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Lesson II -
The Self-Mastery: Self-Direction Power of Concentration
By Theron
Q. Dumont
Man from a
psychological standpoint of development is not what he should be. He
does not possess the self-mastery, the self-directing power of
concentration that is his by right.
He has not trained himself in a way to promote his self-mastery. Every
balanced mind possesses the faculties whose chief duties are to
engineer, direct and concentrate the operations of the mind, both in a
mental and physical sense. Man must learn to control not only his mind
but his bodily movements.
When the controlling faculties (autonomic) are in an untrained
condition, the impulses, passions, emotions, thoughts, actions and
habits of the person suffer from lack of regulation, and the procedure
of mental concentration is not good, not because the mind is
necessarily weak in the autonomic department of the faculties, but
because the mind is not properly trained.
When the self-regulating faculties are not developed the impulses,
appetites, emotions and passions have full swing to do as they please
and the mind becomes impulsive, restless, emotional and irregular in
its action. This is what makes mental concentration poor.
When the self-guiding faculties are weak in development, the person
always lacks the power of mental concentration. Therefore you cannot
learn to concentrate until you develop those very powers that qualify
you to be able to concentrate. So if you cannot concentrate one of the
following is the cause:
- "Deficiency of the motor centers."
- "An impulsive and emotional mind."
- "An untrained mind."
The last fault
can soon be removed by systematic practice. It is easiest to correct.
The impulsive and emotional state of mind can best be corrected by
restraining anger, passion and excitement, hatred, strong impulses,
intense emotions, fretfulness, etc. It is impossible to concentrate
when you are in any of these excited states.
These can be naturally decreased by avoiding such food and drinks as
have nerve weakening or stimulating influences, or a tendency to stir
up the passions, the impulses and the emotions; it is a very good
practice to watch and associate with those persons that are steady,
calm, controlled and conservative.
Correcting the deficiency of the motor centers is harder because as the
person's brain is undeveloped he lacks will power.
To cure this takes some time. Persons so afflicted may benefit by
reading and studying my course, "The Master Mind"
Many have the idea that when they get into a negative state they are
concentrating, but this is not so. They may be meditating, though not
concentrating. Those that are in a negative state a good deal of the
time cannot, as a rule, concentrate very well; they develop instead
abstraction of the mind, or absence of mind. Their power of
concentration becomes weaker and they find it difficult to concentrate
on anything. They very often injure the brain, if they keep up this
state. To be able to concentrate you must possess strength of mind. The
person that is feeble-minded cannot concentrate his mind, because of
lack of will. The mind that cannot center itself on a special subject,
or thought, is weak; also the mind that cannot draw itself from a
subject or thought is weak. But the person that can center his mind on
any problem, no matter what it is, and remove any unharmonious
impressions has strength of mind. Concentration, first, last and all
the time, means strength of mind.
Through concentration a person is able to collect and hold his mental
and physical energies at work. A concentrated mind pays attention to
thoughts, words, acts and plans. The person who allows his mind to roam
at will, will never accomplish a great deal in the world. He wastes his
energies. If you work, think, talk and act aimlessly, and allow your
brain to wander from your subject to foreign fields, you will not be
able to concentrate. You concentrate at the moment when you say, "I
want to, I can, I will."
Some Mistakes Some People Make. If you waste your time reading
sensational stories or worthless newspaper items, you excite the
impulsive and the emotional faculties, and this means you are weakening
your power of concentration. You will not be a free engineer, able to
pilot yourself to success.
Concentration of the mind can only be developed by watching yourself
closely. All kinds of development commence with close attention. You
should regulate your every thought and feeling. When you commence to
watch yourself and your own acts and also the acts of other people, you
use the faculties of autonomy, and, as you continue to do so, you
improve your faculties, until in time you can engineer your every
thought, wish and plan. To be able to focus the mind on the object at
hand in a conscious manner leads to concentration. Only the trained
mind can focalize. To hold a thought before it until all the faculties
shall have had time to consider that thought is concentration.
The person that cannot direct his thoughts, wishes, plans, resolutions
and studies cannot possibly succeed to the fullest extent. The person
that is impulsive one moment and calm the next has not the proper
control over himself. He is not a master of his mind, nor of his
thoughts, feelings and wishes. Such a person cannot be a success. When
he becomes irritated, he irritates others and spoils all chances of any
concerned doing their best. But the person that can direct his energies
and hold them at work in a concentrated manner controls his every work
and act, and thereby gains power to control others. He can make his
every move serve a useful end and every thought a noble purpose.
In this day the man that gets excited and irritable should be looked
upon as an undesirable person. The person of good breeding now speaks
with slowness and deliberation. He is cultivating more and more of a
reposeful attitude. He is consciously attentive and holds his mind to
one thing at a time. He shuts out everything else. When you are talking
to anyone give him your sole and undivided attention. Do not let your
attention wander or be diverted. Give no heed to anything else, but
make your will and intellect act in unison.
Start out in the morning and see how self-poised you can remain all
day. At times take an inventory of your actions during the day and see
if you have kept your determination. If not, see that you do tomorrow.
The more self-poised you are the better will your concentration be.
Never be in too much of a hurry; and, remember, the more you improve
your concentration, the greater are your possibilities. Concentration
means success, because you are better able to govern yourself and
centralize your mind; you become more in earnest in what you do and
this almost invariably improves your chances for success.
When you are talking to a person have your own plans in mind.
Concentrate your strength upon the purpose you are talking about. Watch
his every move, but keep your own plans before you. Unless you do, you
will waste your energy and not accomplish as much as you should.
I want you to watch the next person you see that has the reputation of
being a strong character, a man of force. Watch and see what a perfect
control he has over his body. Then I want you to watch just an ordinary
person. Notice how he moves his eyes, arms, fingers; notice the useless
expenditure of energy. These movements all break down the vital cells
and lessen the person's power in vital and nerve directions. It is just
as important for you to conserve your nervous forces as it is the vital
forces. As an example we see an engine going along the track very
smoothly. Some one opens all the valves and the train stops. It is the
same with you. If you want to use your full amount of steam, you must
close your valves and direct your power of generating mental steam
toward one end. Center your mind on one purpose, one plan, and one
transaction.
There is nothing that uses up nerve force as quickly as excitement.
This is why an irritable person is never magnetic; he is never admired
or loved; he does not develop those finer qualities that a real
gentleman possesses. Anger, sarcasm and excitement weaken a person in
this direction. The person that allows himself to get excited will
become nervous in time, because he uses up his nerve forces and his
vital energies. The person that cannot control himself and keep from
becoming excited cannot concentrate.
When the mind can properly concentrate, all the energy of every
microscopic cell is directed into one channel and then there is a
powerful personal influence generated. Everyone possesses many millions
of little trembling cells, and each one of these has a center where
life and energy are stored up and generated. If this energy is not
wasted but conserved and controlled, this person is influential, but
when it is the opposite, he is not influential or successful.
Just as it is impossible for a steam engine to run with all its valves
open, so is it impossible for you to waste your energy and run at your
top speed. Each neuron in the gray layers of the brain is a psychic
center of thought and action, each one is pulsating an intelligent
force of some kind, and when this force, your thoughts and motions, are
kept in cheek by a conservative, systematic and concentrated mind, the
result will be magnetism, vitality and health. The muscles, bones,
ligaments, feet, hands and nerves, etc., are agents for carrying out
the mandates of the mind. The sole purpose of the volitional faculties
is to move the physical mechanism as the energy travels along the wires
of nerves and muscles. Just for that reason, if you throw a voluntary
control over these messages, impulses, thoughts, emotions, physical
movements and over these physical instruments you develop your
faculties of self-mastery and to the extent you succeed here in
proportion will you develop the power of concentration.
Any exercise or work that excites the mind, stimulates the senses,
calls the emotions and appetites into action, confuses, terrifies or
emotionalizes, weakens the power of concentration. This is why all kind
of excitement is bad. This is the reason why persons who drink strong
drinks, who allow themselves to get into fits of temper, who fight, who
eat stimulating food, who sing and dance and thus develop their
emotions, who are sudden, vehement and emotional, lack the power to
concentrate. But those whose actions are slower and directed by their
intelligence develop concentration. Sometimes dogmatic, willful,
excitable persons can concentrate, but it is spasmodic, erratic
concentration instead of controlled and uniform concentration. Their
energy works by spells; sometimes they have plenty, other times very
little; it is easily excited; easily wasted. The best way to understand
it is to compare it with the discharge of a gun. If the gun goes off
when you want it to, it accomplishes the purpose, but if it goes off
before you are ready for it, you will not only waste ammunition, but it
is also likely to do some damage. That is just what most persons do.
They allow their energy to explode, thus not only wasting it but
endangering others. They waste their power, their magnetism and so
injure their chance of success. Such persons are never well liked and
never will be until they gain control over themselves.
It will be necessary for them to practice many different kinds of
concentration exercises, and to keep them up for some time. They must
completely overcome their sudden, erratic thoughts, and regulate their
emotions and movements. They must from morning to night train the mind
to be steady and direct and keep the energies at work.
The lower area of the brain is the store house of the energy. Most all
persons have all the dynamic energy they need if they would concentrate
it. They have the machine, but they must also have the engineer, or
they will not go very far. The engineer is the self-regulating,
directing power. The person that does not develop his engineering
qualities will not accomplish much in life. The good engineer controls
his every act. All work assists in development. By what you do you
either advance or degenerate. This is a good idea to keep always in
mind. When you are uncertain whether you should do something or not,
just think whether by doing it you will grow or deteriorate, and act
accordingly.
I am a firm believer in "work when you work, and play when you play."
When you give yourself up to pleasure you can develop concentration by
thinking of nothing else but pleasure; when your mind dwells on love,
think of nothing but this and you will find you can develop a more
intense love than you ever had before. When you concentrate your mind
on the "you" or real self, and its wonderful possibilities, you develop
concentration and a higher opinion of yourself. By doing this
systematically, you develop much power, because you cannot be
systematic without concentrating on what you are doing. When you walk
out into the country and inhale the fresh air, studying vegetation,
trees, etc., you are concentrating. When you see that you are at your
place of business at a certain time each morning you are developing
steadiness of habit and becoming systematic. If you form the habit of
being on time one morning, a little late the next, and still later the
following one, you are not developing concentration, but whenever you
fix your mind on a certain thought and hold your mind on it at
successive intervals, you develop concentration.
If you hold your mind on some chosen object, you centralize your
attention, just like the lens of the camera centralizes on a certain
landscape. Therefore always hold your mind on what you are doing, no
matter what it is. Keep a careful watch over yourself, for unless you
do your improvement will be very slow.
Practice inhaling long, deep breaths, not simply for the improvement of
health, although that is no small matter, but also for the purpose of
developing more power, more love, more life. All work assists in
development.
You may think it foolish to try to develop concentration by taking
muscular exercises, but you must not forget that the mind is associated
with muscle and nerve. When you steady your nerves and muscles, you
steady your mind, but let your nerves get out of order and your mind
will become erratic and you will not possess the power of direction,
which, in other words, is concentration. Therefore you understand how
important exercises that steady the nerves and muscles are in
developing concentration.
Everyone is continually receiving impulses that must be directed and
controlled if one is to lead a successful life. That is the reason why
a person must control the movements of his eyes, feet, fingers, etc.;
this is another reason why it is important to control his breathing.
The slow, deep, prolonged exhalations are of wonderful value. They
steady the circulation, the heart action, muscles and nerves of the
mind. If the heart flutters, the circulation is not regular, and when
the lung action is uneven, the mind becomes unsteady and not fit for
concentration. This is why controlled breathing is very important as a
foundation for physical health.
You must not only concentrate your mind, but also the action of the
eyes, ears and fingers. Each of these contains miniature minds that are
controlled by the master engineer. You will develop much quicker if you
thoroughly realize this.
If you have ever associated with big men, or read their biographies,
you will find that they usually let the others do the talking. It is
much easier to talk than it is to listen. There is no better exercise
for concentration than to pay close attention when some one is talking.
Besides learning from what they have to say, you may develop both
mental and physical concentration.
When you shake hands with some one just think of your hand as
containing hundreds of individual minds, each having an intelligence of
its own. When you put this feeling into your hand shake it shows
personality. When you shake hands in a listless way, it denotes
timidity, lack of force and power of personality. When the hand grip is
very weak and stiff, the person has little love in his nature, no
passion and no magnetism. When the hand shake is just the opposite, you
will find that the nature is also. The loveless person is non-magnetic
and he shows that he is by his non-magnetic hand shake. When two
developed souls shake hands, their clasps are never light. There is a
thrill that goes through both when the two currents meet. Love arouses
the opposite currents of the positive and negative natures. When there
is no love, life loses its charm. The hand quickly shows when love is
being aroused. This is why you should study the art of hand shaking and
develop your social affections. A person that loves his kind reflects
love, but a person that hates reflects hate. The person with a bad
nature, a hateful disposition, evil thoughts and feeling is erratic,
freakish and fitful. When you allow yourself to become irritable, watch
how you breathe and you will learn a valuable lesson. Watch how you
breathe when you are happy. Watch your breathing when you harbor hate.
Watch how you breathe when you feel in love with the whole world and
noble emotions thrill you. When filled with good thoughts, you breathe
a plentiful supply of oxygen into your lungs and love fills your soul.
Love develops a person, physically, mentally and socially. Breathe
deeply when you are happy and you will gain life and strength; you will
steady your mind and you will develop your power of concentration and
become magnetic and powerful.
If you want to get more out of life you must think more of love. Unless
you have real affection for something, you have no sentiment, no
sweetness, no magnetism. So arouse your love affections by your will
and enter into a fuller life.
The hand of love always magnetizes, but it must be steady and
controlled. Love can be concentrated in your hand shake, and this is
one of the best ways to influence another.
The next time you feel yourself becoming irritable, use your will and
be patient. This is a very good exercise in self-control. It will help
you to keep patient if you will breathe slowly and deeply. If you find
you are commencing to speak fast, just control yourself and speak
slowly and clearly. Keep from either raising or lowering your voice and
concentrate on the fact that you are determined to keep your poise, and
you will improve your power of concentration.
When you meet people of some consequence, assume a reposeful attitude
before them. Do this at all times. Watch both them and yourself. Static
exercises develop the motor faculties and increase the power of
concentration. If you feel yourself getting irritable, nervous or weak,
stand squarely on your feet with your chest up and inhale deeply and
you will see that your irritability will disappear and a silent calm
will pass over you.
If you are in the habit of associating with nervous, irritable people,
quit it until you grow strong in the power of concentration, because
irritable, angry, fretful, dogmatic and disagreeable people will weaken
what powers of resistance you have.
Any exercises that give you better control of the ears, fingers, eyes,
feet, help you to steady your mind; when your eye is steady, your mind
is steady. One of the best ways to study a person is to watch his
physical movements, for, when we study his actions, we are studying his
mind. Because actions are the expressions of the mind. As the mind is,
so is the action. If it is uneasy, restless, erratic, unsteady, its
actions are the same. When it is composed, the mind is composed.
Concentration means control of the mind and body. You cannot secure
control over one without the other.
Many people who seem to lack ambition have sluggish minds. They are
steady, patient and seemingly have good control, but this does not say
they are able to concentrate. These people are indolent, inactive, slow
and listless, because they lack energy; they do not lose control
because they have little force to control. They have no temper and it
therefore cannot disturb them. Their actions are steady because they
possess little energy. The natural person is internally strong,
energetic and forceful, but his energy, force and strength, thoughts
and physical movements are well under his control.
If a person does not have energy, both mental and physical, he must
develop it. If he has energy which he cannot direct and hold to a point
he must learn to do so. A man may be very capable, but, unless he wills
to control his abilities, they will not do him any good.
We hear so much talk about the benefit of physical culture, but the
real benefit of this is really lost sight of. There is nothing that
holds the faculties at work in a sustained and continuous manner as
static exercises do. For, as stated before, when you learn to control
the body, you are gaining control over the mind.
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