Our language of mental concentration, including questions of how to improve focus, is borrowed, appropriately, from optics. In the field of optics, a “focus” is sometimes also called an image point, and refers to the place where light rays originating from a point on the object converge. Conceptually, this focus is a point, though physically there is a range to it, often called the blur circle. Simply put, an image will be in what we call “focus” – meaning clearly defined and unblurred – if light from object points converge in the image. If light is not well converged, the image will be blurred, or out of focus.
How apt, then, to use this language when discussing concepts of improving our own focus. We humans are an easily distracted species of beast. We spread ourselves thinly across a range of responsibilities and expectations. We have five exams to juggle and friends’ to remember, children to pick up from soccer practice or ballet, and, later, a small army of grandchildren whose birthdays (and even names, sometimes!) often seem to escape us. As the world gets more harried, these distractions get more numerous, and retaining focus on the task at hand becomes more and more difficult?
So, how are we to improve our focus? There are several options, and the most effective will be your own combination of these. The first is through herbal supplements that have been clinically shown to improve brain functioning, including a marked improvement in moment-to-moment and sustained focus. The second major option is to improve focus by practice and training, like most other skills. Treated as a kind of meditation, if we can simplify our lives enough, our minds can find solace and ultimate focus, whether in an external object, a memory, a thought, or a smell. Combined, an interior (herbal supplement) and exterior (personal effort) approach will lead to a noticeably improved focus and mental clarity.
