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No Matter How Old You Are, This Mindfulness Exercise Can Sharpen Your Attention

Learn how in as little as 10 minutes, meditation can boost focus.

Jenny Lehmann
ByJenny Lehmann
Image Credit: Microgen/Shutterstock

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How is your attention span these days? Environmental distractions and rising use of technology can heavily affect our ability to hold focus, as can lack of rest, general stress, and anxiety.

Since longer attention spans are linked to better overall well-being, finding ways to sharpen our focus is increasingly important in today’s tech-heavy world.

Researchers from the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology were especially interested in whether mindfulness could enhance attention spans in older adults, but they discovered something even better: Just 30 days of guided meditation significantly improved people’s ability to direct their attention, no matter how old the participants were.

Their findings, published in eNeuro, show how a simple, low-cost practice like meditation can have a notable impact on cognition.

Our lives are already packed with distractions, but as we age, tuning out interruptions becomes even more challenging, making it harder to sustain attention. One area in ...

  • Jenny Lehmann

    Jenny Lehmann

    Jenny Lehmann is an assistant editor at Discover Magazine who writes articles on microbiology, psychology, neurology, and zoology, and oversees the Piece of Mind column of the print issue.

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