Hi,
My name is Densil O'Connell.
Today,
Our meditation is going to be on focus and it has a lot to do with your breath.
So when you breathe,
OK,
You control your mind.
The slower you breathe,
The better you control your mind.
The more you control your mind.
And when it says focus,
It means that you have your attention only on one thing for that period of time that you're doing that thing.
And why does it get better with time?
Because as you learn to bring your awareness,
Remember,
It's about your awareness.
As you learn to bring your awareness back every time that it wanders and bring it back to the thing that holds your attention or what you need to focus on,
The better it will become for you.
It's very simple.
Suppose you need to focus on work.
You just need to do five minutes of what I'm going to tell you,
And then you can focus completely on work.
And that's the big thing.
So it has to do with breath.
It has to do with awareness.
And it has to do with a goal.
That's the third thing that I'm going to be talking about.
What are you going to focus on?
For instance,
You're a student and you need to focus on physics.
Remember,
In school,
I was very good at some subjects.
Why?
Because I could focus very well on them.
And I was very bad at some subjects because I didn't want to focus.
So you have to buy into what you're going to focus on.
Very few people will tell you that you need to buy into that.
You need to believe that that is important for your life.
You need to believe that,
For instance,
Your exam,
The project,
Whatever you're going to be doing is important for you.
Only then will your attention stay there.
Otherwise,
Your mind won't believe that you want to focus.
It won't believe because it's not important to you.
So what is important to you?
You will focus on.
So we're going to do a small exercise.
This is a mental exercise.
It is a meditation.
We do it in the form of a meditation,
And I'm going to take you on a journey.
So let's close our eyes and start to breathe in as deep as we can.
So first,
We'll start off with the breathing.
So put your hands one below your navel and one in your chest,
On your chest area.
And just breathe nice and deep,
As deep as you can.
Breathe in and then breathe out.
Nice,
Deep breath in.
And as you breathe out,
Your right hand or your left hand is on your navel,
Just slowly push it in a little bit so that you can breathe out as much as possible.
The more you breathe out,
The better you breathe in.
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
Breathe in.
Breathe in.
Nice deep breath,
As deep as you can take it.
And then slowly let out the air.
Breathing out and then breathing in.
So breathing in fresh air.
Lots of oxygen.
And breathe out.
And breathe in.
And breathe out.
And breathe in.
And breathe out.
And slowly you will notice on its own that your breath is beginning to slow down.
Breathe in.
And breathe out.
It's nice deep breaths in.
And as you breathe out,
Push a little bit in your abdomen so that you can breathe out as much as possible.
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
Keep your focus in between your eyebrows,
The third eye chakra.
Breathe in.
And breathe out.
And now slowly bring your hands down to your knees and continue breathing.
Nice deep breaths in.
And slow exhale.
Breathe in.
And slow exhale.
And slow exhale.
And now as you are breathing,
I want you to choose a goal.
It can be your studies,
It can be a project that you want to do.
It is something that you need to focus on.
Anything it can be.
Just focus on that.
And now I'm going to take you on a journey to a cinema hall.
So we're entering the cinema hall.
The lights are on.
We can see our seats.
We've got a number.
We've reached in time for the hall.
Screen is black.
And now we're going to take you on a journey to a cinema hall.
We're going to take you inside the cinema hall.
We slowly settle into our seats after finding them.
Continue to breathe in,
Deeply and breathe out.
Breathe in.
And slowly the lights of the cinema hall are dimmed.
While they dimmed,
They dimmed so that we can focus on the movie ahead of us.
Breathe in and breathe out.
You are focusing,
The screen is blank.
And now think of the goal,
Think of the lesson,
Think of what you are going to focus on and bring that to the screen in front of you.
Breathe in and breathe out.
It is a goal you have to achieve,
It is a class you have to pass,
It is something that you have to do,
It may be a project in the office,
But it's important and you realise and recognise that importance.
Breathe in and breathe out.
And now you can see clearly that goal.
Keep that in the focus as you breathe in and breathe out.
Deep breath in and slowly release your breath.
It's like a movie in front of you,
You can see your goal,
You can see that you are studying,
You can see yourself at the table,
You can see all the books that you need,
All the tools that you need,
The powerpoint presentation,
Whatever it might be,
You can see that in front of you.
Breathe in and breathe out.
And every time that your focus wanders,
Bring it back to the movie in front of you,
Your goal,
The goal of your focus.
Continue breathing in deeply and breathing out.
And now you can see your focus on the goal.
And everything to do with,
The people you need to contact,
The teachers you need to take help from,
The projects you need to make,
All of what you need to reach your goal,
All of what you need to focus on,
Comes into your mind.
For a few moments,
Stay on that focus.
Breathe in and breathe out.
Breathe out.
Every time your focus wanders,
You bring it back to the goal in front of you.
Breathe in and breathe out.
And breathe in and breathe out.
Gently our awareness of the thing that we are focusing on,
The goal we are focusing on,
Increases.
And in our mind,
We start to think of all things we need to do to reach that goal.
It will grow.
As you focus on it,
It will grow.
It will become clearer.
Your focus will become clearer.
And it will grow.
So let's settle down with our goal for a few minutes.
Just comfortably thinking about the goal and bringing our focus back every time it goes away,
We just gently bring our focus back to that goal,
To the movie running in front of us,
In this dark movie hall.
All distractions closed up.
The only attraction,
The goal we need to focus on.
Slowly the power of the awareness grows.
It becomes deeper and deeper and deeper.
Focus on your goal.
Breathe in and breathe out.
If other thoughts come into your mind,
Just gently move them away and bring your focus back to your goal.
And slowly,
Slowly,
Slowly,
Keeping that goal in the middle.
Just breathe in and out gently.
Breathe in and breathe out.
And slowly now let's bring our focus back,
Back to this time and space.
Knowing that at any point in time when we want to,
We can return to this meditation.
So slowly let us bring ourselves back gently,
Breathing in and breathing out.
And whenever you're ready,
Rub your hands together,
Cup your eyes and slowly bring your hands down to your knees,
Smiling as you open your eyes.
The smiling is important because it leaves you with a happy essence.
It leaves you with a happy spirit.
It leaves you with a happy thought.
And that is brilliant for any meditation.
