The power of concentration and why it’s important for managing energy?
In a previous article (ubaciti link) we talked about how the mind works and what is its connection to energy.
We mentioned willpower and concentration as tools to be able to use our energy in the way we desire.
Now let’s begin by first defining what concentration is. I define concentration as the ability to keep your awareness on one thing for an extended period of time. So if I can keep my awareness on this lady and hold it on her, I’m concentrating. If I allow my awareness, my ball of light, to move away I’m getting distracted. Then I use my willpower and I bring my awareness back and I hold it on her.
Being able to do that allows me to concentrate. Most people can’t concentrate for two reasons.
One is they’ve never been taught how to concentrate, second is they never practice concentration. Isn’t that pretty simple? How many of you growing up here, in school, had classes on concentration? Every single day you had the same classes on geography, on math, and science. But how many of you when you were growing up in school were told to concentrate? Isn’t it amazing, you get told to concentrate but you never get taught how to do it. When I was growing up I got told to concentrate all the time. Concentrate on doing your homework, concentrate on eating your food. But does anybody want to show me how to do it? No!
How many of you have kids and how many of you tell your kids to concentrate. But have you ever shown them how to do it? And then if you don’t show them how to concentrate, how would they know how to do it?
Well, we all know that if you want to be good at something you have to practice it. Then if you want to be really good at concentration you need to practice it all day. People are good at distraction, because that’s what they practice all day long. It’s not that they don’t have the ability to concentrate, they’ve just practiced distraction and become really good at it.
So we concentrate by practicing doing one thing at a time and integrating this practice into our everyday life. So for me I look at my average day and I ask myself what’s a reoccurring event in my life every day. I speak with my girlfriend on a daily basis, and every time I speak with her I give her my undivided attention. I keep my awareness on her, if it drifts away I bring it back, it drifts away, I bring it back. I keep my awareness on her, I give her my undivided attention. Now every day I also speak to my clients, I speak with my colleagues at work, I speak with my friends and family. And every time I speak with somebody I give them my undivided attention.
If I’m on the phone I give the person on the phone my undivided attention. So, I practice doing one thing at a time. By the end of the day I’ve had maybe six to eight hours of practicing concentration. And six months later what will happen? I’ve become really good at concentration. Twelve months later I will become a really good expert at concentration.
The best way to become good at something is to take a tool and insert it into a reoccurring event in your life. And this is the best way to become good at something. Rather than to create another practice in your life, just take a tool and insert it into the practice into a reoccurring event in your life.
So your homework is to give someone, or whatever you’re doing, your undivided attention. Pick one person in your life for the next one month that you will give your undivided attention to. Every time you speak with that person, stay completely focused on them. Keep your awareness on them. The rest of the day you can go ahead and be a squirrel, but just whenever you’re speaking with that person, give that person your undivided attention. And you need to practice and build in incremental steps.
The other thing we need to learn to develop is willpower. Everybody is born with various levels of willpower, but one thing we never get taught to do is to actually develop willpower. And willpower is like a muscle, we can call it a mental biceps. If I could draw biceps around my mind there would be my willpower. The three ways to develop willpower: one finishes what you begin, to finish it well beyond your expectations, three do a little bit more than you think you’re able to do.
All of these three ways require effort and that effort is willpower.
So how do I develop willpower? I take these three methods and I apply it to things that reoccur in my life. What’s something that reoccurs in my life every day? Every day I sleep. What a great opportunity to develop willpower. Before I go to sleep I floss and I brush my teeth, I put on my pajamas and I go to sleep. When I wake up in the morning I finish the process of sleep. How do I finish the process of sleep? I make the bed every day, so every day I wake up in the morning I make the bed. What’s something else you do every day? Every day I have breakfast. If I have time to make breakfast I have time to eat breakfast. Then I have time to do the breakfast dish and put it away, right. So I finish the process that I begin and I bring this into everything that I do then throughout the day. By doing this I develop willpower. The more I practice the better I get.
Now with this approach in everyday life I’ll have a tremendous amount of willpower. After six months I’ve developed a lot of willpower and every time my awareness drips away I use that mental muscle, that willpower to bring my awareness back. And then I use the powers of concentration that I’ve
developed to hold my awareness and what I’m focused on. And because I’m focusing on that where my awareness goes, energy flows in that particular area. Now my energy is flowing towards what I want, and that starts to manifest in my life.
That’s why it’s so important firstly to understand there’s a separation between awareness and the mind, two completely different things. You control where awareness goes and by that you control where your energy is flowing. And then you are able to control what’s manifesting in your life. And again you use your powers of concentration and your willpower to hold your awareness on the priorities in your life.
Now, if you want to learn more about awareness and the mind, please read this article because I explained all the basics there. And if you’re not quite sure why I am talking about energy and where it’s flowing, then you need to read these two articles.
