Your Must-Know Guide to Harness the
True Power of Concentration
By Mohammad Shafi'e
Have you ever had the burning urge and desire to do something really productive that you have been contemplating and cracking your brain so deeply about but never really set out to do it? Or had there been a lecture or a reading material that you just couldn’t concentrate upon due to its boring and dry delivery? You know that there will be something important that you cannot miss, but you just couldn’t get your stubborn mind to concentrate.
There are 4 areas in which concentration is needed. They are visual, auditory, kinesthetic and conceptual. The next few paragraphs will cover each of these areas one by one and in depth to better improve your overall power of concentration.
In order to master visual concentration, you need to improve your overall visualization ability by holding and consciously manipulating a mental image in your mind for longer periods of time. A simple exercise you can perform is to calmly fix your gaze on a small point or black dot at the centre of a white screen at a comfortable distance from and level with your eyes. Another favorite and common technique is to gaze upon a gentle candle flame in a dark room. The trick with this and the above exercise is to maintain your unblinking eye contact with the target object. If it gets uncomfortable, you may close your eyes and move your gaze away for a while.
Noise, cacophony of sounds, presence of distracting sounds and interfering background sounds affect auditory concentration. If possible, where any kind of concentration is needed, it is best to be in a place of silence, but any place that has a tolerable or calm sound environment is fine. If getting to a different environment is not feasible, try listening to sounds or music that is soothing and comfortable to you.
Next, let's move on to kinaesthetic concentration. If you ever felt awkward or clunky in any situation requiring you to perform a physical task, it could just mean that you haven’t had enough practice of the task or you just need to involve your eyes in the process as well. For example, in driving if you are unable to fully synchronize the use of your hands in the changing of gears and your feet in depressing the clutch pedal and your eyes in looking at the mirrors, the best way to solve it is to simply get used to it progressively through consistent practice. Visualization and mimicking the physical motions involved in a complex physical task also enhances your mastery of this technique.
Lastly, conceptual concentration means being able to deeply ponder and think through abstract concepts and processes. Your ability to concentrate conceptually depends on your ability to concentrate through your visual, auditory and kinaesthetic channels. Turn abstract concepts into solid, visual forms by imagining them as objects that actually occupy time and space – in your mind. Or you can draw them out as models and symbols on paper.
Now you are equipped with the knowledge and tips to improve your concentration abilities in your 4 different aspects – Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic and Conceptual. Are you ready to fully concentrate and achieve something really productive today?
Mohamad Shafi’e is founder of StraTeachgic Success, where he reveals accelerated life-long learning and personal development success secrets. He has over 12 years of tutoring, teaching, mentoring and coaching experience with over 1200 students in the fields and technologies of personal development and human potential maximization.