Unleashing the Power of Focus
Blog
“And it’s a wrap!”
Lost? Okay, let me rewind to the beginning of the power packed Saturday of June.
On this cool, pleasant Saturday morning, while most of Bangalore was still resting, we were already enroute to Alpine Public School, bubbling to the brim with excitement. We reached the venue, to the fully set up classroom, courtesy Ms. Jaya Shastry, Principal of Alpine Public School and Ms. Archana, the efficient wing commander.
As teachers started pouring in, charged up for this intensive training session, out came the training kits neatly wrapped in environment friendly packets and into the hands on this enthusiastic group of teachers.
Right on time, Ms. Fathima Khader, Teacher trainer and founder of EvolveED began the training with a quick ice breaker. Following this, the teachers set out on a journey to understand attention, to become aware of where and how it was, how to bring it back with simple contemplative practices.
What is Attention, in its true essence and flavor? Rick Hanson says, “Attention shapes the brain.” Really, is Attention that powerful? Let us dwell a little deeper into a hotly studied unique but fundamental phenomenon called ‘Experience- dependent neuroplasticity.’ Brain is a muscle, an organ that is continually learning. Continuous, regular and sustained and most importantly conscious exposure to a stimuli will modify, reshape and perhaps even rebuild the brain. How does this happen? All mental activities can be summarised to underlying neural activity. Geography taught me that when a stream follows the same path with force for a reasonable amount of time, it carves a beautiful riverbed for itself! That is exactly what happens in the brain. When it is exposed to the same stimuli for a considerable amount of time, consciously it builds a new neural network. Essentially, everyday your brain is re-building itself. Coming back to our original precept, Attention is the key to unlocking all the doors you’d want to.
Last Spring, we launched a classroom aid, “Focus Tool Kit,” a toolkit that brings together principles of Mindfulness with the intention of building students’ Focus. Thich Naht Hahn defines Mindfulness as “maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment. Mindfulness also involves acceptance, meaning that we pay attention to our thoughts and feelings without judging them” Mindfulness rests on the core of sharpening one’s attention, being aware and present in the current moment, present to your thoughts, emotions, feelings, states of mind, those around you, being completely in the moment. How often do we achieve this state? Have you had that moment when you really, like genuinely listened to a piece of information and how it is engraved in your mind? Now imagine if we did this regularly, the amount of information we will be able to absorb and the potentials we can unlock are better left to imagination. (?)
Research shows that practicing Mindfulness modified the whole brain. It increases the grey matter in the brain, which means a thicker cortex—in three key regions: prefrontal areas behind the forehead that control attention; the insula, which we use for tuning into ourselves and others; and the hippocampus. Your experiences don’t just grow new synapses, remarkable as that is by itself, but also somehow reach down into your genes—into little strips of atoms in the twisted molecules of DNA inside the nuclei of neurons – and change how they operate.
The Focus Tool Kit, which moves into 3 stages, relies on this research backdrop to blend in principles of Mindfulness into playful and fun activities for the students. The teachers are trained on the conceptual framework of the Focus Tool Kit and also the practical applications of the Focus Tool Kit.
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