What is Concentration?

By Remez Sasson

What is concentration? What do you know about it?

Concentration is the ability to direct one’s attention in accordance with one’s will. It means control of the attention. It is the ability to focus the mind on one subject, object or thought, and at the same time exclude from the mind every other unrelated thoughts, ideas, feelings and sensations.

It also means the ability to do one thing at a time, instead of jumping from one subject to another and losing attention, time, and energy.

Concentration is a state, in which one’s whole attention is engrossed in one thing only, and being oblivious to everything else. During concentration, the mind focuses on the object of concentration, and only one thought occupies the mind. The whole energy of the mind becomes concentrated on this one thought.

The ability to command the mind and control the attention is not common, and requires training. Most people lack the ability to control their attention and focus the mind exclusively on one subject for any length of time. They can’t command their mind to concentrate, whenever they want to. However, concentration is not uncommon activity. It happens almost everyday, to almost everyone, but it is more of a spontaneous and uncontrolled ability.

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Lack of Concentration and Focus

By Remez Sasson

People often ask me, what they can do to improve their concentration. It seems that lack of concentration is a widespread problem, irrespective of age, sex or country.

People say about lack of concentration:

- I am battling to concentrate on one thing at a time.

- My thoughts often drift to the past or the future.

- I have a habit of starting something and not finishing it.

- I lack concentration. I am unable to focus my mind on one thing for more than a few seconds.

- I procrastinate.

- It is difficult for me to focus on my studies.

- It takes a great effort to read a book.

- I always change my mind, and I am unable to follow through with my decisions.

- I try to concentrate, but soon find myself thinking about something else.

These are just few of the things people say. The common thread of their words is that they lack concentration and are unable to focus their mind on one thing at a time. Their inability to focus their mind affects their work, relationships, school and almost everything else.

Sometimes the problem is severe, and this condition might require medical attention and advice, but if you are an average person, who lacks concentration, but have no health problems that are the cause of the inability to concentrate, you could start practicing concentration exercises. In addition, it would be advisable if you also strengthen your willpower and self-discipline.

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How to Keep Your Mind From Wandering

By Remez Sasson

Keep Your Mind From WanderingIt is a habit of the mind to wander. What happens when you sit quietly for a few minutes trying to think about something, or just sit down to relax? Next time you do this, try to watch your mind, and you will discover that it flits around like a butterfly, going from one thought to another.

The mind keeps thinking, worrying, asking questions, answering, giving excuses, telling stories, imagining, creating problems and solving them.

This happens not only while you sit down to relax, but also while working, driving, cooking, eating or doing anything else. This non-stop activity weakens your ability to focus your mind, and as well as interferes with your ability to deal effectively with what you are doing at each moment of the day.

A wandering mind can prevent you from falling asleep, finishing your tasks and work, and completing what you are doing. It also wastes your time and energy, and can be tiring sometimes.

Some people would tell you that if you perform more than one task at a time, you will save time and get more done. This might be true at times, when carrying out automatic tasks that do not require your or attention, but you will get done, and more accurately and efficiently, if you focus on just one thing at a time.

How many times have you tried to do several things at the same time, but ended doing mistakes and then having to correct them? When you focus on one task at a time, you do it more efficiently, easily and quickly. Paying your undivided attention to one subject is a sort of meditation, and this action teaches your mind obedience and discipline. When your mind is obedient and disciplined, it stops wandering, and you are more at peace.

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The Power of Attention – Focusing the Consciousness

In his book, Raja Yoga, Yogi Ramacharaka (William Walker Atkinson) says about the power of attention:

Power of Attention“The word Attention is derived from two Latin words “ad tendere,” meaning “to stretch toward,” which is really what attention is. The “I” wills that the mind be focused on some particular object or thing, and the mind obeys and “stretches toward” that object or thing, focusing its entire energy upon it, observing every detail, dissecting, analyzing, consciously and sub-consciously, drawing to itself every possible bit of information regarding it, both from within and from without. We cannot lay too much stress upon the acquirement of this great faculty, or rather, the development of it, for it is necessary for the intelligent study of Raja Yoga.”

“Attention has been defined as a focusing of consciousness, or, if one prefers the form of expression, as “detention in consciousness.”

“In the first case, we may liken it to the action of the sun-glass through which the sun’s rays are concentrated upon an object, the result being that the heat is gathered together at a small given point, the intensity of the same being raised many degrees until the heat is sufficient to burn a piece of wood, or evaporate water. If the rays were not focused, the same rays and heat would have been scattered over a large surface, and the effect and power lessened.”

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The Mental Diet

By Remez Sasson

In the previous article I have written about the “News Diet”. In this article I am writing about a similar, yet different topic, “The Mental Diet”.

You can eat indiscriminately, anything you find in your refrigerator, and you can exercise some control. In the same way, you may let every thought enter your mind freely, and you can supervise the thoughts that you think.

You may eat junk food, and you may eat healthy food. In the same way, you may think negative thoughts and you may think positive thoughts.

You can reduce the amount of food you eat, lose weight and shape your body, and you can also reject certain thoughts and encourage other, more motivating and positive thoughts.

You can follow a certain diet, and eat certain foods in certain quantities at certain times. Similarly, you can follow a mental diet, rejecting negative thoughts and too much restless and unnecessary thinking, calming your mind, strengthening it and putting it in shape.

You can take care to avoid unhealthy or fattening foods, and you can also take care of what you think, what you put into your mind.

You may fill your mind with thoughts from morning till night, as most people do, or you can choose to give your mind some rest. You can choose to follow a “Mental Diet”.

There is a diet related to eating, and there is a diet related to thinking.

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