As I was checking out an article from The Tricycle Community, something caught my attention. “Studies show that the average human now has an attention span of just eight seconds, down from 12 seconds in the year 2000”. What? I thought to myself…C’mon people, we can do better than that! Eight seconds and whoosh…onto something else. Can we solely blame technology, social media, and the 24/7 newsfeed or is it something else? Can we actually improve our ability to focus or should we just surrender to the never-ending tug for our attention? And maybe it’s more of a yank than a tug. According to Fast Company, in 2011, Americans took in five times as much information every day as they did in 1986—the equivalent of 174 newspapers. And those numbers are 10-years old!
This bombardment of information is doing a number on our ability to hunker down and pay attention. Our inability to focus on something discourages deeper states of contemplation and experience, disabling our creativity and our ability to be present, not to mention feeling scattered and overwhelmed which impacts our nervous system. I have recently heard on National Public Radio, reports that another pandemic is coming and it’s around our mental health. Depression is the number one health concern globally…yep, it’s everywhere and isn’t going to go away on its own. So do we need to head off to a cave in the Himalayas in order to recalibrate our brains or is there another way?
Many of the ancient wisdom traditions believe that concentration can be practiced and, in doing so, we can improve our state of mind. Buddhism has the Noble Eightfold Path, with the steps being Right Understanding, Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration. In yoga, we have the eight limbs which are Yama (external observances), Niyama (internal observances), asana (yoga postures), pranayama (breath control), pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses), Dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditation) and samadhi (absorption). And although we may not come to either of these practices with the sole intention of improving our ability to focus, we can’t help but work on it as it is woven into the fabric of these traditions.
Concentration supports our ability to become mindful and without it, our level of awareness of the present moment and what’s happening within the present moment dissipates. If we’re scattered like fall leaves on a windy day, one way to calm things down is to move inside and in yoga, this is called pratyahara or withdrawing the senses. We allow ourselves to let go of our connection to all that’s keeping us occupied in the external world so we can enhance the opportunity to focus on just one thing…which is the definition of concentration. Setting aside the time to come into our practice is the first step…getting to the mat is often the biggest obstacle. Next, we turn off our devices, close the door and give ourselves over to the time we’ve been able to commit to. When we turn our focus onto physical sensations such as the movement of the breath, the sense of sound or touch, we narrow our vision and begin to pull into our inner world.
Throughout the pandemic, the challenge of concentrating at home has become more difficult. I have seen many people on Zoom calls over the past year getting interrupted either by pets, doorbells, handy-people, or others in the household. In the “old days” of coming to the yoga studio, all of those potential distractions were minimized in that you’ve left home, have been asked to turn off your phone, remove your shoes, and disconnect for the duration of the class. Nobody needed you and you could fully show up for yourself. Yet, despite the potential distractions, coming to the mat and working on narrowing our focus we can enhance concentration, called Dharana. It is said that as we begin to deepen concentration, we glide towards Dhyana or states of meditation and through steadiness, we have moments of Samadhi which is a merging of consciousness.
These states of concentration and meditation also lead us into states of flow, where people experience peak and optimized performance. In tennis I knew I was in a flow state when the ball looked to be the size of a grapefruit, time seemed to slow down, and just the right amount of effort was needed without struggle or stress. I had clarity and ease. This can certainly translate into other areas of life through music, art, or being in nature. This spaciousness opens us to all forms of insight and creativity, enhancing our ability to profoundly experience life.
If you find that you’re distracted, come back to something that is simple and provides an anchor. It’s the magical moment when we notice we’re no longer where we wish to be and we begin again. Over and over again. And as Mark Epstein said, “We practice right concentration not to experience blissful states but to help us entertain uncertainty.”
In these unprecedented and uncertain times, offer yourself grace and a place to begin again. I know we can do better than eight seconds!
