The Art of Concentration

Whether you are – student or teacher, boss or employ, artist or player, writer or singer and young or old, nobody can deny importance of the art of concentration. Yoga philosophy always talks about mastering the art of concentration which is a base of Yogic lifestyle so that you can enjoy life at its fullest.

Introduction to concentration

First let us see some of different definitions of concentration.

“Concentration is the ability to keep awareness on one object for extended period of time”

“Trying to keep the mind engaged with one object/place is concentration”

“Concentration is doing something with fullest possible attention”

“Concentration is the ability to sustain the spotlight for a longer period, without ‘scattering’ it”

“The mind thinks about one object and avoids other thoughts; awareness of the object is still interrupted.”

Here are some possible distractions

One of the biggest obstacles in our life is our inability to concentrate.
Multitasking the more you try to do it less you give your best.
No practical tools to improve the ability to concentrate.
Lack of practice of concentration throughout the day, always remember that the more you practice the better you get.
Most of the people allow the distractions to take over, without even making any efforts towards over coming them.
Technology can make you distracted only if you allow it to do so. How you choose to use technology determines if it is a source of distraction or not. (Need to learn how to invest time in it instead of wasting the time with it)
Not being master of awareness. Being master of awareness allow you to choose the object/subject to get engaged with consciously.
Not being aware of your distractions. It is always hard to find a way to deal with unknown.

Some benefits of concentration

There are enormous benefits of mastering the art of concentration. Few of them are mentioned below.

Observation – it allows you to see more clearly what is ahead and helps you in making better decisions.
Happiness – better concentration and observation helps in making better choices which leads to better outcomes in your life and the byproduct of this is happiness.
Listening – One of the ways to build good relation with people is to cultivate the ability to listen. More you are concentrated with people around you it allow you to have good listening ability.
Awareness – concentration helps you in mastering over awareness so you can control its direction. Also enhances the ability to focus.
Self development – the art of concentration helps you in working on your weakness and strength both which results in betterment of self.
Mental health – concentration builds the ability to choose your thoughts (reactions) and promotes the emotional health.
Meditation – concentration is the base and first step of Meditation.

How to Concentration in daily life

When it comes to improve the ability of concentration you must remember that passive and active both types of practice need to be adopted. Passive practice can be done one or two hour for working person. But need to keep it in the mind that if you practice something for 1 hour will not be so effective you need to practice it more often throughout the day. For that you need to include active practices in daily life.

Focusing on breath, concentration on mantra (Japa or Ajapa) and Trataka etc are some highly effective technique of passive concentration technique.

But with it try to find some opportunities to practice active concentration in your average day so that you can practice the fine art of concentration. These opportunities should be something that is part of your daily routine and not a new practice that you create in your life. Always remember that the more you practice the better you get. So only one way to master the art of concentration is make it part of your life-style.

Here are some examples of practices to make concentration part of your life-style.

1: Every time I speak with my spouse/friend/children I will give him/her my undivided attention. If my awareness drifts away then I gently and lovingly bring it back to my spouse. As I practice this throughout the day I am practicing the art of concentration.

2: Every time I eat my food I will eat my food with my undivided attention. If my awareness drifts away then I gently and lovingly bring it back to my food.

3: Every time I drive I am focused on the road with both hands on the steering wheel.

4: Every time I speak on the phone I give the person I am speaking to my undivided attention.

Opportunity 5: …………………………………….. (find according to your daily routine)

To be good at concentration you need to make it a part of your day. We need to practice it more often throughout the day by finding the great opportunities to practice it. This is the only way to master the art of concentration.