Hi Kira Leskew here, how can emotions affect your concentration?
Well, a lot of ways. Stay tuned, I am going to give you an overview in 5 minutes or less.
Here's the scene. You're having a very important conversation with your team, but you feel angry over a meeting
from earlier today that had nothing to do with your team. Then you feel overwhelmed
by the current meeting, due to the lack of performance on their current project, and
it feels like the mountain of work is just pileing up all over you, and growing by the minute. Then
you remember something that happened last week, that someone on the team... and you're not really paying attention.
And then they ask you a question.
Suddenly you realize that you have missed a whole section of the meeting.
They are waiting for an answer but you didn't even hear the question, cause you were consumed
by your emotions. You try to get your focus back to the meeting, but it feels
like you are in 3 places at once: the meeting from this morning, this meeting, and a conversation
that you had last week. AGH!!!
Depending on your level of emotional awareness, and emotional skill, you may or may not even
realize this is happening. If one of these scenarios or many others
happens to you, you are not alone. This is common behavior because dealing with our emotions
can be really tough, and it takes skill and a lot of practice to be able to handle them skillfully.
But the good news is that as you develop your emotional muscles, you will feel greater freedom
from the events in your life, and situations that were once emotionally
charged for you, will have a whole lot less emotion involved. That can really help your
ability to focus in the moment.
Mindfulness is a really great tool for dealing with all emotions, for a variety of reasons. But first
of all, if our emotions are not too intense, then sometimes just naming them out loud
or mentally, if others are around, can really help in lessening them. I have found
that if a particular feeling arises due to a current event, then naming it: frustration,
anger, boredom, can actually make it go away. A few times, I have Laughed Out Loud
because it feels so good to acknowledge how I feel, and the negative feelings leave almost
instantly. Then I can go back to what I was doing with improved concentration.
But sometimes it's not that simple. So in this video, I want to summarize the different issues
that we have that can affect emotions and really detract from the concentration that we already have,
and I will be doing a
separate video on each one. So, check out the cards in the link for this video, for the playlist on Improving Concentration.
So, here's the list.
1. Long-term emotional issues. That's when you have the same feeling over a long period of time.
2. Lack of awareness of how you feel in the moment.
3. When emotions become uncomfortable, or even overwhelming, your mind will wander, and you zone out.
4. Emotions indicate a belief that contradicts
your goals and intentions.
Before we can reduce emotional issues that impair concentration, the first step is being
mindful of emotions, for example being able to identify them. For example: Depression,
happiness, anger, hopefulness, grief, joy, boredom, pessimism, enthusiasm and many others.
If the emotions are truly in the moment, when we identify them, they tend to disapate
very quickly, bringing us back to where we're at, and leaving us able to concentrate.
But if we are tapping into old emotional habits, or emotions that have been suppressed,
then they can be quite strong, and last a long time, which I'm also going to cover in future
videos. Many times, even when we are skilled at this, we may not want to admit our emotions.
This still happens to me, and I have been practicing this for a very long time.
But, it's OK, do your best, and keep at it. If you do that, you will continue to improve.
So, subscribe to this channel to get more videos on improving concentration as they
are posted. I will be explaining the factors that affect it, and give you tips for improving
it in the short term. Also, check out some of the other videos that I have already done, you can find them
in the links in the cards to this video.
They will help you in dealing with some of the other factors that affect concentration.
And finally, I am going to be offering an on-line course on developing concentration, so stay tuned
for that, I will let you know when it's available.
And please leave me your comments or any questions that you have, and I will answer them for you.
So that you can become more mindful which will help you concentrate better.