Here are three ways to help you study whether you are in grade school, high school or college. www.tesh.com

Concentration

lost track of time? couldn’t hear people talking to you? weren’t aware of the whistling kettle? didn’t feel the ant biting you? If you have then you will have experienced the same state of mind that mediators and monks experience. They are signs of a focused mind.

The deeper the absorption the deeper trance-like state and the greater the concentration. When in deep meditation, Buddhist monks are able to shut down their five senses, and go into a deep and trance-like state. You may have heard of amazing mental feats like recalling long strings of numbers, calculating square roots of large numbers and so on.

When we are experiencing a pleasurable situation, our sense of time distorts because we are so focused and absorbed moment to moment.

Almost anyone can concentrate and achieve super-human results. The exceptions are infants, young children, and people with mental disorders like schizophrenia. The key to the ability to performing all these feats of mind is a calm, relaxed and concentrated mind. In general, any healthy person will be able to concentrate.

Why Can’t I Concentrate? 

Any task that requires a certain amount of mental effort naturally requires concentration. The greater the mental effort the greater the concentration. Yet many find themselves unable to do so at will, when it is needed most, like in an exam or when taking a test.

The result is poor attention causing accidents when performing potentially dangerous tasks such as handling heavy cutting machinery. Low productivity at work is a symptom of poor concentration. Relationships can be damaged when one party is unable to listen attentively and pick up queues. Traders can suffer major financial losses when they are unable to focus on what happens in the market place. Airline pilots have a heavy responsibility and must be able to concentrate when flying and landing a plane.

Many things can affect our ability to concentrate:

lack of sleep stress worry and anxiety disease and illness poor nutrition These are just a few of the main causes of poor focus.

What Can I Do About It?

There are a few things that you can do.

Firstly, it helps a lot if you exercise regularly. A fit body supports a healthy mind, and a healthy mind is better at concentrating. As stress is a major cause of low dopamine levels, exercise and deep breathing are excellent activities to countering stress. That’s because, in addition to taking in more oxygen, your brain releases dopamine during and after exercise, which gives you that pleasant sensation. You’ll also be able to sleep better, giving your body a chance to repair itself. 

Having a proper balanced diet will improve your body’s health. Brain foods like nuts nourish the brain and nervous system. Taking food supplements in the right quantity can also improve the health of your brain. In general you need the right amount of sugar, fatty acids, vitamins and minerals to keep your brain and nervous system in optimal condition.

You can also learn to breathe deeply and relax yourself. We cannot concentrate unless we are breathing slowly regularly and fully. Your brain and heart both need a lot of oxygen, and they can get plenty of it through exercise. Deep and slow breathing are an effective stress reliever and concentration booster.

Take time off to recharge. Occasionally distract yourself from what you are doing. Extended periods of concentration can drain us of our mental energy.

Hypnotherapy Can Help You

Our ability to focus depends, to a very large extent, on the levels of dopamine in our body, and stress is a major cause of low dopamine levels. Sometimes lack of concentration arises from stress at work, home or from relationships. Conditions like these can be managed 

However, some experiences can be so traumatic that they deeply scar a person mentally. During the First World War many victims of shell shock were treated using hypnosis. Today we know shell shock by the term post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD, and two key symptoms of PTSD are sleeping disorders and poor concentration.

If, in spite of all your best efforts, you still can’t resolve your poor concentration or it relapses, there may be some blocks which are at the root of it. You may want to seek the help of a psychotherapist or a hypnotherapist.

Hypnotherapy can help a great deal with deep emotional and mental blocks. A hypnotherapist will be able to determine if yours is a deep emotional problem and will take you back in time to relive your experience. By accessing the sub-conscious in the hypnotic state the hypnotherapist will take you back to relive the experience. By reliving the trauma of the experience you will be able desensitise yourself and release the fear, pain or remorse that has held you in its grip.

Over time you will find yourself feeling lighter, more joyful and better at concentrating.

If you have an issue that bothers you and affects your concentration why not call a hypnotherapist for help? Call Nancy Ho, an experienced and well qualified Clinical Hypnotherapist, at 62727118 for an appointment. Tell her about your problem, and discuss a plan to help you resolve it once and for all. Or visit our website for more details: http://hypnosisoneonone.com/oneonone/category/concentration/ 

Taking exams while working full time? Worried about returning to studying? Study Skills can help with professional exams, through courses and self study e-learning. See our top tips for help. www.studyskillsforsuccess.com

A guided tour around the Study Skills Lab for student athletes at the University of Oklahoma

study skills (knowing terminology for exams) from www.studyskillshandbook.com.au

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