Direct Your Focus and Eliminate Distraction | WeMentor Mondays with Nancy PODCAST

Episode 334: Direct Your Focus and Eliminate Distraction

Episode Notes

Have you ever felt challenged to direct your focus? Today more than ever, right? Every time I turn on my phone, my ability to stay focused on a task is challenged. Even in our physical environments, we can enter a room to get something and forget what we need in that room once there. Only to leave the room, remember, and then schlep back to get the forgotten item. Distraction is time-consuming and toxic.

What if we could reverse the trend by learning to catch ourselves before getting distracted? I aired this 6-minute meditation in February of this year and feel this change in seasons is an excellent time to practice directing our attention.

An ability to keep your focus, control impulses, and keep your mind from wandering directionless. Focus is a skill set with four aspects: directing, sustaining, noticing, and relaxing attention. Directing attention is focusing on the right things at the right time, like a flashlight shedding light on the task.

Because meditation can reduce lapses in attention and positively impact our work and relationships, we can all learn this first aspect of focus. After you complete the 6-minute meditation, share it with your leadership team, staff, and family. You can hear what others go through in learning this skill of directing our attention to the right things at the right time.

The inspiration for this meditation originated from Healthy Minds Innovation and Healthy Minds @Work. I recommend downloading the free Healthy Minds APP to track your progress as you build a calm, clear, and stable mind. It is not unlike building muscles in other parts of the body. Repetitions, consistency, and intensity strengthen muscle tissue in different muscle groups building skeletal, cardiac, and smooth muscles over time. Researchers have found that regular meditators have stronger activation levels in the temporal parietal junctures, a part of the brain where we feel empathy. You practice cognitive control whenever you bring your attention back to your focal point.

Imagine being in a meditative state of mindful alertness all day. Directing your attention here and there, feeling empowered and joyful, not distracted with toxicity growing inside. It is possible with a mindful meditation practice. DOWNLOAD

NEXT STEP after listening: Challenge yourself and do the Conscious Attentive Leadership Mentoring (C.A.L.M.) Activities, below.

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Episode Resources

Healthy Minds Innovations

Healthy Minds Innovations

Conscious Attentive Leadership Mentoring

After listening, do these three C.A.L.M. Activities:

Take this risk or do this adventurous task: DOWNLOAD and complete this 6-minute meditation exercise to learn how to direct your attention. You can start each day this week with this meditation as an experimental challenge to focus on the right things at the right time. Take charge throughout the day by noticing when you get distracted and redirect your attention to the task you must complete.

Apply Self-Compassion: Notice your feelings when you get off track. Allow your mind to relax in open awareness observing the sensations in your body and the sounds around you. Gently redirect your attention and continue completing the task at hand.

Welcome Appreciation: “I appreciate being able to prepare a directed attention meditation exercise for you. I appreciate the importance of having mind flexibility and control over where we direct our attention. I appreciate the efforts you are putting in to assert self-leadership through disciplined practices like meditation to improve your mindset. I am grateful to pass on cherished practices that deliver real improvements in our ability to do our lifework and improve our relationships by focusing on what is important.”

Your Turn. Start with, “I appreciate what I learned from Nancy’s directed attention meditation. I appreciate this week’s adventurous task because….”

“Most of the problems in our lives and world are caused by relational dysfunction, a dysfunction in how we relate: as social groups, as individuals, to animals and the environment, and even to ourselves. Therefore, developing relational literacy—the understanding of and ability to practice healthy ways of relating—is essential for personal, social, and ecological transformation.” —Melanie Joy, psychologist, author, theorist, educator

When WeMentor… your life becomes more meaningful!!! Redefine how you lead while redesigning your business. Dual Innovation Leadership WORKS.

Podcast Guest Mentor

Nancy Meyer.

Nancy A. Meyer, M.A., is a seasoned entrepreneurial leader, business and life mentor/coach/teacher, podcaster, author, and certified mindfulness yoga and meditation integrator (she integrates those skill sets into everything she does). Nancy has a compassionate and collaborative approach that reinforces resilience and maintains accountable conversations that support how you redefine how you lead as you redesign your business model.

We collaborate with you to do what will work for YOU in becoming the leader you envision yourself to be! Nancy founded WeMentor, inc. in 1992 to change the leadership in our country by providing emerging and existing business owners with mentoring so they can evolve with their ventures. Nancy calls this Dual Innovation Leadership.

You can redefine how you lead as you redesign your business. We know that Dual Innovation Leadership works because Nancy has mentored thousands and is eager to work with you! Assert self-leadership and get started today!

Clients say, “Nancy is a compelling, engaging, and ‘decipher the trees from the forest’ kind of mentor, speaker, and leader. A dedicated entrepreneurial leader and mentor who role models what she preaches. Her style and candor enrich the content she delivers and the results clients experience.” Nancy accepts people where they are at while inspiring them to breakthrough to new dimensions:

As an Entrepreneurial Leader (Innovator),
As a Small Business Owner (Practitioner),
As a Mentor (Role Model), and
As a Human Being and Master of Self-Leadership.

WeMentor Mondays with Nancy PODCAST. Join your peers and hear meaningful conversations as you evolve how you lead and redesign how you are doing business. SUBSCRIBE HERE!

Episode 334: Direct Your Focus and Eliminate Distraction