(Mind47)- Which focusing technique is the best?

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Having a focused mind is definitely an advantage in many ways. Such a mind not only minimizes stress but also helps you in achieving greater success in life.

Even when we talk about advanced stages of Yoga, a focused mind is a prerequisite. It is the focused mind that helps you in meditation and in reaching the culminating stage of Samadhi.

The main technique suggested by Yoga to develop a sharp focus is the practice of Pranayama or controlling the breathing. We discussed that a few episodes ago. We also discussed several non-Yoga methods that also help in attaining a focused mind.

Now the question is - which of these alternatives is the best?

The answer depends both on what type of person you are and also on how enduring these techniques are.

If you are a very ‘physical’ person, like most people are, probably the asana way is a better choice.

But make sure that you adhere to the alignment and breathing aspects of the Asana.

If you are very religious and faith dominated person, may be chanting some mantra or a long list of tongue twisting sacred names may be a good choice for you.

Trataka is a good choice for most people. It is probably the easiest and you attain focus very fast.

For puritans, may be the good old, time tested, Pranayama of Yoga is the best.

But when it comes to long lasting effect, not all these are equally recommended.

If you closely analyze each of these focusing techniques, almost all of them have varying levels of physical action, the asana way being the most physical.

More physical a technique is, lesser lasting is its effect.

The reason is that our brain quickly automates any physical action after a few rounds of training.

The way our brain automates physical movements

Remember the times when you learnt how to ride a bicycle? In the beginning you had tough time balancing the highly unstable vehicle with just two wheels! Not only that, you had to simultaneously pedal and move ahead. It demanded all your attention.

But once you had the hang of it, you could drive a bicycle almost with your eyes closed, chatting with your friends, doing all kinds of acrobatics and what not. That is because your brain has automated the entire act of riding. Once that happens, you no longer need to pay any attention.

This is where it all happens

Similar thing happens when you practice Asana with or without the alignment and breathing regimes. Sooner or later the body gets used to it and you need very little attention to do these Asanas.

That is when the asana ceases to be a technique for honing your attention system and remains as just a physical exercise. You can continue to do it but with very little benefit as far as the attention training is concerned.

Techniques like Mudra that can appear to be very effective for a highly stressed person, will have a very short-term effect, probably much less than the asanas. Once you get used to them, you will be mechanically moving your fingers with no effect except for being seen as a weird guy 😉

When you chant a long list of tongue twisting sacred names, after sometime the entire process gets automated and you can rattle them out with no attention paid at all. You could still have the placebo effect of faith, but as far as attention training is concerned, not much.

Listening to sounds may be better since it does not get so easily automated. There is a conscious act of listening and acting based on what you hear. So, it could have a longer lasting effect.

In Pranayama as well as Trataka, you are working against natural body reflexes, and so these techniques are less likely to be automated.

Buddhist Sati techniques need minimal physical action. But they need conscious observation. This may be very difficult for most people who are ‘physical’ at varying degrees. These techniques are longer lasting, but may not be very easy to practice, though the techniques themselves have deceptive simplicity.

I would rather say that to practice them you need to have some amount of focus! You can only further focus an already focused mind. But if you have a chaotic mind and a hyperactive body, there is no way you can practice these Sati techniques.

So, choose your focusing technique depending on your makeup and how long lasting you would like it to be. I would rather go by the right royal Yogic way, namely the Pranayama or even Trataka.


Now the big question is how do these focusing techniques reduce stress? We will discuss that in the next episode.

 

A series revolving around Mind – Science of Mind, Philosophy of Mind, Notions of reality, Mind modulation, Domains beyond Mind, and so on. © Dr. King, Swami Satyapriya 2019-2020