A few years back I was browsing the shelves in a local book store. Nothing took my fancy until I happened upon a book about improving concentration. As soon as I saw the book, a voice in my head instantly told me I should buy it.

So I did as I was told and bought the book. Once home I eagerly began to read. I was not many pages into the book before it gave a piece of advice I would struggle with for the next few months. It told me to put a stop to the mental chatter in my head. The same mental chatter that told me to buy the book, was now being shunned by the very same book!

I took heed of the advice as it seemed like a good idea to quieten my thoughts. But as soon as I tried this, my brain rebelled and starting talking again. It said:

Is this really a good idea? What if mental chatter actually has a useful purpose? Shutting it off could have seriously negative consequences!

I tried to ignore this for a while; forcing myself not to listen. But, as usual, when I try to force something it eventually flings back. Was more persistant training required or was my mind rebelling for a reason?

So instead of working on silencing my mind, I instead started debating whether I should or not. It took me a long time, but eventually I came to the following realisation.

Generally mental chatter is a good thing. It may seem random and pointless, but it has a complicated structure and a real purpose. However, in order to have full control over ourselves and be able to improve our thoughts we first need to gain control of our minds and develop the ability to shut it off when we desire. When we have that level of control we can improve our mental chatter so that it becomes more useful.

When to engage in mental chatter and when not to

Mental chatter is often a good thing. When we are doing tasks that are easy for us, we often daydream. One of the prime benefits of daydreaming is creativity. It is often recommended that we go for a walk, take a bath or even do the washing up while we think over a problem. When we do this our mental chatter takes over. We let go, and let our thoughts roam where they please. This freedom of thought allows us to encounter new ideas and solutions to problems.

In fact, as I prepared to write this article I experienced the benefits of mental chatter. I began by exposed myself to the problem by spending a few minutes writing my initial ideas for the article. This planted the main idea in my head. Then I went away, did some cooking and let my mind wander. Without trying, my mind came up with ideas of what to write. I jotted these down on a piece of paper and so formed the foundations of my work.

However, there are also situations where mental chatter doesn't work in my favour. Sometimes it is more important to pay attention to my surroundings. Daydreaming can lead to mistakes in work and in ordinary life. I decided that I wanted to be able to decide when I was going to let my thoughts flow as they pleased, and when I was going to direct them.

I wanted total control over my thoughts, but more importantly, I wanted that control to be flexible.

And so I began to practice meditation.

Benefits of Meditation

Meditation is like opening a fresh page in your notebook. From this clean sheet you can begin to build new thoughts, unconstrained from the limits of your old thinking patterns. It helps us develop the ability to direct our thoughts where we know they will be most productive.

And here are few more benefits that mediation for concentration can provide:

• Improved Breathing - helps quality oxygen to get to the brain, aiding functioning.
• Reduced Stress - This is probably the most widely acknowledged benefit of mediation and it has a dramatic impact on intelligence. When we are calm, relaxed and can put our worries aside, we are better able to concentrate on the problem at hand.
• Improved posture - Meditation focuses a lot on developing a great posture for meditating in. This seems to transfer to the rest of your life. If you begin sitting with a better posture at your desk, oxygen will get to your brain more easily.
• Improved concentration - This is why I began meditating and the exercise has a specific focus on developing concentration. Other meditations have the opposite goal, but meditating for concentration should help develop your focus in many areas of your life.
• Induces slow alpha and theta states - Alpha and Theta states represent the frequency at which your brain is currently working at and reflect different states of consciousness from sleeping to full wakefulness. Meditation induces a state which has been shown to aid memory and learning. As children we spend considerably more time in these states, and this is perhaps one reason why as children we were great learners. This is in contrast to the higher speed brain activities which seem to be associated with more conscious mental activities such as problem solving.
• Helps prepare for other visualisation tasks - When you begin trying to implement many mental exercises you may find you have trouble sitting still. Many people find that when they sit still, they start noticing itches, they get fidgety and their mind wanders all over the place. I was certainly no exception when I began. This form of meditation focuses specifically on ridding yourself of these problems. Instead of trying to concentrate on your work as you try to develop concentration, meditation frees your mind to focus specifically on concentration.

How to Meditate to Clear the Mental Chatter

There are many forms of meditation. Unfortunately we are still waiting for more scientific research to point to the best forms. However, the evidence so far suggests that different types of mediation will help concentration in different areas. For this reason, I suggest picking a method and sticking to it for a couple of months and then trying a different form. A bit of personal experimentation is necessary here.

Begin with a simple meditation for concentration. This will provide an excellent base from which to further develop your concentration skills. This can be a focus on a mantra, an imagined object, or your breath. Don't worry about picking the perfect method, as it is a good idea to try different types anyway. However, you should give each type a trial of at least a month.

Here is the procedure for the meditation I am currently practicing.

The first step is to find a comfortable sitting position with a good posture. Many postures like the Lotus can take a while for the body to comfortably acclimatise to, and this can be distracting for the meditation, so I find it's best to stay out of those postures until you can do them easily.

The main meditation postures can be found here. My posture of choice is the Burmese Pose which is described on that page. I find I can sit in this position quite comfortably for a good length of time which makes it ideal. I can get into the full lotus, but at the moment I can't stay there long enough because I lack the flexibility.

If you find it difficult to stay still and concentrate, many people find Asana Yoga to be easier. Asana Yoga still trains the concentration, but the body is moving as well. I found this helped when I was getting started. But, as with many things, the best choice is usually individual.

The second step is very easy to describe and understand, but difficult to perform. I've personally chosen to focus on my breath.

The idea is simply to focus only on the breath and nothing else. If a stray thought appears, you acknowledge it and then naturally return to thinking about the breath. This can be more difficult than it sounds - even if it sounds difficult! In this meditation the idea is not to try and control the breath, just to observe. As you become conscious of subtle changes in your body and breath, you will naturally make subtle changes to how you breathe without even realising it. These changes then spill out into your everyday life. To aid concentration you may find it helpful to count your breaths. I find this keeps me more focused.

For fastest results do this twice a day for at least 10 minutes.

As well as specific meditation exercises, I've also noted success with doing repetitive exercises such as juggling, jogging, drills on a musical instrument, mathematical equations, and even watching Avant-garde films! If repetitive enough these activities soon becomes mundane, but if you focus intentionally on what you are doing and look for subtle details, I've noticed a movement from boredom to a meditative state. This seems to transfer very well to other activities of a similar nature. Drawing also has a similar effect although it doesn't seem to include the boredom phase - at least in my experience.

I actually don't get bored at all anymore, but partly that is because I let my mind drift during some activities. I'm getting much closer to total concentration without boredom though. There are only a few activities that I've yet to develop full concentration on. I'm a little unsure what is next - perhaps telekinesis! hmm...