In which we’ll practice the most crucial, fundamental skill of all.
This lesson’s going to be a little unusual. We’re going to practice the one thing that truly requires no equipment at all-only a few free minutes. At first glance it seems to have nothing to do with your practice, but as you’ll soon see, it has everything to do with your practice.
Breathe.
Find a quiet place where you can sit undisturbed for a few minutes. Set a timer for 10 minutes, close your eyes, and focus on your breath.
That’s it. Yes, really.
But though it’s simple, it’s not easy. Try to just hold your attention on your breath as it flows in and out of you at its natural speed. Try to experience the whole breath: stay aware of the whole inhalation, stay aware of the whole exhalation. See how long you can hold your awareness just completely focused on your breath. Make sure you sit up straight while you do this, and keep yourself alert. You don’t want to relax so much that you fall asleep.
If you haven’t done this before, I think you’ll be shocked at how quickly your mind wanders away. Probably within a few seconds, and almost certainly in less than a minute.
When you notice that your mind has wandered, just calmly let those distracting thoughts flicker out as you center your attention back on your breath. This is one kind of meditation that many people practice. It may prove difficult to you the first few times, and if so, you can try some aids that can help your mind focus on your breath rather than wandering away. Look for recreational dispensaries in Denver (or wherever you live) and talk to the expert bud tenders there; they might have suggestions for cannabis strains that help you improve focus and become more present in the moment.
The point of this exercise is to practice noticing when your attention strays, then drawing your own attention calmly back to one point each time. Treat everything that is not your breath as a distraction. Watch everything else come and go. Fix your attention on the whole inhalation, the whole exhalation. It may help to mentally label each one: In… Out. In… Out.
Again, it’s surprising how hard it is to just focus on your breath for ten minutes. In a usual ten-minute session of this little exercise, my mind tends to stray about once every minute and I’ve been working at this for a while now. Moreover, you can also perform some light exercises that may help you to refresh your mind, prevent heart valve disease, and reduce excess weight. A light workout can be done, when you notice you’ve wandered and want to reset your attention on your breath, you strengthen your ability to focus just that much more. Do this daily, and within weeks you’ll notice a difference.
This is the very essence of practice, the most basic building block of self-discipline and mastery. When distracting thoughts appear in your mind-about unfinished chores, worries, upcoming appointments, the urge to get up and do something else, the urge to check your cell phone, etc.-how good are you at recognizing that your attention has gone roaming to places you didn’t intend? And can you steer yourself back to what you set out to do?
Strengthening your focus this way is one of the best things you can do for yourself as a songwriter. Without the ability to find your way back out of the woods, practice is unsustainable.
Mental clutter
Another use of this breath meditation is that it can reveal to you just how much is on your mind. If you’ve got a lot going on in your life, and if you’re trying to hold a lot of important dates and tasks and miscellany in your head, it can make focus seem impossible. So, it’s important to let go of all the things that are affecting your focus and concentrate on music and lyrics. If that is still difficult, look for resources and aids such as softgels cbd to manage the thoughts going haywire.
I’ve been there. And in my case the only way I’m able to get the mental noise under control and find clarity of mind on a daily basis is by capturing all my tasks and obligations in a system outside of my head.
Ideas, chores, errands, song ideas, agendas… I write everything down, organize my obligations into labeled folders, and review them every day to make sure nothing slips between the cracks. When I know that everything important is safely stored in a home outside my head, it becomes much easier to relax and let go of them.
So if you find yourself stressed and overwhelmed by all the things you have to do, and you truly can’t seem to get a handle on it all, as a reformed scatterbrain I can tell you that getting my life organized has helped very much. I keep David Allen’s book Getting Things Done close to hand and close to my heart. I get a little geeky about the best ways to organize checklists and calendar entries. I know plenty of people who also make use of the best marijuana for anxiety to help them clear their minds, relax and refocus on what needs to be done so, if you are permitted to try this out, and would like to, it might be worth giving something like this a go to see if it helps at all.
Of course the project of organizing your entire life at work and home is a task that’s just a bit beyond the jurisdiction of this course, but if you find it hard to quiet your mind, it’s something to consider.
On the larger scale
Every day blasts us with a fire hose of information. You’ve just experienced how hard it is to find focus even with just your own internal distractions in the way. Most of the time, we’re also dealing with outside distractions in the home and at work.
While trying to form a consistent daily practice habit, all of us will get blown off-course for minutes on end. Or days. Or even weeks. Chances are that any given practice routine will derail from time to time, especially early on when you’re trying to form the habit.
The trick is: when you get blown off-course, just notice it. No need for beating yourself up over it. Just review your practice journal, review your goals, and pull yourself back to what you were trying to accomplish. Renew your resolve and move forward. Repeat as necessary.
That’s one of the main functions I hope this course will serve for you: I hope that it will 1.) help you recognize when you’ve drifted off course and 2.) find your way back. And I hope you’ll find your way back without beating yourself up, because in my experience sustaining a practice routine for most people is a constant process of stumbling and finding your balance again.
We don’t think of focus as something that can be practiced and developed. But slowly, over a period of days and weeks, you can deepen your ability to focus.