Understand audiences through Allergy-safe sports performance or Inceases of Liver body cleanse from cojcentration sources. Oatmeal, Increases mental concentration yogurt Increaees fruit, or concentfation toast with eggs are all good breakfast choices. Research BetterUp Labs Innovative research featured in peer-reviewed journals, press, and more. Getting older is out of your control, but healthier living is something you determine, and it may improve concentration. If you're finding it hard to focus and these tips don't help…. What do you hear? Even professional athletes require plenty of time and practice in order to strengthen their concentration skills.

Increases mental concentration -

Low mental energy can easily translate to a drop in physical energy, too. Physical movement might not involve the same level of cognition as, say, solving a math problem or preparing a report.

Still, it requires brainpower. If you consistently feel low on brainpower, try adding some of the following foods to your meals each day:. Regularly eating a balanced diet can help you meet your nutritional needs. This can go a long way toward maintaining your mental energy, instead of simply providing a short-term boost.

Still, a quick snack can often provide a mental pick-me-up. A healthcare professional or dietitian can offer more guidance on creating a meal plan that fits your dietary needs. Your brain also needs water to function, so staying hydrated could have a noticeable impact on mental energy.

According to research exploring the effects of caffeine on cognitive, physical, and workplace performance, between about 40 and milligrams of caffeine can help improve:.

Caffeine might also help improve judgment, memory, and decision-making abilities, but these effects may be somewhat less consistent.

How much caffeine is in your favorite beverage? It varies, depending on brewing strength and other factors. According to a review :. Get the details on caffeine content in other drinks and foods.

According to the American Psychological Association APA , evidence consistently suggests that exercise benefits your mind as well as your body. Beyond helping promote physical health, regular exercise can do a lot to improve:.

According to research , exercise can factor into plenty of long-term brain benefits, too, including:. Plus, a short walk, jog, or bike ride can take you to a new environment, which could help provide a mental reset that further stimulates your brain — more on that below.

Learn the benefits of yin yoga for a mind and body reset. Certain supplements might also help increase mental energy and lead to improvements in memory, thinking, and attention. A few supplements linked to heightened mental energy and brainpower include:.

Just keep in mind that supplements may offer more in the way of long-term benefits. Adding a regular meditation practice to your day could make it easier to mentally recharge and refocus — which can, in turn, help renew energy in the mind and body.

The potential benefits of meditation can include:. New to meditation? These tips can help you get started. Funneling most of your brainpower into a mentally demanding task can sap your energy pretty quickly.

Time in nature can offer plenty of brain benefits, according to the APA , including improved mood and mental energy. Plus, sunlight can trigger the release of serotonin, which can help improve your mood along with your ability to focus.

Even simply stepping out into bright sunlight for a few minutes could leave you feeling a little more alert. It may not surprise you much to learn that stress can affect your mental energy levels.

Having too much to do can often contribute to physical fatigue, after all. Stress prompts the release of the hormone cortisol, which can affect your ability to make decisions, concentrate, and remember information.

Though stress can come from any number of sources, it never hurts to explore your daily or weekly schedule to find a likely point of origin. You might not be able to ignore every task, of course. But consider setting aside some less urgent responsibilities.

It might also be worth asking a friend, family member, or co-worker for support. Any help they can provide might ease some of your burden, which can help relieve stress and improve your mood. As a result, you might feel recharged enough to manage the rest.

You might already know your brain requires a certain amount of quality sleep for optimal function. But do you know how much sleep you actually need? Most adults need between 7 and 9 hours of sleep each night, though your specific sleep needs can vary.

Sleep also gives your brain the time it needs to store information, get rid of waste, and carry out other important body processes. You might feel dull, distracted, and even have trouble regulating your emotions.

But beyond a short-term drop in mental energy, sleep deprivation can have more serious consequences for your mental and physical well-being over time.

Find 17 tips to improve your sleep here. A consistent lack of mental energy can sometimes suggest an underlying mental health concern, like depression.

Professional support can make it easier to identify potential reasons for low mental energy and begin exploring solutions.

Crystal Raypole writes for Healthline and Psych Central. Her fields of interest include Japanese translation, cooking, natural sciences, sex positivity, and mental health, along with books, books, and more books.

She lives in Washington with her son and a lovably recalcitrant cat. Our experts continually monitor the health and wellness space, and we update our articles when new information becomes available.

Ever felt like your mind could use a deep cleaning? Think of your attention as a spotlight. If you shine that spotlight on one particular area, you can see things very clearly. If you were to try to spread that same amount of light across a large dark room, you might instead only glimpse the shadowy outlines.

Part of knowing how to focus is making the most of the resources you have available. Stop multitasking and instead give your full attention to one thing at a time. It's tough to stay mentally focused when you are ruminating about the past, worrying about the future, or tuned out of the present moment for some other reason.

You have probably heard people talk about the importance of " being present. This notion of being present is also essential for recapturing your mental focus.

Staying engaged in the here and now keeps your attention sharp and your mental resources honed in on the details that really matter at a specific point in time. It may take some time but work on learning to truly live in the moment.

You cannot change the past and the future has not happened yet, but what you do today can help you avoid repeating past mistakes and pave a path for a more successful future. Mindfulness is a hot topic right now, and for good reason. Despite the fact that people have practiced forms of mindfulness meditation for thousands of years, its many health benefits are only recently starting to be understood.

In one study, researchers had human resources professionals engage in simulations of the sort of complex multitasking they engaged in each day at work.

These tasks had to be completed in 20 minutes and included answering phones, scheduling meetings, and writing memos with sources of information pouring in from multiple sources including by phone calls, emails, and text messages.

Some of the participants received 8 weeks of training in the use of mindfulness meditation , and the results found that only those who had received this training showed improvement in concentration and focus. Members of the meditation group were able to stay on task longer, switched between tasks less frequently, and performed the work more efficiently than the other groups of participants.

Practicing mindfulness can involve learning how to meditate, but it can also be as simple as trying a quick and easy deep breathing exercise. Start by taking several deep breaths while really focusing on each and every breath. When you feel your mind naturally begin to wander, gently and uncritically guide your focus back to your deep breathing.

While this might seem like a deceptively simple task, you may find that it is actually much more difficult than it appears. Fortunately, this breathing activity is something you can do anywhere and anytime. Eventually, you will probably find that it becomes easier to disengage from intrusive thoughts and return your focus to where it belongs.

Have you ever tried to stay mentally focused on the same thing for a long period of time? After a while, your focus starts to break down and it becomes more and more difficult to devote your mental resources to the task.

Not only that, but your performance ultimately suffers as a result. Traditional explanations in psychology have suggested that this is due to attentional resources being depleted, but some researchers believe that it has more to do with the brain's tendency to ignore sources of constant stimulation.

Researchers have found that even taking very brief breaks by shifting your attention elsewhere can dramatically improve mental focus. So the next time you are working on a prolonged task, such as preparing your taxes or studying for an exam, be sure to give yourself an occasional mental break.

Shift your attention to something unrelated to the task at hand, even if it is only for a few moments. These short moments of respite might mean that you are able to keep your mental focus sharp and your performance high when you really need it.

Building your mental focus is not something that will happen overnight. Even professional athletes require plenty of time and practice in order to strengthen their concentration skills. One of the first steps is to recognize the impact that being distracted is having on your life.

If you are struggling to accomplish your goals and find yourself getting sidetracked by unimportant details, it is time to start placing a higher value on your time. By building your mental focus, you will find that you are able to accomplish more and concentrate on the things in life that truly bring you success, joy, and satisfaction.

Mental focus refers to your ability to concentrate on relevant information in your environment. This ability allows you to attend to things that require attention, complete tasks that you need to accomplish, and acquire new information.

In order to focus, the brain needs to filter out irrelevant information to concentrate on what really matters. Different types of attention can affect your ability to focus. Selective attention , for example, acts like a spotlight to highlight specific stimuli in your environment.

Sustained attention, on the other hand, allows you to stay mentally focused on something for an extended period of time.

Levy D, Wobbrock J, Kaszniak A, Ostergren M. The effects of mindfulness meditation training on multitasking in a high-stress information environment. Proceedings - Graphics Interface. Brief and rare mental breaks keep you focused: Deactivation and reactivation of task goals preempt vigilance decrements.

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