11 Dec HOW DO I FOCUS

WHAT GREAT MEN FELT

Swami Vivekananda once said ” The difference between an ordinary and extraordinary person is his level of concentration”; he himself had the ability to concentrate with immense focus.

Modern positive psychology has studied that the quality of your life depends on how much you can concentrate and what you concentrate upon.

It is up to a normal person to assess what is not helping him.

She or he may not need an expert to point out all these

There is a book called Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life Book by Winifred Gallagher; understandably there was a lady who suffered from cancer and to control her disturbed and pained mind she took to art. She stated that after loving the art she felt better than the times when she was normal.

Milton stated “The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.”

In every level of mental activity, concentration is the key to success. The student is taking an exam but is distracted (internally) by a popular song being hummed through his head. The business man trying to draft an important contract is worried over an argument he had with a staff just when he came into the office. The judge is distracted by a person who is a look alike of his deceased brother.

Not being able to concentrate, is a sure shot concoction for inefficiency.

Another relevant input: But what is not generally known is that a concentrated mind succeeds not only because it can solve problems with greater dispatch, but also because problems have a way of somehow vanishing before its focussed energies, without even requiring to be solved.

There was a very comic situation in my life while I worked under an ever tranquil boss in a government organization – he was honest, able and sincere. But strangely he avoided dealing with the fatty files that are the ornaments of a government organization. I was always insisting that the files are pending for a month or so. He used to clear ten files out of hundred and used to say that the files themselves will sort themselves. I observed across a year of working that he was quite correct. But always I could see that his power of concentration was unshakable.

MONKEY MIND

There is a story of a Zen Master who asked a green-shoot to meditate and he found all monkeys coming to his mind; it showed that trying to avoid thoughts is like pressing a spring which recoils with more power. The mind becomes more agitated. Actually there is a book “Training the Monkey Mind” by Cheng Wei-an.

By far the fastest route is to do through LOVE – love of what you want to do and think about it, decide how to mature that. There are now lots of books on IKIGAI, but I can only state that reading through the internet and closely observing an image of the IKIGAI would provide all you need to know, but that does not stop you from buying one.

Here comes the example of the mother who is always loving her child – thus all activities – be it food or study or even dresses, each is completed with deep concentration & in the best way. By the way, selfishness leads to a scattered mind – it might lead to a narrow focus – let us think on this aspect as well.

For people with a liking for spirituality may look for a loving god in any form – but don’t worry, you may jolly well try the mundane ways to get a space within yourself that is tranquil and

Just be alone for some time, contemplate.

The road will reveal itself to you!