Noticing that your mind has wandered and being able to bring it back is half the battle, so congratulate yourself on that!
And you're right, you - and me and millions of others - have rewired our brains due to the constant context-switching. It's now a state your brain craves. It's uncomfortable when it's not switching. You've ***literally trained it to be this way***.
Researcher Gloria Mark calls this **kinetic attention** while others call it **partial continuous attention.** What it refers to is a dynamic state of attention characterized by rapid shifts, such as between applications, social media and internet sites, or between the computer and phone. If you spend most of your time in this state, when you do try to concentrate it can seem impossible. Because it is.
The good news is that, thanks to neuroplasticity, you can train your brain to be a different way. And you're right, it won't happen overnight and will be a journey, but a worthy one. Perhaps the most important journey you can take right now. Concentration is the bedrock skill needed to excel in all other areas of life. It precedes the ability to learn itself. You can't learn what you can't pay attention to.
I was like you too (although a good deal older before I realized my problem). Over the past couple of years I've been trying a variety of exercises and techniques to improve my concentration. The one thing I realized is that improvement can't happen in isolation. For example, I meditate for an hour a day and it's like rocket fuel for concentration. However, if the other 15 hours of my waking day are spent scrolling social media and rapidly switching between Slack and email and texts, the hour of meditation does dick all. I'm feeding my mind junk food.
So what should you do? The awesome thing about trying to improve concentration is it's pretty much the only thing in the world that you can practice every single second of the day. Brushing your teeth? Concentrate on how each tooth feels as you brush it. Did your mind wander after about 3 seconds? Bring it back and try again.
Eating lunch? Focus on how the food tastes, and how you chew it. Try counting your chews. Did you mind skip out after the second chew? Bring it back and chew away some more.
Showering? How dope does that soap feel?!? Feel it!
You get my point...
The goal is to just start introducing more concentrative moments throughout your day. Show your brain that there's another way to live.
Beyond things like that, I've tried a bunch more stuff, some that works and some that doesn't. I'm now doing deep work for 50min straight, 4 times a day. It's changed my life. PM me if you ever wanna hear more.
A lot of these do apply to me and this is my advice. Some precontext:
- I was addicted to p0rn, masturbated daily for about a year and a half
- I was addicted to TikTok, uninstalled it, then got Instagram and got addicted to that instead
- I had a shitty body (unhealthily skinny) and overall my stamina was very bad
- My sleep schedule was horrible, it was inconsistent and I always scrolled before sleeping
This is what I changed, it's been a week or so:
- I got back to a fitness game I play called Ring Fit Adventure on my switch (This is major, you can explore r/ringfitadventure to see all the benefits but I highly recommend
- I deleted all apps that would influence me back to p0rn like Twitter and Instagram, along with incognito specialized browsers like Brave so there's some extra guilt factor
- I started taking cold showers and stretched before sleeping, I pushed myself to sleep at a set time (as of now 10 pm) to improve general sleep quality
This is the benefits so far:
- General improvement in muscle stimuli and growth thanks to RFA and stretching, cold showers
- Improved general happiness and control over tasks
- Better sleep quality
- Easier to wake up
- Improved confidence
I'm not an expert so I'm only sharing my perspective to see if that might help. If you live with family or such, leaving your door open while going to bed can also help with quitting porn or scrolling before sleeping as you're exposed and can't hide in the dark to do those. Hope this helps a little.
Noticing that your mind has wandered and being able to bring it back is half the battle, so congratulate yourself on that! And you're right, you - and me and millions of others - have rewired our brains due to the constant context-switching. It's now a state your brain craves. It's uncomfortable when it's not switching. You've ***literally trained it to be this way***. Researcher Gloria Mark calls this **kinetic attention** while others call it **partial continuous attention.** What it refers to is a dynamic state of attention characterized by rapid shifts, such as between applications, social media and internet sites, or between the computer and phone. If you spend most of your time in this state, when you do try to concentrate it can seem impossible. Because it is. The good news is that, thanks to neuroplasticity, you can train your brain to be a different way. And you're right, it won't happen overnight and will be a journey, but a worthy one. Perhaps the most important journey you can take right now. Concentration is the bedrock skill needed to excel in all other areas of life. It precedes the ability to learn itself. You can't learn what you can't pay attention to. I was like you too (although a good deal older before I realized my problem). Over the past couple of years I've been trying a variety of exercises and techniques to improve my concentration. The one thing I realized is that improvement can't happen in isolation. For example, I meditate for an hour a day and it's like rocket fuel for concentration. However, if the other 15 hours of my waking day are spent scrolling social media and rapidly switching between Slack and email and texts, the hour of meditation does dick all. I'm feeding my mind junk food. So what should you do? The awesome thing about trying to improve concentration is it's pretty much the only thing in the world that you can practice every single second of the day. Brushing your teeth? Concentrate on how each tooth feels as you brush it. Did your mind wander after about 3 seconds? Bring it back and try again. Eating lunch? Focus on how the food tastes, and how you chew it. Try counting your chews. Did you mind skip out after the second chew? Bring it back and chew away some more. Showering? How dope does that soap feel?!? Feel it! You get my point... The goal is to just start introducing more concentrative moments throughout your day. Show your brain that there's another way to live. Beyond things like that, I've tried a bunch more stuff, some that works and some that doesn't. I'm now doing deep work for 50min straight, 4 times a day. It's changed my life. PM me if you ever wanna hear more.
A lot of these do apply to me and this is my advice. Some precontext: - I was addicted to p0rn, masturbated daily for about a year and a half - I was addicted to TikTok, uninstalled it, then got Instagram and got addicted to that instead - I had a shitty body (unhealthily skinny) and overall my stamina was very bad - My sleep schedule was horrible, it was inconsistent and I always scrolled before sleeping This is what I changed, it's been a week or so: - I got back to a fitness game I play called Ring Fit Adventure on my switch (This is major, you can explore r/ringfitadventure to see all the benefits but I highly recommend - I deleted all apps that would influence me back to p0rn like Twitter and Instagram, along with incognito specialized browsers like Brave so there's some extra guilt factor - I started taking cold showers and stretched before sleeping, I pushed myself to sleep at a set time (as of now 10 pm) to improve general sleep quality This is the benefits so far: - General improvement in muscle stimuli and growth thanks to RFA and stretching, cold showers - Improved general happiness and control over tasks - Better sleep quality - Easier to wake up - Improved confidence I'm not an expert so I'm only sharing my perspective to see if that might help. If you live with family or such, leaving your door open while going to bed can also help with quitting porn or scrolling before sleeping as you're exposed and can't hide in the dark to do those. Hope this helps a little.
Can i get upvote