Distracted? Frazzled? Try the Concentration Cure
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Why is focus so important, and what do you say to people who are thinking, I can't concentrate on anything! How can I do this?
Focus is the fundamental, necessary tool we need to do everything else well. Above and beyond meditation, breathing, and exercising, concentration is the basic skill that everybody needs to learn.
It still sounds like a tall order. How do you start?
The path begins with understanding how the mind works. We have a mind, and we have awareness. Awareness moves through the mind. Concentrating is your ability to keep your awareness on something or someone for an extended period.
Can you say more about the difference between the mind and awareness?
Yes. I look at the mind as a vast space with many different areas within it. One area of the mind is anger; other areas are jealousy, happiness, sadness, food, and technology. There are so many different areas. Awareness is a glowing ball of light, which in essence is you. You are pure awareness traveling through the mind. That’s the first thing to get clear—that they’re distinctly separate things. Second, at any given point in time, I am in charge of where my awareness goes. If someone says to me, “Hey, Dandapani, your shawl is ugly,” they could take my awareness to an upset area of the mind. But if I can move my ball of light back to a content area of the mind, I can say, “I am not going there.”
How do you practice this?
You need to develop two qualities: willpower and concentration. I define willpower as a mental muscle. If I say something to you, and you say something to me, and as you’re talking, my ball of light drifts away and I start thinking about something else, I use my mental muscle to bring my ball of light back to you. Then I use my powers of focus, or concentration, to hold that ball of light on you.
Now, how do we make that practice stick? By identifying nonnegotiable, reoccurring events in your average day. Every day, I talk to my wife—five minutes here, one minute there. Every time I speak with her, I practice concentration. If my awareness drifts away, I bring it back. It drifts away, I bring it back. And that’s the practice. People are always looking for the spectacular. If I said to someone, “Wrap your left leg around your neck and breathe out of your right nostril while you hold this mudra [hand pose],” people would go, “That’s an amazing spiritual exercise!” But if I tell you your only task is to bring awareness back every time it drifts away, they say, “Oh, is that all?” The essence of mastery is repetition. If you anchor a practice in something that occurs every day, that’s how you create traction, which is the key.
You write that willpower is a muscle that keeps gets stronger, that the benefits of this practice are cumulative.
Exactly. One way to develop willpower is to finish what you begin. It takes more energy to finish something well, to do a little bit more than is required, and that effort is willpower. For example, every night, I floss, brush my teeth, put on my pajamas, and go to sleep. When I wake up in the morning, I make the bed. Making the bed is finishing the process of sleep. Then I make coffee, drink the coffee, and wash the coffee cup. Washing the cup is finishing the task. So now my whole day becomes opportunities to develop willpower, and therefore develop focus.
You’re pro-technology. How is unwavering focus possible with all our screens and apps shouting for our attention?
I look at technology as a tool that serves me; I don’t serve it. My wife and I live in Costa Rica. We're creating a spiritual botanical garden and have planted four or five thousand trees in the last 10 years. Every time we plant a tree, we take a spade from our shed, dig a hole, plant a tree, wash the spade, and put it back in the shed. I don’t carry the spade with me all day. Technology is the same thing.
The Power of Unwavering Focus
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amazon.comThat’s a helpful shift in thinking. And finally: How does mastering focus manifest in a person’s life? What will it do for you?
Practically speaking, you’ll be much more productive and efficient because you’re not multitasking, which is exhausting. If you have five projects and let your awareness jump indiscriminately between them, the result is anxiety. When we can keep awareness on one thing at a time, we essentially eliminate the experience of anxiety. Also, we are on this planet for a finite amount of time. By giving you my undivided attention, I’m telling you that I value you. I value your time. I value your energy. I value who you are and what you have to say. It’s an amazing form of love and respect.
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