How to Bring Back Your Focus?
Perhaps the biggest challenge of our time is learning how to regain and hold onto focus. We’re surrounded by endless possibilities - more diverse and tempting than ever before. Whatever it is that draws you in - style, travel, learning, or a healthier life - every step brings a new distraction, demanding your attention in the present moment.
On top of that, we are naturally drawn to the past, pondering our actions, questioning our choices, imagining what might have been different. Sometimes we drift into nostalgia, longing to return to those moments when we were smiling, fulfilled, and truly at peace.
And yet, our minds are often preoccupied with the future: what to do, which choices to make, what would be the best possible scenario for me, what if this or that happens? These are the questions that drain us, making us miss the beauty of the present moment and the life happening all around us.
The hardest part is clearing the mind and staying present with what is happening right now, in this very moment, and embracing what it brings. More often than not, this moment is crowded, and in that cramped space of our attention, everything and anything can appear, even things that don’t belong.
One simple technique to relax your mind and clear your focus is the NLP method called “Clearing the Present.” How do we actually clear the present?
First and foremost, it starts with taking a little time for yourself, pausing in peace to observe everything that is happening in this precious present moment. What is here that doesn’t belong and actually belongs to the past? Once we recognize events, memories, people, desires, or fears that belong to the past, we place them exactly where they belong, in the space of memories or lessons, so that we can access them when needed, whether to recall a memory or to draw a meaningful insight.
Yet in our present moment, there is also plenty that belongs to the future, vying for our attention. When we recognize worries, impatience, unfulfilled desires, and unrealized goals, it’s up to us to place them on the timeline in the future - so we can work on them when the time is right. The future is meant to be created, not to hold us back.
In the end, we remain with a cleared mind, ready to place our focus on the small things that make life so special, often slipping by unnoticed, the school stories of our children, the smile of a flower vendor on the street, the most beautiful sunset, the first snow, and who knows what else. The life that surrounds us is full of wonders, when we are ready to see them.
