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The Law

In all our discussion on The Law, we have directly or indirectly, talked about the strength of focus. When we say that we have to make our thoughts predominant, we are talking focus. When we say that we will need to have strong desire, we are talking focus. A mind which can focus on the desire is of great value. Now how do we train our mind to focus?

The most fundamental requirement for developing the power of focusing or concentrating our mind is to develop the ability to rest the mind. Most of us are always on the run. We lead a hectic lifestyle. We try to do too many things at the same time. The result is that we build up a tremendous amount of stress in our mind and body. Under such kind of lifestyle, the mind is never at its best.

Two types of behaviours can be observed. One is people moving with nervous, stressed and jerky movements. Such people resort to lot of knee jerk reactions. They may perceive their actions as the result of their decisions which is not so. Such people are living out of their habitual patterns. The other kind of people are those who appear to have deliberate and firm movements, heads held high, meeting you in the eye. Such people are more relaxed and have their minds under control. They tend to ponder before acting. They have a strong "presence of mind". By presence of mind we mean the ability to bring out our best in a situation which comes up without any notice or with a short notice. A strong presence of mind is the hallmark of any achiever, be he an actor, a sportsperson or businessman.

How are these two types of people different? They are different because of their ability or inability to rest their mind in short bursts. Some people have developed the habit of "switching off" for short periods. They stop thinking about their tasks. They use these periods to simply slump down their body to a relaxed state and build castles in the air - they imagine beautiful places, flash back to joyous moments - they simply daydream. This is a very good tool for rejuvenating the mind and body. Meditation is a practice which does the same thing. The art of relaxing the body and mind and recharging them during the course of the day helps in improving the efficiency with with which these work and, therefore,in delivering peak performances. When the body and mind are tired and exhausted, the negative emotions adopt demonic proportions and the positive emotions tend to wither away.

A word of warning here. Nothing taken to excesses works or works counter to the purpose. Prolonged sessions of relaxations and daydreaming cause lethargy and inaction. Each person has to find out the correct balance for oneself.

We have discussed the importance of proper breathing under the posts Calm Mind. Deep Breathing is another tool which relaxes the body and mind. Breathing with the abdomen is a habit which is strongly recommended as this breathing causes fresh air to enter the bottom most part of the lungs and flushes out the stale breath from deep recesses. 




Namaste



Prabir