Lost in a swirl of thoughts and can't seem to reclaim your focus? Don't fret, I've got your back! I, Karalee, am here to guide you on a journey to rediscover your focus in this episode of Neurodivergent Bytes. We'll begin by understanding what 'focus' truly signifies and examine why understanding the purpose behind your task can serve as a powerful motivator, even if it also stirs up the occasional procrastination.
We'll delve into techniques like journaling and verbalizing your thoughts to process and eliminate distractions. If your thoughts are still chaotic, we'll explore how meditation can help slow down your thought process and let you refocus. We'll discuss the Brain.fm app, a wonderful aid for meditation, and shed light on 'hyperfocus' and how to leverage it for efficient task completion. If you're still finding it challenging, we'll examine possible reasons why you might be feeling out of sync with your task. So, brace yourself, grab your notebook and let's embark on this journey to conquer your focus hurdles together!
Have a question, want to chat with Karalee? Send a text to (419) 721-6037 and let's chat!
BONUS, want added to the email list to not miss out on all the goodies, sign up HERE.
Lost in a swirl of thoughts and can't seem to reclaim your focus? Don't fret, I've got your back! I, Karalee, am here to guide you on a journey to rediscover your focus in this episode of Neurodivergent Bytes. We'll begin by understanding what 'focus' truly signifies and examine why understanding the purpose behind your task can serve as a powerful motivator, even if it also stirs up the occasional procrastination.
We'll delve into techniques like journaling and verbalizing your thoughts to process and eliminate distractions. If your thoughts are still chaotic, we'll explore how meditation can help slow down your thought process and let you refocus. We'll discuss the Brain.fm app, a wonderful aid for meditation, and shed light on 'hyperfocus' and how to leverage it for efficient task completion. If you're still finding it challenging, we'll examine possible reasons why you might be feeling out of sync with your task. So, brace yourself, grab your notebook and let's embark on this journey to conquer your focus hurdles together!
Have a question, want to chat with Karalee? Send a text to (419) 721-6037 and let's chat!
BONUS, want added to the email list to not miss out on all the goodies, sign up HERE.
Hello, hello, welcome back to neurodivergent bites. I am your host, kareli, and today we're going to be talking about focus and, specifically, when you can't focus, how in the world do you get back to being able to focus, to get shit done, okay? So it's very important to understand what the actual definition of focus is before we can even get started. Essentially is the center of interest or activity. It's the thing that you need to get done, okay. It also helps us to focus when we know why we need to get it done. Okay. Why does this thing that you know you need to focus on need to get done? All right, it can be a driving force, or it can do the opposite, sometimes to make us procrastinate.
Speaker 1:
I'm going to jump right on in today and get right down to what we're focusing on, so that you can actually get to what you need to focus on. You need to focus on something and your focus has gone elsewhere. I want you to sit down and I want you to journal it out, or I want you to talk it out. It can be to no one, to the air. It can be to a human, it can be to a journal or a notebook. Right, I want you to get it out, either by writing it down or by talking it out. Okay, our brain processes things in a way, because there is something that is blocking you from being able to focus on that thing that you really want to focus on. Okay, and what helps me is by getting things out of my brain that are clouding my focus, my desire, my passion to get those other things done. It's literally just a disconnect in most cases, at least with me is that there's other things that are just clouding my brain. So, after you have done this journaling exercise and or you're speaking with something, you should feel a lot better. Okay, I'm not focused yet, but you should feel a lot better. And if you still have a bunch of thoughts and things that are just spinning around in your brain, that's totally normal. Writing things out or talking them out only gets me feeling so much better. Sometimes right, sometimes, that's all I need. Other times not so much. So if I still need something else to get back to focusing, I'll jump into meditation. Okay, I have never been a huge fan of meditation, but I but I have found that when my brain is going 100 miles an hour and I really need to just have it slow down to focus, whether that be on sleep, whether that be on tasks, whether that be on my kids or my husband, whatever that is. Sometimes I just need something to focus on. Ironically, I need something that is very music to focus on, right? It's natural in nature or things like that. So I meditate.
Speaker 1:
Now, meditation I have to have something to focus on. I can't just sit in silence when I meditate because my brain is already going 500 miles an hour. Now, it's just now. I'm just more aware of how many thoughts are really in my brain. So I actually use an app called brainfm and it has a meditation aspect to it. There's guided and unguided. I, depending on the day, depends on which one I do, but I tend to use the unguided one where I find the meditation.
Speaker 1:
It's a meditation that feels very good to me. It feels very calming, and then I just literally, like I can literally feel my brain going in and out. It's getting just pulled away by the thoughts that are swirling around everywhere and then it's getting brought back down into. I can just focus on the music and then it's going up and down like a roller coaster, right, and eventually the roller coaster isn't so up and down, right. It's not so highs and lows, right. It kind of like it levels out a little bit and I'm able to simply focus on that music, that meditation, and when I'm able to do that, it works almost every single time. Honestly, it's only not worked like once or twice, and I think that's because I said it wasn't going to work. So there is that Our mind is very powerful. So once I'm able to kind of focus in on that, I normally sit there and just chill, relax, like, and just focus on those sounds that are very calming to me. Okay, and I'm also sitting very still. Okay, let's keep that in mind. We're not doing something while we're meditating. Right, meditating, we normally close our eyes. We are sitting in a chair, on a bed or something like that, like we're in a calm area.
Speaker 1:
You could be out in nature when you do meditation, whatever feels good to you, play around with it too, and then you're able to kind of like, after your brain has calmed down, I want you to then go back to that thing that you're trying to focus on, okay, and Start thinking about, like, what is that next step? See if the thing that was the disconnect, right. See if that disconnect is now gone Between your focus on the task and everything else going on in your brain. See, if that disconnect is gone and if it is Amazing, like 90% of the time, that's all I need to do to really get things moving and back on track. If you have successfully been able to now focus on that task, you have probably almost entered a hyper focus. This happens to me occasionally as well, and so when I'm able to hyper focus on something, I get it done in half the time. We're able to like collapse time, and I feel like, with this method, like you're clearing your brain out, then you're calming your brain down into a focused mode and then but you have been doing it with one specific thing in mind Of focusing back on this task, right, and so when you're focused back on on this task, essentially you've hyper focused into this task.
Speaker 1:
Okay, so let's talk about what the term hyper focus even means. So, to hyper focus on something, it's a type of focus and it's a highly focused attention that lasts a long time. You normally concentrate on something so hard that you actually lose track of everything else going on around you. All right, so this is very common with ADHD and things like that. So I, I absolutely have hyper focus at times. I do have ADHD. Essentially, it's just a very focused time period, whether it's a hyper focus or just an intense focus. Either way, this sort of method has been super, super beneficial to me.
Speaker 1:
Okay, so let's say that you have done all of these things and you're like clearly this, like I'm still not focused. Okay, because it happens more than likely. That means that you feel very out of alignment with what your task is, that you need to actually be doing. Okay, what that thing is that you're supposed to be focusing on, you feel very out of alignment with it. You either don't have the energy or capacity to complete it, like there is a disconnect in a different way. Okay, so if that might be the case, I need you to go back, and I need you to go back to that journaling, because at journaling, you might have actually realized why there's a disconnect.
Speaker 1:
And if it, and if you have not figured out the disconnect in that first set of journaling, I want you to sit down and be like why does this task Feel out of alignment to me? Like why do I not want to do this task? Okay, and I want you to focus in on the Amount of energy you have, the amount of drive that you have to do this task. Like what is it that is doesn't feel in alignment for you, because I, I feel like 90% of the time when we're trying to focus on something that doesn't feel in alignment, our body and our brain is Just like but why? Like, I don't want to do this. This doesn't bring me anything, you know, and this happens a lot when we're in a nine to five. This happens a lot when we are in out of alignment and what we're doing in our business, like, there are so many reasons why we can't focus, other than our brain just has five million Things going through it.
Speaker 1:
Okay, there are tools, resources, techniques and humans that you can use to help you narrow back in on your focus. It could be that you have an eight today, okay. Or you haven't ate well today. It could be that you don't have enough water. It could be that you Didn't get enough sleep last night, okay. There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to going back to focus, all right, so I want you to be in tune with your body as well.
Speaker 1:
What is your body saying that it needs to be able to focus right? Is it saying that, oh man, I haven't had water all day, but I've had a ton of sugar or coffee or something like that? Like, so, water that's not filtered through coffee beans? Okay, let's be very clear. I want to count this coffee as water, but I cannot. Okay, I put milk and sugar in it. So if it was black coffee, we could get away with a little bit more, but it's not, and we're talking straight water. All right, just for the record, just for clarity for my coffee lovers out there, we're not talking about all those sugar filled drinks. Okay, that does not count as water in the slightest, all right. So, really focusing on what does your body need? So we have focused in on our racing thoughts, how do we slow those down, and everything like that. We have focused in on what is our body need and if none of those things are working, we've also focused on that.
Speaker 1:
So I Want you to take this last little bit here and I want you to really reflect on your energy, your capacity, your alignment and your body. Okay, this is all self awareness practices. Okay, so what is self awareness? It's conscious knowledge. So you're consciously doing this, like you know, of this of one's own character, feelings, motives and desires. This is what I was talking about when I said you might feel out of alignment, you're very like unaware of yourself. So, a self awareness reflection I kind of just told you how to do that when you're journaling and when you're feeling into what your body needs, in your brain and we're calming it and we're narrowing it on the disconnects. Okay, we, these are self awareness practices that we are doing.
Speaker 1:
Okay, so I hope this gave you a little bit to chew on, but not too much if I would love to be able to support you more in this, but we are out of time for today's podcast as I like to keep these under 15 minutes for you busy humans that are, just you know you're killing it. So go ahead and take these practices into account, use these methods and really dig into what you're feeling, the alignment and everything like that. Okay, so until next time, I would love to hear from you. Go ahead and follow me on any of the other social media platforms. You can send me a DM on there as well.
Speaker 1:
If you are like I need some more support and you would love to work together, go ahead and either head to those social media channels or check out the show notes, as there are ways to contact me there. If you are like I just really want more podcast episodes like this, like where you dig deep into these things. You can go ahead and submit podcast requests, and that is also located in the description as well. I would love to be able to create episodes that you like to answer your questions and what you need, and the best way to do that is free to fill out that form in the show notes and be for me to be able to get that on the books for recording. Alright, until next time. In case no one has told you today, you are absolutely amazing and you are seriously destined for great things in your own unique way. Bye for now.
