Training your concentration

[carlowillo]

I am very interested in rapidly improving my concentration. I was wondering if anyone here has done any intense concentration training and experienced a lot of quick growth through it?

The type of concentration training I am talking about is mentioned in the video 'Concentration vs Meditation'. Could I massively fast-track my results if I did the exercise 5-10x a day? Or is concentration something that slowly builds up over time?

Thank you.

[Forestluv]

What is the underlying motivation is to improve concentration. Do you want to improve concentration to help you achieve things in life? Or do you want to improve concentration to reach deeper levels of realizations and awakenings?

[Ariesleith]

I've had great experience and growth from mantras and staring at actual objects as well as imagining a sphere at the four head

[carlowillo]

@Serotoninluv Both. 

[carlowillo]

@Ariesleith When staring at objects or the sphere, do you concentrate with such intensity that no thoughts arise? 

[Matt23]

It seems like weight training to me.  It'll be sloppy and distracted at the start, but then over time it will build.

Having a clean diet, and perhaps doing nootropics or micro-dosing can maybe help.

Also having your life sorted (practically and psychologically/emotionally) helps a ton.  I've had a lot of psychological and emotional ups and downs and often feel plagued by them which makes it way harder to concentrate or even meditate.  So healing these is key as well.

 

[Rigel]

You train your concentration by concentrating. What are you passionate about? 

(assuming you diet and sleep is on point) 

Edited December 12, 2019 by Rigel

[carlowillo]

@Matt23 To use the analogy of weight training. At the gym, you are limited by your baseline strength (your fundamental concentration muscle and ability). But there a certain tool like belts, knee straps and shoes that can help you lift more (clean diet, nootropics, microdosing). 

I am more talking about improving my baseline strength (concentration), so I don't have to rely on other things to help me lift more.

It's easy enough to get in the habit of continually bringing my concentration back to the task after getting distracted. But I want to prolonge the time I can fully concentrate on a task in one stretch. The exercise Leo gave seems perfect for that, so I was wondering if anyone has made any significant progress quickly, through intensely training that way. @Rigel

 Thank you guys, hope that makes sense.

[Consilience]

The Mind Illuminated by John Yates has given me incredible results regarding concentration. Much better than a standard meditation technique like mantra, do nothing, open awareness etc. 

[Arcangelo]

During meditation count your breaths.

[Byun Sean]

your gonna fall off and quit if you take that approach. Do just a few exercises a day but do them every single day no matter what. 10 times is unsustainable. 

[Leo Gura]

Tortoise wins the race.

The mind is slow to rewire itself. If you push it too much you might just get frustrated and quit. The harder you push, the more ego backlash you'll get.

When it comes to this training, quality is far more important than quantity.

[Gili Trawangan]

A meditation retreat would give you a fast boost in concentration. But like any muscle, you then need to keep practicing and using it in order to keep the gains.

[ardacigin]

On 12/11/2019 at 7:45 PM, carlowillo said:

I am very interested in rapidly improving my concentration. I was wondering if anyone here has done any intense concentration training and experienced a lot of quick growth through it?

The type of concentration training I am talking about is mentioned in the video 'Concentration vs Meditation'. Could I massively fast-track my results if I did the exercise 5-10x a day? Or is concentration something that slowly builds up over time?

Thank you.

I've experienced a lot of growth from The Mind Illuminated. Buy the book. Start reading and practicing. 

Let me know if it helps

[remember]

recently i realized one of the most common mistakes is to think concentration is not existent while being absent minded or while multitasking - so the same as consciousness is all around. concentration is all around, what is most important to approach concentration is focus practice. but as we change the understanding from a target to the tool we are targeting with it is important to understand that focus can be wide and contracted - contracted does not mean focused as well as seemingly distracted does not mean unfocused. one of the most important realizations in focus practice is priority practice.

[Germo]

Start with maybe cutting down the need for surfing online, social media checking, and need for " reasearching more" . Coz what i feel on my experience,  the more i do these things, my mind gets more distracted and unfocused. Too much stimulation "crap" we but in our minds.. its hard to get that crap out ..I mean, as example :  how many books do we need to read about meditation, or self improvment really? We gotta but work in and experience, feel it, concrntration will improve, if we dont obsessively look for information, thats my 2 cents..maybe u disagree

[carlowillo]

@Leo Gura Thank you.

Does the concentration have to be so intense that no thoughts arise at all? Or just so much so that you don't let the thoughts distract you from the object of focus? 

Because I've been trying to get to the point where not a single thought comes up and I've been stuck trying to reach a minute for a month now lol.

[Forestluv]

5 minutes ago, carlowillo said:

@Leo Gura Thank you.

Does the concentration have to be so intense that no thoughts arise at all? Or just so much so that you don't let the thoughts distract you from the object of focus? 

Because I've been trying to get to the point where not a single thought comes up and I've been stuck trying to reach a minute for a month now lol.

Occasionally, I do a concentration exercise of staring at a candle. The flame has just enough motion to hold my attention. And there is the relationship between my breath and the candle flicker - this allows me concentration.

If I have a busy mind and I become immersed into thought - I won't do the exercise. I'll just sit and stare. 

If thoughts slow down, I enter what feels like a balance between effort, attention and presence. It is similar to doing a balance posture during Yoga. For example, in Tree posture there is effort, attention and presence. If this is disrupted, there is loss of balance. There is effort, without pushing away. If I'm balancing and trying to push thoughts away - balance will be lost. It's similar for me staring at a candle during mediation. It's not so much the appearance of thoughts, it is becoming immersed in thoughts. . . For example, if there are bird chirps outside and the mind becomes immersed in those bird chirps, then the concentration is lost. Similar to thoughts. . . 

Ime, trying to repress thoughts creates internal conflict. This tells the mind that thoughts are bad and it's important that they don't arise. . . I found it better that thoughts are unimportant. Just like bird chirps outside are unimportant. If you hear a bird chirping outside, you can easily let it go. You don't go outside and try to shut the bird up. (And those chirps are appearing inside your mind, just like thoughts!). The mind gives extra relevance to thoughts.

With that said, immersion into thinking can be a major distraction from presence. For me, slowing them down and developing a new relationship with thoughts was important. As thoughts slowed down, I noticed gaps between thoughts - the gaps got longer and longer - into seconds. As well, the relationship to thoughts changed. They seemed much "further" away and didn't have so much power. . . As well, when the gaps between thoughts lengthened, images starting to appear. For me, images are "cousins" to thoughts. 

During candle-staring practice, I've entered zones in which there are no thoughts. Yet here is the key for me. . . I've also candle-staring zones in which there are no bird chirps. Am I 100% certain there were no bird chirps outside? No, and it doesn't matter. Similarly, am I 100% certain thoughts didn't arise? No, and it doesn't matter.

When my relationship with thoughts changed, all sorts of new stuff emerges. There may be a stretch of a minute with no awareness of a thought. Yet there is ISness present - and it's amazing. Or there may be a thought, yet it's not really a thought anymore. It becomes all part of the ISness. A feeling, an energy, an intuition, an image, a sensation, a thought - they all become mixed into the ISness of Now. 

I'm not sure what your goal is with the concentration, yet I've reached Nothing/Everything/Now/Infinity. This is a paradox of direct experience - that Infinity can be so expansive, or it can become so highly concentrated. A mind can concentrate on One point so intently that there is Nothing. (which is also Everything).