YOU'VE GOT TO EMPTY YOUR MIND OF ALL FOR YOGA

Articles In This Section:

· CONCENTRATION IN YOGA

· YOGA TEACHES DIFFERENT BEFINNINGS

· YOU'VE GOT TO EMPTY YOUR MIND OF ALL FOR YOGA

· VALUE OF CONCENTRATION BEFORE SLEEP

· HIGHLY TRAINED YOGA

· CONCENTRATION CAN IMPROVE YOUR MEMORY

· YOGA HELPS WITH EMOTIONAL AND INTELLECTUAL

It goes without saying that to concentrate properly one must keep serene, which means emptying the mind of irritation, worry and distraction, not permitting any of these emotions to take hold and interfere. This too becomes a matter of practice. At first, as you try concentrating on the object of your choice, you will find the immediate preoccupations of daily living crowding you, hammering for admittance. The way to deal with them is deliberately to shut them out. Learn to watch your thoughts as though you were an interested spectator but do not permit yourself to identify with them. Then, when you see them begin to wander, shepherd them back where you want them. Dull and uninspired as this will seem at first—for day-dreaming and wool-gathering are a more attractive pastime than concentrating on, say the flame of a candle—the practice will soon yield rewards. It will surprise you how quickly a little mechanical exercise will enable you so to discipline your mind that when you are called on to focus on something important, something vital, it will no longer be tempted to wander at all.

Many people make the mistake of assuming that concentration is a grim, tension-provoking business. They frown, bite a pencil, chew lips and nails in an outward show of effort. But all they succeed in doing is to increase their own restlessness, tiring themselves out to no purpose. They keep their five senses relentlessly at play, pulling in all directions instead of working together, harmoniously. That this is a profligate waste of energy both muscular and emotional, is self-evident. With Deep Concentration such frittering-away of one's resources can be avoided. You might sum it up this way: Just as at first you had to learn to concentrate in order to relax, so now you must learn to relax in order to concentrate to good advantage.

As with other Yoga routines, it is important to make a habit of practicing Deep Concentration at regular intervals, setting aside at least one regular period for it each day. You might, for instance, plan to do it immediately after the relaxation and contraction exercises in the morning, before you start on your day's chores. Late afternoon, or at night before retiring are other good times. Each has its own advantages: the morning time helps you start the day with a clear head, an afternoon period refreshes you for the evening ahead. Concentration the last thing at night offers certain very special rewards, however. As you learn greater and greater mind control, you will find that you can train yourself to project your thinking into your sleep, or toward the tasks and problems of the following day. Actually what happens is that while you sleep your innermost mind continues to function and the following morning you are likely to wake with solutions to puzzling questions clear in your mind and with an added awareness of how to go about doing what should be done.

This approach, which the Yogis worked out generations ago and which a few intuitive people are forever rediscovering for themselves is today recognized by psychiatrists as a mental process on the subconscious level. As Sigmund Freud pointed out not so very many years back for the benefit of the Western world, civilized man has buried this subconscious so deep under layers of repression and doubt that often it works against him rather than for him. The Yoga method, through Deep Concentration, helps us make friends with it once more.