The Focus Power Special Report

Tools and Techniques to Improve Your Mental Focus and Concentration

Gardar Gardarsson, PNLP

Feb. 2003 - Version: 1.0 Copyright 2003 Astromind. All Rights Reserved.

Contents
PREFACE................................................................................................................................................................. 4 HOW A THREE DAY EXPERIMENT AWAKENED EXTRAORDINARY MENTAL ABILITIES ........................................... 4 The mind experiment ......................................................................................................................................... 4 External Transferal of Self and Identity ............................................................................................................. 4 Triple Muscle Strength....................................................................................................................................... 5 Complete Control of The Senses........................................................................................................................ 5 Superior Future Planning Skills ......................................................................................................................... 5 Extraordinary Problem Solving Abilities ........................................................................................................... 6 Effortless Total Recall........................................................................................................................................ 6 Fall From Grace ................................................................................................................................................. 6 A Breakthrough Discovery After 19 Years of Intense Self-Exploration and Development............................... 7 THE BRAIN MIND CONNECTION ..................................................................................................................... 8 YOUR BRAIN IS THE MASTER MUSCLE OF YOUR BODY ......................................................................................... 8 HOW YOU GROW A BETTER BRAIN......................................................................................................................... 8 Growing new brain connections......................................................................................................................... 9 BIOLOGICAL OBSTACLES TO GROWTH .................................................................................................................... 9 BRAINPOWER AND YOUR MENTAL ABILITIES ....................................................................................................... 10 Increased energy supply ................................................................................................................................... 10 The foundation of mental performance ............................................................................................................ 11 Busy 24 hours a day ......................................................................................................................................... 11 Mental morphing .............................................................................................................................................. 11 Practice makes perfect...................................................................................................................................... 12 HIGH ENERGY BRAIN FOOD .................................................................................................................................. 12 Tips on brain food ............................................................................................................................................ 13 BRAINWAVES AND BRAIN STATES ........................................................................................................................ 13 CONSCIOUSNESS AND ATTENTION.............................................................................................................. 16 CONSCIOUSNESS ................................................................................................................................................... 16 The classic definition ....................................................................................................................................... 16 Short-term memory .......................................................................................................................................... 16 The 7 +/- 2 keyhole analogy............................................................................................................................. 16 The luminous ball analogy ............................................................................................................................... 17 CONTROL YOUR ATTENTION AND YOU CONTROL YOUR BRAIN........................................................................... 17 7 plus or minus 2 .............................................................................................................................................. 18 Attention span .................................................................................................................................................. 19 THE FOUR LEVELS OF ATTENTIONAL DEPTH ........................................................................................................ 19 1. Interested ...................................................................................................................................................... 19 2. Disciplined ................................................................................................................................................... 19 3. One-Pointed.................................................................................................................................................. 20 4. Merged ......................................................................................................................................................... 20 THE FOUR TYPES OF ATTENTIONAL FOCUS .......................................................................................................... 20 Broad external focus......................................................................................................................................... 21 Narrow external focus ...................................................................................................................................... 21 Broad internal focus ......................................................................................................................................... 21 Narrow internal focus....................................................................................................................................... 22 FOCUS AND CONCENTRATION...................................................................................................................... 23 DEFINING FOCUS AND CONCENTRATION............................................................................................................... 23 Involuntary focus.............................................................................................................................................. 23 Voluntary focus ................................................................................................................................................ 23 CONCENTRATION IS THE MASTER MUSCLE OF YOUR BRAIN................................................................................ 23 HOW STRONG IS YOUR FOCUS AND CONCENTRATION .......................................................................................... 24

Do You Know Mr. Shambles? ......................................................................................................................... 25 HOW TO MEASURE YOUR FOCUS AND CONCENTRATION ...................................................................................... 27 Establishing Your Baseline .............................................................................................................................. 27 The Focus Sustainment Duration Test ............................................................................................................. 27 The Focus Span Test ........................................................................................................................................ 27 The Focus Grid Test ......................................................................................................................................... 28 HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR FOCUS AND CONCENTRATION ....................................................................................... 29 Techniques to Increase Focus Depth................................................................................................................ 29 Techniques to Increase Focus Control ............................................................................................................. 29 How to design a training schedule that fits your needs .................................................................................... 30 What Happens When You Improve Your Focus and Concentration................................................................ 31 OBSTACLES TO IMPROVING FOCUS AND CONCENTRATION ................................................................................... 35 How to Clear Mental and Emotional Obstacles Away..................................................................................... 36 CONTACT INFORMATION ............................................................................................................................... 36 CONTACT THE AUTHOR ........................................................................................................................................ 36 HOW TO ORDER THE FOCUS AND CONCENTRATION IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM WITH THE 25% SPECIAL DISCOUNT .............................................................................................................................................................................. 36 Thank you for your order! ................................................................................................................................ 36 REFERENCES ......................................................................................................................................................... 37

Preface
How A Three Day Experiment Awakened Extraordinary Mental Abilities
The mind experiment In 1983 at about Easter time in Reykjavik Iceland, I bought a Silva Mind Control self-improvement book. I was 23 years old at the time and this was my first book on self-improvement. I was living in a single room basement apartment, which was owned by an elderly lady which I never saw except when I paid the monthly rent. At the time I was working in my fathers fish factory as a supervisor and had a three-day weekend off. I was going to devote myself to a training program described in the book for these three days. The book suggested that I get myself into a relaxed suggestible state and repeat two sentences twenty times each, once a day for a month. This would program my mind to make me more positive and stronger against negative influences. Being an explorer and an adventurer at heart I decided to do a little more than that. I got myself into the alpha state and repeated the sentences for twenty minutes, instead of twenty times. Then I re-awakened myself and read and studied books on the mind for two hours and then repeated the procedure again. Programming the mind for twenty minutes. Getting up and studying books on the mind for two hours, back and forth for three days straight, from 9 in the morning to 10 in the evening, with small breaks in between. I probably repeated these two sentences thousands of times during those three days and needless to say I got myself into a very altered state of consciousness. In between I had breakfast, lunch and dinner, but I had no interactions with people and nothing else was on my mind. No worries, no duties, no schedules or errands. I had everything I needed in my room for those three days. I am sure that if I had proposed this approach to a teacher of the method, or any teacher of meditation or mental training, they would have warned me and tried to stop me from doing it, believing it would be to dangerous. Luckily for me and the people who have learned the techniques presented in the program I didn't know any mental training teachers at the time. External Transferal of Self and Identity When the three days were over I went for a walk in a public garden nearby. I walked slowly, not sure if something had changed within me, not perceiving any difference about the environment or myself. I walked up to a bench and sat down. As I was looking around, a movement in the trees nearby caught my attention. As I automatically focused my attention on the trees to my complete surprise my awareness or consciousness shifted out of its usual place within me and into the trees. I "felt" every branch, every leaf, the roots, it's energy, it's state of being. I literally became the trees. My identity somehow merged with the trees and my usual identity was gone. For all purposes "I" wasn't there anymore. It was an incredible feeling of total peace and tranquility. I tried

to focus on the grass and lo and behold I became the grass, feeling every straw as myself. I focused on the sky, the birds chirping in the brushes and could feel how being a bird was. My identity merged with everything I specifically focused my attention on. I instantly became whatever I perceived at that moment. I was in ecstatic joy of total abandonment and togetherness with everything around me. Triple Muscle Strength The next day I went to work, and everything was the same again. I was totally oblivious of any change or powers I had acquired the previous day. As I came to work I seemed to walk into and put on prearranged beliefs and habits that pushed the blissful state out for a while. Then just as suddenly as the day before a new surprising ability surfaced. My physical strength had increased dramatically. We were shipping out tons of frosen fish from the freezer and when I picked up the heavy boxes they were light and easily handled. Before, one box was the maximum for me, now I could lift three boxes together without any major effort and throw them up onto the truck. Later that day I discovered many new abilities that appeared in the same surprising way as before. They never said anything about this in the books! Complete Control of The Senses Later that same day I went into the supervisors room to take a short break. I sat down exhausted after all the work in the freezer. As I sat down I made that subtle decision that we do when we are about to do something. It was more of a thought than a decision like when you verbalize internally what you're going to do just before you do it. My thought was: "Now I am going to relax." And low and behold. Everything shut down instantly. My eyesight, hearing, feelings, everything just went blank. I was floating in some warm dark place like a light in the great sea of consciousness. I just sat there totally oblivious of everything in my surroundings and knew I was relaxing in the most profound way possible. After a few minutes I "knew" I had relaxed enough and thought: "time to wake up" and just as suddenly my senses and mind got turned on again. It was an incredible experience. With a little bit of practice I could in effect have total voluntary control of my senses. I could decide not to see, hear or feel. I could shut out all noise, sight and feeling and enter a dreamlike floating peaceful state at will. Later I found out that this phenomenon or ability is called negative hallucination and happens in very deep hypnotic trance states. Superior Future Planning Skills During lunch and coffee breaks I used to play chess with the other guys in the plant. There was a particular guy who almost always beat me and that day I happened to play with him. Before this experience I was an average chess player. I could "see" or calculate two to three chess moves ahead, four at the most, depending on how complicated the game was. Now just as suddenly as before I could calculate nine to ten moves ahead. Needless to say I won every game that day, even against those I had never beaten before. In one weekend

I had gone from below average to expert level. Everybody was astounded as you can imagine. Extraordinary Problem Solving Abilities Those were memorable days I can tell you. At one point a factory worker came up to me with a problem that needed to be fixed. As I was the supervisor I had to come up with a solution. As I listened to the problem I "saw" the solutions instantly. Not just one solution, or some solution, there were infinite solutions. And I also knew which solution was the best one, which one was the second best one and so on down the line. So I proposed the best solution, but it couldn't be used because of something she hadn't told me before, so I proposed the second best solution and the problem was solved. Then I discovered that my own "problems" had disappeared. I didn't have any problems anymore, they had been replaced by solutions. It's an ability that's hard to describe exactly to someone who hasn't experienced it. It's like trying to describe chocolate to someone who has never tasted chocolate or cocoa. How would you do it except give them a taste? Effortless Total Recall There was a guy called Johannes working with me and we would sometimes talk for hours. During a particularly long break we had been talking for 45 minutes. Then he said something that contradicted with something he had said before. I told him so but he denied having said it. So again, as I attempted to recall our conversation to back my claim I remembered everything we had said for the last 45 minutes. Every word, every gesture, the sequence of words and intonations. But not only could I remember that but also the things that were apparently outside my conscious awareness at the time. I remembered a car driving outside when he said a particular sentence, but never noticed it while we were talking. I could link our conversation and the timing of specific words and sentences precisely to all kinds of environmental sounds and noises that were going on as we were speaking. I remembered everything we had said, backwards and forwards. My memory was not only perfect, but effortless as well. Fall From Grace Wow, what power I suddenly had. I felt so clear, free and capable. Nothing could stand in my way. I was exploding with energy. And then something quite unexpected happened. I started to feel more and more frustrated and as I looked at the people around me I felt that they were all lost in confusion. They were somehow all submerged in darkness and couldn't see reality clearly as it was, as I saw it. They started to avoid me and I got more and more frustrated, angry and judgmental. I felt that they were unclear, and didn't know what they were saying and groped around in total blindness without any awareness of the fact that they were blind. And to make matters worse they insisted that there was nothing wrong with them, and that I was crazy. Gradually my emotions got the better of me. In a few days I was back to my old normal self, just like them, confused, unclear and mentally blind. But the memory of the experience was there and I made sure it never faded, by reviewing it again and again in my mind. I never wanted to forget this extraordinary experience. At the time I had no idea of what had happened to me and promised myself that I would one day find out.

A Breakthrough Discovery After 19 Years of Intense Self-Exploration and Development For years I searched for an explanation to what happened. I wanted to try it out again but was afraid of the intense emotions and feelings that accompanied it. I was afraid of losing control of my temper and emotions again and had to find a way to repeat the state and still be in control of my emotions. I read countless books, participated in countless courses, seminars and training's and met with countless spiritual teachers. I soon learned that I had "carried feelings" and I would have to clean out those feelings and emotions trapped in my body and unconscious. I studied and explored for years and each year brought me more answers. I toyed with the old method again a few times, to explore the effects further and document my experience. I devoted myself to intense self-improvement for years and I felt that I was coming closer and closer to understanding how to achieve this state again safely, without the negative consequences. As the years passed by and I learned and got more training and experience under my belt, practicing mental, emotional and spiritual exercises to clear out old stuff and install new abilities and behaviors the accumulated learnings and knowledge started to synthesize into a definite step-by-step system that finally enabled me to get closer to this perfect state again without the disastrous effects. The creative fusion of all that knowledge, a culmination of years of training and experience, a synthesis of the totality of all my experiences began to crystallize in my mind. It was in February of 1995 that I began to put the puzzle together and I started to see the results of those years of intense self-inquiry and exploration. I gathered my notes, the best books I had accumulated and called upon the experiences, discoveries and learnings that I had gathered over the years and started to write the first draft of a system that would be the blueprint for achieving this state of total power. Today I have put together a blueprint that will enable you to reach that powerful state. But I am continually looking for new and more powerful ways to make the program work faster and better. The package is therefore continually updated and you are assured of getting the latest and most advanced methods and techniques available at any particular time.

The Brain Mind Connection

Your Brain Is The Master Muscle of Your Body
In its normal state a healthy human brain is constantly active. Its constantly busy monitoring, adjusting and repairing the body in order to make it function with optimum efficiency. Out of all that activity arises the mind which is also perpetually busy and active in associating, sensing, perceiving, retrieving and storing data in order to keep you alive and well in a competitive and challenging society. This constant activity is one of the biggest obstacles to good focus and concentration. It can be very difficult to focus and concentrate when thoughts and emotions are always interfering with our attention. But this is the normal way in which the brain and mind work for ordinary untrained minds. If you dont know it by now the brain works and behaves much like a muscle. So to train it you exercise it like you would a regular muscle. The more you exercise it, the stronger it gets. To most people the brain does not feel as if its a muscle, its just a organ in the head that stores memories and enables thinking. But I assure you that with proper guidance and training you will soon discover that it behaves very much like a muscle. As you start to exercise it you will start to feel it. You discover that you can do more things with your brain and mind than you ever thought was possible.

How You Grow a Better Brain

Craig Ramey of the University of Alabama says that the brain and education are almost synonymous. Children need to rehearse in order to learn new skills. Without practice, new skills are lost. If you don't use it you lose it; this is as true for cognitive skills as it is for muscles. Brain cells, like muscles, need exercise in the form of education or other stimulating experiences to stay healthy. Researchers have found that the brain's great capacity to physically change and become more powerful with experience - once thought to be limited to childhood - remains throughout life. Mental exercise, scientists are finding, causes physical changes in the brain, strengthening connections between brain cells called synapses and actually building new connections. Such physical changes can occur within seconds, as when we shift attention, or they may take hours or days, as some memories are cast into the biological ingots that last a lifetime. Research indicates that certain exercises can build up specific brain areas, and some scientists are setting up programs to use this new knowledge to help learning-disabled children. New research also shows that the aging brain retains much of the same capacity as a child's brain to rewire itself. When you direct your thoughts or attention to a given perception, you are activating specific areas of your brain. For example, when you look at something your occipital lobe fires up, when you listen to something your temporal lobe fires up, when you plan for the future your frontal lobe fires up.

Growing new brain connections In an experiment the subject was encouraged to touch a rotating disc with only the three middle fingers of its hand. After several thousand disk rotations, the area in the cortex devoted to the three middle fingers was expanded at the expense of that devoted to the other fingers. The same applies when you train a specific ability of the mind. The neural network which controls the specific ability grows in number and connections and the ability gets stronger, more efficient and precise. It expands and develops in maturity and capability. The mental patterns which you use the most during your lifetime get more and more ingrained, habitual and fixed as you get older. In the terms of brain and mind activity, you become more of the same. When you use your mind rigorously, the brain grows new dendrites. These are the thin branch-like structures that stimulate and carry information between brain cells. If you work hard on solving logical problems, language and math, you grow dendrites in your left brain and it gets more connected and becomes more powerful. If you work on solving abstract problems, spatial and emotional you develop your right brain and it grows to become more powerful. If you work hard on solving future related problems, multitasking, planning ahead, prospective memory, meta-cognitive tasks you develop your frontal lobes. It may be hard to change new behaviors because you may have to make physical changes in your brain as your neurons and tendons grow. Challenges, problems to solve, exercises etc. all have the effect of forcing the brain to form more connections between brain cells, more tendons, enabling it to function at a higher level of performance. A rat which lives in a complicated environment has more tendons than a rat which lives in a simple environment. Challenges, problems to solve, exercises etc. all have the effect of forcing the brain to form more connections between brain cells, more tendons, enabling it to function at a higher level of performance. To exercise your body you may go to the gym where you have specially made tools to exercise and train specific muscles. We have developed specific mental weights for you to exercise and train a specific mental muscle, the master muscle of your brain, your focus and concentration muscle.

Biological Obstacles to Growth

Hardwired into our brain and nervous system is the need to avoid pain and attract pleasure. This happens automatically and has been attributed to the RNA (ribonucleic acid) in our brain. The natural order of the mind is to do things automatically so it resists any change or deviation from the established order. This means that the unconscious mind avoids or repels any deliberate effort to change it because any change runs against the established order. Also it is attracted to any pleasurable automatic feeding because established routines effortlessly merge with and flow into the established order. This governing principle programs is to find ways of doing things with the least amount of resistance, inconvenience and effort.

Going against the grain, struggling against habitual and well established neural brain flow patterns takes deliberate effort, which is exactly what the mind is trying to avoid. It takes deliberate effort to concentrate for long periods of time and since that is not the natural flow of the mind the RNA classifies it as pain and tries to avoid doing it. That's why concentration is hard except in extreme circumstances such as when you're in danger. Then concentration comes easy because of the possibility of serious injury or even death makes the RNA override anything else. The mind uses both attraction and avoidance to resist your deliberate effort to concentrate. The attraction principle appears ever so slowly as it builds up more and more well being and soon it has managed to get you to think about your most favorite pleasures. The avoidance principle also appears ever so slowly as it builds up more and more discomfort trying to push you towards pleasure. Both are equally disruptive to your focus and concentration training.

Brainpower and Your Mental Abilities

We can only expend energy and perform work up to a certain fixed maximum rate. If we are to attempt to lift twenty rocks each weighing 25-kg. and remove them to another spot fifty meters away, we could do so. We would have to move slowly and to rest between rocks so that the body could renew its energy supply at a rate equal to that at which it was expended. If however the twenty 25 kg. rocks were united into one 500 kg. boulder, we would not be able to lift it. We do not have enough energy and can't expend it quickly enough to lift the rock at a stroke. The rate at which energy is expended is called "power." And although we have enough energy (given enough time) to lift a 500 kg. boulder, we do not possess sufficient power for the purpose. The same principle applies to the mind. If we were to focus our eyes on a specific dot on a white wall for one hour, we could do so. We would have to focus in short increments of maybe 5 to 20 seconds and rest between focusing efforts so that the mind could renew its energy supply at a rate equal to that which it was expended. Increased energy supply It is possible to increase the bodies energy supply and power through exercise and training. A well-trained fit body can expend more energy over a shorter period of time. It has more power. The increased physical energy would enable us to lift heavier weights, run faster and longer, sleep less, work harder be healthier and so on. It is also possible to increase the minds energy supply and power through mental training and exercise. This would increase our mental powers enabling us to expend more energy over a shorter period of time. The mental energy would enable us to focus and concentrate better, be more creative, improve our memory, improve our imagination, intuition and reasoning and problem solving abilities, in fact, it would enhance and improve all our inherent mental abilities.

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The foundation of mental performance Mental trainings come in all sizes and colors, shapes and forms. The most widespread training is through school where special emphasis is put on acquiring knowledge and reasoning abilities. Then there are courses that teach memory techniques, speed-reading, creativity, intuition and focus and concentration. It seems that the basic foundation of all successful mental performance is the ability to focus and concentrate. Whatever you do with the mind you always have to use focus. The more you can focus the easier it is to finish a task. Oriental yogis put great emphasis on teaching focus and concentration. Business people often say that the ability to sustain focus is one of the keys to success in business. Athletes and coaches often talk about the importance of good focus and concentration. Busy 24 hours a day In its normal state a healthy human brain is constantly active. Its constantly busy monitoring, adjusting and repairing the body in order to make it function with optimum efficiency. Out of all that activity arises the mind which is also perpetually busy and active in associating, sensing, perceiving, retrieving and storing data in order to keep you alive and well in a competitive and challenging society. This constant activity is one of the biggest obstacles to good focus and concentration. It can be very difficult to focus and concentrate when thoughts and emotions are always interfering with our attention. But this is the normal way in which the brain and mind work. So how do we focus and concentrate when all this activity is going on? One well-known method is to focus on a simple image like a red triangle and persist in seeing it clearly in our minds eye. And if it becomes fuzzy or unclear to recall it again and again to fight off the constant interference of the mind. Gradually the mind gives in and calms down and we gain more and more control over our thoughts. Usually this takes months of head crunching daily practice, which is a pain in the neck. But why is it so difficult and time consuming to tame and control the mind? Mental morphing A close examination of the process of thought and emotion and this constant shifting from one thought to the other reveals a well known phenomenon called morphing. A popular computer and video image trick today is to morph one face into another different face. Morphing is how one thought or emotion changes into another one. It morphs one image into another image and even morphs images into dialogs or emotions or any combination of these.
A scientist put a frog into hot water to see how it would react, and sure enough the frog immediately jumped out of the water. But when he put the same frog into lukewarm water which it liked, and heated the water very slowly, surprisingly enough the frog didn't jump out and got cooked. The frog didn't notice the gradually rising heat because it happened so slowly, and before the frog realized it, it was to late.

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When you try to concentrate on a specific image the morphing happens so subtly that, much like the frog, we don't notice it until its to late. In a manner of speaking, we're cooked. When is the image the same and when has it morphed just a little bit? We are deceived into thinking we are looking at the same image when it has actually morphed halfway into something else, and then some more. If the change happened suddenly we'd notice it immediately, in the same way as the frog that detected hot water. To prevent itself from ending up on the scientists dinner plate the frog would have to watch carefully any change in the water temperature and jump out if it got to hot. To prevent ourselves from ending up in the dungeons of our mind we have to watch very carefully any changes in the morphing and stop it. Practice makes perfect How do you think an athlete becomes a world champion? How do you think a violin player becomes a great virtuoso? How do you think a chess player becomes a grand master? By practicing their skill. Practice makes perfect. How can you awaken the superpowers of your mind? While your friends are busy reading the newspapers, watching TV, or chatting with their next door neighbor, do a little practicing. While your co-workers are thinking about doing, living their dreams in their heads and imagining how it might have been go and push your limits. While others are sleeping late, or wishing they had more time to really do what they wanted, put forth the effort to hone and perfect the skill that enables you to control your mind. If you go around and ask successful people whether they think focus and concentration had anything to do with their success you'll most likely get a resounding "Yes, of course!" And if you pursue it a little further they will most likely tell you what the greatest and most successful individuals in history have said time and time again. Good focus and concentration is one of the most important and most effective keys to success in life.

High Energy Brain Food

If you feed your brain a low-energy diet, it won't perform well. Feed it a highenergy diet, and your personal computer will work smoothly, efficiently. For energy, the brain needs plenty of glucose. That's why fresh fruit and vegetables are so essential. They're rich in glucose. Your brain also has a unique way of transmitting messages - around its billions of cells and to the rest of your body. Each message flows around your body electrically and chemically, and it keeps switching from one form to the other. Each message travels like electricity along a brain cell's axon, then turns into a chemical flow when it jumps across the connecting-point to another cell. Scientists call these gaps synapses. These synaptic connections are another key to brain function. To send those messages, your brain first has to generate electricity. If you could test it now, you'd probably find it generating about 25 watts. That's the amount needed to run the smallest light-bulb in your home.

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And the source of that brain-electricity: good food combined with oxygen. Obviously you get oxygen through breathing. That's why deep breathing is highly recommended before and during study: to oxygenate your blood. And that's why exercise is not only good for your body, it's good for your brain. It enriches your blood with oxygen. The brain also needs a constant supply of other nutrients. Among the main ones are sodium and potassium. Each of your 100 billion neurons has up to one million sodium pumps. And they're vital for transmitting all your brain's messages. Sodium and potassium supply those pumps with energy. Like glucose, potassium is found mainly in fruits and vegetables. And sodium is found in most foods. Tips on brain food 1. Eat a good breakfast every morning, preferably with plenty of fresh fruit. Include half a banana for its potassium content - with an orange or kiwifruit for vitamin C, and any other fresh fruit in season. Fortunately, nearly all fruits are rich in potassium, especially bananas, oranges, apricots, avocados, melons, nectarines and peaches. So are potatoes, tomatoes, pumpkins and artichokes. 2. Eat a good lunch, preferably including a fresh vegetable salad. 3. Make fish, nuts and vegetable "fats" key parts of your diet. Fish and vegetable oils have a vital role in nourishing the brain's billions of glial cells. And nuts and vegetable oils are major sources of that linoleic acid, which the brain needs to repair the myelin insulation around your brain's "message tracks". 4. Exercise regularly to oxygenate the blood. 5. Cleanse the toxins out of your body. One way to do that is to drink plenty of water. Too much coffee, tea or carbonated "soft drink" tends to dehydrate the body, and fresh water reactivates it.

Brainwaves and Brain States

Brainwaves are the electrical wave patterns generated in every persons brain. These waves vary according to level of consciousness, subconsciousness and unconsciousness and are characterized by four distinct types of brainwaves. Each of these electrical wave patterns have distinctly different ways of perceiving, processing, learning and knowing information. All of these brainwaves are produced at all times. However, a predominance of a specific desired brainwave state can be created at will, which allows you to potentialize your capabilities towards achieving human excellence. Brainwave frequencies are described in terms of hertz (Hz), or cycles per second, which are measured by an electroencephalogram (EEG). The four general categories of brainwave frequencies and their main characteristics are:

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Gamma brainwave frequencies are a high frequency pattern beginning at thirty-five hertz. There has been some evidence that gamma frequencies are associated with states of peak performance. Most light and sound instruments have the capability to generate gamma frequencies. While in this brainwave state, sensations are centered on being mentally, emotionally and physically "charged" or extremely energized. These frequencies are the highest known brainwave patterns, but are considered to be part of the beta frequency category. Beta brainwaves are the next highest frequency pattern, ranging from thirteen to thirty-four hertz, and can be separated into three sub-categories. The first is high beta, ranging from nineteen to thirty-four hertz. When high beta is the dominant brainwave state, anxiety and stress are most likely to occur. The second sub-category is mid beta, with frequencies ranging from fifteen to eighteen hertz. Mid beta is characterized by action, with focus on external surroundings. The third is SMR beta (Sensorimotor Rhythm), ranging from thirteen to fifteen hertz. While in this state, focus is also on external surroundings, but the individual is more relaxed than in mid beta. Within SMR is fourteen hertz, which is gaining attention from researchers and clinicians utilizing EEG/neurofeedback instrumentation. The true benefit of creating fourteen hertz in humans has yet to be determined, but a recent study at the University of California at Los Angeles found that felines can produce fourteen hertz at will, while humans cannot. Generally speaking, beta brainwaves are characterized by logical, analytical and intellectual thinking, verbal communication and awareness of surroundings. Alpha brainwaves are a frequency pattern ranging from eight to twelve hertz. They most commonly occur when we are calm and relaxed, yet mentally alert. These brainwaves are also present during daydreaming.

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Theta brainwaves range from four to seven hertz, characterized by being deeply relaxed and inwardly focused. This brainwave state is also associated with rapid learning and the assimilation of new information with high retention, heightened motivation to activate goals, bursts of creativity, insight and new behavior patterns. Delta brainwaves range from five-tenths to three hertz and are associated with being extremely relaxed, characterized by sleep. Researchers have proven that brainwave frequencies determine what brainwave state is being experienced at any given time. By measuring the production of brainwaves through the utilization of EEG (electroencephalogram) equipment, the frequencies that produce these various brain states can be tracked on a computer monitor.

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Consciousness and Attention

Consciousness
There are a lot of theories, many interesting ideas, but little agreement as to what consciousness actually is. Some say it is the product of the brain, possibly a range of specific frequencies, which demonstrate active areas within the brain. Others say it is not produced by the brain but rather having a separate existence not dependent on matter. Our main concern here is its behavior and how to increase and expand it. After a decade of research and discovery scientists are now saying that consciousness and attention are more or less the same thing. The two sides of the same coin, so to speak. Consciousness and attention are different manifestations of the same thing. Or the same thing at different degrees of density, or different molecular stages. Something like H2O appearing as ice, water or steam. The classic definition To be conscious is the ability to be aware of oneself, of what one is doing and of oneself doing it. Being conscious of an external object, state, or fact characterized by sensation, emotion, volition, and thought. The upper level of mental life of which the person is aware as contrasted with unconscious processes. Short-term memory Several cognitive views of consciousness have appeared so far. Some stress the close connection between consciousness and Short- Term Memory (STM), others relate it to the control of action or executive functions. In a typical STM experiment, subjects are given a string of unrelated words, letters, or numbers, and requested to retrieve them shortly afterwards. A great deal is known of the resulting memory patterns, but relatively little attention has been given to the fact that during the retention interval, only the currently rehearsed item is conscious at any single moment. For this reason STM has been closely associated with conscious experience, even though it is not identical to it. The 7 +/- 2 keyhole analogy Let's say you have to do a report, and you only have one week to finish it. You pay a visit to the local library to get all the facts and figures you need for the report. When you get there the librarian tells you, that you have to peek through a keyhole in a door to get the information you need. When you peek you only see 5 to 9 words at a time. Peek, turn a dial to move new information into view, see 7 new words, take notes, peek, turn the dial, peek, turn, write, peek, turn, turn, peek, write... You painstakingly gather the information for the report, 5 to 9 words at a time. After 3 days of peeking you finally finish the report.

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Our mind can only handle a limited amount of information at any given moment as if we are peeking through a small hole in the fabric of the mind. The storage space is unlimited, all the files are there in your brain, but you can't access but a small part of them at any given time. The luminous ball analogy Imagine your brain the size of your living room. Its completely packed and stuffed of information, of everything you have ever experienced. This information is like a sea of electric fluid, it penetrates and fills up every nook and cranny of your room. The room is unlit and everything is dark and unconscious, so in reality all this information is only potential information until some light is shed on it. Now imagine you acquire a luminous sphere or ball called consciousness. The ball is the size of a basketball, and when you throw it into the room, it floats around and illuminates the information it touches but still retains its ball like shape and size. The ball is like an inverted light bulb, which only illuminates the space within it. Anything outside the edges of the ball is still unconscious and in the dark. The information within the room is segmented and particular types of information are grouped together in specific areas. All visual experiences are in the back of the room, all auditory experiences are in the middle to the left and so on. In order for you to become conscious of visual information you would have to move the ball to the back of the room and then you would become conscious of the information within the ball. So the sphere makes you conscious of that which it illuminates at any particular moment. Let's say the size of the ball is 3% of the whole room. That would mean that you have immediate access to and are conscious of 3% of the information in the room and have potential access to 97% of the information. You can move the ball around and be conscious of new information, but never more than 3% at a time. As you observe the ball floating around the room, you notice that it starts to change shape, break up into smaller pieces and disperse around the room. The visual area is pulling and tugging at the ball and at the same time the auditory area and the kinesthetic area are pulling at it. It starts to be pulled apart and becomes scattered around the room. Part of the ball stretches to the visual area while another part is stretched to the auditory, some to the kinesthetic area and then to other unknown areas. And even though its scattered around, its volume hasn't increased. Its basically the same size. When you look at it from above it looks like its splattered within the brain but mostly grouped around specific areas. Every time something happens the shape of the light changes according to the stimulus. If its a visual stimulus it increases in the visual area in the room, and decreases in the other areas, if its auditory stimulation, it increases there.

Control Your Attention and You Control Your Brain

By asking subjects to direct their attention to particular areas in space while their brains were being scanned by MRI, researchers have mapped brain regions active in the high-level neural control of attention. Like an initial satellite reconnaissance of new terrain, this first mapping represents a key

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step toward understanding the detailed topography and function of brain regions involved in high-level "executive" control of attention. By integrating the results of large numbers of trials, the scientists determined that certain discrete brain areas of the cortex invariably showed activity during the attentional tasks. Principal among these areas are the superior frontal, inferior parietal and superior temporal cortex. It is now apparent that the state of your attention reflects your brain activity. If your attention is scattered and fragmented on many things and places, then your brain activity is also scattered and fragmented throughout your brain. If you sustain your attention for long enough on one thing your brain will reflect that, shutting down brain areas not related to the object of your focus and activating the brain areas that are related to it. Sustained concentrated focus on one single object collects your attention in that one place, much like a magnifying glass collects the suns rays in one powerful point. If it's a visual object you are focusing your attention on the visual part of your brain will be most active. If you sustain your attention long enough on that one signal other brain areas will get less and less active and your visual part will get more and more active. Take it all the way and you will collect all your conscious brain activity in one part of your brain, in this example your visual part. At that point you don't hear, feel, smell or taste anything. Your other senses are certainly taking everything in as usual and your brain is recording it, but you won't be conscious of any of it at that moment. Every top athlete and professional understands the benefits of getting their thoughts under control. World Champions often describe attentional control as one of the most important skills for a world class athlete. A definition of attentional control was provided by the American sport psychologist, Dr. Robert Singer, "An individual's readiness in a particular situation to selectively perceive and process information". Displaying a high level of attentional control is the same as having excellent powers of concentration. When you improve your focus and concentration beyond a certain point you gain enough control over your attention to be able to do almost whatever you want with your attention and your mind. The key word in Dr. Singer's definition is "selectively". In sport, the ability to focus on what is important and to ignore the rest can separate the champions from the also-rans. Therefore, it can be appreciated that maximizing your ability to attend to important details, will likely lead to better performance. 7 plus or minus 2 Four decades ago, G. Miller offered a general rule of thumb that the span of immediate memory is about 7 +/- 2 items. When people are asked to distinguish between different tones, if the number of tones presented is over about 5, their accuracy at this task decreases rapidly. When asked to recall a series of unrelated words or numbers, people fail when the size of the series increases to 6 or 7. In other words, the span of immediate memory imposes severe limitations on the number of items we are able to receive, process and remember. Although there has been much controversy over the "magic number 7", as it is often referred to, G. Miller recognized that by organizing

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items into categorical units or chunks, we can at least stretch an apparent short-term memory bottleneck. Attention span By removing the time factor in the above example and focusing specifically on the retention interval, a measurement of the subjects Attention Span is obtained. This may gives a better indication of the nature of attention. In a typical experiment, subjects are given a string of unrelated words, letters, or numbers, and requested to see how many of them they are able to hold or "contain" in their focus span at any single moment. This measures their focus span, or width, as they can only see a limited amount of words, letters or numbers at any single moment. The number of items that a subject can contain is usually less than what his immediate memory can contain, and averages about 4 items plus or minus 1.

The Four Levels of Attentional Depth

There are four levels of attentional depth that you can attain. The natural relaxed state of your attention is to automatically react to the strongest internal or external force, signal or stimuli. At that level there is no attentional control and it wanders to and fro from one thing to the next. Attention flows freely and picks up sounds, movements, thoughts, feelings, sensations etc., from your immediate internal or external environment. 1. Interested Focus backed up by interest happens for example when you are reading a good book, watching a entertaining movie, or participating in your favorite hobby or sport. This is the state where you can be reading a book and not hear someone calling you to dinner. Or you could be working on a problem or project for long hours without having to take a break. This is a temporary involuntary state because when the object of your focus stops being interesting, your focus becomes reactive and goes out the window. Your focus may become deep, but there is little or no voluntary control over the state. It is limited to novel things and what you are inherently interested in and enjoy. 2. Disciplined Disciplined focus is when you keep your attention on a particular subject even in distracting situations, and where there is little or no self interest. For example when you are studying a boring subject for school or work when you want to be doing other more pleasurable or challenging things with your friends. You can sustain your focused attention for long periods of time. You can concentrate at will and examine in depth any given topic, even in extremely distracting situations, for extended periods of time, and with les effort. At this level there is a sharp reduction of negative symptoms such as restlessness, impatience, frustration, addictive behaviors, mental drifting and tuning out. At the same time there is a marked increase in self-control, impulse-control, follow through and tolerance levels.

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3. One-Pointed One-pointed focus is when you focus on one signal to the exclusion of everything else. This is the much desired Flow state which sports professionals strive for. The peak experience of being in The Zone where your attention is in the moment, here and now, totally absorbed in what you are doing. Here you are forgetful of the past, and unmindful of the future. Your attention is still, unwavering, steady and solid. Deep focus, the effortless state where you perceive nothing but the subject of your focus. Most people experience this state at least a few times in a lifetime, especially professionals who are involved with intense physical or mental activities. You will become so absorbed in what you do that it will be impossible to distract you if you dont want it. You can be so absorbed in addressing a task that you won't hear people near you talking or any noises for that matter because they are not relevant to your immediate task. Your attention is only on the NOW, in the present. A complete external focus on the things going on around you. At this level time seems to slow down and the world seems to move in slow motion. You feel as if you are in complete control, with total confidence. You even know whats going to happen almost before it happens. Performance seems almost effortless, and totally automatic. There is a complete absence of analytical reasoning and inner dialog. Objects are larger and/or more vivid than usual. There is a feeling of exhilaration and joy. 4. Merged Merged focus is the rarest and most profound focus state and is sometimes experienced by long-term meditators. This state is sometimes likened to the oriental enlightenment experience where the practitioner experiences a state of complete merging with what he focuses on. This is the highest focus state where you literally become that which you focus on, a complete union and merging with the object of your focus. You have no involuntary attention and control all your attention voluntarily and deliberately. At this point your attention merges with the object of your focus and you can perceive the world from the viewpoint of the object. This stage is the ego less state of self-mastery where your self takes on that which you focus your attention on. It allows for the mystical experience, often experienced in conjunction with psychedelic-drug-induced states and deep meditative states. Remember in my story in the beginning where my identity was transferred into external objects and things. Well my attentional depth was at level 4 at the time.

The Four Types of Attentional Focus

A pioneer of research into attention is the American psychologist, Dr. Robert Nideffer, who in 1976 suggested that four types of attentional focus can be attained. Specifically, he proposed that attention has two dimensions of direction and width which are independent of each another. Width refers to whether you have a narrow focus in which you concentrate on a specific thought or object, or a broad focus in which you are aware of many things at once. For example for a paddler in a tournament, listening for the starter's signal requires a very narrow focus, whereas scanning to see what other

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paddlers are doing requires a wide focus. Direction refers to whether you focus externally to objects outside your body, such as this article, or internally on your own thoughts and feelings. Hence, a paddler's attentional focus will vary between the following four styles: broad-internal, broad-external, narrowinternal or narrow-external. Different situations and events will call for different types of attentional focus. Spend a few minutes considering the attentional demands of your event using the following figure which shows the dimensions of attention:

Broad external focus There are times when you have a very broad focus of concentration like looking through the wide angle lens of a camera. We use a broad-external focus of concentration to assess whats going on in the world around them, to make sure they are ready to react when called upon to do so. The master of the martial arts who is surrounded and about to be attacked needs a very broad-external focus of concentration. A basketball player on a fast break needs it to be able to see the whole court. Narrow external focus There are times when you have a very narrow focus like looking through a zoom lens on a camera. A sprinter for example might focus all of his attention on the starter. Another example is the tennis players focus which becomes increasingly narrow as the ball approaches, and then immediately broadens once she executes the shot. At the point in time a critical move needs to be made in sport, athletes are typically required to develop a very narrow-external focus. Broad internal focus Business professionals use a broad-internal focus of concentration to problem solve, to make strategic decisions, to develop business goals and marketing programs, to anticipate the moves of the competition. This type of concentration requires us to mentally cross time zones. To take immediate

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information and use that to recall information from the past which is then useful for predicting the future. For example a coach has reacted to external conditions which suggest that something needs to happen or his team may lose. He assesses the immediate conditions and then thinks about similar situations and about the management choices he has made in the past. He then uses that information to predict the best course of action and make a decision. Narrow internal focus Athletes use a narrow internal focus of concentration to organize information and to mentally rehearse or practice. A springboard diver needs to mentally practice his next dive, in a very systematic, structured way. The same goes with the best golfers. They mentally rehearse every shot they take in advance.

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Focus and Concentration

Defining Focus and Concentration
Concentration is the ability to focus attention deliberately and voluntarily on whatever is important at any particular moment. The distribution of attention is inversely proportional to its intensity. That is to say, if we concentrate intently on one object, other objects are observed to a lesser degree. Focus has a broader meaning than concentration. Focus is used in connection with an overall approach to a specific issue. Concentration has a more definitive meaning where it is mainly connected with the powers of the mind. Focus is more connected with the power of attitude. Of holding a certain attitude firm above any other attitude whether it is coming from an internal or external source. Focus and concentration is the same mental ability applied in two slightly different ways, so when I say focus I am referring to both terms. Involuntary focus Involuntary focus corresponds to the first level of attentional depth which is backed up by your interests. It's easy to concentrate on something you like very much like a good book. If you have ever lost yourself in the enjoyment of a movie or concert, you might have noticed that concentration comes naturally when you are absorbed in something you enjoy. That kind of involuntary focus requires no effort or will, and everybody has it to some degree in the area of their interest. Voluntary focus Voluntary focus corresponds to the 2, 3 and 4tth levels of attentional depth where attention is directed by your own decision backed by the deliberate effort of will. This is when you are concentrated on one thing only to the exclusion of everything else. At any given moment various impressions converge upon the mind and your focus tend to wander to other things. Other sensations, thoughts, emotions and feelings tend to intrude because this is the normal way in which experience works. But by deliberate effort of will you can sustain your focus on the chosen topic undisturbed by internal or external intrusions.

Concentration Is The Master Muscle of Your Brain

Brainpower is the collective performance of your cognitive abilities such as memory, reason, concentration, imagination, creativity and intuition. When you improve one ability all the other abilities are affected to a lesser or greater degree. Of all our mental abilities Focus and Concentration is probably the most influential one as it stands heads and shoulders above the rest for one very important reason. Concentration is the executive function of the brain and mind. It is the Master Ability that controls all the other mental abilities.

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Improving your Focus and Concentration has by far the greatest impact on your mental performance, and your Brainpower. A brain with a weak executive function is like a company with an inefficient CEO. Not good for business, not good for life. A weak executive function leaves your attention dispersed and scattered. A strong executive function, gives you control over your attention and your mind. The weaker it is, the more you are the effect of lifes circumstances, the stronger it is the more you control lifes circumstances. Improving it makes you pro-active instead of re-active. Its the difference of being in control and on top of life, or being controlled and on the bottom of life. Of being the master of your mind and future, or being a slave to your past. While scattered and dispersed attention may be warm and cuddly, concentrated attention is sharp and powerful. A good analogy is when you use a magnifying glass to concentrate sunlight. Dispersed, sunlight is warm and comforting, but when concentrated and collected it becomes very powerful. In the end it is not just about getting the most out of your mind, but about getting the most out of your life.

How Strong Is Your Focus and Concentration

When you start improving your focus and concentration one of the first things you discover is how little control you actually have over your attention. People usually dont notice this lack of control because they have never experienced being in control of their mind, and therefore dont have a reference. Most peoples minds are at the mercy of outside and internal influences for which they have little control over. Which means their life is also at the wrong end of those influences. People who have weak focus power are inattentive have a hard time keeping their mind on any one thing. They easily get bored with an uninteresting task after only a few minutes. They may give effortless, automatic attention to activities and things they enjoy. But focusing deliberate, conscious attention to organizing and completing a task or learning something new is difficult for them. They have a hard time finishing projects on time, or finish them at the last moment. They wander from one thing to another, delay doing things or forget to do them. They frequently make bad decisions, become impulsive, make bad use of other peoples time and at the same time they become more worried and stressed out. Following is a partial list of various symptoms related to weak focus. If any of these symptoms apply to you then increasing your focus and concentration will cure it. Difficulty keeping mind on tasks that need to be completed. Little impulse control. Easily distracted by irrelevant sights and sounds. Trouble focusing attention, tendency to tune out or drift away. Frequent impatience. Frequent boredom.

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Low tolerance of frustration. Physical or cognitive restlessness and a tendency toward addictive behavior. Failing to pay attention to details and making careless mistakes. Rarely following instructions carefully and completely. Losing or forgetting things like pencils, books, and tools needed for a task. Having difficulty with planning for the future and following through with plans. Having trouble with planning in what order to do a series of tasks or activities. Diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

Do You Know Mr. Shambles? The following is a description of a fictional person that suffers from extreme lack of focus and concentration. Almost everybody knows someone who has one or more of the symptoms this fictional person has. Lets call him Mr. Shambles. Mr. Shambles suffers from extreme lack of focus and concentration and is mostly the effect of his environment. His problems, difficulties and hardships in life are there because he has little or no control over his mind. He doesnt understand why hes always experiencing the same difficulties over and over again. He sometimes tries to rationalize it, saying its his karma. But more likely its because he dont know how to use his executive function. His focus is weak. Its not just because of the outside influences that things dont work for him, its because of his lack of focus and mental control. From the outside he may look irresponsible, but in fact he is very responsible, its just that in spite of his best intentions, situations sometimes tend to have a mind of their own, and since he isnt in control he is the effect of those external changes, and therefore looks irresponsible. He may jump from one thing to the next without finishing anything completely, because life constantly throws new things into his life. The result of that is that he doesnt get any real longterm satisfaction or joy from doing anything. He may get some short-term pleasure from it, but it is quickly replaced with disappointment, self-criticism and even depression. He frequently experiences fear, anxiety and worry. This is understandable because who wouldnt experience that, being the effect of other people and things that may not have your best interest at heart. Because of this weak focus and control his life is in shambles. Its no wonder. His mind is a mirror reflection of everything that happens to him. He doesnt control his thoughts or feelings. Other people, circumstances and unpredictable events dictate his thoughts and shape his mind and experiences. He has little or no order or overview, his thoughts dont have a beginning or an end, they just appear, automatically and continuously all the time, absolutely uncalled for. He has lost count of all the difficulties, problems and troubles in his life. He is continuously solving problems, every day, and doesnt understand that if he had mental control, he wouldnt have the problems in the first place. He

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doesnt know that a person with a focused mind solves his problems, and learns how to prevent it in the future. He thinks he is solving his problems, but because he is the effect of his environment the problems knock at his door the next time they come around, and as he has no control, the problem lets itself into his mind and life. And he has to deal with it again, and again, and again. He doesnt realize that a person with strong focus doesnt open the mental door so the problems stay out of his mind and out of his life. He doesnt have to deal with it. He controls his mind, his environment and his experiences. His life is scattered all over the place, just like his attention. This is one of the reasons he is irritated, insecure, angry, stressed and tense. He has no control and is the effect of life, and no one likes to be in that position. Mr. Shambles tries this and tries that, and in the end he doesnt know where to turn, because nothing he does seems to work. He always ends up in the same place. If he only knew that the key to solve all his problems is in governing his mind and brain. He has been in this condition for so long that he just gives up on everything at the slightest resistance or opposition. If things dont go to well and he has to put out some effort, he just gives up because he has learned that whatever he does, is just temporary. The problem will resurface sooner or later, so why bother. He simply allows himself to be blown this way and that by the winds of his environment. His thoughts, emotions and energy reflect that, and thats what he experiences. No mind control, no life control. His thoughts and emotions are in a mess when his environment is a mess. His focus is so weak that hes constantly distracted, and goes through life like a sleepwalker. He lives in a dream, where things happen to him and he has no control. Hes never in the present. His mistakes and failures haunt him. His mind is permeated with fear of the future, where he never knows whats going to happen to him, and regret for the past. Because of his dire situation hes been looking for some kind of escape. He seeks and craves drugs, excessive amounts of alcohol, sugar, coffee, cigarettes, sex, work, or TV. He uses these substances to get away from the mess and confusion of his life. He also sleeps a lot and has a real tough time dragging himself out of bed in the morning. As he doesnt have any control over his mind and environment he usually has unrealistic expectations about life. His goals and plans are usually no good because hell be running after the next new thing before he knows it. He makes elaborate plans and goals but is usually unable to follow through with them. His interest may last for a few days, maybe for a few weeks but then he is off to something else, something new. He is baffled by his predicament he prays and hopes that his problems will magically disappear one day. Or that other people will fix his problems for him and take care of things. But he doesnt do anything about it. In a way that attitude is understandable because thats what he experiences every day.

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How to Measure Your Focus and Concentration

The measurements obtained in the following tests measure voluntary focus. You may have excellent focus when reading an interesting book but very poor focus when you have to read a companies boring accounting report. The tests exclude interest and therefore give a clearer measurement of pure voluntary focus. Establishing Your Baseline Sustaining and controlling focus and concentration voluntarily requires effort of will. When you have stretched your ability to sustain and control your focus and concentration for as long as you can you come to the boundaries which mark the current limit of your ability. This is your baseline. When you persist in sustaining and controlling focused attention beyond your baseline you notice subtle shifts in the quality of your focus as it gets more and more diffused and eventually is disrupted by the intensity of intrusive experiences. To go beyond your current limit, to increase your baseline, you have to use deliberate effort of will. When you sustain and control your focus by deliberate effort of will you expand the boundaries, and thus your baseline. You may experience some growing pains, much like a seed that has to break its shell to grow into a tree. Inside the boundaries of your ability to focus there is controlled clarity, just the one single experience you chose to focus on is experienced. Just a few seconds or minutes away, outside the boundaries of this controlled clarity, there is utter chaos, millions of different experiences competing for the attention of your mind. Sustaining controlled clarity with deliberate effort of will for as long as possible, and beyond that, expands the boundaries of your focus and increases your baseline.

The Focus Sustainment Duration Test This test measures how long you sustain focused attention on one single task. The goal is to sustain a signal (number or letter) in your minds eye for as long as you can. We can only exert focus to a certain fixed maximum rate and through the focus sustainment duration test you can measure your current rate. The Signal is always clear and strong in the beginning, but as the seconds tick away the Noise ratio increases exponentially until it overpowers the Signal resulting in active Downtime. When the Uptime connection breaks for more than a few seconds, and your chosen signal is replaced by other signals such as thoughts, feelings or other, stop the timer and write down the time.

The Focus Span Test Our attention can only contain a limited amount of information and through the focus span test we can measure how much it can contain at any single moment. This is the quantity of signals we can fit into our internal visual

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attention span. Here we are talking about how many different signals we can be conscious of at the same time. This test measures how much information your attention contains at any one moment. The goal is to see as many numbers and letters in a single row as you can in your minds eye.

The Focus Grid Test This test provides a measure of how effectively you can scan a large amount of information to pick out relevant elements. A grid of 36 randomly positioned numbers (1-36) are presented in the test. The goal is to finish clicking the numbers in the correct order from 1 to 36 in as little time as possible. The three main tests are extensively covered and explained in detailed stepby-step fashion in the Focus and Concentration Improvement Program. For more information on ordering the program with a 25% special discount please go to: http://www.improving-concentration.com/discount/

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How to Improve Your Focus and Concentration

Most people associate concentration with hard work and sometimes painful school memories. In fact concentration requires no superhuman effort on your part. Just the opposite is true. Developing your concentration is like developing a muscle. If you havent been to the gym for a while youll find even a light workout torturous. But if you continue working out every day, you will soon find you can do ever more sit-ups and lift even heavier weights with increasing ease. Instead of lifting weights you lift attentional signals. Concentration is a habit and habits are perfected by practice. Your focus power is like muscle energy. If you go to the gym and work out you notice that your muscle strength diminishes as you go through the reps. If in your first rep you can do 25 pushups, you will be able to do a little bit fewer in the next rep and so on. The same applies with your focus. The first round is relatively easy but your brain gets tired as you add reps. You will start to see results in the first few days of practice as your focus power will increase in direct proportion to how well, and how many times you do the exercises. As you feel your focus and concentration improve and get stronger, you will know exactly at what level you are by comparing your experience with the 4 attentional depth levels and doing the tests. There are two main approaches to improving your focus and concentration. First there is the training of Focus Control which can be fairly tough and may require a lot of mental and physical energy. Then there is the training of Focus Depth which is much easier and relies on taking conscious awareness deeper and deeper into the unconscious mind. We advice our program participants to use both methods alternatively, every other day, because they work synergistically and compliment each other. Techniques to Increase Focus Depth There are three main parts to increasing Focus Depth which are extensively covered and explained in detailed step-by-step fashion in the Focus and Concentration Improvement Program. For more information on ordering the program with a 25% special discount please go to: http://www.improving-concentration.com/discount/ Techniques to Increase Focus Control There are four main parts to increasing Focus Control which are extensively covered and explained in detailed step-by-step fashion in the Focus and Concentration Improvement Program. For more information on ordering the program with a 25% special discount please go to: http://www.improving-concentration.com/discount/

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How to design a training schedule that fits your needs You can go through the program at any speed you like. By speed I am referring to how fast you improve your focus and concentration which is determined by how frequently and intensely you do the exercises. The resistance you encounter in improving your focus is in direct proportion to how fast you want to go. The faster you go the more resistance you encounter. The more resistance you encounter the more persistence you will need. So you have to gauge the speed according to how much resistance you can take on at any one time. You may only want to increase your focus to a certain degree and stop there. Maybe you are not ready to go all the way to the top at this moment and are satisfied with getting enough control over your mind to do your work more efficiently. When you train your Focus and Concentration you might be satisfied with just being able to sustain your attention for a little longer than usual. Or being able to keep distractions from disrupting your attention when you are working, or being able to handle projects and tasks with more ease, get more done in less time, have a little more mental clarity and overview over your work and life, make better decisions and plans that are easier to achieve, make fewer mistakes or solve problems a little faster. In fact you dont need to increase your concentration very much to experience that in your life. So just stop whenever you feel you have achieved your goals. You can always pick it up again later to maintain it or to go further. Usually people stretch their mental- and self-improvement efforts over a period of months or years. For many it is a lifestyle. This approach is recommended for those who dont want to disrupt their daily life to much. Spreading the exercises over a longer time gives you a smoother ride and a more gradual increase in focus and concentration. In this way you would do the exercises once or twice a day. For those who have less time it is possible to create 1 3 day intensives where you literally do nothing else than practice and perform the exercises from morning to evening, with short 30 minute breaks in between. It is a perilous approach but leads to incredible results in a very short period of time. You will feel a massive increase in your ability to focus your attention and control your mind in just one day. Youll also experience massive residual effects which come with improving your focus such as: increased creativity, a flood of great ideas, increased energy, greater mental clarity, increased intelligence, a deeper sense of reality, and deeper perception. But there is also a downside to cramming the training into e few days. If you use this approach I have to warn you of the dangers. During such an intense practice you may experience temporary hallucinations, fear and panic attacks, temporary loss of identity and personality while you force and shut down habitual brain patterns and turn on new ones. When a lower order of brain activity is quickly replaced by a higher order of brain activity you can expect massive consequences. These symptoms are temporary and wear off soon enough but when you are going through them they seem anything else than temporary.

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You may experience brief energy fluctuations and fluctuations of states of consciousness, sudden drowsiness, lack of interest, boredom, anger fits, hunger attacks, elaborate fantasies, intense desires, impatience, excessive pride, self-gratification, laziness, hyper excitability, stress and more. This is all mental, emotional or physical resistance coming up to the surface because of the intense changes taking place. I have done this many times with no ill effects other than the temporary symptoms described above. You can see more details on how to deal with resistance in the Manage and Control chapter. What Happens When You Improve Your Focus and Concentration The brain contains over ten billion brain cells, each one a link or gate in an incredibly vast and complicated network of neural networks containing so much information we can't even begin to comprehend it. Consciousness is to a neural network as RAM memory is to a computer. Consciousness is your immediate access and control of the information contained in the millions of brain cells within its boundaries. As it expands the increased amount of thoughts, associations, sensations, rationalizations and emotions that get activated, all at the same time creates a lot of neurological traffic, not only in your brain but through your whole central nervous system. Imagine consciousness as a little ball of light within your brain. Your brain is filled with information and you are only conscious of the information within this little ball of light. When the ball starts to expand or move it's boundaries start to touch new previously unconscious information, neurons that were in the dark so to speak. As consciousness touches them the information contained in those neurons becomes conscious, as when you suddenly remember a happy incident from your childhood. Improving focused concentration not only expands the ball, it also supercharges your brain with attentional energy and moves your brain activity to higher levels. It reduces activity in the lower regions of the brain and activates the higher regions. Your brain energy moves upwards from the primitive reptilian brain areas and the intermediate old mammalian brain areas into the superior or rational new mammalian brain areas, the neocortex. Excellent focus enables you to: sustain focused concentration for longer periods of time, increase mental performance speeds; keep distractions from disrupting your attention, have greater efficiency in handling projects and tasks, get more satisfaction and productivity at work where and get more done in less time, achieve greater clarity, overview and organization of projects and tasks, make better decisions, plans and goals that are easier to achieve, make fewer mistakes and gives you better problem solving abilities and greater enjoyment and satisfaction in doing things. With good focus and concentration comes the willpower to do what needs to be done and the patience to withstand adversity and free yourself from negative influences in your environment. It is the foundation of self discipline and helps you follow through with your decisions. The benefits of good concentration are not just limited to more efficiency, productivity and profit, it also makes you feel much better and you enjoy more what you do at any one time weather its at work or at home.

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The first thing you notice when you start doing the focusing exercises is how your attention is controlled and manipulated by your senses, emotions and thought processes. Your attention may even be totally out of control. If you are like most people then you can't focus your attention for more than a few seconds at a time. You'll start out focusing on one thing and end up somewhere else altogether without knowing how the mind got you there. Your senses and thought processes have had a very close relationship with your attention for so long that it has become habitual and unconscious. Your attention automatically follows your sensations and thoughts, going here and there as directed by influences out of your control. What the exercises allow you to do is to establish a relationship between your will and your attention. You are moving your attention from being centered around your thoughts and feelings to being centered around your will. When your focus starts to increase your domain of expertise will determine in what areas of your life you will experience the greatest impact of increased brainpower. That means that you will feel the greatest impact and benefit of increased mental performance in areas where you have the most experience and expertise. If you are a trained programmer your programming skills will improve in direct proportion to increased mental performance, if your are an athlete your sports performance will get the greatest boost, if you are a salesman you will sell more, etc. After doing the exercises for some time you will start to feel stuff that has been holding you back drop off like heavy baggage and you will feel brighter and happier. You will be able to choose some of your thoughts and to expel or not think some thoughts. You will catch the mind more and more often going into its old thought patterns and stop it. You may still feel some confusion, fear or sudden anxiety attacks or intense feelings because you are letting go of so many old habitual thinking and emotional patterns. But at the same time you will also sense a new strength in yourself, as you realize that your mind is controllable after all. When you are well into the course your ability to control your attention will not only increase in strength, your mind will increase in strength as well. As your willpower and executive function gets stronger, your mind gets stronger. Your efforts will activate elaborate fantasies and thought associations. All kinds of projects, problems, worries and other thoughts about your busy day to day life will surface into your conscious attention. Then with continued persistence your attention, consciousness and awareness will rise into the higher functions of your mind and problems will start to turn into solutions, worries will turn into actions and fears will turn into excitement. You will start to get more ideas and solutions to your problems than you can handle. At this stage you may want to stop to write the ideas and solutions down, but you have to resist this temptation however brilliant the ideas may seem. It's very tempting to quit the practice thinking it's only going to take a moment to write it down, but that's exactly what will stop the expansion, and delay the whole process. However strong the fear of losing those ideas may seem if you discard them, you have to continue with the exercises. You can rest assured that you will not only easily remember them when the time comes, you will most likely get far better solutions later in the program, that are hidden in even higher areas of your brain.

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As you continue, and your brain activity goes even higher you will start getting extraordinary realizations and revelations about your life, yourself, your work and other people. Again, resist the temptation to stop to write it down, or to tell somebody about it. The realizations are often so profound that they will blow you away, you will feel like a true genius, a great visionary, so strong, and powerful are the thoughts from this realm. You are in the process of mastering your mind and you will be able to produce even more powerful realizations at will when you have reached the top. When you master your mind your ability to solve problems will become formidable. Your mind will be penetrated by a very calming, reassuring and deep understanding of who you really are. It is like waking up after a long, deep sleep. Youll understand your destiny. And a feeling of acceptance will seep into your mind. You will see with clear-sighted vision the position youre in at that moment, youll accept it and take the reins of your destiny firmly in your hands. Those who demonstrate good focus have extraordinary powers of observation and attention to detail. An individual with strong focus knows exactly whats in store for him, because he controls it, he chooses his future and looks forward to it. The better you are able to concentrate, the more quickly and efficiently will you be able to work. You will spot details that others overlook and also see the overall picture. By increasing your own powers of concentration, you will be able to make wise observations on things. You will learn to judge accurately the people you meet. Your powers of concentration will enable you to discover at a glance who they really are. And you will become more realistic in the truest sense of the word. Or, at least, in its deepest sense. You will see things as they are. That hazy film of thoughts and daydreams found in the majority of people will no longer block your vision of things. Your mind has become strong and self-assured and you will realize that lifes problems no longer have any hold on you. You will then understand that things are only as important as the mind believes them to be. A problem is a problem only if you think it is. If you consider that nothing is serious, that nothing is truly important, then nothing will be serious in your eyes, nothing will be truly important. Problems will appear large and overwhelming to you in direct proportion to the weaknesses of your mind. The stronger your mind is, the more insignificant your problems will appear. You can shift your attention and consciousness into anything you want. You can expand a particular perception or sensation or intensify it in the same way you can keep it out consciously and with precise control. Relevant details are seen more clearly. You know the best thing to do with each change in the situation. At this level concentration is pleasurable as well as conductive to excellence, for you literally leave worries, doubts, and troubles behind. Most great athletic performances are accomplished in this state, where even the most strenuous action somehow seems effortless. There is no room for anxiety because your mind is so focused that you don't even hear doubt knocking at your door.

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On a more social level you will notice subtle changes in your perception of other people. You will be more detached and rational than ever before, as you are activating dormant brain areas located in your neocortex. Youll notice a certain childish, shallow quality to peoples thinking and communicating that you didnt notice before. Its not just as if they are lost in a fog but your realize they are talking about things without exactly knowing what they are talking about. There is little deep thought behind their words and ideas. You see that their words are often a shallow reflection of what they have heard or read somewhere else. Most of what they say is emotionally based, there is little or no objectivity in their thinking, rather their thinking is more or less emotionally reactive. Your senses will be more and more powerful and sensitive. Smell, taste, touch, sight and sound will all be richer, more intense and much stronger. Colors will be brighter, sounds will be clearer, smells will be richer and touch will be deeper. You will enjoy more and feel more, both positive and negative things. At this stage you may want to surround yourself with beautiful things and choose the people you interact with great care. Your perception will also get deeper. You will see and think and see deeper into the world so to speak. For example, watching movies will not be the same as you will spot bad acting, logical mistakes, faulty plots etc. and conversely youll also perceive the deeper meaning behind a story or plot. You will also start to see logical faults with the projects you and others are working on and be able to see deep and far reaching consequences of your decisions and actions. Your thinking will get a more palpable, solid feel to it. You will think, do and act more and more according to your own thinking and decisions, with little or no concern for what others think. In the later stages other peoples opinions of you have no impact on you, it doesnt even enter your mind. Its not because you dont care about the people, its just that you have realized the futility and silliness of it. Other peoples opinions are usually not based on reality, in the here and now, but on past learnings and fixed beliefs that color everything they think, say and do. Besides, your focus wont be on other peoples opinions anyway at this point. You will start to get more and more real, where you will not only see through peoples games you will also see through your own games and roles which were hidden from you before. You will desire more quality in life, in your relationships, in what you do. You actions and life in general will be of a higher purpose and meaning. When you experience focus level 4, you might sometimes slip into a state that is difficult to describe because you the "observer" who would describe it is no longer there. In this state of mind there is no doubt, no effort, no looking forward to things, not trying to push something through, no expectation, no hope, no disappointment, no fear. There is no need for that. There is just quietness, peacefulness, stillness, ease, a pure awareness of everything that is on the outside and part of the outer world. There is nothing to do, nowhere to go, no past and no future, no imagination, no movement, no cause, no effect, no beginning, no end. Everything is as it is, and it is. Nothing to do before something else happens. Nothing that needs to change, everything is perfect. You can do whatever you want, and experience whatever you choose. You are completely free, nothing has any effect on you unless you decide so. You

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are not for something or against it, you dont feel elation, joy, fear, awe, or any other emotion about certain things if you dont want to. Your mind is completely still, calm, cool, collected and balanced. You couldnt care less about things that dont matter to you, you are totally unattached to the ideas of others if you choose so. You will see through the illusions of the world and be free from them. You then experience an intensified contact with reality as it actually is, not as it seems. You see life in a totally new way. When you stop the film and take a broader look at the film itself and the projector you see it as it is. You are no longer part of the game, the illusion, and can step back from it and observe it detached and serene. To order The Focus and Concentration Improvement Program and get the specific techniques and methods to increase focus and concentration with the 25% special discount please go to: http://www.improving-concentration.com/discount/

Obstacles to Improving Focus and Concentration

From the outside, when you first start, increasing concentration seems fairly easy. Just measure and then practice the exercises daily and your concentration will increase. In theory that is just what happens, but in practice most people encounter internal resistance that needs to be managed and controlled. This resistance can even be used to your advantage to speed up the process of increasing your concentration. The more resistance you encounter the heavier the mental weights are, so take care in not taking on too much resistance, just as you wouldnt attempt to lift up too much weight. When a present lower order of things gives way to a higher order you may experience a brief period of chaos and confusion. The key to internal confusion and chaos is to choose to feel it as it is, accept the experience of it, and continue with what you were doing or intended to do. A chemical called Dopamine which is made by our brain cells and is a hormone-like neurotransmitter. Chemists sometimes refer to it as a feel-good chemical that is present in our brains. It can be elevated by a hug, a kiss, a word of praise or a winning poker hand. As well as by drugs. Scientists say that dopamine is a chemical that transmits pleasure signals. It is also the master molecule of addiction. Too little dopamine leads to Parkinsons Disease. Too much dopamine leads to hallucinations and schizophrenia. Supercharging the neocortex increases the production of dopamine in your brain and temporarily produces the high-dopamine symptoms. You may hallucinate and see imagined people around you which you can interact with. In time the brain will adjust to the high dopamine levels and the negative symptoms will disappear. But this only happens if you supercharge your brain using the fast track method. Provided you take the course slowly the resistances will be tame and easily handled. However if you take the fast track and use massive persistence during a few days you may encounter violent reactions and massive resistances from your unconscious.

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How to Clear Mental and Emotional Obstacles Away There are three main types of obstacles to increasing Focus and Concentration which are extensively covered in the Focus and Concentration Improvement Program including step-by-step methods to clear the obstacles away. For more information on ordering the program with a 25% special discount please go to: http://www.improving-concentration.com/discount/

Contact Information
Contact The Author
If you want to contact the author of this report and The Focus and Concentration Improvement Program then use one of the following methods: Regular mail: Astromind c/o Gardar Gardarsson Postholf 1587, IS - 121 Reykjavik, Iceland. E-mail: Phone: support@improving-concentration.com +354 899-7716

How to Order The Focus and Concentration Improvement Program With the 25% Special Discount

Right click the link below: http://www.improving-concentration.com/discount/ Please remember to include full address and contact information with your order so that it may be processed correctly. Thank you for your order!

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References
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Ramachandran, V. S., & Blakeslee, S. (1998). Phantoms in the brain. London: Fourth. Ronald Kotulak. Inside the Brain: Revolutionary Discoveries of how the Mind Works. 1996. Sam Horn. Concentration! --- How to focus for success. Crisp, 1991. Susan Greenfield. The Human Brain - A Guided Tour. Wiedenfield and Nicolson, London - 1997. Theron Q. Dumont. The master mind. Chicago. Advanced thought publishing co. Tor Norretranders. The User Illusion. Penguin Books, 1991. Vivekananda, Swami (1976). Raja-Yoga or conquering the internal nature. Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama. Wujec, Tom. (1988) Pumping Ions: Games and Exercises to Flex Your Mind. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.

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