Open Focus:The Attentional Foundation of Health and Well-being

Abstract

Open Focus attention training and brain wave synchrony training combine to impact a process which is fundamental to every aspect and function of our lives,that is, how we pay attention. The way one pays attention is directly correlated with brain wave activity, and both significantly impact experience and performance: "in-to-it," broad-scoped attention is associated with brain wave synchrony and effortless performance; remote, narrow-focused attention is associated with desynchronized brain wave activity and effortful performance. Attention training and brain synchrony biofeedback training guide one toward an awareness which is immersed in experience at the same time that it is objectively witnessesing that experience; an awareness that is narrowed on detail, simultaneously panoramic in scope and bathed in an effortless sense of this moment. Recent research shows that Open Focus and biofeedback training, individually and together, improve concentration, increase intellectual and athletic performance, and reduce a variety of stressrelated physical symptoms. An example Open Focus exercise is presented in the appendix so that interested readers may practice the technique.