Practice? Harmful?

hi johny_gjx,

could you describe this practice of concentration in a little more detail. It sounds to me like mediation, which is far from harmful.

andy.

Hi johnny_gjx,

This sounds much to me like meditation. (I'm not sure if that's relative to mediation as mentioned in the above post.) Meditation has been linked to decreasing blood pressure (in people with hypertension) and it helps reduce stress (Rathus, 2003). What you are doing doesn't sound like it would be harmful but instead beneficial.

It was a two-part article and the second part of it contained practices, there were counting practice, focusing on shapes, simple objects.. with open and closed eyes and ... the latest practice was about remaining without thoughts.. here is the link to the second part of this article..

thanks for your response, one more question, if the above is more similar to practice of meditation, then is there any resource or article about concentration? some practice or advice on concentration I mean ..

Concentration is an aspect of meditation. The article you've posted seems to focus on increasing your concentrating ability specifically. I would try www.google.com (or any search engine) using search words such as
-increasing concentration- or -concentration exercises-. Good luck!

i did indeed mean meditation (spelling error!). absolutely, these exercises can only benefit you i'm sure. using mantras, focusing on an object, your breath or anything else is a great way to begin to calm your mind down. it takes practice, but it helps to see things clearer and will make you more creative.

good luck!

andy.

thanks

Hi, johny_gjx! I would like to put in my two cents worth here also.

It appears to me that you were really asking about two different things:
One being, "Is the practice of concentration possibly harmful?"

I think you have answered that one already. As for creativity, I think it only helps to unclutter the mind of other ideas; to allow space for new ones to enter. (Isn't that where your creativity comes from?)

It also seems you were describing procrastination, jumping from one task to another. That sounds like you could benefit from getting your tasks orgainized. You have a purpose - a goal you are trying to accomplish - it is much like a mission statement to a business organization. Focus is simply a means to keep you on target, rather than letting other things get you distracted, sort of getting lost on side trips that do not help you accomplish what you really want from life.

I start each new day with my mission statement and then begin listing all the tasks that need to be accomplished. Then with my real purpose in mind, I begin to prioritize each task. Some can be put off till tomorrow or next week. Some need my attention today, some even within the hour! If I have a huge task that will require a lot of my time - I break it down into parts and give each part a deadline. Time has a way of getting away from you when you know you have a month to get it done. Doesn't it? It did for me before I started this goal setting.

Then it feels so good when I can cross one of the tasks off the list. DONE! SUCCESS! And I think we all would agree that success breeds success.

Each day the prioritizing can change. Almost every day there are new tasks added. But somehow for me having written them down first thing in the morning keeps me on track and I seem to get more done now than I ever did before.

I must confess I am a worrier too! When I was in University and taking other classes since then, I was always concerned that there simply was not enough time to do all the things I wanted to do. I started using, "There is always more than enough time." as a mantra. I thought it or even said it out loud to myself all day long. It was amazing! There actually seemed to be more minutes in an hour, more hours in a day. Honestly! I even had less test anxiety! And I had it bad. Sometimes I could not even see the print on the test - I was so stressed.

Hope some of this might beof help to you.