The following exercises are designed to improve your ability to focus and concentrate. In this tutorial, you learned a relaxation technique to help undo the harm of stress on your body and begin to prepare yourself for conscious projection.
Now, you need to invest the effort to increase your focus. Increasing your focus has a twofold benefit. One, it will be easier for you to perform the actual projection techniques because you will be less distracted. Two, you will improve your attention to detail and memory. The latter is very important, as being able to recall and write down your experiences is an important part of being able to learn from the event.
These exercises do not take long to perform. Ideally, spend 10-minutes a day practicing, 5- minutes in the morning and 5-minutes in the evening. If you find that by mid-day, you are getting tired or losing the ability to concentrate, a quick 5-minute session will help restore your energy. Alternating which exercise you do will help keep things interesting and it will be easy to remain committed to practicing. As with the relaxation exercise, do at least 14- days of consecutive practice in order to get the most benefit from this new habit. After 14- days, you will be ready to move onto the next post and begin to learn the first of the conscious projection techniques.
Exercise 1
Take a book and count the words in any one paragraph. Count them again to be sure that you have counted them correctly. Start with one paragraph and when it becomes easier, count the words in a whole page. Perform the counting mentally and only with your eyes, without pointing you finger at each word.
Exercise 2
Spend a minute or two breathing as you learned in Relaxation Exercise. Then, begin counting backwards in your mind starting with 100. Visualize the numbers spinning and turning in space as they pass through your field of vision, either going from top to bottom or left to right.
Exercise 3
This is almost the same as Exercise 2 but this time count backwards from 100 by counting every third number (100…97…94…91..and so on).
Exercise 4
Open a book to a random page and read a paragraph. Choose one word or short phrase from the paragraph and repeat it silently for 5-minutes. Do not let any other thoughts intrude. When you can concentrate more easily, increase the amount of time for this exercise to 10 consecutive minutes.
Exercise 5
Place a small object (a key, earring, spoon etc) on a table. Sit in a chair in a relaxed position but make sure to keep your spine straight. Practice observing the object without using any words. It may be helpful, in the beginning, to simply repeat the name of the object (for example, spoon) silently to help quiet your thoughts. Try to observe every aspect of the object and memorize its shape and qualities. Alternate doing this with the object in front of you and doing this exercise without the object but by visualizing it in your mind.
Exercise 6
Visualize these four “Tattva Symbols” Tattva or Tattwa is a Sanskrit word meaning “Quality”. The five main tattvas, Prithivi, Vayu, Apas, Tejas, and Akasa, correspond to the five elements of earth, air, water, fire, and spirit. The images of the Tattvas have been used in astral projection training for thousands of years. By focusing on them helps build concentration and strengthens the will.
Consistency is Important
You do not have to spend a lot of time doing these exercises to begin to see a positive change in your ability to focus and concentrate. It does take a consistent effort in practicing to begin to see a change. It is better to do the exercise for 5-minutes a day for 14 consecutive days then to only do the exercise for ½-hour every 3 days. Consistency will retrain your mind and help you to become more mentally and psychically fit.
