Could you offer some tips on how to overcome absent-mindedness?
—kishore, India
Greetings Kishore. Paramhansa Yogananda said that absent-mindedness and “fillers” are the most insidious influences in an aspirant’s life. Seems like we should all consider this deeply and take a look at how we can overcome these.
Do One Thing at a Time
We live in a culture of “busyness” and restlessness. With so much happening, and so much we are responsible for, we end up trying to multi task everything. It is easy to imagine a juggler with multiple balls spinning in the air, except that for us these are objects of relative value, indeed some are priceless, our children, our loved ones. We need to learn to do one thing at time and do it well. We cannot always drop everything else but we can learn to be more mindful while in the moment by doing the following.
Practice acting deliberately, consciously and conscientiously.
Bring all your energy into what you are doing.
Write down things that are important to you and that you don’t want to forget.
Do what you say you will do in a timely manner.
Deepen your concentration – practice the following affirmation:
“Whatever I do in life, I give it my full attention. Like a laser beam, I burn from
Before me all problems, all obstructions!”
(Affirmations for Self-Healing by Swami Kriyananda)
Taking a Look at the “Fillers” in your Life.
Have you ever really observed how you use your time? Oftentimes people complain about how little time they have, that they are always in a hurry. Yet, those same people can while away hours, watching movies, chatting with friends, socializing, surfing the internet, etc. Fillers eat away at our valuable time without giving us meaningful experiences or raising our energy. How do you use your free time? Are there fillers that you can eliminate, or at least moderate to better use your free time? How can you better manage the time you have?
Learn to Meditate
Meditation greatly enhances concentration, focus and depth of perception. People comment upon how their life improves by simply devoting a little time daily to meditation. They experience right away that their concentration begins to focus along constructive lines and purposeful endeavors. You too will notice the difference!
Joy to you,
Nayaswami Maria
