In our previous blog, we discussed the ways trauma impacts the mind and body, as well as how the effects of trauma can cause difficulty concentrating.
Find Your Distractions: You can’t start to work on concentration without discovering what it is that distracts you. More than likely you struggle from one of three kinds of distractions: external distractions, internal distractions, and fear distractions. An external distraction is one of the millions of stimuli outside of yourself which could make you lose focus. You might be easily distracted by sounds, movies, images, people, certain lighting, being in certain environments, and more. When it is time for you to settle in and focus, you’ll want to eliminate these external factors as much as possible.
An internal distraction can be your thoughts, feelings, and sensations. For example, many people have difficulty with meditation because they become distracted by their thoughts when trying to focus on their breath or a mantra. If someone is so upset they are on the brink of breaking down into hysterics, they will have difficulty focusing on what someone else is saying to them. Sensation-distractions are common to people living with ADD or ADHD. When prompted to focus, procrastination can come in the form of hunger, sleepiness, being too cold, or being too hot. As a response to difficulty concentrating, the body provides distractions.
Fear distractions are more emotional in nature and stand out against internal or external distractions. Very often, our fears can become so present that we cannot focus on what in front of us. We have real fears of failure, fears of letting others down, and fears of letting ourselves down. Fears create an internal distraction as our adrenaline gets pumping, anxiety might start stirring, and we become too stressed to focus.
Work With Your Distractions: Too often we are told to work against our distractions to make it as though they no longer existed. Our minds are much smarter than such a simple trick. Rather than work against our distractions, we have to learn to work with our distractions because they will always be present for us. After identifying what our distractions are, we can create strategies to cope with them to the best of our ability.
Working Through Trauma: As we discussed in our previous blog, difficulty concentrating can be caused by unresolved trauma in the mind and the body. Trauma treatment can help heal the many systems of the brain and body affected by trauma, clearing the way for sharper focus and better concentration.
Trauma is most often the root cause of many emotional, behavioral, and mood disorders. Until you can heal your trauma, you will find great difficulty finding the healing you need to live a life of recovery, health, and wellness. At Khiron House, we provide effective residential treatment and cutting edge therapies which seek to transform mind, body, and spirit from the effects of trauma. Call us today for information. UK: 020 3811 2575 (24 hours) USA: (866) 801 6184 (24 hours).