetite! :)
Get good quality and quantity of sleep.
This is another influencing factor in our everyday routine, which most of us ignore throughout our youth and come to appreciate in our late 20’s maybe, when we become tired and easily irritable. The recommended sleep time for adults is seven to nine hours of sleep per night, this being assumed as optimal for good health and cognitive performances. Remember that during sleep, memories and information are being processed and neatly organized in your brain, thus being essential to achieving clarity of mind.
Hydrate properly. We often disconsider the importance of drinking enough water during the day. Don’t allow thirst to hit you, as dehydration is already installed when you feel thirsty. Maybe you don’t know that, but high levels of hydration are imperative when you’re at your highest level of cognitive function. Its positive effects are shown in the way the brain disposes of various kinds of waste, in the improved body circulation and the ability to maintain heat levels of the brain. Dehydration on the other hand can decrease brain function, cause headaches, sleepiness and even nausea, so keep a glass or bottle of water around you at all times!
Meditate.
Some might say this is the most useful technique to achieve mental clarity. It is at the same time the most difficult, as it needs time and concentration in itself. But the rewards are noticeable and if you read around you will see how many researchers are writing articles on the benefits of meditation for our personal and professional lives. Meditation allows you to clear your mind of all the thoughts running through it, allowing creativity and imagination to express itself freely. You just need to find a peaceful place in your home, where you won’t be disturbed, put on some chillout music and relax. There are many books and online resources on the topic, which will let you in on some pretty useful techniques of meditation. You just have to do a little research and most importantly allow yourself the time to do it — a change in priorities would be in order here.
Exercise. The benefits of physical exercise have been long exposed and debated on, so basically everybody knows that exercise is good for your health. Exercise helps your body work better, and that includes your brain. You could try swimming, hiking, cycling or jogging — any of these will increase the circulation of oxygen and glucose. Any other sport of your choosing will always help you free your mind from work. Yoga is also a good idea. Like meditation, part of the practice of yoga is clearing your mind. Yoga is about focusing on the positions your body takes while clearing both your mind and body of stress. Yoga classes are widely available — at community centers, yoga studios, and through gyms.
Strengthen your brain.
Maybe it sounds a bit weird and you haven’t heard many do it lately, but let us assure you this is only due to our lack of understanding and most importantly, our little concerns for what can help us grow and make us better from the inside so that we can cope with all the outside challenges. And this is our brain. It needs to be worked, entertained, practiced and no, video games don’t count for much! You might think about it and choose which activities appeal to you intellectually — maybe you like number-related games such as Sudoku or math quizzes, or word-related games, such as puzzles, or the mighty king- chess. These types of activities create and maintain neuronal connections that are essential for our cognitive abilities.
Avoid distractions. Beyond all measures of improvement that we can think of, the first step you should actually take is make sure you steer clear of distractions — as much as possible, of course. Sometimes it can be enough to keep your brain focused. Try to make a schedule for checking your email and social media for example only twice or three times a day. Set and try to keep times for your breaks. You may be surprised of how much you can achieve simply by cutting out these distractions.
TRISOFT focuses on you!
Distractions rob us of many opportunities to focus and attain that optimal mental clarity we aim for. Our productivity is affected too. However, there are many strategies you can apply to increase your mental functions and ability to stay on top of your game. Something as simple as putting in the right fuel for your body — nutrition and hydration — can have amazing effects on your mental clarity. Other things, more subtle, such as meditation can take you to the next level.
Start by measuring the frequency and severity of your common distractions, identify when they mostly occur during the day and which are your good peaks in a day of work. This way you will become aware of yourself and start applying other beneficial techniques that will lead you to higher levels of focus.
