Quotes About Focus

Multitasking is the enemy of a focused attentional system. Increasingly, we demand that our attentional system try to focus on several things at once, something that it was not evolved to do.

Trying to figure out what you need to know and what you can ignore is exhausting, and at the same time, we are all doing more. Consequently

Two of the most crucial principles used by the attentional filter are change and importance

Mindfulness has never met a cognition it didn't like.

Where attention goes, neural firing flows, and neural connection grows.

One of the key practical lessons of modern neuroscience is that the power to direct our attention has within it the power to shape our brain's firing patterns, as well as the power to shape the architecture of the brain itself.

Attunement requires presence but is a process of focused attention and clear perception. We

the awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally to the unfolding of experience moment by moment" (Kabat-Zinn,

Whatever the focus of attention, each of these mindful awareness practices involves an aiming of our awareness on two basic dimensions: Awareness of awareness and attention to intention. Such

focus of attention becomes distracted, when you notice you are no longer aware of the sensations of the breath, lovingly and gently bring your attention back to the breath (or body part or image). Getting distracted is just what our minds do. As we've seen, if you think of this mindfulness training as being similar to toning a muscle, we need to have both the contraction and the relaxation to achieve muscle growth.

When we are preoccupied with the past or worried about the future, we are physically present with our children but are mentally absent.

Contraction is our concentration—the activation of the muscle of the mind's attention—while relaxation is our becoming distracted as attention is deactivated. We activate intentionally, deactivate unintentionally—inadvertently, unavoidably and repeatedly—and then reactivate the directing of attention to refocus on our chosen subject of attention. See

Instead, by telling the story with Marco, Marianna helped focus his attention both on the actual details of the accident and on his emotions, which allowed him to use both the left and right sides of his brain together, literally strengthening their connection.

Granted, you won't always have time to think through the three questions.

Asking why, what, and how can help create an internal sense of clarity even in the face of external chaos.

remember how important it is to discipline this one child in this one moment.

Instead, the point here is about embracing the notion that one can live with an internal focus of motivation and a sense of respect for the inner, authentic experience of being alive.

Estar presente significa poner todo tu ser –tu atención y tu conciencia– cuando estés con tu hijo.

So don't think of discipline as a one-size-fits-all solution. Instead, remember how important it is to discipline this one child in this one moment.

With practice, you'll be enriching not only your attentional skills, but your experience of consciousness and of the mind itself.

How intention glows determines where attention goes, neural firing flows, and neural and interpersonal connection grow.

Attunement is the act of focusing on another person (or ourselves) to bring into our awareness the internal state of the other in interpersonal attunement (or the self, in intrapersonal attunement). Resonance

Awakened mind (App):A state of awareness that is not on automatic pilot and can use the power of intention to drive attention to shape the firing of neurons in new and helpful ways. A state of clarity and focus that make choice and change possible.

Nothing in life is as important as you think it is when you are thinking of it.