I’m bad at focus ≠ I’m bad at meditation
If you’re bad at focusing on stuff, you must be bad at meditating, right? If it’s already a struggle to power through work or school material, wouldn’t it be even harder to power through meditation, which is like, focusing on the breath for 10 minutes or something?
A few things going on here:
There is a story that started somewhere, sometime, that married the concept of focus with the concept of meditation. While It is true that there are practices in certain traditions that require a great amount of concentration, that does not mean all meditation practices demand strong focus.
A healthy, beneficial meditation practice is aligned to the needs and the reality of the individual. Those traditions that have practices requiring great focus? More likely than not, the individuals in those traditions have pledged their lives to extreme asceticism. Their practice matches their lifestyle. If you’re reading this, you are probably not a monk, and therefore shouldn’t force yourself to meditate like one (link to an article on this topic).
In short, meditation does not mean ‘activity which demands great focus and concentration.’ There are many practices which are much more exploratory, freeing, and - get this - downright fun. (Curious? Come attend a class at our studio!)
There is no such thing as being bad at focusing. In fact, you most likely have no trouble focusing, and there are myriad examples from your life that illustrate this. Ever reach for your phone during an extra long traffic light and totally zone in before realizing that the entire line of cars in front of you has moved on? Or become so engrossed in a book or video game that time just flies by and you don’t even realize it got dark outside already?
What this means is that yes, there are certain things you have great amounts of difficulty sitting through and doing. Your mind wanders and you dedicate lots of energy pulling your thoughts back to task.
And then there are other things that you have no problem devoting great amounts of focus to. You’re eager to begin, thoroughly enjoy the process, and the natural laws of time seem to melt away when you’re engrossed in this way.
So consider all the instances in which you are ecstatically focused, reverently concentrated, and instinctively fixated. Now, what would it be like to play with the idea that you are great at focusing?
Our modern usage and connotation of focus belies its true, original definition and fails to encompass all the different dimensions focus inhabits. In other words, there are many different ways for focus to express itself besides in a razor sharp, targeted, and productive way.
Experiencing the multifaceted textures of focus is what we often explore in my meditation classes and what we will focus on (😊) in this article today.
The Evolution of How We Focus
3000 years ago, we were much more practiced at a different manner of focus - it was more panoramic, generalized, and loose - because our very survival depended on it. What kind of predators, animal or human, lurked on the horizon? What was the texture of the sky and the taste of the air, and how would that guide our preparations for shelter? What could the patterns in the flora and fauna tell us about how the hunt would turn out?
A demanding, sharp focus was a necessity as well, but only needed in more infrequent, often life or death situations - a fight with an enemy, a surprise confrontation with a predator, or in the final crescendo of the kill of a hunt.
Our ancestors daily relationship with focus consisted of a flow between these different poles and directions of focus. Today, in our post-industrial, technologically centered age, this type of relationship with focus has become nearly extinct. We have evolved, and with that, our relationship with focus has evolved as well.
Today, most of us work jobs that require only one type of focus - a super targeted, hyper compartmentalized type. Our very livelihoods depend on being able to zoom in on our tasks and get them done within very specific parameters and timelines. Gone are the days in which we were rewarded for working with a focus that was more generalized and loose.
What happens when our skill of focus is being forced to actively evolve at such an unprecedented pace? What are the repercussions of flattening and narrowing our definition of focus? What happens to our being on all levels - mental, physical, and emotional - when we starve our system of the essential nutrients that come from a way of surveying the world that has been primally hardwired into our biology?
I can’t say for sure, because we’re still actively in the process of such an evolution. What I can sense us arriving at though, if we continue to cultivate a lopsided relationship with focus, is a destination where there is a sort of sparseness of depth and breadth of Life available to our access. This will be quite unfortunate, as it is imperative to the health of humankind that we maintain a healthy connection to the full-spectrum richness of Life. Such a connection is what begets curious, open-minded exploration, which in turn births impactful, life-generating innovation and legacy.
Don’t Skip Leg Day (But the Focus Version)
Perhaps the question to ask here is not ‘How can I strengthen my ability to focus?’ but instead ‘How can I strengthen my faculty of focus?’
Usage of the word ‘ability’ frames focus as a skill to obtain and hold on to through constant practice. Think - drills, lots of motivation, willpower, and overriding of personal desire in service of getting to an external goal you wish to attain. A bodily analogy would be isolate exercises to work out only 1 muscle area for aesthetic reasons.
Usage of the word ‘faculty’ frames focus as an inherent mental or physical power. Think - big picture visioning to anchor your direction, flexible and open awareness that catches risks quickly and course corrects with agility, and a healthy capacity to direct resources towards more innovative explorations. The bodily analogy here being focus as the symphony of all the muscle groups of your body getting a well-rounded workout via compound exercises.
Cultivating Healthy Focus in Meditation
Remember - you have no trouble focusing. You do it all the time in your work. What you need is to find ways to welcome opportunities to dilate your focus. This type of focus isn’t about control, it is about setting your mind and heart free to digest, connect, and love, spontaneously and fully. This softer, wider focus is paradoxically simple and deep at the same time.
A meditation practice is a perfect setting to explore such a way of focus. I tell my students all the time - your meditation time is your ‘do nothing time.’ It is truly the only place you have in your life where - for the next 10-20 minutes - you are not beholden to any task, email, person, or thing. You really don’t need to be doing anything. And in walking through the portal of ‘doing nothing,’ you find yourself in the universe of panoramic focus.
What’s up right now with me?
How am I doing?
How am I feeling?
You survey your internal landscape with a generalized, wide focus. Soon, the setting begins to speak to you.
I’m tired. I need more rest.
I miss my family. I wish we could go on a vacation together right now.
I’m worried about my project at work. I need more guidance or feedback.
The next step is fun. You get to choose what you want to explore, what you’d like to guide your focus to.
In meditation, I love to play with focus as ‘a place to return home to.’ In fact, the etymology of focus comes from Latin for ‘domestic hearth.’ The hearth being the center, the heart of the home. I guide my focus gently to that which I hold dear to my heart, that which I want to rest in, that which I want to bask in the warmth of.
The feeling of letting myself fully release into rest.
An all out daydream about a springtime trip with my loved ones to the beautiful, rolling plains of Montana.
Gratefully appreciating the support available to me in my work, should I decide to ask for it.
It can be ecstatic, for little bit of time, to forget about the hundred million things on your to-do list and just be with one thing that you love. The hundred million things will likely seem different afterwards.
Cast aside the ten thousand things,
And love only one.
Don’t go on to another.
Engage your lively awareness
With this one focus—
One object, one thought, one symbol.
Now go inside.
Find the center,
The soul, the heart.
Right here,
In the middle of the feeling,
Attend the blossoming—
Attention vast as the sky.
- Sutra 39, The Radiance Sutras