How to meditate to increase concentration

Concentration simply means to focus on one thing. In other words, it means not to focus on anything else except the one topic at hand.

It is simple to understand the meaning of concentration. Getting the mind concentrated on one thing is not simple.

Mind has been changing by default right from the beginning. The default behaviour of mind is un-concentration, it works in a way where it wants to jump from one topic to another at a faster pace.

For giving a mind a new system of concentration, it has to be newly designed by our own effort.

It has to be newly programmed to focus on one thing so that the old habit of the mind can be replaced with the new one.

Concentration increases by focusing on one topic for a longer time. All the focus should be on one topic, as if the whole world has disappeared & only one thing remains that is your focus topic.

In Meditation what we do is, we sit in one place, close our eyes & perform some awareness activity. In breathing meditation, we focus on the breath. Our complete attention is directed towards breathing & all else is forgotten.

Meditation is also aimed at directing the focus to the one, excluding anything else. It may be any kind of meditation, it is solely aimed to bring complete focus to the meditation.

So meditation will increase concentration if it is done in the proper manner. If we take an example of Vipassana Meditation, the meditator has to focus on incoming & outgoing breaths.

Now when the meditator begins to meditate, he begins to focus on his breath. For a few moments he can focus easily & suddenly the mind brings traffic of thoughts & the focus is disturbed.

The meditator has to bring back the attention to the breath which is not easy because once he is involved in his thoughts he forgets everything else. And this happens very quickly, the thoughts are very quick & they are faster than anything else.

Meditator has to practise this activity of focus every moment & he has to remain alert every moment. If he is unalert then again the mind will project random thoughts & meditator will be lose the focus again.

This practice of focusing on one thing during meditation increases the concentration as a byproduct.

Vipassana Meditation, watching the incoming & outgoing breath is one of the all-time best meditation available worldwide.

It has been used all over the world irrespective of any religion & is worldwide accepted as one of the best & simplest meditation given by Gautam Buddha.

The great thing about this meditation is that you can do it at any time & at any place. You can do it by closing your eyes & sitting for meditation or you can do it while walking or you can do it while watching TV or you can do it while working or you can do it in the marketplace while shopping.

This meditation does not require any separate tool & is not dependent on anything. We are breathing all the time, even when we sleep our breathing continues so we can do this meditation at any time.

In this meditation, we focus on our breath. We simply watch the breath that goes in & breath that moves out. We become aware of our breath.

By doing this meditation, we are bringing our attention to the present moment. This indirectly diminishes the inner thought flow which results in improvement of concentration & memory.

By practising this meditation consistently, the awareness grows like a tree reaching the sky. There happens an unseen transformation within the mind. There is clarity, stillness, stability & peace of mind.

Meditation in a deeper sense is something that can be used all the time with any activity. It is even said that while sleeping also the meditation should continue.

Meditation does not always mean sitting in one place, closing the eyes & doing meditation. It is a meditation but the meditation can also be done while working, playing, singing, studying or while doing any activity.

Meditation means to bring all your attention to a single thing. The attention should be so sharp that everything else should be unfocused as everything else has dissolved.

If we study the top rankers, we will find that they have mastered the skill of total attention to the thing in hand. And this is the reason why they top in a subject. They completely absorb the topic masterfully as compared to other students around them that are not able to grasp the topic.

Following are the meditations while studying :-

• The best meditation while studying is to only study at the time of studying. This rarely happens because the mind of the student is never on the topic, it is somewhere else. This has to be practised by bringing the attention back to the study again & again & to forget everything else.
• Keep your body in a relaxed state. If you find any tension in any part of your body then watch that tension & relax that part of your body.

Studying with maximum potential requires a relaxed state of mind. For absorbing the information needs a stability of mind.

When the mind is unstable & full of thoughts, it becomes difficult to absorb any kind of information. The unstable mind does not allow us to comprehend the concepts.

Everyone should have experienced this thing some day or another. When you study after sleep or during evening or night when things are settled & mind is calm then the quality of studying is very different & highly engrossing.

The concepts that are learned in this state of mind remain in the mind & require no memorising repeatedly. On the other hand, when the mind is unsteady then even the repetition of the same thing does not allow the concept of studying to enter the mind.

Trying harder to memorise the concepts, hardly works. On the contrary, in the relaxed state of mind, knowledge is absorbed like a sponge.

Understanding this, we can conclude that meditation should be done before studying for the simple reason that studying requires a calm state of mind & meditation exactly is aimed to calm the mind.

In the similar way, as we charge the mobile battery before using it. Meditation will charge the inner system to activate the powers of mind & help to become more receptive for studying & grasping the new concepts easily.

Meditation is a life changing phenomenon & after reading this blog, you may receive many new insights in relation to meditation.

You have learnt in this blog, why & how to increase concentration through meditation. Now it is essential that the knowledge has to be transferred into action for getting the desired results.

The results differ from person to person because of the frequency of the desire & the consistency relying on the burning desire to achieve the target.

Meditation is a golden key to unlock the powers of concentration & activate the powers of the subconscious mind.

The simple formula is that “The more the focus, the more the success in life”. Focus increases with the help of meditation & once it is increased then there will be major changes happening in your life.

So take this ahead & inculcate the habit of meditation in your daily routine & determine to do it for the rest of your life with no breaks.