‘What Happens Next?’: Can We Sharpen Our Focus?
Between endless social media content, notifications pinging away on our laptops and our smartphones, unprecedented streaming options, and even watches with all the bells and whistles of a computer, our attention is pulled in more directions than ever before. Can we regain our focus?
This week, Monash University’s podcast, What Happens Next?, concludes its series on focus and attention with conversations with leading neuroscientists, developmental psychologists and experts in mindfulness and mental discipline.
Listen: Is Our Attention Slipping?
Host Dr Susan Carland talks to Dr Hannah Kirk, co-inventor of the world’s first digital attention intervention for children with neurodevelopmental disorders, about how digital technology – infamously a distractor – can also be harnessed to help neurodivergent and neurotypical children alike build their attention skills and reduce hyperactivity.
Professor Mark Bellgrove’s team recently released landmark guidelines for the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of ADHD, establishing the world’s most up-to-date protocols over the past two years. He discusses the individual nature of attention – and what you need to know about yours to hone your focus.
Professor Craig Hassed OAM, co-creator of one of the world’s highest-rated massive open online courses of all time, weighs in on the day-to-day changes we can make to improve our attentiveness (beyond, as he says, throwing our phones out the nearest window).
Finally, Susan talks to bestselling author Timber Hawkeye, writer of Buddhist Boot Camp, whose spiritual training has helped him teach others to live with intention – whether it’s making a choice on where to spend our time and focus, what we should eat, or even who we should date.
“Every time your attention wanders, and you notice and bring your attention gently back to where it needs to be at that moment, that's like one rep for the attention circuits in your brain.”Professor Craig Hassed OAM
What Happens Next? will be back next week with a new topic.
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