Attention Control as a Key to Connect with the Present Again
We’re not used to being present in the present. In most cases, your body is there, but not your mind. We have gotten used to distraction, multitasking, and the development of partial attention. The result is disconnection with your inner self. The practice of attention control can help you solve this problem.
Attention control is a mental state that helps us to focus all of our attention on what we’re doing or wanting. Also, it works like a muscle – the more you use it, the stronger it gets.
Stephan Bodian was trained for a decade as a Zen Buddhist monk and licensed as a psychotherapist. According to him, the key to mental peace is not in the circumstances, but in how you respond to them. So, when we concentrate any type of energy, including mental energy, we acquire unlimited power.
“Attention training allows us to become real people. When we’re real people, we see those around us as real. And life acquires all of its richness.”
-Thich Nhat Hanh-
The importance of attention training
If you want to be successful in any sphere of life, you should cultivate your power of attention on one single objective. Determined and focused people tend to work more and accomplish more tasks more quickly. They tend to have jobs that pay better and deeper networks of friends.
All jobs should be done with concentration. According to Ian Fleming, if you fail in important things, it’s because you don’t have interest in them or concentration. Aptitude appears and the tools are made available by themselves when you do.
Attention control is also important for well-being. It can keep us from falling into fears and anxiety. Thoughts come and go like the clouds in a windy sky. Knowing how to focus can be our anchor. Where the water is deepest is also where it’s calmest.
In fact, only from a state of inner calm was man able to discover and make peaceful environments. The more tranquility you feel, the more success and influence you will be able to obtain. Mental peace is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom.
“The joy of productive focus must replace, in a mature man, the joy of being scattered.”
-Charles Baudelaire-
Training your attention helps you to focus all of your energy. When attention is spread throughout your mind and body, you become capable of leaving aside your fears and worries. In this way, your productivity improves. This is because you become focused on the present – on the here and now – and you feel better.