Pay attention.
The art of concentration is as much a practice in life as is the art of persuasion, public speaking, negotiating, and so on. It requires good training and consistency.
At FAS-T Education, we want to spread this critical skill and explore Dandapani and his inspiring TEDTalk on the art of concentration - improving focus and awareness. While not the typical subject matter on our blog, this is very relevant to international students and, of course, anyone who wants to benefit from these simple tips on the art of concentration. We often question our focus and concentration and find our minds wandering.
Check this video out before proceeding, or at the very least, check it out at the end.
Practice Makes Perfect!
Dandapani makes an interesting point about the mind and awareness. We are often asked to concentrate, but this art is a journey that requires much practice. How many times have you spoken to someone passively? We all agree that the more we do something, the better we get at it.
This meditation practice that he conducts with his audience that we often perform with ours is a great way to get a wandering mind to move from one aspect of awareness to another. This type of active listening will allow one to process more information and both parties to experience empathy that can only be had when you give your 100% attention to each other. We do the opposite, and some would argue that technology has had an enormous impact on our lives.
Notification Anxiety
We are often victims of our phones running our lives or our emails and social media. Besides, some of us talk about multitasking, and some even list it on our resumes as a skill set. These notifications that tell us when to look at our phones make it very easy for us to be distracted, and sometimes, it’s a necessary evil. So, what happens when you practice the art of being distracted? Well, you get very good at it.
We’re not suggesting that you turn off your notifications because we live in a world that requires this type of attention; however, if we are in control of when we look at our notifications or give us downtime when we put the distractions away and focus on self-awareness, this in itself would be a step forward in getting back in control.
A movie director can keep your attention and move it from one feeling or emotion, such as happiness- to sadness. Dandapani teaches an ancient technique for you to be more aware during meditation which involves practicing being present with yourself by focusing on something specific like inhaling deeply before exhaling out loud “soma” (which means ‘without’). He also says this helps improve concentration because when we focus our awareness on one thing at once, there’s less room left over for other thoughts that might pop up unbidden throughout everyday life...
Let’s try using meditation techniques for practice so that next time we talk to someone, we consciously acknowledge that we will give them 100% of our concentration. We wish you all the best in acquiring this skill as we explore and acquire it ourselves.
Until next time, everyone!
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