Boost your Brain Focus

If there’s any practice that could effectively and powerfully rewire our attention system, this one seems to hold remarkable promise. A simple yet profoundly impactful 17-minute exercise has the potential to permanently improve your ability to focus and dramatically reduce attentional drift. Whether you’re an adult or a child, and regardless of whether you have ADHD or not, the effects of this exercise are substantial and long-lasting. What's even more impressive is that these benefits can be observed after just a single session of this 17-minute interoceptive practice, making it a tool that could revolutionize the way we approach focus and attention.

Now, let’s take a moment to step back and think about how we focus and the various ways we can train our brains to improve focus over time. I want to share with you a highly effective technique that is backed by solid research and proven data, a method that can significantly enhance your ability to concentrate in as little as one session—and, to be clear, I’m not going to ask you to meditate in the traditional sense. What we are about to explore goes beyond meditation. It delves into the science of when attention sharpens and when it falters, with a focus on a phenomenon known as "attentional blinks." These are moments where we temporarily lose track of certain information, often because we're hyper-focused on something else. We do this all the time, but individuals with ADHD tend to experience these attentional blinks more frequently than those without ADHD, and this is true across both children and adults.

When you’re deeply engaged in something that captures your interest, it’s easy to miss other important information happening around you. This over-focusing can lead to an intriguing hypothesis regarding ADHD. We’ve often believed that people with ADHD struggle with focusing in general, but in reality, they can focus quite intensely on things they are passionate about or deeply interested in. Perhaps, just perhaps, what’s really happening is that individuals with ADHD are experiencing more attentional blinks than those without the condition. Indeed, recent data supports this possibility, offering new insights into what might actually be going on in the brains of those with ADHD. This discovery should be exciting not only for people with ADHD but for anyone interested in enhancing their focus and attention.

The circuits in our brains that control focus and attention are not necessarily failing; instead, they may be over-focusing on specific stimuli, causing us to miss other critical elements in our environment. This leads to distractibility, and in people with ADHD, this distractibility could be a result of over-focusing on certain details while neglecting others. What’s truly needed to counterbalance this tendency is a quality known as "open monitoring." Traditionally, open monitoring has been associated with advanced meditation techniques, such as Vipassana meditation, where individuals train their awareness to stay open and receptive to a wide array of sensory input. However, there’s a more accessible way to achieve this same state of open awareness—one that doesn’t require years of meditation practice. By learning to expand your visual awareness through a process called panoramic vision, you can train your brain to better process information in real-time.

Your visual system has two distinct modes of processing: one is narrow, like looking through a soda straw, where your focus is intense but limited to a small area; the other is panoramic, where you consciously widen your gaze, allowing yourself to take in the larger scene around you. This panoramic vision is controlled by a separate set of neural circuits in your brain, and what’s fascinating is that these circuits are not only responsible for widening your field of view but also for processing information more efficiently over time, with a higher frame rate. This means you can improve both your ability to detect important details and your speed in processing them simply by practicing this technique. And the best part is, this method works for everyone, whether or not you have ADHD, and it’s something you can do at any time.

Research has shown that a simple 15-minute practice of quiet interoceptive focus—where you sit with your eyes closed, concentrate on your breathing, and pay attention to your internal bodily sensations—can significantly reduce the number of attentional blinks you experience. The practice might resemble meditation in some ways, but the key difference is that you’re not trying to enter a particular state of mind; instead, you’re merely focusing on your body and bringing your attention back whenever your mind drifts. Remarkably, even doing this just once for 17 minutes has been shown to have near-permanent effects on improving focus, without requiring any further extensive training or meditation practice.

As we age, our working memory and ability to focus tend to decline, which often results in more frequent attentional blinks. However, recent studies suggest that this simple meditation-like practice of sitting quietly for 15 to 20 minutes, focusing on your breath and interoception, might help offset some of this age-related cognitive decline. These findings imply that regardless of your age, whether you’re young or old, have ADHD or not, or are simply trying to maintain your cognitive sharpness as you age, this 17-minute practice could offer a profound and lasting boost to your brain’s ability to focus.

Although meditation isn’t for everyone, most of us could manage a single 17-minute session. And if ever there was a tool that could rewire our attentional circuitry in a powerful and effective way, this practice seems to be it. In addition to the benefits of this interoceptive exercise, the ability to engage in panoramic vision—where you consciously dilate your gaze and expand your awareness—provides your brain with a unique opportunity to process more information, faster and more efficiently. This combination of techniques allows for better focus and less distraction, and the beauty of it is that it works almost immediately. While the exact mechanisms behind these practices are still being studied, the results are undeniable: the effects are significant, long-lasting, and appear after just one session of this quiet, 17-minute interoceptive exercise.

Incorporating this simple practice into your life could not only enhance your focus but potentially stave off the effects of age-related cognitive decline. Whether you're looking to improve your focus, manage ADHD, or preserve your cognitive health as you age, this 17-minute practice seems like a valuable and worthwhile tool for everyone to consider.