THE CENTERED ATTENTION

ESSAY ABOUT ITS APPLICATION TO HUMAN ACTIVITY

BRIEF INTRODUCTION

A theory of the Centered Attention, applied to the performance of human activity, genericaly, means focusing attention, exclusively, on an organ or body movement, on a thought or on a point in any activity of the human being, distinguishing it from the dispersed attention that is not focused punctually. However, the discipline of Psychology, where the study of Attention is inserted, has since Antiquity been absorbed into the large area of Philosophy, which has always privileged the study of Reason and Deduction (from Aristotle to Plato and from Descartes to Kant...), thus relativizing the importance of this knowledge. Only with the birth of Experimental Science in the 17th century, thanks to the studies of Képler (heliocentric theory) and Galileo (experimental method), the Psychology (along with other knowledges) will also become scientific and autonomous from Philosophy, initially developed by the Germans Wilhelm Wundt (doctor, 1832-1920), Ernst Weber (physician, 1795-1878) and Gustav Theodor Fechner (philosopher, 1801-1889), considered the founders of Experimental Psychology.

The study of human attention then became, throughout the 20th century, one of the main objects of study of the new scientific Psychology, with William James, Gustav Fechner, John Watson, Ivan Pavlov, Michael Posner, Eugene Gendlin and the neurologist Marcus Raichle, a pioneer in the study of brain images of selective attention. The methodology of Centered Attention in the study of human behavior would also be adopted by Karl Rogers' behaviorist Psychology (1987), and later extended to other sciences and knowledge (Psychiatry, Neurology, Physiotherapy, Education, Sports, Yoga, etc.), not ignoring Jean Piaget (1980), swiss biologist and psychologist, who in his Cognitive Theory, when talking about the development of human intelligence in 4 distinct periods (sensorimotor, pre-operative, concrete operations and abstract operations), also refers the importance of the "centering attention", in the child's pre-operative period (2-7 years), defined as the child’s tendency to focus only on a certain aspect of the situation, neglecting the other aspects…

Thus, according to Theory of Centered Attention, for that certain physical or organic human activity be carried out in the most correct way, the attention must be centered or focused, solely and exclusively, on the organ, a point or part of the body that performs this activity, facilitating its performance, optimizing significantly the results obtained, and canning even help to correct some neurological disorders such as difficulty in focused attention and task coordination, resulting from depression and schizophrenia (among others...). In conceptual terms, Centered Attention is the opposite of Dispersed Attention and is distinguished from Concentration, which aims to ignore the surrounding circumstances, such as athletes who, at the start of a race, concentrate in order to obtain the best possible result.- Next, some human activities are presented where the Centered Attention can be applied, with emphasis on the activities of the voice emission, the human walking, the car driving and the act of sleeping, resulting from a personal empirical observation, but hoping that it will be improved by other new contributions...

1.- CENTERED ATTENTION APPLIED TO THE EMISSION OF THE HUMAN VOICE

According to the theory of Centered Attention applied to the emission of the Human Voice, whenever we speak, shout or sing, attention should be focused only on the vocal cords and their vibration, sustained by abdominal breathing, with the diaphragm remaining firm until the end of each act. respiratory, this being the only way to obtain a well-placed voice. In human society, naturally, most people speak and sing correctly, with the voice centered and vibrating only in the vocal cords, supported by diaphragmatic breathing, emitted from the bottom up, maintaining a confident posture, without any fear of the audience. surrounding. Unfortunately, however, due to situations of shyness, stress, anxiety, embarrassment or irritation, an increasing number of people breathe incorrectly and insufficiently, leading to voice emission displaced from the vocal cords, centered in the palatal and nasal cavity or even in the mouth/lip area. These disorders in the production of human speech, increasingly present in today's society, are associated with a contraction of the frontal-temporal zone, a tense jaw joint and consequent sore throat, and may even appear in childhood and adolescence when the child is subjected traumatic situations or situations of high shyness and anxiety, but affecting adults in general and especially voice professionals (radio and television announcers, teachers, priests, singers, politicians, lawyers, etc.), when they are forced to speak very loudly, hasty, irritated or excessive manner (classroom environments, discussion, oral debate, etc.), breathing incorrectly, producing a voice clearly dislocated from the vocal cords, sometimes tense and crisp, sometimes timid and velvety…

Correcting human voice disorders becomes difficult especially when they have become permanently fixed over the years, becoming the person's habitual way of speaking, requiring a great effort to reactivate diaphragmatic breathing, replace and center the voice on the organ where it is produced (vocal cords), until it is possible to permanently return to a voice emitted correctly, only centered and vibrated on the vocal cords. In this sense, it will be necessary to do multiple diaphragmatic breathing and vocal cord vibration exercises, either through the repetition of simple sounds, spoken or sung in various tones (uhm, vowels, syllables, musical scale, etc.), or through repetition of short popular phrases, said in various tones, whether through laughter, yawning, shouting and even crying out loud (the first human manifestation), without ignoring neck relaxation and jaw articulation exercises, aiming to correct the muscular disorders associated with displaced voice emission…

Finally, as a complementary observation worthy of note, we can all see that a large percentage of individuals who speak with a voice dislocated from the vocal cords, show a marked tendency towards baldness or hair loss (and the opposite also seems to be true), a phenomenon easily verified in well-known people or in public figures in communication (political and sports commentators, announcers, singers) and which deserves to be investigated, with the possibility of raising the hypothesis (among others) that it is caused by a deficient blood supply to the capillary area, associated with muscular constraints in the throat and temporal-frontal area, as well as poor diaphragmatic breathing and reduced vibration of the vocal cords…

2.- CENTERED ATTENTION APPLIED TO THE HUMAN MARCH AND BODY MEMBERS

The Centered Attention applied to the activity of the Upper and Lower Limbs (arms and legs) whenever they perform a certain task can also contribute to their correct performance and to greater success in the daily, work and sports activities they carry out.

As for the Upper Limbs (arms), the use of Centered Attention to optimize their performance is already well known and used in many work and sports activities, as boxers do, concentrating their attention on each of the arms used, increasing strength and the effectiveness of the punch on the opponent, or martial arts practitioners who use an identical methodology, managing to break very hard objects with a single blow of the hand. The same principle can be applied to other sports besides those that use the arms as the main instruments of sporting practice (handball, volleyball, basketball, golf, tennis, throwing, rowing, etc.), aiming to optimize the result obtained, however other techniques and methodologies specific to each of them. However, although the Centered Attention methodology is applied to these main upper limb activities, we cannot ignore that in today's society there are multiple sedentary activities where the use of the arms has been reduced and is minimal, making it necessary to perform daily physical exercises to strengthen muscles (bending arms and legs, lifting weights, etc.) as well as muscle relaxation exercises for the arms by swinging them rhythmically at half height, while standing still or while walking…

As for Centered Attention applied to the Lower Limbs (legs), it is even more important, as almost all activities in human life depend on the basic act of Walking and require a great deal of individual movement throughout the day, which is why it is very important to apply Focused attention on the movement of the legs, to walk in the most correct way. This principle applies especially in sports that preferentially use the legs (soccer, athletics, gymnastics, etc.), where the best results (like the arms) are obtained by athletes who know how to focus their attention and channel their effort into each one. of the legs used.- In particular, with regard to the Act of Walking, a medically recommended practice and very present in leisure time activities, it is important that it is done correctly to obtain its benefits, musting the attention should be focused exclusively on each of the legs that walks, ignoring the rest of the body, keeping the trunk straight, walking with the nose and head well raised as if looking far away or into the distance, swinging the arms rhythmically and at half height, imitating the young models who parade on the catwalks, with a confident posture, relaxed and swaying walk, like puppets hanging from their heads…

Finally, the theory of Centered Attention can still be used by Medicine (Physiotherapy) to improve the joint performance of legs and arms, in various traumatic situations, being applied both in MFR (Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation) techniques to recover certain lost functions after a stroke (cerebrovascular accident), whether in techniques for raising awareness of the amputated limb prosthesis, or for various other corrections of the limbs of the body that are necessary to develop…

3.- CENTERED ATTENTION APPLIED TO CAR DRIVING

Another specific area of ​​human activity where it is possible to apply Centered Attention is in the performance of Automotive Driving. In general, drivers focus their attention on the physical front of the vehicle and the road observed globally and in continuous change, forcing their fields of vision to constantly adjust to the different external and environmental circumstances, according to the speed of the vehicle, generating physical and eye fatigue… So, according to the methodology of Centered Attention applied to the situation of driving a car (or motorcycle), the best driving technique (also mentioned somewhere by a former Formula 1 champion) will be to drive the vehicle focusing only on in our body that is sitting with our hands on the steering wheel, simulating or imagining that it is this seated body that is traveling along the road, according to a line that we project onto the road and which the vehicle must also necessarily pass through... Now, this type of driving, simulating that it is our static body (and not the vehicle) that travels along the road along a pre-defined line, as if ignoring the vicissitudes of the moving vehicle and the continuous changes in the external landscape, relativizes the highest speed of the vehicle that will seem much smaller and makes driving less tiring and much safer…

4.- CENTERED ATTENTION APPLIED TO THE ACT OF SLEEP

The last example of this Essay on Centered Attention in human activity refers to its application to the Act of Sleeping, which is often difficult to achieve due to worries, memories and images that, at the end of a busy day, assault and disperse the mind. human mind, disturbing the onset of sleep activity. Despite the many traditional practices used to overcome this difficulty (schedule, ambient light, relaxing music, hot shower, noise reduction, calming drink, absence of caffeine…), we believe that Centered Attention, applied to the act of sleeping, also can prove to be of great importance in overcoming the most difficult insomnia situations, especially when traditional practices no longer work. Through Centered Attention it is possible to control the whirlwind of images and suspend the concerns that, in these circumstances, invade and occupy the mind, hindering the initiation of this basic sleep activity.

Thus, according to this methodology, it will bepossible to overcome a situation of insomnia, caused by the presence of ideas and images that disturb us greatly, preventing the onset of sleep, if we manage to free the mind from the circulation of these contents, for as long aspossible. In this sense, one of the techniques that seems to work, associatedwith closing the eyes and relaxing the eyelids, is that of conscious control ofbreathing, consisting of focusing attention exclusively on the act of diaphragmatic(abdominal) breathing, done slowly and through the airways. nasal, thusmanaging to muffle and ignore all the brain images that are preventing theonset of sleep… This exercise is difficult to maintain for a few minutes at atime, due to the presence in the human mind of uncomfortable images and ideasthat disturb us, but it is important to repeat it several times until the actof falling asleep arrives, which will happen quite quickly...

GENERAL CONCLUSION

In conclusion, it is important to say that, in addition to the examples presented, there are many other human areas where the theory of Centered Attention could be applied, aiming to improve its performance, and could even be taken into consideration, within the scope of religious activity. If in the polytheistic religions of antiquity, the human relationship with the Sacred was impersonal, only developed in collective rituals directed to various mythical and anthropomorphic divinities, in monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam), the relationship with the Sacred is directed to a Single Divinity of a spiritual nature and centered on a direct and personal connection with the Spirit of God, well exposed by Jesus Christ in the evangelical episodes of Nicodemus (John 3:1-21) and the Samaritan woman (John 4:5-42), as in Christ’s calls for an interior and personal prayer developed in spaces of silence (Mc.1,35 / Lc.5,16 / Lc.6,12) or in the secrecy of one’s own room (Mt.6,6)…

Finally, it is important to mention that the exercise of Centered Attention in the performance of the various human activities presented here, in addition to optimizing the results obtained and the organismic benefits mentioned, also contributes to strengthening Consciousness and the development of the Self, as a free and responsible subject, helping the Person to control emotions, to assert their Identity and to feel more socially secure…

Hopefully, this theory will be tested in the real lives of all the esteemed people who read us and improved by scholars of the various sciences involved. Thanks!

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JOSÉ LEMOS PINTO

Ovar, 13 de Maio de 2023

http://www.facebook.com/jlemosp

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