Are you having a hard time dominating your focus? Are you struggling to keep your concentration in check? Are you easily distracted? Those days are over. As far as I can recall no one ever taught me how to focus. If that is your case too, I would like to share some tips I have learned over the years that will help you get a grip and dominate that focus of yours.
- Clarity
First you have to know with immense clarity what it is you want to focus upon. For the purpose of this blog, I will use the breath as a simple example, but you can apply these principles to your work or any project you are currently working on.
- Remove all distractions
If you want to focus on your breath, and you have tried this before you know that everything is going to be more interesting than this breath of yours. You also know that even the most uninteresting whatsapp message will be more exciting than your breath, and you are going to want to read this whatsapp that in reality you really don’t want to read, still you rather read this whatsapp than maintaining your focus on your breath.
It is like having your favorite cake in front of your nose when you are trying to be on a diet. So when you are clear as to what it is you want to focus your attention on, make sure to remove all distractions. If it means to have your phone on silent, so be it, just do it.
- Know yourself
- Know what your distractions are.
- Know what are the thoughts and things that grab your attention.
- Understand your mind. To understand your mind you have got to observe it. Where does it like to go? Is it spending most of its time in the past, or planning for the future? Is it repeating the same conversations over and over again? Or is it constantly complaining and criticizing yourself and others? Know yourself!
- Be flexible
Be rigid with your focus, yet flexible with what arises. Know that whatever you resist persists. Accept the nature of your mind, if it likes to wander so be it, know that YOU are peace. Imagine you have made the decision and you are very clear that you want to focus on your breath, you have eliminated all distractions, your dog is outside, your phone is on silent, and now it is just you and your breath.
After a couple of seconds or so, you notice all these thoughts flooding into your awareness. Where are all these thoughts coming from, you ask yourself. You are now having a hard time remaining focused on your breath, you start getting very annoyed with these avalanches of thoughts, but rather than pushing against these thoughts, resisting these thoughts and fighting against them, what about you accept them, and know that YOU are peace?
- Have a calm mind
If there is no peace, there is no focus, and vice-versa. Focus can only happen when you feel fulfilled in this moment, when you accept whatever is to be exactly as it is. Focus can also bring tremendous peace, because when you are concentrated, the mind is calm. The mind wanders only when you are not at peace, because you are not accepting this moment to be as it is.
And so it happens to be very easy to be distracted, as your mind jumps on every distraction that passes through your awareness. Simply because it does not want to be here. It is not accepting this moment to be exactly as it is, and so it rather be somewhere else.
- Be kind and gentle with yourself.
It is the nature of the mind to jump from one place to another. By having compassion for the mind, and gently keep bringing your attention back to the here and now, you gain control over your mind, and you start to deliberately direct it where you want it to go. This requires consistency and a whole lot of practice. But you can do it!!
I wish you the best of luck. Please let me know if this was helpful, make sure to leave me some comments, and let me know how you are dominating that focus of yours. I would love to hear from you.