Gema García Marcos

Updated Wednesday, February 21, 2024-01:32

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We are incapable of watching a movie, having a conversation or training at the gym without looking at our cell phones as if the survival of the human species depended on it. A decade ago, it was said that we were even confused by the flight of a fly. Today, we disperse among the ocean of social networks, 'chats' and other 'junk communications' that do nothing but distract us from what really matters.

"One of the issues that worries us most these days is

how we can maintain our attention on something for longer

. We live in an era in which we are constantly receiving stimuli that reach us at dizzying speed. This makes our brain forced to program oneself to change from one activity to another very quickly," explains

Ana Ibáñez , director of the

Mindstudio

centers

.

And, obviously, this nonsense does not come for free, "because this adaptation involves

exercising less sustained attention or concentration

."

What helps us, from a cerebral point of view, to focus on what we are doing? "The first thing we have to know is that

going from dispersed attention to concentrating requires a 'period' of transition

. It is something that is not going to happen immediately," clarifies this neuroscientist.

From the moment we sit down to start a task until we enter that phase of full attention in which our mind can stay focused on something, it usually takes, as Ibáñez points out, "between

five and eight minutes

."

It is essential that we give ourselves this period of time to achieve calm and, at the same time, recharge ourselves with energy. "What I recommend first of all is that, before sitting down to concentrate on doing something,

we have moved a lot

, because, in this way,

our brain will generate bursts of alpha frequencies

that will help us focus our attention, because they are going to induce that mental calm that we need, also giving us good energy.

Secondly, if we are trained in a state of concentration, it is very beneficial that we

accompany it with music or another external element that makes that moment more appealing or attractive to us.

In this way, we 'trick', to a certain extent, our brain into assimilating the transition from dispersion to concentration as a smooth and pleasant phase.

Ana Ibáñez

is a chemical engineer, neuroscientist, director of the Mindstudio centers and author of 'Surprise your mind' (Editorial Planeta).