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Things to do to get a kick

It has now become clear how much time I waste thinking about irrelevant things. And it’s not just me but almost everybody out there! Think about any particular issue you have been wanting to resolve and observe your thoughts. You will see how easily your mind gets distracted. It shows how fickle the mind is. [Point to think about: Is this how fickle we are?]

Now our mind is quite fickle and to solve any problem it is natural that we have to focus it. Think of an exam for example. Our thoughts are ‘quite’ focused then!

An interesting technique I realized was: If I were to commit to a mental exercise say ‘learning words’ and I kept at the task irrespective of any distractions soon I’d focus my mind. Apart from learning words I think this is a beautiful way to silence the mind!

[I have to try out another technique: Pick up the pace at which I ‘learn’ these words. I want to see how acute I can make my focus.]

Just like we have the mental dimension on which we can focus ourselves there is also the physical dimension. If you take a simple yoga exercise and repeat it till you get exhausted your focus has to get more acute and your mind more silent.

Achieving mental or physical focus are activities that are clearly in the domain of ‘experience’ and not in the domain of the rationalizing mind. In fact after having done tremendous amounts of thinking as you can see from my blog what I now think is: clearly experience of the kind that I have mentioned above is far more beautiful than the act of thinking.

And the story continues….

So just like we can focus our mind and our bodies we can also focus ourselves to do acts that bring us inner peace. If l feel thirsty, for example, I drink water. If I know I have to study for an exam I do so. At any moment I can just go and do the unfinished business that is distracting me, a business that is going to give me that inner peace.

Even when I am getting bored I can guide myself by an abstract sense of good and decide what to do next.

It might be well to say that just like I can get a kick out of focusing myself mentally or physically I can get a much more profound kick by focusing myself to do good.

Usually in these exercises when you push yourself beyond the stage of exhaustion is when you begin to feel the kick.

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