The trick to build focus: Let the world go by

Here’s another experience to share with my beloved readers to improve focus. Many spiritual seekers like me begin to feel frustrated, almost to the point of anger, when someone or something interrupts their concentration while meditating or praying. Don’t feel guilty about it. While learning to concentrate everyone is a student, and progress is gradual. There is a restorative remedy for the perturbed focus, so no panic.
General sources of distraction could range from having a lively family, a busy neighbourhood, pets seeking attention, or simply one’s own wandering thoughts. As a result, too many voices mingle together to make one big noise! It’s not pleasant, and tries one’s patience, to say the least, especially when someone is already struggling to gather focus to the point.
This is exactly what I went through for a long time, before getting enlightenment from within while meditating one day. I told myself that every voice and sound is like a test for me, to verify how far I’ve progressed, and how far still I need to go to tame my attention. I began to accept it as a challenge. First, it really tried my patience, but gradually I progressed to actually being able to smile when a random thought wrestled with my attention, or one of my children entered the room talking loud on the phone to crumble my lotus position, or when the postman came at the wrong time. I kept reminding myself the purpose of this exercise, while still hearing the sounds. I continued to practise maintaining calm, till it became my reflex reaction to the chaos.
So, I was encouraged to climb another step – I carried on with my prayers, or introspection, or just focus on the tranquil darkness behind closed eyes. I would be lying if I say it worked overnight; it took further perseverance and regular practice. Then, I realised that the outside voices didn’t matter and they became more and more distant gradually. I was able to focus, amongst dissonance of the outer world, as I became more ad more attentive to myself. Not only I felt happier, calmer, and more confident within myself, there was a reward at the end of my hard work- God blessed me with an accommodation whereby now I have my own study, where I can’t hear the clowns of the circus around. I can close the door, and escape into my own world when I want to.
I felt like a student who studied hard, passed the exam, and got a golden badge! If I can do it, anyone can too. I am still learning and very much a spiritual trainee, but I feel confident that I shall continue to grow since I have a firm but fair and a very capable teacher- My Nirankar, my God, my Universe.
Remember that focus is the ground on which spiritual growth is built. Begin with tolerance, build patience, and grow acceptance of the environment around you. If your efforts are sincere, the surrounding obstacles would disperse by the grace of God. However, nothing would change without investing hard work and honest commitment first.

Don’t stress about negativity in the mind: Divert focus

The title seeks to draw your attention towards prioritising the right thought in your mind. Most of us desire to stay positive but don’t know how. One might think that the early stage of transition is very stressful, and it’s understandable. However, instead of panicking, one must seek to find out the root cause of stress. You’ll find that negativity is rooted in the past, most of the time, or stems from worrying about the future. What has always worked for me is- ‘ Focus on the positive situations in the current life, however small it might seem on the surface’, like being alive, even if life is not yet entirely as you hoped for. Once you’ve ‘felt’ the blessing of life, you focus on a tentative action plan to improve the present situation. To ‘feel’ your thought is the best means of communication with self and the Universe. I’ve also used the word, ‘tentative’ for any plans since the small details contributing towards the end product of your goal could change, and this change would only prove that your mindset is maturing. Go with the flow, and Nirankar/ God/ Universe shall enlighten the way forward. But you must invest real action, not just hypothetical idea, towards your goal. It’s true- when one takes one step towards God, the almighty pulls the person ten steps towards himself. Again, the concept of ‘god’ could mean many diverse images for different people. No way is a wrong way towards spiritual growth from within. You’ll discover that your first step towards your goal is the most important step in the journey, as it shows determination, resilience, and commitment one is ready to dedicate to reach the target. The universe doesn’t expect a person to be a superhero but sincere in desiring and manifesting, within moral encompass. Right thought is the springboard to bounce one forward.
Before I proceed further, just a question- ‘Haven’t you already forgotten about the stress, thinking about how to stay positive? Aren’t you instead thinking about your inner growth, about the desire, and about the step towards manifesting it? If the answer is ‘Yes’, then this article has successfully elucidated a technique to ground your focus towards what matters in the scope of a plan to improve life. If one starts right, one can hope to win the race. Isn’t this positive? So, why stress when it’s so easy to evaporate negativity? The mind makes difficulty more difficult, and equally, ease easier. The choice is yours.

Spills from life: Sometimes it’s the small things that matter big

To create positivity within it’s mandatory to gather your focus on yourself, so you could isolate the negative anomalies. Believing in this principle, I do believe in minding my own business and focusing on my own life. However, when one lives in a shared society it’s almost unavoidable to observe certain social abnormalities and shortcomings. Even though it doesn’t replace the positiveness inside, it does create certain ripples in one’s temperament, however temporarily, but one becomes seriously exposed to negative emotional radiation, and if exposure is continuous, it could pose jeopardy for the mindset. Not mega issues, but day-to-day mundane anomalies leave you feeling frustrated at times. Let me list a few here, and I am sure most readers be able to relate to a similar experience.
I often see people standing at the bus stop or walking through a high street, or just being in the public domain, and spitting. Disgusting habit and I don’t feel guilty to grimace. If there is a medical reason, then we’ve murdered enough trees to make tissues out of them; at least let their sacrifice be worth it. Such behaviour often manifests out of a lack of self-awareness and total disregard for others.

Coughing without covering the mouth with a hand, is another un-sociable behaviour. Especially after Covid-19 invaded the world and locked us in our own homes, I would have expected greater realisation about the effects of our actions. But I forget the human race can be both, short-sighted and selfish. Our history proves, alas!
Whether in a pub, public place, or even shockingly in restaurants, it’s cringeworthy to see at least one ‘lady’ who would not wash her hands after doing business in the washroom. It’s called ‘wash’ room for a reason, for God’s sake! Since I am a woman I can only talk about my own gender, but doubt the story is much different in the men’s world. Exceptions, hopefully, they might be but is still very unpleasant to witness.
I love the invention of earphones. But some people still find a way to raid your ears! Mobile phones are a great asset if we know when, how, and how much to use them. However, you involuntarily learn a lot about other unrelated people in who you might not be interested even remotely. I am sure whoever uses any means of public transport has experienced this at least sometimes.
Have you heard someone snot, and continue to do so, totally oblivious to the fact that he/she is making someone around feel nauseous? I call it impolite ad inconsiderate, to say the least. Tissues again, please.
Starers! God, what’s their problem? Sometimes I feel some of these wide-eyed human beings don’t mean to be rude- I accept it, BUT, it’s a lack of self-awareness.

In the end, I would stress on the importance of ‘Taking responsibility for own actions’, ‘ Growing Self-awareness’, ‘Having consideration for others around’, and basically- learn manners to be social beings. All these small good behaviours corroborate to appreciate inclusiveness and build a polite individual. If being considerate towards others isn’t an essential ingredient for developing positivity, then what is?