Tag Archives: wellness

Attention training is the deliberate practice of strengthening your ability to focus, sustain, shift, and control attention, instead of letting it be pulled around by distractions, impulses, or emotional triggers.

In psychology, attention may not be a single skill; it could be a system you can train much like a muscle.

Core Components of Attention Training

1. Sustained Attention
   Staying focused over time (reading without drifting)
2. Selective Attention
   Filtering out distractions (focusing in a noisy room)
3. Executive Control
   Choosing what to focus on and resisting impulses
4. Attentional Shifting
   Moving focus flexibly when needed (task-switching without losing efficiency)

Evidence-Based Attention Training Methods

1. Mindfulness Training

Rooted in practices:

• Focus on the breath or body sensations
• Notice when attention drifts, gently bring it back
• Builds meta-awareness (awareness of attention itself)

Effect: Improves sustained attention and emotional regulation

2. Focused Attention Exercises

• Pick a single object (breath, sound, visual point)
• Maintain attention for a set time (5–10 minutes)
• Restart when distracted

This is like “reps” for your attentional system.

3. Cognitive Training Tasks

Maybe used in neuropsychology and ADHD interventions:

• Continuous Performance Tasks (CPT)
• Dual n-back tasks
• Stroop tasks

Effect: Strengthens executive control and working memory

4. Environmental Structuring

• Remove distractions (phone, notifications)
• Use time blocks (25-minute focus sessions)

This may support attention externally while you build it internally.

5. Attentional Control Training (ACT)

Maybe used in anxiety treatment:

• Deliberately shift attention between stimuli (sound, sight, body)
• Trains flexibility and reduces fixation (rumination)

6. Physical Foundations

Sometimes overlooked but critical:

• Sleep quality
• Exercise (especially aerobic and anaerobic)
• Nutrition: Non-GMO foods, please consult a clinical Dietician

These directly affect attentional capacity and fatigue.

Clinical Applications

Attention training is used for:

• ADHD
• Anxiety disorders (reducing hypervigilance)
• Depression (interrupting rumination)
• Addiction (impulse control)
• Trauma (stabilizing focus and grounding)

A Deeper Insight

From a psychological and parapsychological lens, attention training is essentially about “attentional sovereignty”, regaining control over where consciousness is allocated.

Untrained attention is:

• Reactive
• Fragmented
• Stimulus-driven

Trained attention becomes:

• Intentional
• Stable
• Directed

In fields like Controlled Remote Viewing (CRV), this becomes crucial, because attention is treated not just as cognition, but as a targeting mechanism of awareness.

Simple Daily Protocol (5–15 minutes)

• 5 min: Breath-focused attention
• 5 min: Open monitoring (notice thoughts without engaging)
• Optional: 5 min deliberate shifting (sound, body, visual field)
• Shervan K Shahhian

(CONSULT A NEUROLOGIST)

Mental rehearsal activates many of the same neural systems as real performance.

This is why it’s powerful in performance psychology, sports, therapy, and skill acquisition.

Here’s what it activates:

1. Motor Cortex

(CONSULT A NEUROLOGIST)

The primary motor cortex (in the frontal lobe) becomes active during vivid imagery of movement.

Research shows that imagining lifting your arm activates similar neural circuits as actually lifting it, just at lower intensity.

2. Premotor & Supplementary Motor Areas

(CONSULT A NEUROLOGIST)

These regions plan and sequence movement.

When someone mentally rehearses a tennis serve, surgical procedure, or public speech, these planning circuits fire as if preparing for execution.

3. Cerebellum

(CONSULT A NEUROLOGIST)

Involved in coordination and timing.

Mental practice refines timing patterns, even without physical movement.

4. Basal Ganglia

(CONSULT A NEUROLOGIST)

Supports habit learning and automaticity.

This is why repeated visualization improves smoothness and confidence over time.

5. Autonomic Nervous System

(CONSULT A NEUROLOGIST)

The body partially responds.

For example:

• Heart rate may slightly increase
• Muscles may show subtle activation (EMG detectable)
• Stress hormones can shift

This is why emotional rehearsal (e.g., imagining a stressful interview) can either desensitize or intensify anxiety depending on how it’s done.

6. Emotional & Threat Circuits

If imagery is vivid, the amygdala activates—especially in fear-based rehearsal.

This explains:

• Why trauma flashbacks feel real
• Why confidence imagery reduces performance anxiety
• Why catastrophic rumination strengthens fear pathways

7. Mirror Neuron System

When imagining or observing actions, the brain simulates them internally.

This supports:

• Skill learning
• Empathy
• Behavioral priming

Why This Matters

Mental rehearsal works because:

The brain encodes imagined experience as “real enough” to strengthen neural pathways.

This principle is used in:

• Elite sports psychology
• Surgical training
• Trauma therapy (e.g., imaginal exposure)
• Performance anxiety treatment

Mental rehearsal strengthens whichever circuit is repeatedly activated.

• Rehearsing competence: strengthens mastery networks
• Rehearsing humiliation: strengthens threat prediction
• Rehearsing dissociation: strengthens avoidance pathways

The nervous system doesn’t strongly distinguish between external and vividly simulated internal events.

Shervan K Shahhian