Mental Focus..

Mental focus is an important gift to those who meditate, and to those who don't. Being able to focus on something intently is often hard enough for a lot of people. Not because they are less intelligent, or too intelligent, or mentally unstable. No, what the problem is, is that modern life has left us with so much interference in our lives, so much spamming via commercials, print media, electronic media, news, up to date this' and thats' and a whole manner of other things, that we forget that we are here in the world also.

So how, how then do we expect us to be able to focus on nothing? To clear that mind and to sit in the moment of stillness and soak it up? I have often wondered what would a life be like without being able to do that? Then I got scared of all the clutter in my head, the messed up dreams I would have (which are messed up enough already), and a multitude of other worse case scenarios. I will let you know my methods momentarily, but I want to focus on the reasons as to why the ability to do this is so important.

As I spoke about previously, Disciplined Compassion is a life-long lifestyle choice I have made. It allows me to be firm, and yet compassionate. Understanding that it also applies to myself as much, if not so more importantly than it does to others, allowed me to realize that there is a balance in all things. And just as much as there is a need to be compassionate and disciplined in action and thought, there is also the need to be relaxed in both. You find that if you are too compassionate you become prey for those who take advantage, and if you are too discipline, people won't want to be around you. And that goes with the space between your ears. If you are too inundated with incoming data, you are going to be no use to someone if you can't filter and sort it out, but if you are too focused on your spiritualism, you are either going to be off in the clouds or stumbling over your feet. Focus, is like any instrument we possess, it's use must be balanced, proportionate to the task required, and not used for too long a period of time.

Another reason that focus is so important, is that it allows you to delve into regions of your mind, and work on things that you wouldn't otherwise consider. Finding the source of your failures, the successes, the creativity, the self-destruction, these are all achieved by focusing within. These are real, tangible things that can be worked on to improve yourself. Focus here, and you can change your life. Focusing also allows you to accept change more readily, because when you understand that most of your failures, your successes, your creations and destructive habits are caused by yourself, and not your target of choice, you understand the desire to change. And change within yourself, and others will notice the change without. You will feel more confident, you will be able to better assess life, choices and feel a sense of self contentment.

Ok, now to the hows. I will share with you my basic meditation. I used this generally if I need a quick brain dump. It can be done pretty much anywhere. I like either just sitting in the park on a bench, or standing in my room over a stick of incense with my eyes closed.
Step 1: I relax my breathing, due to my kyphosis, this is a very easy thing for me to do. I just take shallower short breaths and wait for the feeling in my chest to where I need to breathe in again.
Step 2: What I do next is pretty much try to focus on something. It is either a pattern, or of late, that spot of time at the height of my breath before my chest falls to breathe out. This is the point where I choose to take the next breath, and is a beautiful moment to me.
Step 3: After doing this for about 2 minutes, that spot of time seems to come to a standstill, and you realize that there is a whole universe of time, in that one instant. Your mind fills in with a sense of peace knowing that you control how you live, how you react or not react to things, how you CHOOSE when to let that air out of our lungs. In this point, when you focus on the serenity of it, everything in the world shuts out. As the Buddha taught in the Anapanasati Sutta, being mindful of the breath and how it effects breathing, the body, the sensations of the body, it brings about quietness and a greater understanding of the body.

Breathing is the most instrumental thing in our life. Without it we don't exist, and for anyone beginning meditation, or even learning to focus, I find it is one of the easiest things to focus on. This also helps in exercise too. When you are working hard, using this technique can bring down your heart rate by around 10beats a minute (I have had it measured with a heart rate monitor). This allows the heart to come to rest sooner and gives you a bit more energy for the next phase of your workout. Also, it is a great form of remembering we are all connected to one another. If we remember that every living mammal breathes the air we breathe, and does so by the same process of inhaling air, we come to understand that our world is vibrant.

I hope you all have a fantastic breathing focus session, and drop a comment to tell me how you did!!!