Adaptation, habit, learning, plasticity allow us to reinvent ourselves for survival, whether biological or intellectual in a broad sense (I am referring to the capacity to make our thoughts, points of view or decisions more flexible when we seek agreement with other people).

We can see adaptation in how we become accustomed to the weight of clothing on the body, in the way we incorporate new cultures or routines. These are changes that can occur unconsciously or consciously; sometimes to keep up with the times, and sometimes to achieve what we want to do or to become who we want to be.

First it is learned, then it is repeated and becomes a habit. By sustaining it over time, that profound change takes place: plasticity, transformation. Once something has been learned, it remains available as a resource, ready to be activated when we need it. Think, for example, of the ability to concentrate.

There are tasks that require very little attention, but others require 100%. If we do not invest that energy, we may not achieve the expected result, or we may take much longer to achieve it and spend more resources than necessary.

Habit and learning also apply to concentration. We can learn to focus the mind when we wish and to abstract ourselves from what is happening around us, to generate a state of full concentration.

You can start training your concentration without the need for it to be useful at that moment. As a game. Choose a moment of the day, it can be at your desk at work, and fix your gaze on a point in front of you -an image, a mark on the wall or an object on the table-. If you see that you get scattered, change the object on which you are focusing. Hold the exercise for a couple of minutes. You will notice how the environment begins to blur. Once you have trained your abstraction capacity, it is time to keep your attention on the chosen point.

In this way we train our mind and thinking. And when the time comes when you need more attention and concentration, the habit will already be in you: your head will know what you are proposing and will follow your game ;)

Think of a magnifying glass directing sunlight. ☀️🔍

The light, when scattered, illuminates softly but without much impact. When it is concentrated through the magnifying glass, the energy becomes so intense that it can generate fire.

This is also how our attention works. When it is dispersed, it is diluted by a thousand stimuli and loses its power. When it is trained to concentrate voluntarily, it becomes a force capable of transforming not only the reality around us, but also our internal world.

We live in an age of information overload, where the ability to stay focused is increasingly rare and, precisely because of this, increasingly valuable.

To have focused consciousness is to be present in what matters, without getting lost in distractions, without wasting energy on what is not relevant to your goals.

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How do you know if you're distracted?

Some signs are quite obvious, others go unnoticed:

• Constantly changing tasks without completing any.
• Starting to read something and, a few minutes later, not remembering what you read.
• Interrupting what you're doing to check messages or social media just a minute and losing half an hour.
• Finding it difficult to keep your mind in the present, even at important moments.
• Reaching the end of the day with a feeling of mental fatigue, but without having made any progress on what really mattered.

Recognizing these signs is the first step towards reversing the situation.

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How to train focused awareness

Focus is not a gift you are born with, but a skill that can (and should) be trained:

1. **Define what is a priority. You can't focus on everything at once; choose what really deserves your attention now.
2. **Establish blocks of time without interruptions: silence notifications, close unnecessary tabs, create an environment that favors concentration.
3. **Use focus techniques. Breathe deeply before starting a task and bring your mind to the present moment.
4. **Take conscious breaks. Focus also needs rest. Short breaks help maintain mental clarity.
5. **Train daily. Just as the body gains strength through regular exercise, attention is strengthened through constant practice.

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Now imagine what it would be like to live a whole day with this directed strength:

✔️ More productive: you end the day with the real feeling of mission accomplished.

✔️ Less dispersed: what once seemed urgent loses ground to what is really important.

✔️ With your mind aligned with what matters: you stop reacting automatically and start acting with clarity and intention.

Training focused awareness is not just a matter of productivity. It's a path to more presence, more self-control and more quality in every experience of your life.

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How the DeRose Method helps in this process

Within the DeRose Method, focused awareness is trained through body and mind techniques that train the body, emotions and mind in an integrated way. These include:

• ásanas (body techniques) that develop physical and mental stability.
• pránáyámas (breathing techniques) to expand energy and mental clarity.
• Mudras (gestures) that direct attention.
• Concentration and meditation to deepen self-knowledge.
• Mindfulness training in everyday life, applying the concepts outside of formal practice.

The result is a more natural, stable and available state of focus for any situation, be it work, study, sport or personal life.

**If your attention is the fuel of your life, the DeRose Method is the workshop where you learn to refine it, enhance it and use it to create the reality you want.

Good practice!

The high percentage of automatism in our reactions has a reason: our brain at rest is responsible for consuming 20% of the body's energy. If we have to do a lot of thinking, this percentage rises considerably.

In other words, a certain mental law of least effort is important in order to save energy. However, this sometimes leads to automatic behaviors that prevent us from achieving our desired goals.

That's why it's important to have practices that maximize the use of our mind, such as mindfulness and meditation.

**CONDITIONING: STAY ALERT!

Conditioning can create some obstacles that make it difficult to achieve your goals:

1. ADDICTED MENTAL MODELS

for example, if you have the mental model of always maintaining a frown, this will prevent new people from contacting you, because the message they receive is that you are unfriendly, hostile.

2. LACK OF FOCUS

A scattered mind is one that doesn't use its full potential for achievement. We all have a superlative capacity for achievement, but if we don't manage to concentrate this energy on achieving our goals, we will have wasted a considerable portion of our potential.

3. EMOTIONAL INSTABILITY

this is responsible for the loss of clients, the dilapidation of partnerships, the destruction of careers, the compromising of friendships and the collapse of emotional relationships.

4. LOW BODY AWARENESS

We have little awareness of our internal processes and our physiology, which means we don't realize when an organ isn't working properly. In our training sessions, we then pay attention to the internal feel of our blood circulation and then to awareness of the functioning of the organs.

When we have negative automatic conditioning, we end up not achieving what we want. When we break them, we make room for new behaviors that will trigger success and, with it, new experiences that feed back into that virtuous circle.

EXERCISE TIP: Reinforcement for a productive day

When you wake up, stretch one leg and then the other, as if you wanted to stretch and grow one side at a time. Then both at the same time, stretching and extending your legs and arms at the same time.

Then sit down without putting too much strain on your spine and abdominals, supporting yourself with your arms and lifting yourself up without any sudden movements. This also applies to sportspeople. Preserve your spine.

Sit as you like, but remember to keep your spine upright. Then take a few deep, nasal breaths and concentrate on the exercise ahead. Close your eyes and visualize on your mental screen a clear, objective image that represents exactly what you want to achieve this coming day. Concentrate on this image for at least 5 and no more than 10 minutes.

Text inspired by Professor DeRose's book Meditation.

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Do you have any questions or need help getting started? Call us.

Training meditation is, to a large extent, training concentration. A simple meditation exercise is to imagine a geometric figure and try to keep that image present without getting distracted.

In very brief moments we will inevitably get distracted. The distractions that arise will be of one of these three types: physical, emotional, or mental.

A physical distraction can be, for example, that the knees start to hurt, the back gets tired, or the neck bothers us. Physical sensations that take the focus of attention that we were trying to maintain on a certain thought and bring it towards the body.

An emotional distraction is a little more subtle. For example, we may feel anxiety or boredom. Perhaps a feeling of sadness surfaces. Or if we had a bad day and we are in a bad mood, it becomes difficult to direct attention towards the object of concentration.

Mental distractions are thoughts. We remember something, we start thinking about something else. We make associations. We direct attention to memories of the past or projections of the future.

To reduce these distractions and advance in meditation training, all these aspects (physical, emotional and mental) have to be worked on. Performing a comprehensive work of the individual is crucial if we want to obtain true results with this technique.