INCREASING POWER OF CONCENTRATION THROUGH POSITIVE THINKING

The Power of Concentration – Part one:

During childhood, we were surprised to notice that a magnifying glass could burn a piece of paper when the rays of the sun were focused through it. The fire could start only when the rays were concentrated to a small pint. When the magnifying glass was moved too far away or too close, the rays were not focused and nothing happened. This experience demonstrates the tremendous power of concentration.

Concentration can be described as having a one pointed mind, focused attention, or the ability to pay attention to one single thought or subject to the exclusion of everything else. When our mind is focused we do not dissipate our energy on unnecessary activities. Developing concentration is essential to anyone who aspires to take charge of his life. It is required in order to succeed in all walks of life. Without it our efforts are dissipated, with it we can accomplish a great deal. Concentration has many uses. Concentrating on your activities makes you perform them better, faster and successfully. Focusing on work makes more efficient. A better concentration makes studying easier, understanding faster, and improves the memory. It helps us to focus on our goals and achieve them more easily.

The concentration power enhances our inner healing powers, and helps us to send healing energies into our and others bodies. It is required for developing psychic powers. It is a powerful tool in the efficient use of creative visualization, the power of imagination.

When this ability is developed, the mind obeys us readily, ad does not engage in useless dissipating thoughts and worries, and we experience true peace of mind. Concentrating, which is actually mind mastery, is also a very important tool in practicing meditation. Without it the mind just jumps restlessly from one subject to another. Last but not least, it brings us faster to the brink of spiritual enlightenment.

Now you understand why it is very important and worthwhile to develop and improve the ability to concentrate. If we like we can always find time to exercise each day, no matter how busy we remain. Forget all your excuses that you do not have the time, or you are too busy. Do not say that the circumstances are not proper, and that you cannot find a place to be alone in order to exercise. While leading an ordinary life, with a job and a family, it is possible to find the strength and the time to develop this ability. It is possible to develop the power of concentration wherever you are. If we realize the importance and the power of concentration, we will certainly find the time, energy and desire for it.

Thoughts claim our attention incessantly, and waste our time and energy on unimportant and useless matters. They actually rule our life. We have become so accustomed to this slavery, that we take it for granted, and have become unconscious of this habit, except on certain occasions. While breathing we do not need to pay attention to each inhale and exhale. We become conscious of the process of breathing only when we have difficulty in breathing, such as when our nose is clogged due to a cold, or when we are in an unventilated room. The same is with thinking. When we need to concentrate, solve a problem or study, or when we worry, we become conscious of the onslaught of thoughts and our inability to quell them. Look at the following familiar scene. You need to study something for your work or for an exam. You sit comfortably on the sofa with the book in your hands and start reading. After a while you feel hungry and go to the kitchen to eat something.

You return to read, and then hear people talking outside. You listen to them for several moments and then bring back your attention to the book. After a while your fell restless and want to listen to music and so you switch on the radio. You continue to read for a little while and then remember something that happened yesterday and your thoughts chase that event. When you look at your watch you are amazed to find out that one complete hour has passed and you have hardly read anything. This is what happens when concentration is not strong enough to ward off all disturbances. There are many more situations in life, where a little concentration could make a great difference. Think, and find out where you could use more concentration. Imagine what you could have accomplished if you had a better concentration. Concentration is greatly worth cultivation. All spiritual traditions talk about it. It helps us greatly in many ways, whether in our ordinary daily life, in study, work, and developing psychic powers, magic and of course meditation.

It has not yet got its important place in human life. A job where physical strength is needed, such as carrying heavy loads for example, develops physical strength. Yet, it is not as going daily to the gym and training in a systematic way. It is the same with concentration. Reading, studying and trying to pay attention to what we do, develop some concentration ability, but practicing concentration exercises diligently each day is something else, it is like going to the gym.

Resistance to developing concentration

In order to develop this ability we have to train our minds. Most people shun concentration and do not even want to try. They think that concentration is strenuous and tiring, that one has to exert himself and get tense and that it is difficult and unpleasant.

One reason for this belief is that most of us did not like to go to school as children. We preferred play to study. Our teachers and parents expected us to study, do our homework, and bring good marks. A child feels coerced and forced to do something he does not like to do. In this way, in the child’s mind, study becomes connected with doing something against its will.

Studying needs concentration, and as the child is often reminded that he is not concentrating enough, he develops a loathing for concentration. It is connected with coercion, lack of freedom, doing something he does not like and which is against it will. When the child grows up, it is no wonder that his powers of concentration are not strong and he does not want to strain mentally. We acknowledge the fact the food concentration is a great asset, yet most of us do nothing to enhance it, mostly because we do not know how. Reading and thinking about the benefits of concentration and about the reasons why it should be cultivated can help us change our attitude towards it.

Concentration can be fun if approached in the right way. It should be practiced with joy, fun, optimism, and understanding of its great possibilities. It has to be approached in a positive manner and then success dawns.

The benefits of developing concentration:

Sometimes you can find strong powers of concentration in yourself. When you are decisive and sincerely want to excel in your studies, pass an important exam, or solve a problem the power of concentration becomes available to you. This kind of concentration is raised because of some need or desire. Developing it in a systematic way, brings it under your control, and grants you the ability to use it easily, with no exertion whenever you need it. Real and good concentration is developed gradually, through daily work, and with special exercise. It has to be approached in a reasonable and practical way.

Consider what the power of concentration can give you:

·         Control of thoughts.

·         Peace of mind.

·         Self-confidence.

·         Inner strength.

·         Will power

·         The ability to focus your mind

·         Better memory.

·         The ability to decide and carry on your decisions.

·         Better functioning in daily life, whether at home or at work.

·         The ability to study and comprehend more quickly.

·         Stop being carried away with every passing thought.

·         Freedom from needless and annoying thoughts.

·         Think when you want to, about what you want to think.

·         Inner happiness.

·         Help in developing psychic abilities.

·         More powerful and efficient creative visualization and guided imagination.

·         True meditation.

·         Spiritual Enlightenment.

·         And much more…

It seems too to be too good? Develop your ability to think positively though concentration and find out more success!

The Power of Concentration – Part Two:

Sharpening the needle of concentration needs practice as everything else in life. Do you go to the gym? If you do, how many times during the week and for how long? Do you study a foreign language? If you do, then how much time do you devote to it? Concentration is not different: training is needed.

Now we can start with ten minutes each day, if you can manage fifteen minutes that is better. You have to understand that the mind does not like any discipline. It loves its freedom more than anything else, and will try to stand in your way whenever and however it can. It will cause you to forget to do the exercises, make you feel lazy, and tempt you to postpone the exercise. It will find many tricks to stop and disturb you, but you can and must be stronger.

Always remember that the choice is yours: to be a slave to the mind and its whims, or to be its master. It may be hard to accept the idea that the mind is only some kind of a machine and that you are not the mind. It is an instrument, which has its value if used correctly, but at the present, man is ruled by this instrument. You are not the mind and its thoughts; they are just some kind of power that you are using. By metal exercises it is possible to train the mind and master it. It should be put it in its proper place, as a servant to you not as your boos and master.

Most people believe that the mind is themselves or part of them, and they believe erroneously, that controlling the mind means holding themselves back and denying freedom. They feel that it is not natural, that it is some sort of repression. These beliefs are wrong. What you are doing is putting the mind in its proper place. It is a power that is ruling your life, not always to your own good. The time has come for you to reclaim your birthright as a master of the mind.

The proof that we are not the mind comes with training. Accept it in theory and in time, as your control over your thoughts grows, you will see it as a fact. Remember, you are not the mind, and this is the reason that it is possible to control it. We are controlling some kind of power, not ourselves. Choose to be free. Real freedom is freedom from the obsession of thought. Why be a slave to the mind? Why obey its every whim? Why let it rule your life and make you say and do things you do not want to? B fee and strong, it is possible and it is worthwhile.

Preliminaries Before Performing Concentration Exercises:

When starting to learn to concentrate you have to find a place where you can be alone and undisturbed. You can sit crossed legged on the floor if you can, or on a chair. Sit with spine erect. Take a few calm deep breaths and then relax your body. In your mind go though each muscle and part of the body and relax it.

We will now practice some exercise. Start with the first exercise and practice it daily, until you are able to do it easily and without thinking about anything else for at least five “clean” minutes. You have to be honest with yourself, and proceed to the next one only after you are convinced that the exercise is practiced with full concentration.

No timetable can be given, as this may be frustrating. If for example you are told that an exercise has to be completed in a week, two things may happen. You ay get disappointed if you cannot get the desired concentration within a week, or you may move on without practicing the exercise correctly. Practicing an exercise successful is an individual matter. It may take days, weeks and sometimes even months.

Put your whole attention to the exercises. Do not think about anything else. Be careful not to fall asleep, daydream or think about other matters. The moment you find yourself thinking about something else, stop the exercise and start again. When you become proficient, lengthen the time, and if possible, include another session in the afternoon. Do not attempt too much at the start. You may think the exercises are too simple and easy and try to perform them all at once. Go slowly, do not overdo or tense you brain. Try to reach perfection.

If you find it too difficult, or thoughts distract you and make you think about other matters, don’t despair. Everyone encounters difficulties along the way. The successful ones are those who go on and never give up. If you persist in spite of difficulties and disturbance, success will crown your efforts. Remember, even those with powerful concentration had to exercise. It does not matter if your concentration is weak, it can be strengthened. You need not be some special person to be able to do that. But each will reach a different level of concentration. Some will have a strong power, others not so strong. It all depends on how much time, energy and earnestness you put into the project. In time you will find out that you can concentrate anywhere, anytime, no matter what your circumstances are. Do you understand what does it mean? To be able to concentrate, think and function under the most trying circumstances, staying calm, relaxed and collected. The reward is worth the effort a thousand fold.

Some of them may be familiar to you. Some may seem too easy to perform. Some were taken from various sources knowledge about concentration increase you will be able to create new exercise by yourself. For full benefit, it is advisable that you practice each exercise for one more week, after you are convinced that you are practicing it correctly and with full attention.

CONCENTRATION EXERCISES:

EXERCISE 1

Take a book and count the words in any one paragraph. Count them again to be sure that you have counted them correctly. Start with one paragraph and when it becomes easier, count the words in a whole page. Perform the counting mentally and only with your eyes, without pointing you finger at each word.

EXERCISE 2

Count backwards in your mind from one hundred to one.

EXERCISE 3

Count in your mind from one hundred to one, skipping each three numbers, that it 100, 97, 94, etc.

EXERCISE 4

Choose an inspiring word, or just a simple sound, and repeat it silently in your mind for five minutes. When your mind can concentrate more easily, try to reach ten minutes of uninterrupted concentration.

EXERCISE 5

Take a fruit, an apple for example, and look at it from all sides. Concentrate your attention on it and examine it from all sides. Devote the whole session to concentrate on it. Do not be carried away by irrelevant thoughts that arise. Stay with the apple. It could be any other fruit. Look at it and do not think about the shop were you bought it, about the way it is grown, its nutritive value etc., only about the object in front of you. Just look at it, see it, smell it and touch it.

EXERCISE 6

This is the same as the exercise number 5, only that this time visualize the fruit with your eyes closed. Start by performing again exercise number 5 for five minutes, and then do this one. Try to see, feel, taste, and smell the fruit in you imagination. Try to see a clear and well defined image. If difficulties arise open your eyes, look at the fruit, close them again and continue the exercise.

EXERCISE 7

Take a small example object such as a spoon, a fork, or a glass. Concentrate on one of these objects. Watch the object from all sides without any verbalization, that is, with no words I your mind. Just watch the object without thinking with words about it.

EXERCISE 8

After becoming proficient in the above exercises, you can come to this exercise. Draw a small geometrical figure, about three inches in size, such a triangle, a rectangular or a circle, paint it with any colour you wish, and concentrate on it. You should see only the figure, nothing else. Only the figure exists for you now, with no unrelated thoughts or any distractions. Try not to think with words during the exercise. Watch the figure in front of you and that’s it. Try not to strain your eyes.

EXERCISE 9

The same as number 8, only this time visualize the figure with the eyes closed. As before, if you forget how the figure looks like, open your eyes for a few seconds and watch the figure and then close your eyes and continue with the exercise.

EXERCISE 10

The same as above in number 9 but the eyes open.

EXERCISE 11

Try for at least five minutes, to stay without thoughts. This excise is to be attempted only after all the previous ones have been performed successfully. The previous exercises, if practiced correctly, will endow you with the ability to impose silence on your thoughts. In time it will become easier and easier. The secret of success is constant practice. The more time you devote to the exercise the faster your success arrives. Go on gradually; ten minutes at the start and in time as you gain the ability t concentrate, give it more time. When you see that you are successful, you will begin to love the exercise, and in time they will become a habit. You will be able to concentrate your attention easily and effortlessly upon anything you want to concentrate on.

Are you jogging, exercising at the gym or studying a foreign language? How difficult it was in the start? How many times you wanted to quit? Yet, after a while you started to like what you were doing. It became a habit, needing no effort to perform. So it is with developing the power of concentrating. After some time you will start to feel differently. It will be easier to concentrate. Your mind will be calm and relaxed and you will radiate peace into your surroundings. Things, circumstances and events that used to agitate and ager you, will not influence your thinner calmness. You will experiment happiness, content and satisfaction, self-confidence and inner strength. You will be able to cope more easily and efficiently with the outer world.

You will feel a new form of consciousness growing in you, bringing you peace of mind. It may come every now and then for a brief moment, but in time it will grow and fill you completely. You will be able to make the mind work for you when you need its services, in a most efficient way. You will be able to silence it when its services are not needed.

The attitude to life and the reactions to events change after starting to practice concentration. You come to know many things about the mind and how it functions, and you learn to deal with it efficiently.