Chattering of the Mind

All of us are living fast paced lives and are continuously running against time. Meeting daily deadlines, appointments, meetings, etc is become a norm. Then, there are family commitments to be met and to top it all we need to constantly manage expectations of the people we live or interact with. All this may take a toll on us! Some of us may start having headaches? Experience fatigue? See the world collapsing? Some even loose trust in people? This lifestyle leaves us with no energy at the end of the day!

If you are experiencing any of the above symptoms, then you are victim of a hyper-active mind! The mind has the uncanny ability to make or break us! The mind is the reason why one achieves limited or exponential success. Its the mind that can elevate us or lead us to our downfall. The mind also helps us choose a right or wrong path in life. All of us appreciate the importance of the mind in our lives but what most of us are not conscious about is its constant chattering. This chattering is responsible for putting us in a state of flux which results into worries, stress, frustration and ultimately depression.

Now you would like to know, how can we stop this chattering? Well, it may not be possible to stop this chattering, its only after years of practice that some individuals have been able to gain complete control in this area. However, all of us have the capability to reduce the intensity of this chattering. You will experience a phenomenal surge of energy, the very day you start working in this direction.

All that we need to do is to work towards calming our minds. The most effective technique to calm the mind is the age old technique of meditation. There are several forms of meditation, one should simply try all of them and find the one which best suits him/ her. Just like no two fingers are equal, no two individuals are equal. Our likes and dislikes vary, so to prescribe a method of meditation is not advisable. Most people have a misconception about this art, meditation is not just sitting silently in a dark corner. Meditation can be active or passive. One can meditate with force or without it. One can meditate while jogging or one can meditate in silence. Even dancing is a form of active meditation, and chanting is another subtle form. One can renounce everything, go to the Himalayas to meditate or one can simply stay in this hectic world and continue performing his duties in peace. The method one uses is irrelevant but achieving a state of a “calm mind” is what is important.

So you must discover a form of meditation which works best for you and practice it regularly for a few moments everyday. This would slowly help you remain centered in all the activities you perform throughout the day. Your span of attention will become more focused and effectiveness will enhance in every area of your life. Regular practice will gradually improve the power of your mind and one fine day the chattering may come to a standstill. That is the day, you would reach a state of complete ecstasy.

Enhance the Power of Mind by Calming its Chattering!

A Focused Mind

Focus has become a key word in our everyday lives and is touched upon in almost every management discussion! However, how many of us are actually able to put this powerful tool into actual practice? Does your Boss asks you to focus to get the job done ASAP? Do you struggle to focus on your new project? Are you able to focus on your presentation for tomorrow? Are you able to focus on your preparation for your interview?

If the answer is NO, then you are loosing precious time and as a result ending up exhausted or shall we say stressed. In a normal day there are a number of tasks we have to accomplish within stringent timelines but the distractions are far too many. Completing a 20 minutes report, sometimes takes a whole day! Reading a 15 minutes lesson, sometimes takes half a day! Writing a 30 minutes article, sometimes takes an eternity! These are just a few examples from our daily lives but if you retrospect, there would be many more.

So, why do we loose focus? Well, the reasons are many but for the sake of comprehension, lets divide them into two. The first challenge is to stay away from distractions that surround our lives; it could be a telephone call, a small gossip, fight with your wife, your loan repayment, your girlfriend, your Boss, etc. The second challenge are controlling the thoughts of our mind. The mind has a peculiar habit to jump from one place to another; at this moment you are perhaps sitting at home reading this article but suddenly in a flip of a second you realize that you have reached a beach resort in Hawaii, in your thoughts!

So what does one do? Actually, the solution for all the problems has a simple answer > train your mind to focus. When you train your mind, then not only you crush the infinite distractions but also remain in better control of complex situations. Now the next question you may want to ask is how to train your mind. Again its pretty simple, practice consistently to “live in the moment” and focus your energies on the present task. Further, one can achieve the art of living in the moment by meditating every day for a few minutes. Some people imagine meditation is about sitting quietly in one place but on the contrary, its simply about being a “witness” to the moment. By meditating everyday, a very powerful thing will happen to you! You would not only be in a position to channelize all your energies into your current goal but will also gain control on the constant chattering of your thoughts. Eventually, you will be able to enhance your productivity and become a envious master of a calm mind.

Improve time management through a focused mind!

One Point Attention

Do you always accomplish all the tasks you set out to accomplish? Do you always struggle to complete to-do lists? Do you always roll over tasks same tasks to the next day? Is multi-tasking taking a toll on you? Do you want to improve our productivity? Is there a better way? 

Perhaps! Lets analyze a routine day in our lives. You start your day in office with the normal lists of things going in your mind. You have your hot cup of coffee and start going though your to-do lists. Since normally mornings are the most quietest of hours, you decide to start with the article you need to submit in the in house news magazine. You barely mange to write one line, when a mail pops-up and you immediately shift focus to responding to the mail and while you are at it, you decide to clear you mail box completely. By the time you finish with your mailbox, it’s 1200 hrs and time for another cup of hot brew. Your mobile is ringing all this while and you are busy resolving critical issues in your job. Your boss calls you for a meeting and gives you certain action items to be accomplished before the end of the day. You drop everything and deliver on Boss’s stuff first. By the time you complete, its time for your team meeting. Lots happening and you are constantly multi-tasking between your phones, mails, meetings and other important stuff. The article you started first thing in the morning has been visited at least 20 times in the day but you have managed to only get half way through. Its now 2000 hrs and your wife is already upset as you have made coming home late a habit. So you decide to wind up for the day and save the pending article. You add it in your to-do list for the next day and make it top priority!

Don’t you feel that that is a typical day in most of our lives? We set out to do a list of things but at the end of the day we realize that have not even completed half of it. We simply end up using our time in the addressing fire items and the creative work (like articles) becomes always the most difficult to accomplish. The result is more worries, which lead to higher stress and ultimately depression. What could you have done better?

Our mind has a limitation! Contrary to many theories, it has the ability to focus only at one thing at a time. If you observe carefully and give a single pointed attention to a particular task at hand, then that task may get completed in 1/4th the time or even less. This happens because every time we switch our mind, we again have to re-process information from scratch. We can argue that this is hardly noticeable as it may take just a few seconds but doesn’t every drop fills an ocean. If we accumulate all these drops or focus our energies into one task at a time then not only we will accomplish more but also remain in control with a stable mind.

One point attention not only has the ability to prevent stress but also increases the strength of our mind. Its understandable to switch between mundane tasks which are embedded in your sub-conscious but to enhance effectiveness, we need to have a one point attention towards at least the creative or shall we say conscious tasks.

Practice One Point Attention to enhance your Productivity!