How To Improve Concentration And Memory Buddha-Style

[image error]There are few things more frustrating than forgetting a single, important detail. Especially when you’re in the middle of something as important as recalling a hilarious joke.

You’ve prepared the perfect anecdote, yet, you can’t retrieve it the single most important part from your memory. You can remember the newspaper where you read it. You can even remember the look of the page where the information was found, including images and other small details.

And yet, in your mind’s eye …

 

That One Piece Of Information Is Painfully Out Of Reach!

 

But don’t worry. You’re not losing your memory. Your inability to remember is likely related to the level of concentration you used at the time you read the passage.  This is because concentration is key to memory recall. (In case you want to look it up on Wikipedia, concentration is also known by the slightly less sexy term,  “attentional control.”)

Good concentration is necessary for creating complete memories. Lack of attention to detail leads to difficulty remembering crucial and important pieces of information. Although having excellent concentration may not necessarily lead to better memory, concentration is essential to well-formed and useful recall of information.

But in a time with so much valuable information at our fingertips, there are more barriers for our concentration than ever. The notification-saturated world of the the internet constantly attacks our focus. This reality has led some teachers to worry that students are growing up with decreased attention spans.

Thankfully, there is a powerful and scientifically proven method to improving concentration. What’s more, this method has been practiced for thousands of years.

Best of all, it’s something anyone can take up, at no cost, with no fancy equipment, and no extensive training.

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This 3,500 Year Old Technique Will Improve Your Concentration

 

The mind is a powerful thing.

Perhaps no other group of minds demonstrates this more strongly than experienced Buddhist monks.

These monks dedicate their lives to following the Buddhist 8-fold path to enlightenment. The path involves doing good, serving others, and extensive meditation.

Enlightenment is the ultimate state of mind. When enlightened, a meditator finally achieves a complete stillness of the mind and inner peace.

Although meditation has existed for over 3,500 years, the scientific community has only been studying meditation for over 50 years (Thomas and Cohen, 2013).

Nonetheless, research on meditation has demonstrated impressive potential and even stunning feats.

In one mind-defying example, Buddhist monks have been recorded controlling their body temperatures through a meditative practice called “g-tummo”. In controlled scientific tests, experienced monks were able to dry cold and moist sheets (Kozhevnikov et al. 2013).

These sheets were placed around each monk’s body, and were dried within an hour. This process was made possible through body heat produced by the monks while in their meditative state of “g-tummo”. Some witnesses of similar experiments report seeing steam emerge from the sheets while they dried (Kozhevnikov et al. 2013).

Researchers also measured the monks’ body temperatures, which rose by as much as 17 degrees Celcius.

 

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How is this possible?

 

No one quite understands the biological mechanisms behind meditation just yet.

But study after study demonstrates that meditation has far-reaching benefits – including for concentration and memory.

Indeed, meditation is perhaps the only mental exercise with so much evidence of its ability to improve cognition and focus.

And you don’t even have to be a monk to start using this tool to better your own mind, body, and soul.

The Long way To Better Concentration

 

As with everything, there’s an easy way and a hard way. Science doesn’t skip over the hard way and investigates everything (crazy right?).

Looking for links between meditation and cognition, researchers from the University of California, Davis, recruited 60 people for a study. Half were assigned to a meditation retreat to practice mindfulness meditation for an average of five hours a day for three months.

These participants were committed. Not only did they volunteer three months of their time t, but they also paid $5,300 to attend the retreat.

The other 30 were used as a control group and placed on a waiting list. This was to rule out that the passage of time alone was not to blame for any differences between the groups.

Both groups were asked to watch a series of lines flash on a screen. Participants were to click a mouse when they saw a line that was shorter than the others. This detail-oriented test forced participants to focus intently. Researchers found that those who meditated were significantly more likely to see increasingly small differences in the lines (Maclean et al. 2010).

In other words, the meditation group were better able to focus in on small details through their improved concentration (Maclean et al. 2010).

But not everyone has the time to undergo a three month meditation retreat. So, where’s the shortcut for the majority of us who want the benefits without the commitment?

Science has a solution.

 

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The Easy Way To Better Concentration

 

As benefits to cognition had been observed for longer-term meditation, researchers were curious to see whether less effort could be effective (Zeidan et al. 2010).

In a study conducted at the University of North Carolina, a group of 49 students volunteered for a meditation study. None of them had prior experience meditating.

24 participants were randomly assigned to meditation, while 25 were assigned to listening to an audiobook. Each group performed their activity for 20 minutes, four times a week, for one week under laboratory supervision.

At the end of the one week experiment, the meditation group experienced significant improvements in concentration compared to their audiobook counterparts (Zeidan et al. 2010).

It’s important to note that this research has a few limitation. These results were seen in college students and may not extended to older adults. Also, there is no indication that this is as effective as longer-term and longer-duration mediation (Zeidan et al. 2010).

However, it is encouraging that immediate benefits to practicing short-term meditation were observed. This means that you don’t have to wait a few months before you can start benefiting from your practice. Within a week of consistent meditation, you can start to experience improved concentration.

 

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But Will It Really Improve Your Memory?

 

If the meditation-to-concentration-to-memory link seems shaky to you, don’t abandon meditation just yet. The link is more direct: meditation has also been shown to improve memory.

A randomized controlled test studied the effects of meditation on the working memory capacity in adolescents.

Around 200 teenagers were recruited and assigned to either a mindfulness meditation practice, yoga, or were waitlisted as a control group. The groups meditated or practiced yoga once a day for 15-30 minutes. These were accompanied by two formal teaching sessions twice a week.

By the end of the study, teenagers participating in the meditation group had significantly better outcomes than their yoga counterparts. Particularly in terms of their working memory capacity (Quach et al 2015).

But Meditation Doesn’t Just Improve Memory For The Young!

 

Another study looked at the effects of mindfulness training in adult-aged college students studying for their GRE tests. Sure enough, the meditating participants experienced less mind-wandering and increase working memory capacity. This result was achieved with only two weeks of meditating ten minutes per day (Mrazek et al 2013).

By now, you must be getting excited about meditation’s potential to super-charge your cognition. Calm your mind for now and read on about how to get started on your practice.

How To Meditate For Better Concentration

 

There are as many ways to meditate as there are Buddhist monks.

By stripping away the religious practices, a secular, simple, and one-size-fits-all solution to meditation is available.

To start meditating, just follow these steps:

Find a quiet spot, empty of distractions.
Set a timer for the amount of time you want to meditate. Start with five minutes and move up from there.
Sit on a chair or on the floor, whichever is more comfortable.
Close your eyes and focus on your breath; on where it feels the strongest. When thoughts enter your mind, don’t reject them. Simply acknowledge them and gently return your attention to your breath.

If meditating in silence is too difficult, you can try a large variety of guided meditations. These include phone apps, such as Headspace and Breathe.

No research has been done showing any benefit to meditation less than four times a week. To get the most out of it, aim to meditate as consistently as you can, at least a few times per week.

And if you’d like a more advanced approach to meditation (the one I use most often), check out The Five Fold Path To Memory Improvement.

Enough Reflection, It’s Time For Action

 

Improving your concentration is a step towards improving your memory. Meditation is a powerful tool for improving concentration and bettering your cognition.

Especially in an age of endless distractions and heightened stress, incorporating practices to re-focus your mind is important.

For some, daily meditation might seem like an impractical use of time. However, think about the time you waste, lost in thought, unfocused, and scatter-brained. With that in mind, it’s easy to understand how meditation yields impressive dividends for a relatively small investment in time.

Results are not instantaneous, but you can be sure that they’re scientifically backed.

Carve out ten minutes today for your first meditation session. Your mind will thank you.

 

Further Resources

 

How To Improve Memory And Concentration By Reducing Stress.

3 Ridiculously Boring Ways To Add Focus And Excitement To Your Life.

Kozhevnikov, Maria, James Elliott, Jennifer Shephard, and Klaus Gramann. “Neurocognitive and Somatic Components of Temperature Increases during G-Tummo Meditation: Legend and Reality.” PLoS ONE (2013). Pubmed. Web. 28 Dec. 2015. .

Maclean, K. A., E. Ferrer, S. R. Aichele, D. A. Bridwell, A. P. Zanesco, T. L. Jacobs, B. G. King, E. L. Rosenberg, B. K. Sahdra, P. R. Shaver, B. A. Wallace, G. R. Mangun, and C. D. Saron. “Intensive Meditation Training Improves Perceptual Discrimination and Sustained Attention.” Psychological Science (2010): 829-39. Upaya. Web. 29 Dec. 2015.

Mrazek, M. D., M. S. Franklin, D. T. Phillips, B. Baird, and J. W. Schooler. “Mindfulness Training Improves Working Memory Capacity and GRE Performance While Reducing Mind Wandering.” Psychological Science (2013): 776-81. Sage Pub. Psychological Science. Web. 29 Dec. 2015.

Quach, Dianna, Kristen E. Jastrowski Mano, and Kristi Alexander. “A Randomized Controlled Trial Examining the Effect Of Mindfulness Meditation on Working Memory Capacity In Adolescents.” Journal of Adolescent Health. Science Direct. Elsevier. Web. 29 Dec. 2015.

Thomas, John W., and Marc Cohen. “A Methodological Review of Meditation Research.” Frontiers in Psychiatry Front. Psychiatry (2014). PMC. PMC. Web. 29 Dec. 2015.

Zeidan, Fadel, Susan K. Johnson, Bruce J. Diamond, Zhanna David, and Paula Goolkasian. “Mindfulness Meditation Improves Cognition: Evidence of Brief Mental Training.” Consciousness and Cognition (2010): 597-605. Print.