Candle gazing

1. Sit comfortably with your back upright. Pick 1, 3 or 5 minutes and press Start.
2. Rest your eyes on the flame, near the bright tip. Keep your face and eyes soft, and blink when you need to.
3. At the bell, close your eyes. You may see an after-image of the flame. Rest your attention on it until it fades.
4. At the next bell, open your eyes and come back to the flame. When your mind drifts, just return to it.

Trataka is a yoga practice of steady gazing at one point, often a candle flame. In a small study, 60 older adults in Goa were split into two groups. Those who did 30-minute trataka sessions for 26 days did better on two attention tests a month later than those on a waiting list. Their sessions also included eye exercises, breathing and chanting, and the authors say the sample was small (Talwadkar et al., 2014 (opens in a new tab)). So this is a promising idea, not a proven one, and a few minutes here is much less than they did.

Our flame sways slowly and never flashes. For people with photosensitive epilepsy, lights that flash or flicker 16 to 25 times a second are the most likely trigger (Epilepsy Society (opens in a new tab)). If any moving light bothers you, use the still dot in Focus point instead.

• Before studying, a match or focused work, to gather your attention in one place.
• When your attention feels scattered after a long scroll.
• Not if your eyes are sore or dry, after eye surgery, or if you are sensitive to moving light. Stop if your eyes water or ache.

This is a self-help practice, not medical advice. If attention or anxiety problems affect your daily life, talk to a doctor.