Concentrating

Concentrating

Balance breathing

My mind can get into a state that resembles a busy and noisy construction site. Naturally, concentrating in this state is challenging. Breathing and concentration go hand in hand. Generally, just shifting awareness toward my breathing extends my attention span and may improve my ability to remember.

When my thoughts are scattered, inhaling and exhaling in equal durations contribute to focusing. When having an equal inhale and exhale, the Fight or Flight and Rest & Repair forces of my breathing become more balanced, allowing ‘zooming.’ On the one hand, I’m ready to make an effort; on the other hand, I’m in a relatively relaxed state.

The maximum relaxation window is when I retain my breath following an exhale before ‘air hunger start.’ During this period, breathing muscles are inactive. That is my ‘breathing bullseye’ interval.

Shooters and archers need to be very precise. Pulling the trigger or releasing the arrow at the right point of their breathing cycle can mean hit or miss. The same goes for games such as pool, darts, and the like. Shooting during the ‘breathing bullseye’ improves the chance of completing the mission successfully or winning the game.

Breathing this way for a long time may prevent my ‘breathing app’ from adjusting different balancing needs, which may also affect concentration negatively. That is why I limit the number of breathing cycles when using this tool.

 

Memory lapse

We all have moments of forgetfulness where we try to remember something that was known to us but simply can’t. It was surely registered but momentarily can’t be retrieved.  It stands on the tip of our ‘memory’s tongue’ but doesn’t want to come out.

At a young age, I didn’t struggle much to remember a name, keep appointments, or memorize a phone number I had used many times. Yet, around the age of 50, I started getting these memory lapses more frequently. I would go somewhere and forget what I was about to do.

Reading about those ‘senior moments,’ I could understand that as long as these glitches are not too frequent and don’t disturb everyday activities, it’s not a sign of early… of early… I can’t remember right now the name of that German guy; the forgetting disease is named after 😊.

Still, I thought it would be helpful to have a breathing procedure when getting to these situations. So instead of struggling with inner mind loops, resort to a pre-practiced breathing sequence.

I use ‘box breathing’ or actually ‘cube breathing,’ in these instances: inhaling, exhaling, and retaining in equal parts.

We all have different breathing identities. So instead of rigid counting, I prefer to use my ‘air hunger start’ time as a reference to the size of the cube. I divide it by 5, which I use to define the ‘size’ of my cube.

 

Tool for improving memory retrieval and concentration }

  • I breathe exclusively through my nose.
  • Extend my diaphragm to maximum amplitude.
  • Inhale, and extend my diaphragm to maximum amplitude. MantraX1.
  • Retain with full lungs, MantraX1.
  • Exhale and retract my diaphragm to minimum amplitude. MantraX1.
  • Retain with empty lungs, MantraX1.
  • Limit the number of breathing cycles.

 

Remarks

I have tried using the word ‘focus’ as a mantra practicing this box breathing.

Calculating the size of the cube:

My ‘air hunger start’ time = about 31 sec.

31 / 6 = about 5 sec.

If what I’m trying to remember doesn’t pop up, I simply accept it.