The Open Focus Brain Harnessing the Power of Attention to Heal Mind and Body Book and CD
The Open Focus Brain Harnessing the Power of Attention to Heal Mind and Body Book and CD
In this breakthrough health book, Dr. Les Fehmi—a pioneering researcher and clinician—teams up with Jim Robbins, an award-winning science writer, to present a disarmingly simple idea: the way we pay attention in daily life plays a critical role in our health and well-being. Included is a 60-minute audio CD with guided exercises.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Open Focus is a breakthrough for me
Having read a lot of meditation books, zen books, power of now and attention deficit books, this book is a very interesting perspective on the subject of focus and attention.
First off the book explains what open focus is but it took me a while to grasp it. It wasn’t until I read the first exercise that I ‘felt’ what open focus is about. I feel the book does require a few reads. More importantly, I felt I was very drawn to re-reading it, especially after listening to the cd.
Let me try a technique he uses in open focus. So while you are reading this review, imagine the distance of the screen from your eyes while still reading. Then see the edges of the computer screen yet still managing to read. Notice the spaces between each of the lines of words. Can you feel your shoulders? Can you feel if your arms and fingers are tense? Are your eyes relaxed? Still keep reading yet feel your tightness as you are still reading. Perhaps you can soften that tension and still maintain focus. Perhaps that feels more relaxed and now less urgent?
So one of the ideas is to still function but we don’t always need what’s known as ‘narrow focus’ or ‘hyper-focus’. This is the focus that uses a high level of energy, tension and focus. We don’t always need this type of focus with everything we do. This type of focus is very effective at getting things done, but unless we have a knowledge of ‘different types’ of focus, we can burn out. We don’t always need to use narrow-focus for every task and every conversation. There are lots of other things we could do in open focus, enjoy them more and maybe even do a better job. An obvious one is reading. When I did the exercise he gave while reading I noticed my tension and softened it, especially the tension I was using to hold the book.
There is a cd with the book. The exercises on them are really brilliant. For me, going through the exercises really helps digest the sense of open focus.
One of the main themes of open focus training is to focus on space and spaces. Something like the space between your eyes. On the cd there are 15 second pauses between focuses. So imagine the distance from your eyes to the tip of your nose. pause. Imagine the volume of your lips. pause. The idea is not to say “oh its an inch” but more the greater depth of the space, such as the space between the atoms in the space.
The first of the two long guided sessions is working the head, shoulders and upper back. The second works the whole body. The voice on the cd is very pleasant.
What this book does very well is point out that we are living as if everything is urgent. Yet a lot of the time we aren’t aware of it. Our culture rewards this type of focus. We are taught it at school; “stop daydreaming”; “pay attention”; “concentrate”. A lot of the time we were paying attention but we look relaxed, or our gaze wasn’t looking ‘focused’ enough.
Theres a lot of scientific biofeedback to back up this open focus training to move the practitioner very quickly into alpha waves using what is know as “imageless imagery”.
Les Fehmi has been working with being “a student of how human beings attend both to the world around them and to their internal world of emotions and thoughts” for over 40 years. He’s worked with Dallas Cowboys(American Football), the New jersey Nets, and the Olympic Development Committee.
5 Stars An Excellent Book…
The open focus approach is excellent. It does require a committment of time, about 30 minutes a day, but the results are outstanding. I also went to see Les Fehmi in Princeton. Within 6 months, I was better able to manage work related stress and anxiety. I read the review from the person who did not understand it and rated it a 2. If you apply the techniques in the book, it works well. You have to trust the process and different people progress through it at different rates. It all depends on the issue and your ability to let go.
Les has been doing biofeedback since the 60’s. Les and his wife run a clinic in Princeton, NJ. They are two great people whos focus is leaving the world a better place. They are generous souls. Les even offered to treat a war veteran for free.
The book comes with a CD, but I suggest you order the full CD library. I have found it very useful.
5 Stars Methods to Attain Alpha and Beyond
This fascinating piece of work is a both a history and a set of methods for those who wish to improve their perceptions, physical well-being and emotional state. Fehmi, one of the original researchers in biofeedback, tells of how he stumbled upon the technique of paying attention to space (like between the eyes, the fingers, etc.) and how that instantly catapulted subjects into an Alpha state, while no other method worked, whether visual, mental, auditory, olfactory, tactile or a combination of these.
The author provides several excellent and well tested methods to open one’s focus, and the effects of this process are extremely beneficial in almost all areas of life.
The text is well written and easy to understand, and I recommend it highly for just about anyone that isn’t an Aharant.
5 Stars TRULY REMARKABLE!
From co-author Jim Robbins; “The premise is that we all hold on to emotional stress that we have carried with us since infancy and childhood. Because this stress — which moves through our body as well as our mind — is painful, we shut it down reflexively to keep from feeling it. To keep our stress from surfacing we stay in a type of attention called narrow objective. This fear lives on in our stomach, our chest, our heart and other organs and muscles and causes a host of problems, including anxiety, depression, chronic pain, ADD, ADHD and many other things. It also contributes to an overall physical and emotional numbness.
Stress and fear is held in place by the narrow focus objective style of attention. We can release this held fear, and reverse negative physiological and psychological symptoms, by moving into a less rigid, more flexible styles of attention. Taken far enough we can even move into transcendent states. The book includes a CD with exercises that very quickly move us out of narrow objective focus, and into other forms of attention.”
…I purchased and have been doing the Open Focus exercises for 6 months. After 2 months of twice daily practice, a pleasurable feeling developed throughout my entire body that lasts day and night. This pleasurable feeling is such a gift - I guess I never really knew what true relaxation felt like before as I was unknowingly stuck in alarm-mode 24/7.
Thank you, Dr. Fehmi for this user-friendly, highly effective contribution to the world. It’s hard to believe that listening to a CD and using one’s imagination can have such a powerful effect on one’s life and physiology. Those who panned this book likely failed to hang in there long enough to derive benefits. If stress is the root cause of disease then the relaxation response is the ultimate remedy out there.
These exercises will get you there fast!
4 Stars Helped reduce migraines and chronic pain
I was recommended this book by Martha Beck, the famous coach on Oprah. And while I was skeptical that a book could actually help with physical conditions, I have been surprised by how effective doing the Open Focus exercises diminish or eliminate pain for days at a time. I’ve been practicing the exercises for nearly three weeks and have gone from daily migraines to one or two a week.
Reading this book came at an opportune time — my doctor had just prescribed migraine medication, but I was concerned about the side effects, so I quickly read the book and started the exercises on the first day. Within about 30 minutes of practice, I started to feel the “vise grip” in my head and around my eyes start to dissipate. This all happened before I started any medication.
Filed under: Mental Health Books