How to Remove Idle Thoughts and Increase Concentration
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December 02, 2012 |
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When you gather and concentrate sunlight with a magnifying glass, the focused power of sunlight can even burn paper. People's concentration can also show such great power. If our concentration increases, we can become so absorbed in our study or work such that we don't feel the flow of the time. In point, concentration can bring out our potential. If we utilize our potential to the fullest, we can become the best in our field. Here, in this feature story, we will introduce the ways to increasing concentration based on extracts of Dr. Jaerock Lee's book Keys to Studying Well.
 Keys to Studying Well Authored by Dr. Jaerock Lee_ Keys to Studying Well is necessary for child education or work ability improvement. It is also beneficial for our Christian life. If you keep the message of the book in your heart and make use of it, you can achieve your goal and become a precious person recognized by others everywhere you go.
[Find out causes of idle thoughts and remove them]
Simply put, idle thoughts are various useless thoughts. They are disruptive, especially to students' study. They have thoughts of games, celebrities, and friends of the opposite sex. Adults are often distracted by thoughts of work-related troubles, family matters, or financial predicaments.
Idle thoughts come to you because things you've seen and heard have been saved in the memory device in your brain with feelings. What you see and hear as you grow and mature will be stored along with feelings as knowledge in this memory device. And when this knowledge is retrieved, it is called 'thought'.
When a piece of information is put into the memory, it is the feeling that you associate with it that has the greater effect on the formation of a memory. If you see or hear without any particular feeling or emotion, the memory will not be planted deeply and it will slip away after a while. But because worldly things are usually provocative and arousing, people tend to store them in their memory with stronger feelings and they are planted more deeply in the memory and will last for a longer period of time.
Now, let's look into three cases concerning how idle thoughts become formed. First, curiosity towards worldly things can cause idle thoughts. If you have curiosity about untruthful things, the enemy devil and Satan will not miss that chance and cause more idle thoughts. As your curiosity gets stronger, your heart and mind not only get distanced from study but also it causes you to commit sins. Thus, you have to drive away such curiosity and desires even thinking about the fearfulness of Hell.
Next, idle thoughts are also caused by your desire to have fun and to enjoy the worldly entertainment. Also, some idle thoughts arise from untruthful emotions like hatred, jealousy, dissatisfaction, or disquiet. Due to the emotion, peace of mind is lost and people become worried about something that is not even a certainty. In their thoughts of judging and condemning others, they can't concentrate.
Therefore, to eliminate idle thoughts, you first need to recognize the things explained above that can cause idle thoughts and to get rid of the fundamental causes.
[Specific guides to actions to increase concentration]
Keep away from the things that implant untruths in you!
The source of idle thoughts is, after all, the knowledge and feeling of untruth. Therefore, if you cast off all untruths in your heart, you can get rid of all idle thoughts completely. Even if you are still in the process of transforming, you can block the idle thoughts to the extent that you remove the knowledge and feelings of untruth from your memory device.
Though you are trying to get rid of untruths it is useless if you keep inputting untruth. Only when you don't see, hear, or speak anything that is of untruth can you purify your heart.
When a person sees that other people are whispering he may think, 'I wonder what they are talking about…' He may want to know more about their secrets. Untruthful things, which are not of goodness, arise in him. They are evil hearts. We need to distance ourselves from those who like to spread secrets and gossip. Men of goodness refrain from listening to evil words or hearing about others' shortcomings.
Untruthful things come into you mostly through TV and computers. So, if you just keep away from these two things, the amount of untruths in your memory device will be reduced. You should also try to have good friends. It's because in many cases you come in contact with untruths through your friends. Also, when you take a break or relax, you should avoid Internet PC rooms and streets offering adult entertainment.
Get rid of the untruths that are already input in your memory device!
Sometimes those things that you used to see and enjoy might come back to you through your memory. This is because although you don't accept any more untruths you still have remaining untruths that had been previously input.
To purify a polluted river, people block the flow of the dirty water from coming into the river. Then, they remove the pollutants. Furthermore, they add clean water, oxygen, and they also plant grasses that help with the purification process.
In the same manner, to remove idle thoughts and increase concentration, we first block the untruths, and then one by one we begin to remove the untruths that are already input. If you accept another untruth, you can't purify your heart. In other words, if you watch dramas or movies that you should not see, while you are fasting and praying to remove the thoughts, your work to remove them is of no use.
We must not see, hear, and accept things of untruth. Then, we can remove idle thoughts. Furthermore, as we fill our memory with the knowledge of truth, it can be purified more quickly. If you listen to God's Word repeatedly and arm yourself with the Word, your head will be cleared, and you won't have any more idle thoughts. And when you change the thoughts and feelings, the knowledge will become increasingly dim.
Make concentration a habit!
People show amazing concentration in doing things that are fun and exciting. If they watch a movie that they like, they may be able to remember the protagonist's name, the whole plot, etc. It's because they watched it with focused and high level of concentration.
Those who have already developed the habit of studying can focus and concentrate for many hours when they want to. But for some others, they find it difficult to just sit at the desk for a short while. Some give up mid-way because they haven't developed the habit of studying. I suggest that you study at a regular time and place every day for two to three weeks without giving up.
Though varied from person to person, it usually takes 14 to 21 days for a person to form a habit. Therefore, you should never give up mid-way thinking you can't do it before two weeks have passed. It is important to practice it unceasingly.
If you practice sitting at the desk and studying regularly, even for a short while, for two or three whole weeks, you will begin to develop the habit of studying. As time passes, you will have more concentration power and your studying will take off like it had wings.
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