Attention is one of the most important brain functions. Attention’s job is to keep that one thing in mind, so we can focus on it. There is so much going on in the environment, but we often need to select one thing to focus on, without getting distracted. The brain is constantly receiving information about the world around us from our five senses, as well as interpreting that information using lots of thoughts. The same way we do certain exercises to strengthen our body’s muscles, with mindfulness we train the brain’s muscle-attention.Īttention is the brain’s way of selecting one thing to focus on out of the wide range of things in the environment. Mindfulness involves training our attention to stay in the present moment, rather than following our thoughts into the past or future.
Just as we need to exercise our bodies to stay physically healthy, exercising our minds can keep us mentally healthy, too.
#Brain gym program full
Figure 1 - When we bring full awareness to what is happening in the mind, we have mindfulness.With mindfulness, we can be fully aware of our minds (see Figure 1). Mindfulness helps us become more aware of what is going on both outside and inside of ourselves, without being distracted by our thoughts. Mindfulness means being aware of what is happening now, without getting lost in all of those thoughts. It can certainly seem like our minds are full of thoughts! But that is not what mindfulness means. Often, we are busy thinking about what is going to happen later, thinking about what happened earlier, or thinking about what is happening now. Have you ever been so deep in thought that you did not hear someone calling your name? At times like these, our minds are full of thoughts and we are not aware of what is going on around us. This type of training can improve our mental health, just like physical exercise improves our physical health. By keeping our attention in the present, and bringing it back each time it wanders, we are training the brain networks that we use to control our attention. When we practice mindfulness, we are training our attention to stay in the present moment instead of wandering off with our thoughts into the past or the future. Did you know that you can also exercise your mind to keep it fit and healthy? Mindfulness training is just like taking your brain to the gym for a workout. You probably know that going to the gym to exercise is good for your body.
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