Here is a complete, guided 13-minute meditation from a neuroscience-based behavioral meditation tool proven to significantly increase focus and concentration by teaching you to refocus your mind.
- Focusing on the third eye center located on your forehead helps you master focus and increase concentration.
- When practiced for 8 weeks, this meditative practice has been shown to have life-changing effects.
Full Guided 20-Minute Guided Neuroscience Meditation For Focus and Concentration Free Download Here...
13-Minute Silent Meditation, which includes a meditation bell at the beginning and end.
This 20-minute guided meditation, based on the neuroscience meditation technique, has significantly improved and expanded the brain's neuroplasticity capacity, rewiring critical circuits for focus and attention. Focusing on the third eye area can improve attention and concentration. When practiced for 8 weeks, this contemplative technique has been demonstrated to offer life-changing benefits.
According to high-quality, peer-reviewed research, pure behavioral methods can significantly improve focus and concentration. For eight weeks, this 13-minute meditation is practiced every day. Meditation dramatically improves focus, concentration, and other elements of cognitive performance. It also elevates mood and lowers stress. So, you may be wondering precisely what this meditation is.
The meditation is effortless. It's one that anyone can do.
1. Set a timer for 13 minutes or use the mp3 meditation file provided.
2. Sit or lie down, close your eyes, and concentrate on breathing.
3. Most people will benefit from breathing just through their nose. However, if you have an obstruction or cannot breathe only through your nose, you can usually breathe through your nose and mouth or just your mouth.
4. Ideally, you would want to do nasal breathing for 13 minutes, focusing on the breathing and bringing your interoceptive awareness to a position approximately an inch inside your forehead.
Hovering your finger in front of your third eye, which is the point of attention, can make it simpler for you to concentrate on that point just inside your head. You should hold your finger close enough to feel the hair on your forehead or brow, but you should avoid touching your skin. After a few moments of doing this, you can let go, maintain your concentration, and focus on the point.
Now, here's something about meditation that all studies show:
Unless you're a very experienced meditator, your concentration and focus will migrate away from your breathing and that area, about an inch inside your skull and brain, just behind your brow. You can lose focus every 10 seconds, 20 seconds, or even 5 seconds.
However, for such a meditation practice to develop concentration and focus, you must constantly refocus on that specific area and your breath. Again, this is not frequently mentioned. People believe that if you meditate and are supposed to concentrate on your breath, and your mind wanders, you have failed the meditation. However, that is not the case.
The frequent return to a state of attention from a state of non-focus or lessened focus is critical to improving your ability to focus and concentrate through neuroplasticity, which involves rewiring the circuits for focus and concentration.
It's like this: think about it as if you are driving down the freeway and staying between the lane lines. Every once in a while, because there's a bit of drift on the vehicle, it starts to drift right a little. Then you hit the rumble strip and pull back to the center. That's really what a focused meditation practice is about, instead of expecting yourself to stay between the mental lane lines.
So, suppose you're going to do a practice like the one I described, 13 minutes of meditation practice every day for eight weeks. In that case, you'd want to sit or lie down, close your eyes, concentrate on your breath, focus on a location about an inch behind your forehead, and then fully expect to be thinking about something else. And that's a cue to return your attention to the area just an inch below your brow and your breath.
By doing this repeatedly, you are training the network within your brain that includes the prefrontal cortex that you are focusing on, as well as other structures such as the infra, temporal cortex, hippocampus, memory structure, and other neural circuit components involved in directing our mental focus and concentration.
Again, I cannot overstate the necessity of focusing and refocusing. I prefer to refer to such a practice as refocus-focus meditation. However, the Suzuki Lab and other investigations have proven that this meditation practice helps people focus and stay focused.
The point here is not how long you focus or whether you try to maintain undivided focus during the 13 minutes, 17 minutes, or 60 minutes of meditation. Do what works for you; start with 5 minutes daily and work up to 13 minutes, then begin your eight weeks. Go easy on yourself, have compassion, and find joy.
While that would be fantastic, and I believe many people aspire to it, it requires significant mental effort. For most people, including myself, a relatively short meditation practice of about 13 minutes in which you fully expect your focus and concentration to drift but constantly refocus will be the most effective way to teach yourself to focus and develop concentration skills that will serve you in all areas of your life.
Here are some key takeaways from this 13-minute meditation practice:
- This 13-minute daily meditation practice can increase focus, concentration, cognitive performance, and mood while reducing stress.
- The meditation technique focuses on the breath and directs attention to a spot directly below the forehead, just above the eyebrows.
- It is typical for the mind to wander while in meditation, but the goal is to refocus on your breath and designated spot constantly.
- Refocusing during meditation helps train the brain network that is responsible for focus and concentration.
It is more important to maintain a continuous practice of refocusing for even a short meditation than to lengthen the duration of meditation.
In conclusion, here is an excellent quote from Ajahn Brahm, a famous Buddhist teacher:
“Meditation is like a gym in which you develop the powerful mental muscles of calm and insight.”
