This article is a continuation of the previous articles of the same name. I am now working through points I outlined previously which I deem important for successful self-discipline.
6. Methods of Developing, Training and Maintaining Focus
Breath
Your body is programmed through breath. Every memory you have and every trauma - every conditioning and every moment of bliss or blight happened when you were breathing. Do you remember breathing when these things went on?
That's the issue here - you need to be conscious of what your body is doing while you experience the repeat of these things. They run in cycles and come through the body and the mind using the same breath patterns that they were programmed with..
You can change that - you can focus on your breath to see the changes. See and feel when the body is tight when you don't will it to be. Feel when you are going through a repetition of something and focus on the breathing. It may be the hardest thing to do in your life.
Your subconscious really does not want to be found out.
You have to seek it out. You have to expose it - and once you have started to tear away at the edges of it - it is like an unraveling that cannot be stopped!
Take the red pill.
Find focus again through the focusing of your awareness on your breath. Teach yourself to breath again. Start regular breathing practices like yoga or meditation. But this is not enough - you need to be aware of the changes in your breath when you are having them so you need to be aware of your breath in your day to day awareness. Walking, working, singing, with friends, angry, sad, happy, joyous etc.
A simple breath meditation to be maintained for long periods of time:
Breath in - 1 2 3 4
Hold - 1 2 3 4
Breathe out - 1 2 3 4
Hold - 1 2 3 4
I learned this from the cult I joined in South Africa in 2008. Despite being a cult they had a lot of good things which helped their disciples. This breath meditation and the dedication to it was one of them.
If engaged in as an endless pursuit you can observe the mind and see where it goes. In separation from the mind you can change it.
While living as the mind we believe we are the mind and so feel no change is possible. You need to make a reference point. This reference point is your awareness outside of your normal way of thinking by focusing on simply slow counting when breathing - and in this focusing on what the body is doing and the pathway of the air through your nostrils, in your throat, down to your lungs and back again.
When you feel yourself tensing up in a moment you don't mean to - breath easy and consciously for a while and focus on releasing the tension - allow yourself to put a marker there in your mind and come back to this point if you can't fully release it in the moment. Be honest with yourself. Endeavour to be as honest as possible with yourself so you can develop a high level of trust with your reality. Trusting it not to be caring or loving but to be what it is. That you may truly see what is going on.
Stop the idea of needing to manifest a controlled reality and instead understand the reality you are in through observation. If you haven't somehow conjured your super house on the Bahamas just by thinking it throughout your life - something has obviously gone wrong in your process. Instead of continuing to believe in the power of intention and manifestation like a naive child - actually get to the knitty gritty of what is going on underneath all those layers of self. In observation of our reality, we learn what we are in - physically, mentally and spiritually.
The body is like a microcosm of the universe and you are like a child that has been put in the cockpit. You need to slow down and learn exactly what is going on if you are going to be in any hope of 'controlling anything'. Understand that the idea of control is always only ever a perception.
Seek the root causes of your thoughts and feelings - get to the knitty gritty - seek to see the unpretty honest reality so you can really get an idea of how to change it - and if you can't change it - shift it around - make it fit in a better way so you aren't programmed to run into a wall once a blue moon.
Your body is like a computer and it stores many things that you are unaware of. You need to re-engage with its programming language and through breath become the king of this kingdom. Are you a victim tossed in the flow of your traumas which are stored in the body? You can change that.
Do you want to learn any new skill that requires self-discipline? You can do that.
Through breath and repetition - you can control your focus.
Breath is not the only key but it is the foundation - understand breath and you don't need anything else I will write now. All other tools come from the internal place of understanding of knowing the self through breath.
