Mario Sousa | Heart-Centered Coaching

Meditation And Focus

Fri, 19 Feb 2021 12:27:25 -0800

Working on a task and concentrating on it intensely for the period you are supposed to can be difficult because of all the things that constantly demand your attention. Responding to important emails, answering calls, maintaining relationships, attending to requests from your coworkers, etc. Maintaining your focus isn’t easy when you are being pulled from different directions and you feel you always have a million things to do.

Fortunately, there are effective and practical ways of improving your focus so you can finish your daily tasks and achieve anything you set your mind. Such as gaining more control over your work, planning your day right, eliminating distractions, exercising, and meditating.

Meditation is by far the most effective way of maintaining your focus because it helps you to think profoundly, reduce pain, remove stress, control anxiety, and better understand your thought patterns. Studies show that meditation improves your attention span by promoting emotional health, helping you guide your thoughts, and fostering relaxation.

The best thing about practicing meditation to improve your concentration levels is that you can start right away. Allocate 10-15 minutes every morning to meditation and again before going to bed. Clear your head of whatever it is that’s happening around you and get in touch with your inner self. Take deep breaths. Slowly inhaling and exhaling.

Pay attention to clearing your head of negative thoughts and focusing on something positive such as a relaxing picture, or relaxing sounds. Most people find chanting out loud to be more effective than anything else while meditating. You can pick one positive word and focus on saying it out loud to fix your thoughts on the positive.

Meditation improves your focus by;

Helping you gain clarity on your thought patterns.

The best thing about meditation is that it helps you gain clarity on your thought patterns enabling you to...Read More

Master The Skill Of Focus

Thu, 18 Feb 2021 13:28:35 -0800

It does not matter how many successful people you rub shoulders with or how many powerful conferences you attend. What matters is how much you learn from such opportunities. It is okay to be busy all day if you can afford to do that but when you look back at the end of the day, can you say you did everything according to plan or reached your goals for the day? The point is, you can be in a room full of opportunities and still miss them and be busy all day long doing something that was not in your plans. The main reason for this is that some of us have not mastered the skill of focus yet.

Why do we need the ability to concentrate on something or pay particular attention to it? There has been so much emphasis on how goals and a sense of purpose drive us to do something about our lives and develop psychologically, mentally, socially, and financially. It goes without saying that we need to direct mental effort toward these things if they are to become a reality. Our plans, thoughts, and actions should move us in the direction of our desired destination.

There is no question, completing some tasks is not easy. It is even more difficult when our minds keep wandering away and there are more other distractions like YouTube videos, social media trends and chats, video games, and Netflix et cetera. It does not take a genius to know that even if at the end of the day we do manage to complete our tasks, each moment spent on whatever is distracting us is making us less productive than we would be if we stayed focused. It keeps us from using our full potential toward reaching our goals. We should be able to finish tasks within the minimal time possible and fit into our schedule something meaningful if there is still more time left unless we feel we really need to refresh our minds. To be able to be that productive, we need to learn to keep our eyes, hearts, and minds on our goals.

Also, we need to learn to stay alert to be able to identify new...Read More

Leverage Focus To Have Clear And More Meaningful Relationships

Wed, 17 Feb 2021 14:08:21 -0800

More often, when we think of focused people what comes to mind is that they are boring and do not have a life. We tend to think of them as overzealous and arrogant. However, that is not always the case. There is so much more value that comes with being focused and whatever the person does is driven by the need to make dreams a reality and fulfill a purpose. Of course, this is not apparent to those who are not equally as focused or, who have other means of reaching their goals that do not require them to focus much. Yes, such dreams exist since dreams have more to do with our personalities and purpose.

Being focused is not the same as being busy always. It means living an intentional life guided by a set of goals, principles, and objectives. Every move is directed at getting a task done in order to achieve a goal. Anything else is regarded as a time-waster. Focus is the key to forming meaningful relationships in your social spaces as well as the professional world.

Clear and meaningful relationships are the type of relationships that are formed for a particular reason after identifying your purpose and dreams and carefully considering the right type of people to accompany you throughout the journey. This does not mean that these relationships do not end. Rather, they save a particular purpose and the involved parties understand that at some point they might grow and need other relationships that will take them from that point to the next. In some cases these relationships do not end completely, but, they take a new form that is fitting to the situations of the involved parties.

As you work on creating clear and meaningful relationships, you need to be able to identify the qualities that make the person worth your time, energy, and attention. These include their interests, knowledge, patience, commitment et cetera. Thus, you should look for people who bring value to your life in many ways, people who know when it is time to play and time to...Read More

How To Multitask And Retain Your Focus

Tue, 16 Feb 2021 12:39:14 -0800

I am a self-driven, confident individual who excels at multitasking and working under minimum supervision individually or in a team. Does this sound like you or is it the perfect you that exists only on your CV or cover letters? Have you ever so confidently described yourself in this manner while facing interviewers because you knew that if you told them the truth that you were terrible at juggling different tasks you would be considered an unbalanced and weak character? Well, the real you doesn't have to be very far from that perfect CV description, you can with immediate effect learn how to properly multitask. You can become that exceptional individual who excels in handling more than one task while producing remarkable results if you consider the following recommendations:

1. Can you handle it?

I remember marveling at a certain woman I observed feeding her baby on one side, helping her daughter with homework on the other, and keeping an eye on her pots on the stove at the same time. What topped it all up was her ability to hold a meaningful conversation with us her visitors as well. She is a superwoman! I exclaimed to myself and I decided I was going to give it a try too. My disappointment came when my failed attempt resulted in me messing up all the activities I was trying to do. You see I had tried to do it almost exactly as I had seen her do, little did I know she also had taken time to perfect her craft. You also as you go about handling the many demands that concurrently require your attention, take baby steps. You could start off by juggling two activities and then three. As you prove yourself capable of handling more then you expand.

2. Have clearly defined aims

Nothing chases away distractions like clearly marked targets. The mind understands structure, deadlines, and destinations and so when they are well labeled it knows to go for them...Read More

Focus On One Thing And Master It

Mon, 15 Feb 2021 12:24:41 -0800

Jack of all trades and master of none, we all have an idea of who Jack is because we have all been in his shoes at one point or the other. With the pressure to change various aspects of our lives, we get caught up in the web of trying to do it all at once. Always having a long list of desirable goals hanging over your head, it is only expected you will try to do as much as you can at the same moment to reach the destination earlier, or so we think.

The more things we try to work on all at once, the more our minds drift from place to place trying to manage the level of awareness and consciousness to be given to each goal, project, habit, or business plan. In the process it all just ends up a blur, nothing defined, some lines crossing each other. Other projects are rendered insignificant to others, others suffering from the lack of attention and at the end of it all, every goal is not realized in the best possible way. Doing a lot of things or acting on a bunch of ideas at the same time can scramble your mind and make it less efficient in all the angles you are taking.

The art of focusing is one that entails narrowing your vision and looking for a focal point to direct all your energy and thoughts at a time for maximum impact. It is clearing up all manner of distraction. Distraction is not always things you do in your leisure time, hobbies, and maybe gadgets but it can also take the form of another brilliant idea you have just thought of, another theme of a book you have thought of starting before finishing the project you are working on.

Often we assume our success is derailed because we are not doing enough, whereas in actual fact it might be that way because we are doing too much. Too many good intentions can easily become a poisonous concoction to lead you straight into failure or just a life of pure mediocrity. To master a skill, the first step to be taken is always the choice to focus on that particular skill and clear your mind of all...Read More

Dealing With Things That Steal Your Focus

Sun, 14 Feb 2021 23:47:32 -0800

The only way of completing tasks, meeting deadlines as well as accomplishing what you are set out to accomplish is by working on your concentration levels. If you focus on what you are doing and maintain your focus as you work, you can achieve anything.

Nonetheless, maintaining your focus throughout the day isn’t easy. It is something you need to work hard at and requires a lot of effort on your part. It requires you to recognize the main things that steal your focus and eliminate them. So, what steals your focus? What causes you to easily go off track when working?

Knowing the common things that distract you from your work is the best way of improving your focus levels and maintaining focus throughout the day. It is the only way of doing so.

Top 5 ways of dealing with things that steal your focus.

1. Know your distractions and eliminate them.

Knowing the main things that steal your focus is the best way of dealing with distractions. So, identify what those things are and get rid of them. If multitasking, procrastinating, or constantly checking on your phone always gets in the way of concentrating on what you are working on and seeing it through, deal with it.

Meaning, you stop multitasking and focus on doing one thing at a time. You avoid procrastinating, prioritize meeting deadlines, and doing what needs to be done when you are supposed to. You turn off notifications on your phone, go offline, or simply switch it off until you are done with your work.

2. Have a schedule and stick to it.

One of the things that make it nearly impossible for you to retain your focus throughout the day is that you don’t have a fixed schedule. Having a daily schedule gives you more control over your work and enables you to effectively manage your day. You know what your goal is and are well aware of the most important goals you are supposed to accomplish before the end of the day...Read More

Choosing The One Right Thought From An Influx Of Thoughts

Sat, 13 Feb 2021 14:21:26 -0800

‘What you focus on grows and what you neglect dies.’ - Unknown.

Have you ever found yourself in an important meeting or amid a lecture or a sermon and multiple distracting thoughts enter your mind? Instead of paying close attention to all that is going on around you, your mind allows random thoughts in. Frustration comes in on the heels of that because you do not understand why you would get such thoughts at that moment. You are not alone! We all struggle to pay attention when we need to be doing so.

We do not give permission to distracting thoughts. They just seem to be there in the periphery, waiting for the most inopportune times to come to the fore. Sometimes we think about our future, our plans with friends, a funny video or meme on social media, an impending promotion, and so on. Other times, however, our streams of thoughts are not as pleasant.

There are arguments on the average number of thoughts that enter the human mind daily, but there seems to be agreement on the fact that most of those thoughts stem from a negative mindset. We cannot help the feelings of doubt, worry, and discouragements that seem to mushroom in our minds. This causes distractions, which affect our levels of productivity. We fail to perform as well as we should. Not that we are incapable of handling the tasks at hand, but because we cannot sift through the clutter of our minds for thoughts that boost our morale.

While mental distractions are a common experience, there are many disadvantages to them. It is therefore important to focus on one right thought from an influx of thoughts.

Disadvantages of a wandering mind.

There are no benefits of having split focus, whether in an academic, professional, or any capacity.

When you have to divide your focus, you cannot use the time you have to do the one task that moves you forward.

Instead of focusing your resources on a single endeavor, you use them on doing things that bring you no value...Read More

Balancing Your Focus On All Areas Of Your Life

Fri, 12 Feb 2021 11:26:05 -0800

Life is not easy for the majority of adults everywhere around the world. While finances are a common problem for many, there’s also spiritual, social, health, family, and other issues. How all these are handled often depends on our priorities. Sadly, most people tend to either forget or turn a blind eye to the fact that most if not all our areas of life are somehow related and more importantly, their combination plays a significant role in how valuable we become as individuals.

Note, however, that this does not mean that our value as individuals is determined by any of these areas of life. Rather, the point is that some parts of a human being's life are vital for their survival and sanity. And, there are so many people who recognize that fact and would find satisfaction or contentment in having all these areas of a life well balanced but they find themselves struggling to strike that balance.

Finding a balance in these areas of life means that you handle them in a way that each one of them gets the attention it needs and at the right time. In setting priorities, people tend to mark some areas of their lives as more important than others. Of course, that is bound to happen because we may not be able to do it all at the same time. But that does not mean that we should completely forget about everything else and focus on what we believe is more important at a particular time. For example, many believe that they would first have to be "financially stable" or own certain things before they can start focusing on other things like "enjoying life", spending time with family, or starting one. While prioritizing in such a manner is not a problem in itself, it has left many devastated. Why is that? What are the effects of putting everything else on hold while we pursue one of our many goals?

Life is unpredictable. We can never be sure what to expect in the next minute. A problem arises when we become rigid in how we live life. What devastates most...Read More

Achieving Inner Focus

Thu, 11 Feb 2021 19:41:52 -0800

An important yet fleeting and also not easy to come by skill in today`s world, the ability to be focused. With a myriad of activities all around us, our minds have also been trapped in the commotion. Everywhere you look everyone will be busy doing one thing or the other, we rarely take a pause. There is so much going on all around us and all of it is in constant pursuit of our attention. Every screen we own lighting up with the constant notifications beeping and enticing us to give them a chunk of our time.

Since we were kids always having our parents shout at us at the dinner table to focus on eating, focus on our school work, well now no one shouts at you but you reprimand yourself daily on how you should stay focused on your work or a particular task. Over the years no matter how hard we have tried we are still riddled with the same disease. Often we blame our surrounding for being distracting and lacking the conduciveness that can allow us to focus on the task at hand.

The state of being focused is one where you identify a fixed point, a center of interest and you direct all your thoughts and energy to it. This skill is not one to be achieved in a short period, there is a need for continuous and habitual practice for us to be able to get to a point where we can easily focus. It is about turning off everything around you and you manage to light up only one spot you are interested in giving your time. We struggle with paying attention and focusing daily as we often get distracted while doing our tasks at work, in class. There are many ways we might try to remedy this but most times our concentration span will just elongate with a couple of minutes and fog moves in again.

To master focusing, we ought to realize that the focus should be first groomed inside. When one lacks inner focus it is impossible to manifest it on the outer. Achieving inner focus starts with understanding our minds. Since there is no manual for it one has to devote to...Read More

Using Entrepreneurship To Solve Community Issues

Wed, 10 Feb 2021 10:26:12 -0800

Living in these tumultuous times, we have things going wrong every minute. New problems are brought to light and some old ones just keep evolving defeating the purpose of our well-thought-out solutions. Some communities are ridden with poverty, and disease, some just are struggling with power shortages. Unemployment becoming the order of the day, climate change triggering natural disasters, from the miniature problems to the ones we find life-threatening when action is not done things can only get worse. These different growing issues threatening the well-being of our communities require solutions that can be improved upon as well, effective enough to neutralize.

Entrepreneurship is usually defined as the act of creating a business, building, and scaling it to generate a profit. It entails the willingness and capacity of organizing, managing, and assuming the risks of a business. With it comes a capacity for innovation, investment, and extraction of value. With plenty more pros than its cons, it is the best thing to have happened to humanity after science in this era. With uncountable enterprises being erected by entrepreneurs in different sectors, solutions are being found and implemented regularly to the different social and economic problems infesting our communities.

Every entrepreneur possesses a problem-solving mindset, always looking for a new and more sustainable way to do things even in the process of generating income. They carry the burden of risk with the belief that big problems also require a big leap of action for the solution to be found. Contrary to what many might want to believe entrepreneurship is less of working with a blank canvas just being creative and more of being an observer, assessing your surroundings, identifying issues that need solving, and aiming to be a solution provider. There is a sense of responsibility one has to carry, that feeling of ownership where you believe it is you who can create the change and not...Read More