In life, it is so surprisingly easy to get carried away in our minds and to lose our concentration. We all do it; we lose our train of thought and before long, cannot remember what we should be doing. Sound familiar to you? Here are some simple, easy ways to join the millions of meditation practitioners keeping their minds strong and maintaining focus on every part of their day.

Focus on Breathing

The best place to start when you wish to put things into motion for improving concentration is to keep a clear focus on your breathing. If you can find a nice comfortable place to relax, then you can soon allow yourself to just look at your breathing and focus on that as the main way to change your mindset and mood for the moment.

One reason why you should focus on breathing as much as anything else is that, if you do it right, you can change the way that you feel about the whole experience. If you worry that you cannot quieten your mind enough to focus, then you should look to just focus on the breathing side of things. Inhale. Exhale. That’s all that you need to do. Count the breaths that you take if you like – one full inhale/exhale is ‘1’.

By focusing on the breathing, though, you soon quieten down the busier side of your brain. This makes it much easier for you to just rest, relax, and go along with the process. Do that for long enough, and you should really feel the benefits.

Use a Mantra

One of the best ways to take your meditation to a new level is to start using what is known as a mantra to your advantage. Mantra is very powerful, and they are often unique to the person. Think of something that allows you to relax and makes it easier for you to focus and practice mentally.  If you do that, you are much more likely to be able to maintain your focus throughout the MBSR meditation. The problem with meditating is trying to find one thing to concentrate on to avoid your mindset being broken or disturbed.

By using a mantra, such as “Om”, you will be able to find that concentration. Meditation is in many ways about quieting down the mind and making it easy for you to just think about the one thing. It’s about turning off that train of thought and thus making it easier for you to go along with the wider thought experience. If you do that, you are much more likely to come out the other side feeling positive, open-minded, and optimistic.

A mantra is great for getting you used to settle down. It also helps to quieten the mind during a busy start to your meditation. That’s often the hardest part, so concentrate on this first once you get the breathing side of things right.

Find a Quiet, Private Spot for Meditation

Of course, the next most important thing that you need for a good meditation experience is a nice place to rest and relax. Meditation is all about finding peace and serenity. If you wish to do that, you must find a low-energy, low-traffic place. Make sure you are not trying to meditate with the TV on, or in a place where people can come and go and break your concentration. If you do this, you are much more likely to come out the other side of your meditation.

If you keep this up for long enough, you will begin to notice how much more effective your meditation is. Trying to meditate in a location where you can get distracted is foolish. It will often lead to you getting frustrated, and it will often mean having to start again and again. Instead, find a place that is without any distraction and you can just enjoy the experience. It’s much easier to settle down mentally when you do not have people passing by or any kind of noise that could pollute your desire to mind calmness in the mind.

Remember that if you choose a spot outside that you should stay suitably hydrated. Hydration is essential to healthy living and keeping clarity in the mind, so keep that in your thoughts as you go through your exercise. If you are going to be surrounded by the elements, hydration is essential to keeping your body and mind on the right focus. Tools such as the one from gymequipmentgb offer an easy way to calculate how much water you should be taking in, we would recommend setting the “intensity” to low.

Set a Timer

First off, make sure that you set a timer. Since you need to get both body and mind ready for the meditation, this is very useful. Set a timer that is going to gradually grow in length as you get more used to the idea of meditation. Make that first timer around 10-minutes long, and you can gradually add to it as you go.

This is great for making sure you can always fit in a small meditation session during the day. Now, you won’t need to miss out on a session as you only need a few short minutes.

Set Aside Distracting Thoughts

One of the easiest ways to ruin our concentration is to think of something distracting. For example, when you are working you might often find that you get stuck worrying about things like having bills to pay. If you are used to that, then it can be hard to meditate. To meditate and concentrate properly, you will have to be able to set aside such thoughts.

Instead of sitting thinking about anything, just go back to counting your breathing. If you do that for long enough, you will drift off from the thoughts that were going around in your head. If you keep that up, you are much more likely to get through the meditation process without losing your bearings.

If you intend on using meditation a lot, then you should probably look to keep your mind free of such distractions. For that reason, we recommend that you start trying to get out of the frame of mind of ‘solving problems as you work’. Allowing distractions to dominate your subconscious is only likely to make you less likely to get the job done. If you wish to meditate and see meaningful improvements to your focus, you need to cut down on distracting thinking.