Taming Untamed MInd

CLEAR THINKING
Want clear thinking? Resolve your "mind irritations," by watching what's going on in your head. It takes practice, but you can start right now. Sometimes a phone call you need to make quietly bothers you all day, just below consciousness. Maybe you're worried about an upcoming meeting. How do you find and resolve these things?
Take a deep breath, close your eyes for a moment, and tune in to your mind. As you become aware of these stressors, do something to let them go. Make that phone call, or put it on your "to do" list, and your mind will let go of the concern for now. Sometimes bringing a problem to full consciousness and telling yourself, "There is nothing I can do about this until Friday," will stop the unconscious worrying.
Start tuning into your mind and you'll find it becomes easier to recognize what is just below the surface, irritating you and sapping your brain power. Take care of those things, and clearer thinking is automatic. This is a powerful technique if you use it regularly.

More Tips For Clear Thinking
1. Have clear space. It's rare that a person can work better in clutter. An organized home or office space means you won't have the thought "where is that..." distracting your mind.
2. Get enough good sleep. Sleep requirements vary greatly, but the bare minimum for almost everyone is somewhere around five hours. Many of us suffer if we sleep less than seven hours. Research, however, seems to indicate that after some minimum quantity, the quality of sleep is more important for normal brain function.
3. Try meditating. Close your eyes, relax, and watch your breath. Your mind will wander endlessly, but just continually return your attention to your breath. Do this for even five minutes, and you'll feel better and think more clearly.
4. Walk. I think the research will eventually show this to be one of the best things you can do to improve the quality of your thinking. But don't wait for the proof. There are enough other reasons to take a walk anyhow.
5. Avoid sugar. Eat a large piece of sugary cake on an empty stomach, then try to do math problems twenty minutes later. You'll understand "brain fog," or the "sugar blues."
6. Breath deeply through your nose. Three deep breaths through your nose is like a mini-meditation.
7. Don't drink alcohol. A beer or two may help your creativity, but in general, alcohol is a hindrance to clear thinking.


GIVE YOURSELF CREDIT FOR DOING WELL
The world can be a pretty harsh place. People can be critical or unappreciative of what we do or how hard we try. Even worse, however, is when we are our own harshest critic?
Many people have trouble believing they’ve done well, even when told so by others. They dismiss such compliments, feeling like a failure or knowing they could have done better.
The problem is that such an overly critical attitude makes it difficult to find the pleasure and joy in your life and accomplishments. Counselors refer to this as “minimizing the positive” or “telescopic thinking.” Like looking through the wrong end of the telescope, it makes your accomplishments look smaller, rather than magnifying them.
It can be a difficult problem, but one that can be solved. A starting point to break that cycle of negative thinking is simply to remind yourself of your positive strengths.
One helpful exercise is to take a piece of paper and make a list of five things you know you do right. They don’t have to be things you do perfectly, just ones you do well.
Your list might include, “I work hard to be a good mother (or father).” Or “I care about my friends and try to help them when help is needed.”
If you’re currently overly critical of yourself, it might seem difficult to find five items for your list. But take your time and think about those things you care about and try to do well. If you come up with more than five items, write them all down.
This is a private list, one meant to help you appreciate “you.” Put your completed list in your wallet or purse. Then, over the next couple of weeks, whenever someone compliments you and you find yourself thinking the praise wasn’t deserved, pull out your list. Rather than convincing yourself you really didn’t do well, look at those things where you know you succeed, and remind yourself that you actually are a person deserving of praise and compliments. You might even want to add the latest compliment to your list.
If such exercises don’t help, and you find you can’t break that cycle of excessive self-criticism, talk to a counseling professional. A counselor can offer techniques to help you stop magnifying the negative and to discover a life that is more positive and enjoyable.
HOW TO DEVELOP A POWERFUL MEMORY
Are you constantly forgetting things? If you're like most people then you probably said yes.
And as we all know, the older we get, the worse our memory seems to become. Can you do anything about it? Of course you can!
If you want to have a more powerful memory you'll find these tips to be absolutely indispensable.
• Being able to focus and use your full attention is imperative if you want to give yourself the best chance of remembering something. If possible, make sure your surroundings are as quiet and distraction-free as possible when attempting to memorize something.
• Being interested in what you're trying to memorize is definitely an asset. If you don't have any immediate interest in the subject matter, focus on the benefits you will gain by remembering it - you'll pass that exam which will give you the best shot at a good job, your girlfriend or boyfriend will think well of you etc. This will give you the motivation to put your full attention on what you want to memorize.
• Use some creativity. Conjure up some vivid mind pictures linked to what it is you need to remember. This is a technique used by all the professionals who entertain us with their prodigious memory feats.
Here's a quick example. Suppose you are trying to memorize a shopping list. You need to buy a new hat and this is item ten on your list. Ten rhymes with hen. Imagine a hen wearing the most outrageous hat you can think of. Make the picture big, bright and bold. If you do this correctly you certainly won't forget to buy that hat!
Practice makes perfect in this as in other things. Set yourself memory challenges. It's vitally important that you exercise your memory on a regular basis if you want to see tangible results.
If you really work that memory regularly, you'll soon find that it's better than you think. Think of your memory as being like a muscle. Any muscle that isn't exercised frequently will atrophy due to lack of use. It's the same with your memory. Use will strengthen it, and you'll soon be dazzling your friends and family with your amazing memorizing ability!
Here's another useful tip. Whenever you're studying something really important that you want or need to remember, play some Mozart in the background. Studies have shown that the brain synchronizes itself to sound frequencies it's subjected to. If you need to concentrate, the frequencies found in the music of Mozart are amongst the best to harmonize the brain to.
HOW TO TRACK YOUR RIGHT CAREER
Are you lost in the wilderness when it comes to choosing a career? Once, we knew the way. As children, we played at different roles, but some became our favorites. Those favorites hinted at our gifts. They pointed the way to our exciting futures as entrepreneurs, dancers or astronauts. We did what was fun, and, in the process, we began to find and follow our paths.
As young adults, however, our paths began to fade under thickets of obstacles: other people's expectations, poor self-esteem and /or lack of faith. But, the good news is that, for each of us, the path is still out there. A cover of tangled weeds may hide its course, but it's still there.
A few tracking lessons can put you back in the hunt. An expert tracker can follow a trail that's been cold for days, months, or even years. Trackers like this can track over any terrain, under all kinds of weather, and even in the dark of night. Tracking, however, is not just about following a set of prints in the dirt.
The physical skill of observation constitutes only about 10% of what it takes to be a good tracker. The other 90% consists of awareness and intuition.
Here's how you can apply tracking techniques to your career hunt.
OBSERVATION
The first step a would-be tracker takes is to develop his or her powers of observation to a razor-sharp edge. Called the "eye of the tracker," it's the ability to discern a large amount of information from the environment with a glance.
Students spend years engaged in study and first - hand observation, or "dirt time" as it's called, to gain an intimate knowledge of the natural environment and habits of animals. For instance, when trackers want to see animals, they know where to look for them. They'll look in areas such as on the edges of forests and fields, at times of transition like twilight, or right before or after a storm.
In the process of mastering the facts, the tracker cultivates "the eye of the tracker," a questioning awareness that sees beyond the obvious. They constantly ask themselves, "What happened here?" and "What does this mean?"
Transition For Careers
After you find a career that excites you, do some "dirt time." Educate yourself about the skills you'll need, where the industry congregates, and the mental states of the people who work in the field.
Next, get some practical experience. Take a class, find a mentor, or work in the field on a part-time basis. Find out what you're getting into before you commit.
If you're still interested in the field after you've done your research, you'll find the time it takes to build a new career. Maybe you'll have to go back to school and survive on less money for awhile. You might have to make that sacrifice, but you'll feel excited and have a sense of accomplishment.
Once you have clarity, you're halfway there. After that, your mind starts looking for ways to help you reach your goals, so watch for the signs.
AWARENESS
Trackers often find themselves in dangerous environments, and when they do, they use everything they have in order to survive. To enhance their chances for survival, they continually develop their powers of observation, which leads them to ever-deeper levels of awareness of their environment.
In practice, they'll focus on details like tracks, but they stay aware of the sounds, colors, shapes, and smells of the environment at the same time. This technique is known by many names such as "peak awareness," "soft-focus" and "splatter vision." It's like looking through a camera with a wide-angle lens attached.
As trackers manage this balancing act between focusing on everything and nothing, they fall into meditative states where they become part of the environment. When something does attract their attention, they focus on it to see what it is. A master tracker can sense the presence of other animals and danger.

Transition For Careers
The key to life is paying attention to the little moments without losing touch with what's going on around you. You have to become aware of whether you are happy in your career or not; and if you are not, you must make the sacrifices needed in order for you to get out. At the same time, consider what's the most important contribution you would like to make.
So, find the time to relax, and think about a new direction. Ask yourself two questions: "what am I good at doing, and "what do I enjoy doing?" You may be good at doing something that you don't like. You need to combine both to make the perfect job.
Play with the possibilities, mentally mixing and matching your talents and interests. Stir it all in a pot, and let it simmer. Then, notice the insights, ideas and coincidences that percolate into your consciousness as a result. Act on the suggestions that feel right.
INTUITION
The best trackers have keen senses of intuition that alert them to the presence of other animals and danger. At Tom Brown's Wilderness and Survival School in Pine Barrens, New Jersey, they've developed a training method called the "blindfold technique" to teach students how to tune into their intuition.
Students' cross a sixty yard field, blindfolded, guided only by their feelings and the sound of a drum. To succeed in this exercise, you have to let go of your logical mind --the part that's telling you this is crazy. You have to trust yourself and let your feeling guide you across the field. People stumble and fall at first, but if they stick with it, they'll get it.
The blindfold technique forces you to pay attention to your other senses and intuition. Visually, we're overdeveloped. People go blind and develop other skills that we all have, but don't usually bother to develop. The blindfold technique forces you to focus on what you hear, touch, smell and feel.
You can access your inner knowing in ways less stressful than taking part in the blindfold technique. You can visit a natural area one afternoon and sit by a stream and watch the animals. Repetitive motions such as knitting or woodworking can also clear the mind, making room for new insights.
Transition For Careers
There are two basic career strategies. Do what's practical, or follow your dream. Following your dream may not be the most financially rewarding path, but in the long run, the people who make the most money are passionate about what they do. There are CEO's out there who don't have degrees, but they do have passion for their work.
To find your right career, you have to think with your heart. Although it may be hard to identify your inner voice in the beginning, you just have to do the best you can. Move ahead cautiously at first. Take a small step. Then, if everything looks good, take another step. Trackers call it "stealth walking."
CONCLUSION
Trackers develop their powers of observation, awareness and intuition so they can tune-in to their environment and make out its message. You can begin to apply the same techniques to your career hunt. It's not about trying to find your path using the intellect, but by looking for what feels right.

Mental Concentration Technique

Definition. Mental concentration: Direct focusing of the conscious mental faculties on a single subject without distractions.
Will power. Actually, a person who wants to project his/her consciousness needs nothing other than his own determined will power. It becomes unavoidable and can hardly be substituted in the intelligent actions of your conscious mind. Meditation with or without concentration can both help and harm you in the process of the conscious projection.
Molecules. There is scientific evidence that the concentration of the conscious mind can influence the molecular structure of water, metals, mercury in particular, and the cells of the human body.
Change. Knowing exactly when you should shift mental gears, i.e. when you must lose concentration or concentrate, is the key to your voluntary conscious projection with a fully lucid departure from your physical body.
Mind. For you to leave your human body through the psychosoma (astral body), regardless of the kind of take off, it is best to blank your mind and not concentrate on anything. Moreover, dynamic concentration aids the predominance of activity from the right side of the brain, which predisposes the consciousness to fantasies, interfering with the purity and quality of your extraphysical perceptions, attracting oneiric interference after you leave your body.
Focusing. When your eyes lose their capacity to focus directly and correctly, your subconscious or your unconscious will is activated impelling your psychosoma to detach itself from the human body, taking with it the consciousness attached to the para brain.
Process. One must make it clear that voluntary conscious projection is, above all, a matter of will, a conscious act of will or a process of consciously dynamizing the human will.
Fixation. Based on the previously mentioned concepts, an action which can make your consciousness project itself out of the human body is to steadily gaze at an object placed at a certain distance.
Technique. Here is a mental concentration technique, in seven steps, to induce you to project yourself consciously from your human body:
01 - Isolation. Isolate yourself in a room where you will not be disturbed while exercising. Wear light and comfortable clothes or none at all.
02 - Candle. Place a candle on a plate (to avoid fires) in a corner of the room. The candle provides the right intensity of light, besides being interesting to stare at due to its movements.
03 - Armchair. Keeping your back straight and your hands on thighs. Sit on a comfortable chair or armchair at about 3 meters (~ 9 ft) from the candle.
04 - Darkness. Darken the room entirely, so that only the candlelight exists.
05 - Steady gaze. Look steadily at the candle in front of you, concentrate on it until you become unaware of the surrounding physical world.
06 - Extension. At this point, only you and the candle exist. The candle is an extension of yourself, of your body.
07 - Visualization. When you, facing the candle near you, feel your normal awareness become suspended, first imagine or visualize your psychosoma moving out of the human body and heading towards the candle. Then, feel its departure (take-off) and yourself going towards the candle.

Chakras. These exercises must be performed with your utmost will power. You may like to focus on the fronto-chakra (forehead) or the abdominal chakra to energetically hypercharge or intensify the obstinate effort of your own will impulsion.
Classification. Mental concentration represents the second phase in deep meditation techniques. The first phase is attention and the third is contemplation.
Distractions. The opposite condition to mental concentration is distraction, that is, the ease with which the conscious mind changes its course of thoughts when under the influence of external stimuli. This is a subject which is studied within the field of psychopathology.


IMPROVING YOUR CONCENTRATION
"I can't concentrate." "My mind wanders when I try to study."
Lack of concentration is one of the most frequent complaints heard on a college campus.
Concentration: the ability to direct one's thinking in whatever direction one would intend.
We all have the ability to concentrate -- sometimes. Think of the times when you were engrossed in a super novel. While playing your guitar or piano. In an especially good game of cards. At a spellbinder of a movie. Total concentration.
But at other times your thoughts are scattered, and your mind races from one thing to another. It's for those times that you need to learn and practice concentration strategies. They involve
(1) Learning mental self regulation and
(2) Arranging factors that you can immediately control.

Training Your Wandering Mind: Learning Mental Self-Regulation for Improved Concentration
Improving concentration is learning a skill.
Learning a skill takes practice... whether it is shooting baskets, dancing, typing, writing, or concentrating. Do not confuse these strategies with medicine. When you take a medicine, it acts on the body without your having to help it.
Concentration strategies require practice. You probably will begin to notice some change within a few days. You'll notice considerable improvement within four to six weeks of training your mind with some of the skills that follow. And that's a short period of time considering how many years you've spent not concentrating as well as you'd like.
Begin by practicing these techniques:
• Be Here Now,
• The Spider Technique, and
• Worry Time.
Then try any of the Other Mental Strategies that sound promising to you. Give them an honest try -- use them for at least three days. If you notice a little change that suggests that the skill will be valuable and, with continued practice, will greatly improve your concentration. There is also Other Factors You Can Change now in your environment that may be helpful.

Be Here Now
This deceptively simple strategy is probably the most effective. When you notice your thoughts wandering astray, say to yourself
"Be here now"
And gently bring your attention back to where you want it.
FOR EXAMPLE:
You're in class and your attention strays from the lecture to all the homework you have, to a date, to the fact that you're hungry. As you say to yourself
"Be here now"
you focus back on the lecture and maintain your attention there as long as possible.
When it wanders again, repeat
"Be here now"
and gently bring your attention back.
You may notice that your mind often wanders (as often as several times a minute at times). Each time just say
"Be here now"
and refocus. Do not try to keep particular thoughts out of your mind. For example, as you sit there, close your eyes and think about anything you want to for the next three minutes except cookies. Try not to think about cookies...When you try not to think about something, it keeps coming back. ("I'm not going to think about cookies. I'm not going to think about cookies.")
When you find your thoughts wandering, gently let go of that thought and, with your "Be here now," return to the present.
You might do this hundreds of times a week, if you're normal. But, you'll find that the period of time between your straying thoughts gets a little longer every few days. So be patient and keep at it. You'll see some improvement!

The Spider Technique
This is another strategy that sounds deceptively simple. But it is the basis for concentration because it helps you to maintain your concentration and not give in to distractions.
Hold a vibrating tuning fork next to a spider web. The spider will react and come looking for what is vibrating the web. Do it several times and the spider "wises up" and knows there's no bug and doesn't come looking.
You can learn that. Train yourself not to give in to distractions. When someone enters the room, or when a door slams, do not allow yourself to participate. Rather, keep your concentration on what's in front of you.
Use the "Be here now" technique to help you regain concentration when you do become distracted momentarily.
Practice this in a variety of settings, such as:
• In lecture classes practice letting people move or cough without having to look at them - just let them "be out there" while you form a tunnel between you and the lecturer.
• When talking with someone keep your attention on that person, look at his face, and note what is being said. Let the rest of the world just be "out there."

Worry or Think Time
Set aside a specific time each day to think about the things that keep entering your mind and interfering with your concentration. For example, set 4:30 to 5:00 p.m. as your worry/think time. When your mind is side-tracked into worrying during the day, remind yourself that you have a special time for worrying. Then, let the thought go for the present, and return your focus to your immediate activity.
There's research on this, believe it or not! Persons who use a worry time find themselves worrying 35 percent less of the time within four weeks. That's a big change!
The important steps are:
(1) set a specific time each day for your time,
(2) when you become aware of a distracting thought, remind yourself that you have a special time to think about them,
(3) let the thought go, perhaps with "Be here now," and
(4) be sure to keep that appointment with yourself at that special time to think on the distracting thoughts of the day.


Other Mental Strategies:
Tallying your mental wanderings. Have a 3 x 5 inch card handy. Draw two lines dividing the card into three sections. Label them "morning," "afternoon," and "evening."
Each time your mind wanders, make a tally in the appropriate section. Keep a card for each day. As your skills build, you'll see the number of tallies decrease. And that's exciting!
Rest/Stretch Time. Remember to take short breaks. Lectures are usually 50 minutes long, and that's about the length of time most people can direct their attention to one task. But, that's just an average. Your concentration time-span might be less (20-35 minutes) or longer (perhaps 90 minutes).
When you take a break, oxygenate (get more oxygen to your brain)! Get up and walk around the room for a couple of minutes. When we sit for long periods, blood tends to pool in our lower body and legs (because of gravity). Our calves serve as pumps for our blood when we walk, getting blood flowing more evenly throughout the body. As a result, more oxygen is carried to the brain and you are more alert.
Change Topics. Many students aid their concentration by changing the subject they are studying every one to two hours. You pay more attention to something that's different. And you can give yourself that variety by changing the subject you study regularly.
Incentives and Rewards. Give yourself a reward when you've completed a task. The task might be small, such as stay with a difficult assignment until you've finished. An appropriate reward might be a walk around the block, a glass of water, or reading the day's cartoon in the newspaper..
For those special projects such as term papers, design projects, or long book reviews, set up a special incentive. Upon completion, plan to give yourself a special pizza, movie, or an evening of TV.
Incentives and rewards can be overdone. Use them for the especially difficult assignment or longer projects. When you do use them, make the rewards something you ordinarily would not give yourself.
Increasing Your Activity Level. Your concentration wanders more easily if you just read an assignment straight through. Instead, take the heading for each section and turn it into a question. For this section, that would be, "How can I increase my activity level while studying?" Then study that section to answer that question. Do this routinely. The questions give us a focus for each section and increase our involvement.
Also, as you study an assignment, make a list of questions you can bring to class. Listen to the lecture for answers to those questions.
Shift position in your seat every so often. Don't sit there frozen in one position. The move will help keep the blood circulating, sending more oxygen to your brain and helping you remain alert.
Skydivers, rock climbers, tightrope walkers, and lion tamers don't have trouble concentrating! You probably haven't done any of those. But, think back to some time in your life when you had that calm, total concentration. Close your eyes and recreate that time. Visualize it, if you can. Feel how you felt at that time. Now, when you begin studying tonight, recapture that focused attention and see how long you can hold it. Does it feel as if that might work? If so, begin all your study sessions with the feeling and see how long you can maintain it. With practice, your concentration will get better and better.


Factors You Can Control Now
Chart your energy levels. When is your energy level at its highest? When are your low energy times? Study your most difficult courses at your high energy times. Sharpest early in the evening? Study your most difficult course then. Later in the evening? Work on your easier courses or the ones you enjoy the most.
Now that's not what most students do. Instead, they put off the tough courses until later in the evening when they are more fatigued. It's more difficult to concentrate when you're tired. Reverse that. Hard courses at peak energy times. Easier ones later. This alone can help to improve your concentration.
Light. Make sure you have adequate light. It's essential to keeping your attention focused on what you are studying. So your eyes don't tire, use indirect lights (to avoid glare) and ones that don't flicker.
Chair and Table. Sit on a not overly comfortable chair at a table, not sprawled out on your bed. Your bed is where you sleep and dream.
Posture. Sit up straight to aid concentration rather than sprawled out in a similar-to-sleep position.
Clear away distractions. Don't have pictures where you'll notice them when looking up from your studies. Also, put out of sight any material for other courses. Seeing it can panic you a little about all you have to do. So put it out of sight.
Signs. Don't hesitate to put signs on your door. "I need the grades. Please let me study." "Please do not disturb." "Concentrating is tough. Help me by staying away." Some inconsiderate person will interrupt. Ask them to come back later. If they don't leave, practice ignoring them (See the Spider Technique above).
Take your phone off the hook. Yes, you might miss a call. But developing your concentration skills is important. It will be useful for the remainder of your life.
Where you study can make a difference. Think about where you concentrate best. Often it's difficult to study where you live, so look for a corner in the library that's quiet and facing a wall (not a door with people coming and going or a window with a distracting view). Some students study better where they live. Find the place or places you find most conducive to concentration.
Background music? Research on productivity with music versus without music is inconclusive. If you think you need music, choose some with no lyrics and with relatively monotonous melodies. Baroque music is the best example. Something with words, a definite beat, a catchy melody, or one of your favorite pieces can easily divert your attention, often without your being aware of it at first.
Perhaps you might try "white noise" -- it masks out environmental noises and helps minimize distractions. Your radio can be an inexpensive source of white noise. Switch to FM and team to the high end of your dial. You should get a steady static or form of white noise, unless your radio is an especially good one. Or keep a fan running.
Enough time for everything? Ever find your study of one subject interrupted by worries about getting assignments in another course done? Or waste time trying to decide what to study? Take an hour or so and do a little planning.
First, estimate for each course the number of hours you'll need to study each week. Then work up a flexible time schedule. Include all your obligations (classes, meetings, meals, laundry, etc.). Then allocate specific time periods for studying particular subjects. When studying one course you won't worry so much about others because you'll know that you have time for them.
Be flexible in your schedule. If you need an extra hour on a subject, continue with it and then do a little juggling to make up the study time you encroached on. You'll probably need to modify your schedule from time to time.
If you would rather schedule smaller chunks of time, each Sunday plan the following week and change from week to week. Check to be sure you're getting study time in on all your courses.
Rewards for Concentrating. In summary, the rewards for improving your concentration can be priceless. You'll be delighted at your ability to recall information given in lectures. You'll find yourself accomplishing more in the same period of time. It can even affect your social life. Your special friend will appreciate your undivided attention and, in return, will give you undivided attention. So will other friends. Best of all, concentration skills help your self confidence because you will realize how much more is possible when you can give your total attention.



5 Easy Concentration Techniques for Improving Concentration

Concentration is a skill that can be trained by practicing, and if mastered can greatly improve your productivity and quality of work. It is easy to say that we need to concentrate, but few people know how to do so. With deep concentration, we are also able to connect with our subconscious and enable us to achieve an inner calm.


Below are 5 easy concentration techniques for improving concentration. They are simple, straightforward, and achievable as long as you put your mind to it, in other words, employ your will power. You will start seeing the effect of these 5 techniques over some time, as these are not immediate miracles and require time and effort to build up your concentration levels.


Concentration Technique #1: Stretch your limits

You have experienced moments at work or when studying when you felt like you needed a break and you find your mind wandering and unable to focus. Learn to stretch your limits by pushing yourself to complete perhaps 15 more minutes of work, or to finish reading the chapter in your textbook before taking a break. By setting achievable targets, you are training up your mental stamina and pushing yourself to break through the limits that you have set for your mind unconsciously.


Concentration Technique #2: Focus on one thing

We have a dozen and one things to think about, such as picking up the laundry, grocery shopping, work, cooking dinner, picking the kids from work, and the list goes on. You may find your mind wandering at work because you are worried about what to cook for dinner, or that you have remembered everything you need to pick up at the grocers. It is not that you are unable to concentrate, but simply that your mind has too many thoughts, and you need to control your brain. Tell yourself that you will focus on the other issues once you are done with work, and keep your mind on your work. Acknowledge that there are other tasks that need tending to, but they can wait as they are not as important.


Concentration Technique #3: Tune out Distractions

Much like horses have blinders to keep them staring in one direction and oblivious to their surroundings, we need to develop the mental equivalent to keep focused on the task at hand. If you have an alternative place to work or study that has no distractions, by all means move your work there. However, it is difficult to chase our colleagues away or tell the phone to stop ringing because it is distracting you! Learn to place blinders over your mind, or physically cup your hands around your vision to remind your brain to focus.


Concentration Technique #4: It is Ok to Take a Break

No matter how good your concentration is, or your will power, we are merely human. This means that it is perfectly acceptable to take short breaks, and you will find that your mind will feel rejuvenated and better equipped to take on more challenges after a short rest. Do not feel bad about taking breaks, as they are essential to increasing your efficiency. Pushing yourself beyond your limits is encouraged, but overworking is not!


Concentration Technique #5: Variety is Key

Our brain is not like a computer, and it needs stimulation and variety to remain engaged and interested at the task at hand. If you must slog at an Excel spreadsheet for the whole day, take occasional breaks and engage your mind in other activities. This will keep it alert, and keep boredom at bay. If your mind is focused on one task for extended periods of time, the repetitive activity may cause your attention to waver or be reduced.



Concentrating when studying
Concentration: the ability to direct your thinking
The art or practice of concentration,
no matter if studying biology or playing pool,
is to focus on the task at hand and eliminate distraction
We all have the ability to concentrate -- sometimes. Think of the times when you were "lost" in something you enjoy: a sport, playing music, a good game, a movie. Total concentration.
But at other times,
• Your mind wanders from one thing to another
• Your worries distract you
• Outside distractions take you away before you know it
• The material is boring, difficult, and/or not interesting to you.
• See the Flash distraction (needs high speed connection)
These tips may help: They involve
1. What you can control in your studies
2. Best practices
What you can control in your studies:
• "Here I study"
Get a dedicated space, chair, table, lighting and environment
Avoid your cellphone or telephone
Put up a sign to avoid being disturbed or interrupted
If you like music in the background, OK, but don't let it be a distraction. (Research on productivity with music versus without music is inconclusive)
• Stick to a routine, efficient study schedule
Accommodate your day/nighttime energy levels
See our Guide on Setting goals and making a scheduling
• Focus
Before you begin studying, take a few minutes to summarize a few objectives, gather what you will need, and think of a general strategy of accomplishment
• Incentives
Create an incentive if necessary for successfully completing a task,
such as calling a friend, a food treat, a walk, etc.
For special projects such as term papers, design projects, long book reviews, set up a special incentive
• Change topics
Changing the subject you study every one to two hours for variety
• Vary your study activities
Alternate reading with more active learning exercises
If you have a lot of reading, try the SQ3R method
Ask yourself how you could increase your activity level while studying? Perhaps a group will be best? Creating study questions?
Ask your teacher for alternative strategies for learning. The more active your learning, the better.
• Take regular, scheduled breaks that fit you
Do something different from what you've been doing (e.g., walk around if you've been sitting), and in a different area
• Rewards
Give yourself a reward when you've completed a task
Best Practices:
• You should notice improvement in a few days
But like any practice, there will be ups, levels, and downs:
• It will benefit other activities you do!
Be here now | Worry time | Tally Card |Energy level | Visualize
Be Here Now
This deceptively simple strategy is probably the most effective.
When you notice your thoughts wandering astray, say to yourself
"Be here now"
and gently bring your attention back to where you want it.
For example:
You're studying and your attention strays to all the other homework you have, to a date, to the fact that you're hungry. Say to yourself
"Be here now"
Focus back on subject with questions, summarizing, outlining, mapping, etc. and maintain your attention there as long as possible.
When it wanders again, repeat
"Be here now"
and gently bring your attention back, and continue this practise, repeatedly. It will work!
Do not try to keep particular thoughts out of your mind. For example, as you sit there, close your eyes and think about anything you want to for the next three minutes except cookies. Try not to think about cookies...When you try not to think about something, it keeps coming back. ("I'm not going to think about cookies. I'm not going to think about cookies.")
You might do this hundreds of times a week. Gradually, you'll find that the period of time between your straying thoughts gets a little longer every few days. So be patient and keep at it. You'll see some improvement!
Do not constantly judge your progress. Take it easy on yourself. Good practice is enough to say that you did it, and that you are on the road. The mind is always different and the practice unfolds over time with many ups and downs.
Worry or Think Time
Research has proven that people who use a worry time find themselves worrying 35 percent less of the time within four weeks.
1. Set aside a specific time each day to think about
the things that keep entering your mind and interfering with your concentration.
2. When you become aware of a distracting thought,
remind yourself that you have a special time to think about them,
3. Let the thought go,
perhaps with "Be here now,"
4. Keep your appointment
to worry or think about those distracting issues
For example, set 4:30 to 5 p.m. as your worry/think time. When your mind is side-tracked into worrying during the day, remind yourself that you have a special time for worrying. Then, let the thought go for the present, and return your focus to your immediate activity.
Tallying your mental wanderings.
Have a 3 x 5 inch card handy. Draw two lines dividing the card into three sections. Label them "morning," "afternoon," and "evening."
Each time your mind wanders, make a tally in the appropriate section. Keep a card for each day. As your skills build, you'll see the number of tallies decrease
Maximize your energy level
When is your energy level at its highest? When are your low energy times?
Study your most difficult courses at your high energy times. Sharpest early in the evening? Study your most difficult course then. Later in the evening? Work on your easier courses or the ones you enjoy the most.
Most students put off the tough studies until later in the evening when they become tired, and it is more difficult to concentrate. Reverse that. Study hard subjects at peak energy times; easier ones later. This alone can help to improve your concentration
Visualize
As an exercise before you begin studying, think of those times when concentration is not a problem for you--no matter what situation. Now try to feel or image yourself in that situation. Recapture that experience immediately before your studies by placing yourself in that moment.. Repeat before each study session.

CONCENTRATION

Concentration has been defined as "the ability to direct one's thinking in whatever direction one would intend".
We all have the ability to concentrate some of the time. But at other times our thoughts are scattered, and our minds race from one thing to another. To deal with such times, we need to learn and practice concentration skills and strategies. To concentrate, we have to learn a skill, and as with any skill this means practice repeated day after day until we achieve enough improvement to feel that we can concentrate when we need to.
Our ability to concentrate depends on
• commitment
• enthusiasm for the task
• skill at doing the task
• our emotional and physical state
• our psychological state
• our environment
Commitment
We need to make a personal commitment to put in the effort needed to do the task in the way which we realistically plan to do it. If we just play at it in a half-hearted manner then it is much more difficult to take the task and ourselves seriously.
Enthusiasm
If we are interested in the task and enjoy doing it, then we find it easy to motivate ourselves to start. Once started, our feelings of involvement in the activity keep us going - we want to do it.
Skill
Knowing how to do something gives confidence that our efforts will be successful, so we don't have to deal with anxiety about will this work or not. Anxiety tends to impair concentration.
Our emotional & physical state
When we are in good physical condition - i.e. feeling rested, relaxed and comfortable - and our emotions are calm and benevolent, then we tend to be positive about things. This in turn raises self-esteem, which makes us more able to concentrate, if only because we don't have to worry about how awful we are or life is.
Our psychological state
For example, if we are in an obsessional or distracted state our thoughts are pre-occupied, leaving little mental space to think about anything else.
Environment
It is much more difficult to concentrate if our surroundings keep intruding on our awareness, perhaps because it is noisy, too hot or too cold, the furniture is uncomfortable or the people around us are stressing out.
Expanding your concentration span
People sometimes refer to a concentration span : this is the time we can concentrate on a specific task before our thoughts wander. In learning concentration skills, we aim to extend our concentration span - bearing in mind that we will have a different span for different tasks. It cannot be expanded to infinity! Most people find their level for most tasks round about an hour, but for some people and some tasks it will just be a few minutes, while for others it might be two or three hours.
The main barriers to concentrating are boredom, anxiety and day-dreaming. Thus in improving our concentration skills we need to counteract these barriers. The following three skills are basic to concentration: if you want to improve your concentration, start by practising them. They will be followed by further strategies which will allow you to build onto the basic skills.
1. STOP!!!
This sounds very simple, but it works. When you notice your thoughts wandering, say to yourself STOP and then gently bring your attention back to where you want it to be. Each time it wanders bring it back. To begin with, this could be several times a minute. But each time, say STOP and then re-focus. Don't waste energy trying to keep thoughts out of your mind (forbidden thoughts attract like a magnet!), just put the effort into STOP and re-focus.
To begin with you will do this hundreds of times a week. But you will find that the period of time between your straying thoughts gets a little longer each day, so be patient and keep at it.
2. Attending
This is about maintaining concentration and not giving in to distractions. It could be described as a sort of tunnel-vision, or as being focused: you keep your concentration on what is in front of you. If you are distracted, use the STOP technique to regain concentration. You can practice attending in many situations:
• eg. in a lecture, if people move or cough, ignore them, don't look at them, actively exclude them from the link or tunnel formed between you and the lecturer.
• eg. in a social situation, keep your attention solely on one person - what they say, how they look etc. - and ignore what is going on round about.
3. Worry time
Set aside one or more specific periods in the day when you are allowed to worry. It can help to set them just before something that you know you will do, to ensure that you stop worrying on time - e.g. before a favourite TV programme, or a meal-time. Whenever an anxiety or distracting thought enters your mind during the day, banish it until your next worry time, and re-focus on to what you are supposed to be doing. Some people find it helpful to write down the banished thought: it is easier to banish a thought if you are sure you won't have forgotten it when you get to your worry time. It is important that you keep your worry time(s), and make yourself worry for the full time. If you find that you can't fill the time available, then make a conscious decision to reduce it.
You may notice, particularly if you keep a list, that certain things keep reappearing: this is a fairly clear indication that you need to do something about them.
4. Active Learning
Everyone has their own distinct learning style. Some learn by reading and then asking themselves questions, others learn by making condensed notes and memorising them, others learn by the associations they make to the material, and yet others retain a pictorial image of the material. Once you know your learning style, organise the material to suit it: if you don't, learning will be more of a struggle than it need be and your concentration will suffer. Having your own learning style involves having your own internal 'language': briefly, this means the words you use to translate and understand the material so that it has meaning for you. If you don't know how you learn best, try to analyse your experience either with someone who knows how you work, or with someone with expertise in this area.
Other things that can help
• once you know what your concentration span is for a specific activity, decide whether it is acceptable or whether you need to train yourself to expand it - e.g. a listening concentration span of 10 minutes and a lecture of 50 minutes is a mismatch! To expand your concentration span, just try to keep focused for a little longer each time by using STOP! and Attending. Practice with something that doesn't matter in terms of the task: you could expand your lecture concentration span by practising listening to the news on the radio.
• in between periods of concentration, do things to change your physical and mental activity. You could move around to boost your circulation if you have been sitting, or you could think about something completely different - and fun - to give your brain a new focus.
• give yourself incentives and rewards appropriate to the level of concentration you have had to maintain. Quite often they can be linked to the things that usually distract you. If you dream of sitting out in the sun when you are in a library trying to study, make your reward a period of sun-worship (with the appropriate sun-screen cream).
• be 'active' in mental activity! Use a hierarchy of questions to help you focus when reading reference material or listening to a lecture, rather than passively reading through it or listening and hoping that something will stick - and then write brief notes about the answers to your questions. Ask yourself how you will use the material, where it fits into what you already know, what new questions it triggers.
• ensure that your environment aids concentration - reduce distractions but don't be so comfortable that you nod off.
• do tasks that need most concentration at times when you are mentally and physically fresh: concentration is harder to maintain when you are tired. This means you need to know the times of day when you work best: people vary as to when is their best time.
• experiment and see whether working with another person helps you keep focused on the task. It can often refresh interest in the subject by sparking off new trains of thought which then re-involve you in the task.
• check if you feel stuck whether the problem is one of poor concentration rather than lack of the necessary knowledge or understanding - and if its the latter, do something about it.
• don't look for an easy answer in stimulants such as caffeine. They only have a short-term effect of making you feel alert, and too much or too long an exposure can have serious effects on your physical and mental health.
Combating specific problems with concentration
1. When you have been concentrating well but your brain now feels saturated.
Take a short break and then recharge your mental batteries by reviewing what you have done so far, considering whether it might help to switch to a new topic now. If you feel too tired to restart after a short break, review what you have done and where it fits into the overall task, and define where you need to pick it up again. If necessary make a note of this. Then decide, before you stop, when you will restart the task.
2. How to concentrate on a topic which you hate or which bores you.
Actively search in the material for aspects of the subject that can be turned into useful information (and might even be interesting!): you could do this by focusing on finding five central, important ideas to think about. Use mind-maps or spider diagrams to record the search, and write test questions to summarise your learning after each study session.


Focus on the personal rewards of completing the topic satisfactorily (even if its only to be rid of the task) and build in treats to reward yourself as you progress through the task. If all else fails, see it as a personal challenge - don't let it beat you.
3. Day-dreaming
Use the STOP! technique and Attending to counteract it. Maybe make being allowed to daydream a reward after a period of concentration.
4. Negative thinking
Loss of concentration can lead to negative thoughts about yourself. Deal with them as with other distractions, and banish them into your Worry Time, when you can check out their reality.
5. Being vague
If you are not quite sure what you are supposed to be doing or why you are doing it then it will be difficult to maintain concentration. You could try to define the task in terms of its content and purpose, and then to make a realistic estimate of how much time and effort will be required to do it.
6. Feeling overwhelmed
Sometimes what we have to do is just too much for us to get our head around. When we think about it, it is too huge a task to contemplate and our feelings of inadequacy take over. Both contribute to losing concentration because it all feels impossible. In such circumstances, look for ways of breaking the task up into smaller discreet parts that feel manageable. Then treat them as individual tasks, summoning up your concentration for each of them separately. It then doesn't need so much effort to fix them all together later on to make a complete whole.
7. Self-doubt
Intellectual activity takes place mainly in the brain and is thus not shared without making a special effort. If we don't discuss what we are doing with others it is very easy to wonder whether what we are doing is OK. This can lead us to feel ineffective and fragile, which in turn can become self-doubt. You need to reduce or banish your doubts if they are not to interfere with concentration. If it isn't possible to discuss what you are doing with others, you could try using the four steps mentioned under Negative Thinking to check out the worth of what you are doing.
Strategies for critical thinking in learning
Critical thinking studies a subject or problem with open-mindedness.
The process begins with a statement of what is to be studied,
proceeds to unrestricted discovery and consideration of possibilities,
and concludes with a pattern for understanding that is based on evidence.
Motives, bias, and prejudice of both the learner as well as the experts are then compared and form the foundation of judgment.
Enter with an open mind:
• Define your destination, what you want to learn
Clarify or verify with your teacher or an "expert" your subject
Topics can be simple phrases:
"The role of gender in video game playing"
"Political history of France between the Great Wars of the first half of the Twentieth Century"
"Mahogany tree cultivation in Central America"
"Domestic plumbing regulations in the suburbs"
"Vocabulary and structure of a human skeleton"
• Think about what you already know about the subject
What do you already know that will help you in this study?
What are your prejudices?
• What resources are available to you, and what is your timeline?
• Gather information
Keep an open mind so as not to close your options
and for chance opportunities
• Ask questions
What are the prejudices of the authors of the information?
• Organize what you have collected into patterns to understand it
Look for connections
• Ask questions (again!)
• Think in terms of how you would demonstrate your learning for your topic
Yes! how would you create a test on what you have learned?
From simple to more complex (1-6) operations:
1. List, label, identify Demonstrate knowledge
2. Define, explain, summarize in your own words Comprehend/understand
3. Solve, apply to a new situation Use your learning; apply it
4. Compare and contrast, differentiate between items Analyze
5. Create, combine, invent Synthesize
6. Assess, recommend, value Evaluate and explain why
Think in terms of making your learning an adventure in exploration!
Summary of critical thinking:
• Determine the facts of a new situation or subject without prejudice
• Place these facts and information in a pattern so that you can understand them
• Accept or reject the source values and conclusions based upon your experience, judgment, and beliefs


Thinking like a Genius
"Even if you're not a genius, you can use the same strategies as Aristotle and Einstein to harness the power of your creative mind and better manage your future."
The following eight strategies encourage you to think productively,
rather than reproductively, in order to arrive at solutions to problems. "These strategies are common to the thinking styles of creative geniuses in science, art, and industry throughout history."
1. Look at problems in many different ways, and find new perspectives that no one else has taken (or no one else has publicized!)
Leonardo da Vinci believed that, to gain knowledge about the form of a problem, you begin by learning how to restructure it in many different ways. He felt that the first way he looked at a problem was too biased. Often, the problem itself is reconstructed and becomes a new one.
2. Visualize!
When Einstein thought through a problem, he always found it necessary to formulate his subject in as many different ways as possible, including using diagrams. He visualized solutions, and believed that words and numbers as such did not play a significant role in his thinking process.
3. Produce! A distinguishing characteristic of genius is productivity.
Thomas Edison held 1,093 patents. He guaranteed productivity by giving himself and his assistants idea quotas. In a study of 2,036 scientists throughout history, Dean Keith Simonton of the University of California at Davis found that the most respected scientists produced not only great works, but also many "bad" ones. They weren't afraid to fail, or to produce mediocre in order to arrive at excellence.
4. Make novel combinations. Combine, and recombine, ideas, images, and thoughts into different combinations no matter how incongruent or unusual.
The laws of heredity on which the modern science of genetics is based came from the Austrian monk Grego Mendel, who combined mathematics and biology to create a new science.
5. Form relationships; make connections between dissimilar subjects.
Da Vinci forced a relationship between the sound of a bell and a stone hitting water. This enabled him to make the connection that sound travels in waves. Samuel Morse invented relay stations for telegraphic signals when observing relay stations for horses.
6. Think in opposites.
Physicist Niels Bohr believed, that if you held opposites together, then you suspend your thought, and your mind moves to a new level. His ability to imagine light as both a particle and a wave led to his conception of the principle of complementarity. Suspending thought (logic) may allow your mind to create a new form.
7. Think metaphorically.
Aristotle considered metaphor a sign of genius, and believed that the individual who had the capacity to perceive resemblances between two separate areas of existence and link them together was a person of special gifts.
8. Prepare yourself for chance.
Whenever we attempt to do something and fail, we end up doing something else. That is the first principle of creative accident. Failure can be productive only if we do not focus on it as an unproductive result. Instead: analyze the process, its components, and how you can change them, to arrive at other results. Do not ask the question "Why have I failed?", but rather "What have I done?"

• Since behaviour is directly observable, it can be measured and changes in behaviour can be attributed to intervening processes such as learning

• Behaviourism has been the predominant influence in North American Psychology during the past century

• During the last part of the century, however, interest rekindled in studying states of consciousness (response to the limitations of behaviourism)

• Today, contemporary psychology is concerned with both the study of behaviour as well as with the study of consciousness.


What is consciousness?

• Today, we define consciousness as:

• awareness of ourselves and our environment
• a process which allows us to exert voluntary control over ourselves
• a way of communicating mental states

• We direct our consciousness through attentional mechanisms

• Consciousness consists of several levels or layers

• We can obtain some insight into how the conscious mind works by looking at how humans perform certain types of tasks

• When we first engage in a task like driving a car, our conscious mind focuses on variables such as the traffic, pedestrians, the operation of the vehicle, the feel of the car on the road, etc.

• As we become more practiced at driving, the task becomes more automatic and requires less conscious effort (skilled behaviour).

• Becoming a skilled performer leads to the conscious mind becoming less and less burdened by the task

• The task becomes under the control of subconscious processes

• This freeing up the conscious mind allows us to parallel process e.g. daydreaming, reading while driving the car

• When behaviour becomes skilled, the conscious mind is free to monitor behaviour, do other things and to deal with novel situations

• Therefore, less familiar tasks and situations require more conscious effort or attention

• This division of labour (conscious / unconscious) is seen as a way that allows our mind to use it’s resources more efficiently


The mind can be mapped into three areas:
the conscious mind
the preconscious mind
the unconscious mind
The Conscious
That part of the mind of which we are aware.
Includes all the memories, ideas, feelings, thoughts that we know we are thinking about.
Includes our identity.
The Preconscious
Poorly developed idea.
Information that is not conscious but which can be retrieved into conscious awareness.
The Unconscious
A relatively large part of our mind where we keep memories, thoughts, wishes, fantasies, and wishes that, for a number of reasons are unacceptable to our conscious mind.
Access to the Unconscious
Dreams, the “royal road”
manifest content
latent content
Slips of the tongue
Free Association
The “Iceberg” analogy
10% of personality is conscious (above the surface)
90% of personality is unconscious (below the surface)



Firstly you all are aware that was is a subconscious mind or power, we are ruled by our subconscious power, and if know and if we can conquer this power then we are the most powerful person in this whole world, we are divided in 2 parts one outer side that is controlled by our brains and one inner side that is controlled by our subconscious mind.

For example, when we breathe, we don't have to think that we have to breathe it is controlled by our subconscious mind power, again for example when we think in our mind that we need to get up early in the morning and some times you see that you do get up early at that time, and you are confused that how this has happened, so the answer is here, it is the subconscious mind power that is responsible for waking you up, also when you forget some thing, you are very confused and you don't know where it is, but then later when you are cool suddenly you remember or at times you are forced to go at that place where you may find your lost good etc, so the basic concept is that your subconscious mind is very strong and if you can control it then you can do any thing in this world.

Also any type of disease, sickness any thing can be completely cured by the power of subconscious mind.

Now you may ask or have a question that how can you achieve this power, so the answer lies in meditation, you will have to order your subconscious mind by the help of meditation to work for you, and as I have explained earlier how to go ahead and start meditating
Now Astral Projection, what is this, well you may be surprised but even if you are in your own house you can go any where you want even outside your country and come back, this is by the power of subconscious mind, for example there was a person, who while he was sleeping had witnessed a murder in another country when he got up he did an enquiry about it and found out that it was true and murder had taken place he was surprised, the reason was that while he was asleep, his soul had traveled to another country and had witnessed the murder, so that is astral projection by which while you are asleep you can see the whole world with the help of your should, but again this is possible by conquering your subconscious mind.