The mind loves to distract itself from the task at hand with - well, pretty much anything. This is especially draining when trying to decompress with an evening of ballroom dancing, and your mind is stuck on what to cook when you get home. Here is my advice on how to increase focus on the ballroom floor, and enjoy a great lesson!
1. Treat it like meditation
No matter what we are doing, our ability to do it well depends on our ability to focus. Daily meditation is a great way to strengthen your brain’s ability to focus on a single thing for a period of time. Studies have shown even 20 minutes a day, 4 days a week will increase focus, improve memory, and reduce stress. It also helps us resist distraction when we are pushing towards our long-term life goals, which is, you know, kind of important too.
2. Love what you’re doing… Even the drills
True story - your brain can’t tell the difference between pretending and reality. If you pretend you like something, you gradually find you start to enjoy it for real. Even in dancing, there will be times when you want to give up and take piano lessons instead.
But switch your thinking: the more you pretend enjoyment, the easier it is to increase focus in the lesson, the more fun you have, and the faster you will push to your next breakthrough.
3. Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative
Make a list of the things that aggravate you, how much they stress you out, and the value you get from them. Odds are, you’ll find at least few that are more trouble then they’re worth, and remove them from your life. It’s a lot easier to increase focus on your teacher or dance partner if you don’t have 57 other things on your mind.
4. Care less
Sometimes, we can’t increase focus because our thoughts revolve around self-conscious fears. Answer your fears with a single one-word question: ‘So?’ So what if you misstep sometimes during a lesson? So what if that girl said no to you at the social? The less we listen to our fears, the less power they have over us - and 99% of them are entirely in our minds anyway.
5. Distract yourself… With the right things
Visualize yourself dancing at an exotic resort, or on a tropical beach. In particular, try and feel what the ambience would be like, or how it feels to connect with your partner. This will increase focus by switching power from the thinking half of your brain to the feeling half.
6. Change your mental channel
Ultimately, you mind only thinks when you allow it to. When you become aware that you mind is running riot, gently tell yourself ‘enough’. And then, watch your mind for a few seconds longer, like a cat waiting at a mouse hole.
Like the mouse, your brain goes silent when it knows it’s being watched.
Try each one of these strategies before settling on what works for you. Everyone’s mind is different, but ANYONE has the ability to increase focus on the task at hand - on or off the dance floor.
Raise your hand if you are an over-thinker! How do you increase focus when you need to?
Excellent suggestions. I would also add “Be gentle with yourself. You may not be able to master all techniques right away, but be persistent. Give yourself a time frame that is realistic. Take a year and see what you can accomplish using those techniques”. For myself I give myself 6 months to learn a new dance step, and 6 years to learn new skill, like dancing, meditation, tennis etc.
I think I could add that advice to every article! Thanks, Naum.