William Walker Atkinson wrote:
“The mind is a very restless thing, and its tendency is to dance from one thing to another, darting here and there, soon tiring of continued attention, and like a spoiled child, seeking a new object upon which to exercise itself.
On the other hand, many people allow their minds to concentration (involuntarily) upon whatever may strike their fancy, and, forgetting everything else, they give themselves up to the object attracting their attention for the moment, often neglecting duties and important interests, and becoming daydreamers instead of firm thinkers.
This involuntary concentration is a thing to be avoided, for it is the allowing of the attention to escape the control of the Will. The mental concentration of the occultists is a very different thing, and is solely in control of the Will, being applied when desirable and taken off or inhibited when desirable.
The secret of mental concentration lies in the control of the attention. And the control of the attention lies in the exercise of Will”
Concentration is something we have often discussed in the past. As you know, it’s an integral part of personal magnetism and inner power.
Pretty much all New Thought and magnetism writers talk about concentration. And Atkinson was no exception.
Notice in the quote how he frowns upon the “involuntary attention”. This could be the equivalent of modern video games, netflix and internet browsing.
Even in the early 1900s this type of involuntary attention was a problem. Now, it’s even more so, since the objects of attention have become even more attractive and captivating.
There’s actually a conscious effort from the outside world to grab your attention and keep it for as long as possible.
This wasn’t the case a century ago (or at least not in this extreme way).
Now it’s very easy to simply be absorbed with facebook, a game or in a tv series neglecting everything else. They are built for that!
As Atkinson mentions, that’s not true concentration. You don’t have the ability to concentrate just because you can forget about everything else as you are watching game of thrones.
The very last sentence of this quote reveals the truth: “The secret of mental concentration lies in the control of the attention. And the control of the attention lies in the exercise of Will”.
You’ll do well in carefully reflecting over this sentence.
Your concentration is intimately connected to your Will. It’s undeniable!
You can only develop your concentration, when you use your Will to focus on what you truly WANT as opposed to what pulls your attention.
And everything is pulling your attention these days… So, it takes a much stronger Will than before to be truly concentrated.
But only with a focused Will will you truly develop a laser sharp concentrated mind.
Develop your concentration with the training:
>>> Concentration and Mind Control
