QQ Community Forums: The Yoga Of Mind Training - QQ Community Forums

One of the first aspects of meditation is training the mind to be able to concentrate or focus. Without that the mind drifts or gets bored which leads a person to doze off or sleep. Concentration and focus are challenging because we are used to a great deal of stimulation in our day-to-day lives. If you watch TV or movies notice how quickly there are edits, changing camera angles and positions, and having the camera in motion. This is quite intentional because most people have a very short attention span of only a few seconds. So movies and TV cater to that and the movies and TV in turn reinforce short attention span in people.

Attention or focus is an ability that can be developed. Just as you might exercise a muscle to develop it, you also need to do things which increase your attention and focus, and it’s easier than you might think.

One of the easiest and fun ways is through guided visualizations or meditations because your mind is following instructions on what it is to imagine or do.

Traditional yoga practices approached training the mind in what some regard as boring. For instance one practice includes focusing one’s gaze on a candle flame for long periods of time, and another requires holding your attention on your 3rd eye while meditating. These can be fun for awhile but guided visualizations and meditations offer the most variety and fun. You will find hundreds of guided meditations and visualizations in the programs offered on this website.