How to Access The Deepest Powers of Your Brain
Focus, rest, and wander
We live in an age where there are so many distractions that try to catch our attention. Technology and social media make us focus on short term dopamine rewards. There are complaints on millennials not being able to focus at work due to smartphone addiction and lack of attention span.
At the end of this article, you will learn how to train your focus, understand the importance of rest and master the elements of letting your mind wander.
Many concepts in this article are derived from “Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellent” by Daniel Goleman. I highly recommend this book if you need a bit of help to focus on your daily tasks.
This article is split into 3 parts: Focus, Rest and Wander.
1. Train your mind to focus
Our brain functions similarly like other muscles in your body. The more you hit the gym and put in the reps, the more your muscles will grow. To train our brain to focus, we need to hit our “mental gym” and put in the reps as well.
You can access your mental gym by practising mindfulness meditation. The key is to focus on your breath while you meditate. Redirect your attention back to your breath whenever you notice you’re distracted. If you’re interested to find out more, you can read more here.
Meditation is always hard in the beginning. I recommend you to start with 1 minute and gradually increase the time as you get the hang of it. Don’t worry if you fail. As long as you start trying, you will improve and be better in the long run.
Personally, once I was able to reach the 5 minutes mark comfortably, I can feel my focus and attention improving over the course of my day. Disclaimer: Similar to working out, once you stop this practice for a few days, you will also lose your new ability to focus better. Hence, consistency is key!
2. Make a conscious effort to rest
It is unrealistic to have our brains in a state of hyper-focus all the time. On top of focusing on our daily activities, we need to make a conscious effort to recharge our brain by resting. Our brains can only function at its best when we are well-rested.
Everyone’s definition of ‘rest’ is different. Personally, I rest by closing my eyes while listening to music, meditating or taking a short walk. I make a conscious effort to rest for 5–10 minutes every 1.5 hours at work. This works best for me after a month of experimentation, but you’ll have to experiment on your own to figure out what works for you.
On top of taking short breaks, it is also important to maintain a regular sleeping pattern and have a good sleep!
3. Occasionally let your mind wander
Marc Benioff, founder of Salesforce and the widely popular ‘Software as a Service’ (SaaS) model, conceived his ideas when he took a 3-month break to Hawaii.
Sir Isaac Newton discovered gravity while he was taking a walk and saw a falling apple.
Dmitri Mendeleev literally completed the Periodic Table in his dreams!
These are not one-off instances, there are many other examples where creative discoveries are conceived by letting our minds wander.
Our subconscious mind is a powerful tool that is difficult to understand. As our mind wanders, our subconscious mind consolidates everything we’ve learnt and taps on information that are not easily accessible by our conscious mind. As a result, this allows our brain to explore other possibilities and push our thinking to the limit.
Looking back at past examples, the best way to harvest this intrinsic power is by letting our mind wander after a few sessions of intense focus.
For example, Dmitri Mendeleev already had a rough, premature idea of what he wanted to create because he was deeply ruminating on the issue of categorising the elements several times.
Disclaimer: This article is written as a summary of what I’ve learnt from reading Daniel Goleman’s book. I’ve incorporated other learning points from other sources. As a result, you will not be able to find some concepts of what I’ve written here in the actual book
