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Ask HN: How to increase your mental focus?

1 points by Luigilacorte ↗ HN
Searching this question on Google yields endless SEO optimized nonsense about meditation mostly. Besides mediating what are the specific practices that you can employ that 1) refresh your brain after a day’s work, 2) increases focus without taking drugs and 3) extends your working hours without degradation to any other systems.

9 comments

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hiatus
Why are you so quick to discount meditation?
Luigilacorte
Good question. I don’t know. I find it challenging to do consistently. Do you have experience with it? Has it helped?
illuminant
Knowing how to still the mind, breath properly (do the exercises), and maintaining prolonged periods of disciplined intention are building blocks.

After that, regular exercise (basic yoga might help with breathing and posture development for the meditation;) eat well (no refined sugar, cut out processed foods, etc.)

After all of that, get your ass to sit the fcuk down and focus, consistently.

It will come.

hiatus
It has helped me immensely. I am not bs-ing when I say I feel refreshed after just 15 mins of focusing on my breathing. It is very hard at first and gradually becomes easier but has yet to be easy. YMMV but I just wanted to give you my honest two cents.
Luigilacorte
Perfect advise. Thank you. Any specific breathing exercise you would recommend? Or is focusing on breathing the extent of it?
illuminant
You should really try a few months of yoga.

Proper breath technique:

- fill your stomach first

- next your chest

- deflate the chest

- deflate the stomach

- let the stomach deflate until you "make a fist" in the stomach (complete muscle contraction.) this is at complete exhale.

- now breath in, repeating the process.

It should take you three long seconds to breath in, and three long seconds to breath out (you know "one one thousand, two one thousand", you won't actually be timing, just make it a long smooth in-out.)

That's basic breath work.

You can practice lying on your back, though you should be comfortable with the technique in any position (sitting, standing.)

There is no "extent of it", you will push your boundaries little by little. After a few weeks you will notice some change, after a couple months you will notice profound effects. After a few years you will incorporate this into other things, after a few decades you will notice how confused and short minded others can be ;)

Luigilacorte
I really appreciate you taking the time to dispense this. Thank you
sn9
You should read Shinzen Young's Science of Enlightenment.
jarule
Jerking it before heading off to work.