Training The Attention Muscle, Key To Strengthening Resilience

In these times of confinement caused by the pandemic, thousands of people are facing a complicated reality both due to economic difficulties and the impossibility of leaving home whenever we want and the risk of contagion.

Therefore, in many cases it is necessary to develop resilience skills, that is, the psychological ability to face crises or catastrophic situations with a constructive mentality and without letting painful emotions paralyze us.

These resilience skills are diverse, and psychologists help enhance many of them in psychotherapy sessions with patients, but in this case we will focus on a very important one during these weeks: the ability to modulate attentional focus

The importance of training the muscle of attention in the face of difficulties

One of the characteristics of sadness is that, if we allow ourselves to be carried away by it indefinitely, we tend to see everything from a clearly pessimistic point of view. This not only makes us feel bad; Furthermore, it continues to feed that emotional state marked by negativity and, more importantly, actions that expose us to more discomfort.

When managing this emotional imbalance, There is a very important element that we often overlook: attention management And where a person suffering from anxiety and pessimism sees a hostile world full of difficulties, there is often, at least in part, a problem in managing the attention focus. If we get used to focusing our mind on the negative, the discomfort will attract more discomfort to us in a vicious circle that we should get out of as soon as possible.

Now… what can we do to improve our attention regulation skills? To do this, we have a very valuable tool: Mindfulness.

Boosting resilience through Mindfulness

Mindfulness, also called Full Attention, is a state of consciousness characterized by making us focus on the present letting go of concerns about the past and the future, and adopting a more distanced perspective free of value judgments.

It is also a series of psychological exercises that we can use to induce that state of consciousness in us. These are practices inspired by the traditional Vipassana meditation of India and the countries close to it, although it differs from it, among other things, in that it is stripped of any religious or mystical element: it forms a therapeutic tool that has been scientifically researched for a long time. decades.

Thus, Mindfulness has several beneficial effects for the mind, most of which are very useful when developing resilience in the face of crises and moments in which we must adapt to complicated and painful situations, such as the death of loved ones, a sudden drop in income, or a layoff from the company we worked for. Of course, in all these cases there is an objective fact that produces emotional pain and that exists outside of us, but through resources such as Mindfulness it is easier to adapt to those circumstances in the best possible way and move forward.

How does this happen? Mindfulness helps us get a “clean slate” when it comes to painful emotions and especially anxiety. For example, if there is a thought that appears again and again in our consciousness and is disturbing or generates anxiety, through Mindfulness practiced regularly we can lose our fear of it, we become desensitized to it and we learn to see it as a Another thought, which like many others, arrives at a certain moment and then goes away. In this way we can focus our attention on more stimulating and constructive aspects of our daily lives.

Furthermore, Mindfulness promotes a philosophy of life based on acceptance of that which cannot be controlled, and action aimed at achieving concrete solutions in that over which one does have control. This combination is very useful where resilience is necessary.

Are you looking for support to face difficult times?

Even during the days of confinement at home, psychologists do not stop working offering professional support to patients. We continue to help people especially through online therapy via video call, a service that many of us have been using for a long time and that has proven effective in addressing the majority of cases.

Therefore, if you are interested in starting a psychotherapy program in which you can learn the principles of Mindfulness and other psychological tools to better regulate your emotions, we invite you to contact us. In PsychoTools We put at your disposal a team of psychologists specialized in different areas of mental health and a professional career spanning many years to adapt to your needs and help you overcome problems such as generalized anxiety, depression, work stress, low self-esteem, psychological traumas, and more. If you are interested in seeing our contact information, access this page.