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Replies and Clarifications Nine …
Hazada Guess …
I hope you won’t take offense that I will use you as a teaching aide. What you have occasionally brought up is a perfect example of some of the points I have been trying to get across.
When did this loss of concentration start? Six weeks ago … six months ago … six years ago?
Maybe it was as innocently as watching a movie and you noticed that you forgot some of the characters … or that you weren’t following the movie the way you thought you should be. Maybe later … you read a few pages in a book and take notice all of a sudden … “Gee … my concentration isn’t what it use to be.”
Later you notice the same thing when you drive … or take a walk … or whatever. Soon you are telling yourself “I can’t concentrate” how many times a day? And … lo and behold … your concentration begins to get even noticeably worse.
How long have you been teaching yourself that? Did you bring it with you from a previous lifetime? Were you just tired when you first noticed it … which certainly could affect ones concentration. Were there chemical or nutritional imbalances going on? Were there other anxieties going on in your life that would cloud your concentration?
And the anxiety you feel when you take notice … and then tell yourself inwardly that this is an issue … the anxiety is like pouring gasoline on a fire.
( I don’t want to know the answers to any of these queries. It’s really nobody’s business. They are just a quick series of possibilities of how all of this started. )
When one chooses to turn that corner and live even beyond the positive side of Life … one learns to watch every thought … especially those that are coupled with strong emotion. As I’ve stated before … mind takes all its information from the past … from past experience … all levels. Its first line of duty is to protect … and then to pleasure. It will quickly tell you … “Watch Out! That’s not good … don’t do it that way” … and then “Let’s just go and buy that new tool I’ve been wanting.” ( Plug in whatever statements you personally use. )
Learn to watch your inner life as carefully as an ardent gardener weeds his garden, trims the shrubs, fertilizes the plants, waters carefully. As has been stated in many religious texts … let the weak man say he is strong … let the poor man say he is rich. This approach … mind does not like at all … and cannot really promote it … because as of yet the individual is neither strong nor rich. This is a main reason why mind cannot come along on the journey beyond itself. Mind wants the logic of past experiences. As you begin to over-ride what mind wants you to focus on … you begin to distance yourself from mental and emotional limitations.
This is NOT easy … and certainly in the beginning … you are promoting that which you have yet to become. The whole approach gathers strength as you really begin to draw up positive scenarios and become happily dramatic in your approaches. Really pretend that you are your “new” state of consciousness. Use glamorous words to describe it all. “How wonderful that I concentrated for an extra five minutes this time. Right on Mind !! Yay … way to go.” Look for every possible enhancement you can come up with during the day. It is all done inwardly. No one need know.
You did not “lose” it overnight. You will not “regain” it overnight. It’s a one-step-at-a-time thing. The more you talk yourself into believing that your concentration is now substantial … the sooner it will begin to work for you. Act as if it’s already working to the degree that you wish … believe in it … be dramatic in your inner descriptions … game the whole thing … and begin to re-design.
Another good technique that works right along with this is to take a favorite song of yours … one with a nice steady melody … and make up words promoting your new state. Be as over-dramatic as you wish. “How fabulous … how exciting my concentration is … lasting for hours … I can concentrate on anything … mind loves to concentrate when I wish … etc.” Believe it. Work with it. Allow it to work for you.
Sometimes … this revision stuff takes baby steps. When you see ANY improvement … heavily compliment your mind for being cooperative. This whole thing is a game … to out-game your mind. You’re not trying to follow normal protocol here. You’re trying to re-train a rather impish, often uncooperative child. ( Don’t tell your mind this … just praise it when it does something right.)
Further … lay back and do all of this in your inner work. Pretend. Act as if. See yourself concentrating more and more … and how much you remember when you finish your studies. Again … be over-dramatic. Make it fun … heck … make it hilarious. ANY-thing to bring about belief in the new state. This becomes a lifestyle … not just a once-used method. You … are the beneficiary.
If you hold to any new state long enough … it will become real in your world. There is no guarantee that any method will work … but the principles are valid and hold true. The more you do this in any facet of your life … you will enhance that aspect. That is only to your benefit.
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