Attention

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Meditation: Awaken your Senses

Our ability to pay attention, or not, impacts our day-to-day activities.  Yes, everyday we are required to pay attention. 

The amount of stimulation in our environments can vary from moment to moment.  Sometimes we are very alert and vigilant.  Sometimes we must divide our attention between many things that are happening around us.  And yes, sometimes we must be very selective with our attention.  If we paid attention to everything that was happening around us, all of the time, we may become overstimulated, overwhelmed, and very distractive.   We adjust our attention so that it is most helpful to us in each situation.

Attention is the ability to process specific information in the environment.  It is directly related to sensory input from the outside.  

There are four categories of attention:

• Vigilance:  Maintaining attention over a length of time; can range from minutes to hours

• Arousal and alertness:  This is your physiological state of attention.  When you are sleeping, your attention level is low, but at certain times of the day, it will be much higher.

• Divided attention:  Performing multiple tasks at once.

• Selective attention:  The ability to focus on one thought, regardless of other stimuli.

Attention begins as passive:  A brief, unfocused reception of sensory receptors with information about the outside world.  Passive reception is important to allow brains to process as many stimuli as possible as it searches for what needs immediate attention.

Our attention will then begin to shift between external events (the sensory inputs) to internal memories and interests.  This shift is important for maintaining and updating long-term memories.  (For example:  While listening to a story by a friend, you think of a similar experience from your past).  This shift may be important because it allows updating and maintaining of long-term memories. It strengthens the neural networks that contain and process them.   

Our attention requires a conscious selection of focus.  In doing so, we must extract what is important and then focus on it, while we ignore other stimuli.  Every day, you have examples of when you did not ignore other stimuli.  For example, when you go through a stop sign, or drive down the wrong street.  These are examples of shifting our attention to an unimportant stimulus.  

When paying attention, the focus and intensity of active attention varies. (For example, a proofreader must have maximum focus to make sure that there are no errors, while the reader of the magazine may only skim the material.)  

There is also the danger of distractions.  There are two main types of distractions:

•        Sensory distractions (things that are going on around you)

•        Emotional distractions (your inner thoughts)

We are able to process information from at least two sensory stimuli, or from different dimensions within the same modality.  For example, we can look at a friend, listen to them talk and reach for our car keys.  However, we cannot read a book and write a letter at the same time.  With time, we become a little better at this.  A young child cannot carry on a conversation and put on a coat, but an older person can.

We increase the things we can pay attention to by combining related elements into a single unit.  A person’s face is a unit.  A new reader will see only individual letters and some words at first, but as they become more skilled, they can read phrases as a unit. 

ADHD Predominantly Inattentive Presentation

• Fails to give close attention to details or makes careless mistakes

• Has difficulty sustaining attention

• Does not appear to listen

• Struggles to follow through with instructions

• Has difficulty with organization

• Avoids or dislikes tasks requiring sustained mental effort

• Loses things

• Is easily distracted

• Is forgetful in daily activities

ADHD Predominantly Hyperactive-Impulsive Presentation

• Fidgets with hands or feet or squirms in chair

• Has difficulty remaining seated

• Runs about or climbs excessively in children, extreme restlessness in adults

• Difficulty engaging in activities quietly

• Acts as if driven by a motor; adults will often feel inside as if they are driven by a motor

• Talks excessively

• Blurts out answers before questions have been completed

• Difficulty waiting or taking turns

• Interrupts or intrudes upon others

Boys are more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than girls (12.9% compared to 5.6%) (Danielson, 2018).

As of the fall of 2020, it was estimated that almost 12 % of college students suffered from ADHD.

According to a screen for ADHD in 3,199 adults aged 18–44 years, 4.4% of US adults have ADHD (Kessler et al. 2006).

Of these adults with ADHD,

38% are women and

62% are men

Here are some other everyday ideas for increasing attention abilities (Angelle, 2011) (Cooper, 2014).

Meditation (increased activity in brain associated with selective activity)

Caffeine (increases alertness and may improve attention)

Actually, stop paying attention for a while (“refreshes brain”)

Know your own limit for paying attention 

Spend some time in nature

Lose yourself in something you enjoy