Focus is emotionally determined. Lack of Focus has more to do with how much we are in fear and our ability to emotionally regulate than your cognitive capacity. This is because when you enter stress mode (aka fight/flight/freeze), the brain prioritizes survival by redirecting blood flow to the midline of the brain where the limbic system lives, who is in charge of impulsivity and reactivity, anything to get you away from the scary or stressful thing.
This has the consequence of moving blood away from the periphery of the brain, where the prefrontal cortex and associative cortexes live, literally not feeding or prioritizing the parts of the brain that allow you to think objectively, provide focus, and ground you in a sense of timing.
This is why chronic stress, whether it's physical, emotional, psychological, or even trauma, leads to common symptoms of dysregulated emotionality, lack of focus, struggling to keep track of time such as always running late, and a sense of always watching for the other shoe to drop.
If you'd like to learn more about how to navigate through this brain phase, yes it is only a phase, that you can learn to recognize, modulate and resolve, enroll in my course! Unraveling Resistance: Break the Trauma Loop
I will see you, in class!
Comments