Oct 24, 20205 min read

Controlling your mind: How to be mindful?

In the last article we discussed efficiency in action and the necessity of acting with the right attitude. In this article we address the other key requirement for efficiency in action, namely how to focus your mind.

Swami Vivekananda once said that the“Difference between an ordinary and legendary person lies in the degree of concentration”.

Bhagavad Gita addresses this aspect extensively in Chapters 2-6. It describes how to control one’s mind using the intellect, how to control one’s senses using the mind, and how to stay focused in the present moment, without having anxieties from the past or expectations of the future

Focus of Mind - Bhagavad Gita: Chapter 6, Verses 24-25

सङ्कल्पप्रभवान्कामांस्त्यक्त्वा सर्वानशेषत: | मनसैवेन्द्रियग्रामं विनियम्य समन्तत: || 24|| शनै: शनैरुपरमेद्बुद्ध्या धृतिगृहीतया | आत्मसंस्थं मन: कृत्वा न किञ्चिदपि चिन्तयेत् || 25||

saṅkalpa-prabhavān kāmāns tyaktvā sarvān aśheṣhataḥ manasaivendriya-grāmaṁ viniyamya samantataḥ śhanaiḥ śhanair uparamed buddhyā dhṛiti-gṛihītayā ātma-sansthaṁ manaḥ kṛitvā na kiñchid api chintayet (6.24-25)

Abandoning without reserve all desires born of SANKALPA, and completely restraining the whole group of senses by the mind from all sides. Little by little, let him attain quietude by his intellect, achieved through determination of resolve; having made the mind established in the self, let him not think of anything.

The word sankalpa here means desires born out of our own fanciful imagination. This is in contrast to the desires that arise naturally just by the fact that we are alive e.g., quenching our thirst, satiating our hunger. It is these desires that Gita wants us to restrain from, by controlling all of our senses. It also recognizes the challenge in doing so by highlighting the determination required and the role of the intellect in controlling the mind. Finally, it addresses the notion of mindfulness or atma sanstham by asking our mind to be “established” in the self and focusing just on the present, with no other thought.

Peaceful Mind: Story of the farmer who lost the watch

A story about a farmer who lost his pocket watch illustrates the power of the peaceful mind. There was a farmer who lived in a big farm. He treasured his beautiful pocket watch that had been transferred from one generation to the next by his great grandfather. One day as he was working in his barn, the farmer inadvertently dropped his pocket watch in the farm. He came back to his cottage and realized that his pocket watch was missing. He was distraught and decided to seek the help of a group of children who were playing nearby.

With six kids, the farmer set out to search for the pocket watch. They searched across the farm for more than three hours, and yet were unable to track down the watch. They returned to the cottage tired and dejected. At that time a kid from a nearby town came to visit the farmer. Hearing upon his sad story the kid offered to search for the pocket watch. The farmer was hesitant to send the kid out as it was getting dark, but yielded to the kid’s request when he was quite insistent. After just fifteen minutes the kid came running into the cottage declaring that he found the pocket watch. The farmer and all the other kids were surprised and asked the kid from the nearby town how he had found the pocket watch.

The kid said “I did nothing but sit on the ground and listen. In the silence, I heard the ticking of the watch and just looked for it in that direction. I walked in that direction and found the pocket watch”

The moral of the story is that a peaceful mind can think better than a worked up mind. Allow a few minutes of silence to your mind every day, and see, how sharply it helps you to set your life the way you expect it to be.

What do we mean by focusing our mind?

Dandapani, a well known hindu monk and inspirational speaker, in his TeDxReno talk on Unwavering Focus, elaborates on understanding our mind, controlling it and then focusing it. He says that concentration can be thought of as awareness+mind; awareness is like a glowing ball of light that can roam around and illuminate any part of our mind; our mind is a huge field that has different areas for emotion, memory, knowledge, experiences etc. The glowing ball of light or awareness can travel to any part of our mind and when it stays at one part of our mind it illuminates it and we become aware of that part. For example, when I think of my recent vacation to Hawaii, the ball of light or awareness is focused on my Hawaii vacation. The awareness brings up the beautiful beaches of Hawaii. Now the awareness can stay there or jump to how the waves in Hawaii reminded me of Bondi beach in Sydney. Before I realize my awareness is in Sydney, reminiscing about the years I spent there. Concentration then is that unwavering focus on just one part of the mind. The longer and more intense the glowing ball of light shines on one small area of our mind the better we are in our concentration.

Now that we have understood (at least theoretically!!) what we mean by focusing our mind we now look at how to practice this mindfulness. As anyone who has tried to practice meditation for more than a few minutes can attest this intense focus in not very easy to achieve. No sooner do we think that we have achieved this concentration or mindfulness the mind immediately starts wandering. How do we minimize such mind-wandering? In her talk on How to tame your wandering mind? Amishi Jha emphasizes some of the key techniques to be followed. These techniques are age-old techniques from Gita that urges us to be in the present when we are acting; avoiding any regrets and ruminations from the past nor the expectations and worries of the future. Practicing this over time will definitely result in better concentration - better mindfulness and less mind-wanderings. This impact is highlighted in her talk.

Source: How to tame your wandering mind, Amishi Jha, TED Talk

Two main techniques for practicing mindfulness is the breathing technique and the pomodoro technique. The breathing or pranayama technique is used to watch and control our inhalation and exhalation. This reduces any mental agitation and brings the awareness of the mind to breathing. The pomodoro technique is an interesting technique to break down our day-to-day activities into 25 minute chunks and to rest for five minutes after every 25 minute chunk. Working in these thirty minute cycles for at least four sessions and then taking a longer break is usually advised. This technique works well when you typically are multi-tasking and need to focus on one task or activity. In some cases, like getting into the “zone” when you are writing or practicing music or painting the twenty five minute limit may be a bit arbitrary. But it is a technique worth trying out. There are a number of apps that help you keep track of the time.

Source: Pomodoro Technique: A detailed beginner's guide.

Key Takeaways

Focus of mind - (a) Refrain from Sankalpa – Desires born out of our own imagination; (b) Atma Sanstham – Fixed on the self; and (c) Evenness of mind – Thinking of nothing else
Awareness + Mind (Dandapani)
Mindwanderings vs Mindfulness
Breathing & Pomodoro Technique