20 Dec Boost Your Focus With These Old School Tricks

Do you have trouble maintaining focus on something for more than a few minutes? Does your mind keep jumping from one thing to another? Consequently, do you have a bunch of half-finished projects lying around the house, a dozen half-baked ideas still knocking around in your cranium, and a pile of regrets about where you’re at with those things and in your life?  If so, what should you do?

Now if you went to the gym and tried to lift weights, only to find your arms and legs were weak and flabby, you’d start a program of weekly exercises to strengthen those muscles. Well, your mind is a kind of muscle too! Just like the muscles in your body, your brain needs its workout. Let’s take a trip back in time, to the early 20th century, and try some focus and concentration building exercises from that era. While some of the exercises are a little goofy and you may look like a crazy person staring at an outstretched glass of water, you’ll still have the last laugh as your concentration power increases to Professor X (bald guy in the wheelchair from the X Men movies) levels.

1, Fix your eyes on an outstretched glass

Fill a small glass full of water, and grasp it by the fingers; put the arm directly in front of you. Now fix the eyes upon the glass and try to keep the arm so steady that no movement will be noticeable. Do this first for one moment and then increase it to five. Do the exercise with one arm and then the other.

The purpose of the  exercise is to gain control over the involuntary muscular movement, making your actions entirely voluntary.

2.Concentrate on Opening and Closing Fists

Move your chair up to a table, placing your hands upon it, clenching the fists, keeping the back of the hand on the table, the thumb doubled over the fingers. Now fix your gaze upon the fist for a while, then gradually extend the thumb, keeping your whole attention fixed upon the act, just as if it was a matter of great importance. Then gradually extend your first finger,  second and so on until you open the rest. Then reverse the process, closing the fingers one by one. You will finally have the fist  in the original position with the thumb closed over the finger. Repeat this exercise with the left hand. Keep up this exercise first with one hand and then the other until you have done it five times with each hand. In a few days you can increase it to ten times.

3.Concentrating on specific odours. 

When you take a walk, drive in the country, or pass a flower garden, concentrate on the odour of flowers and plants. See how many different kinds you can detect. Then choose one particular kind and try to sense it exclusively. You will find that this strongly intensifies the sense of smell. However, this differentiation requires a peculiarly attentive attitude. When sense of smell is being developed, you should not only shut out every thought but that of odour, but you should also shut out cognizance of every odour except the one you are concentrating on. You can find plenty of opportunity for exercises for developing the sense of smell. When you are out in the air, be on the alert for different odours. You will find the air laden with all kinds, try concentrating and detecting your favourite odour from the mixture.

The objective of these exercises is to develop concentrated attention and boost focus, and you will find that you can, through their practice, control your mind and direct your thoughts in the same way as your arm.