NO compromise on your Attention Currency

We live in the world of information overload age. We are constantly bombarded with a huge flood of information, the moment we wake up till we go back to the bed. The information is bombarded from many different sources such as mobile, laptop, SMS, whatsapp, Facebook, LinkedIn etc.

Value of the information: Clearly, most of the information exchange tools such as whasapp, Facebook come free of cost. But, in return, they take our attention and make money out of our attention. The apps or platforms that trigger people to visit very often to their platforms make the most money. In other words, we are selling our attention in order to get the free apps/software platform.

Since, the platforms come at no cost; we tend to send information mindlessly. The value that we attach to the exchanged information between people diminishes. Simple examples are those forwarded messages. The information overload is due to the mindless means of transacting the message without giving due consideration to the human value of those at the receiving end.

Consider the amount of messages that you receive and the amount of knowledge /result that you have achieved on a given day. Except with few exceptions, most of the days are spent in reading or transacting the accidental messages.

Research : Consider a simple whatsapp message such as, “can you tell me your availability?”. This seemingly insignificant distraction causes you to deviate from your focussed activity and takes 23 minutes before getting you back to the same intensity of work of your focussed activity. One develops a self-interrupt habit as he is continuously bombarded with such distractions over days, weeks, months & years. Self-interrupt is a habit where one is compelled to interrupt himself in the middle of his focussed activity and do something irrelevant such as checking email, SMS before proceeding to his regular activity.

Attention: With the distractions mentioned above, we have lost our ability to focus and stay attentive with our work. We have now something called ADT (Attention Deficit Trait), a kind of disease common to the entire human mankind. Attention is our ability to focus on a particular task & it is a real currency in this given adverse situation. This currency of yours is taken by others.

So, if you feel that you are all over the place then it is good to check and see where you spent your energy throughout the day. If you are attentive on the activities that are not inline to what that really matters to you in life then it is good to make a conscious choice to train the mind to stay focussed.

Technique: A simple technique of spending 5 minutes of your day on focussing on your breath helps to train your prefrontal cortex and enhances your ability to stay attentive. Simply, observe the rise and fall of your breath and feel the natural rhythm of your breath. Discard the distractions caused by the internal/external world of yours and develop the habit to stay focussed. This simple technique helps the brain to become attentive.

Remember attention is your currency to have a clear thought process as well as your overall wellbeing & do not compromise this skill in this information overload age.

Monitoring Points of your Health

Health Definition: As per World Health Organisation, health is defined as follows.

“Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease”

Being fit doesn’t mean that you are healthy. Mere absence of disease doesn’t mean that you are healthy. Health is a balanced holistic state of your being at the physical, mental & emotional levels. Any kind of practice that follows this protocol takes you to a true healthy state. Obviously, yoga is one such practice which gives the practitioner an opportunity to lead to an internally calm balanced state called Homeostasis.

Homeostasis: Human homeostasis is the process that maintains the stability of the human body's internal environment in response to changes in external conditions. This includes controlling of your body temperature, blood pressure, blood sugar level etc.

As an engineer, I always equate this process of homeostasis to the function of the PLL (Phase Lock Loop). The incoming signal is superimposed by the feedback signal that comes from the error detector and sent as an output signal. The output signal is monitored by the error detector to generate the feedback signal. So, the final output is always in a stable state irrespective of the errors caused due to the external factors.

Fortunately, our entire involuntary systems such as digestive system, circulatory system, excretory system and so on work in homeostasis without our involvement or our conscious effort. But, at the conscious level when things are not taken care in a balanced way then it has its own influence on our involuntary systems. This is the cause of the disease. So, to be healthy, it is important for you to stay balanced at the conscious level.

Indicators of Health: What are the indicators or monitoring points to know that we are in a healthy state and leading a balanced lifestyle? Here are four areas that summarise your current health state.

a)      Sleep pattern: A strong deep sleep pattern puts your system in a state of relaxation & body rework mechanisms kick start in this deep sleep state. Brain scientists call this state of brain as Theta & Delta State.

b)      Bowel Movement: Mother of all disease is constipation. Your entire digestive track is subconsciously programmed to work without any conscious effort. Good digestive system is a good indicator of your health.

c)       Mensuration cycle: Balanced hormonal system is the necessity for your perfect health. Periodic mensuration is a good indicator.

d)      Self-Talk: Free mind is a source of our creativity. Mind chattering centred around the negative emotions such as worries, fear, doubts etc. is a bad indicator of health.

So, look for the four of the above indicators and see where you stand for you to know your current health state.

Manage your Mind - Simple Technique

Mind becomes a powerful instrument if one knows how to handle the mind. In case, if one does not know how to handle the mind then mind starts to handle you. One becomes prisoner of his own mind in the latter case. Unfortunately, many live under the control of mind full time. This is not an optimal living. A person can clearly see the mind from a platform if he knows the technique to surface above the mind and resides in a platform. Now, it is easy for him to manage the mind.

There are multiple ways to do this & I’ll explain here in this blog one such powerful technique using our eyes.

Neurology of Eyes:  First, I would like to highlight 3 different aspects of the eyes. We all know eye is a sense organ for our vision. We see through our eyes. And, also eye is the only organ which is a direct extension of the brain. During the embryonic phase, the brain undergoes a growth process inside the womb. All the structures of the brain get completely embedded inside the skull except the part of the brain that extends out to form the eyes.

So, by playing with the eyes, we are indirectly playing with the brain. Now, you know the reason why the doctors apply torch in your eyes when they want to examine the pressure in the blood capillaries of the brain. Through eyes, the doctors can see the brain.

Secondly, eye is just a sense organ & we are not seeing by eyes. We see the projection of the image that is beamed from the eyes in the visual cortex of the brain. Yes, we see through our brain & not through our eyes.

Thirdly, left eye is controlled by the right hemisphere of the brain & right eye is controlled by the left hemisphere of the brain.

Eyeball movement: Just observe a restless person & watch his eyes. You may see his eye ball moves randomly everywhere. Also, you observe the eye movement of a very stable confident person in a conversation. His eye is fixed and connected straight into your eyes. This means that his mind is stable with a single thought & he is simply transferring his thought to your mind through the eyes. So, if one needs to control the mind, it is important to control the movement of the eyes. In other words, simply GAZE at one single point.

Just, try out yourself gazing at a single point and focus on the act of seeing & feeling. You will be amazed to see the reduction in the speed of your mind.

Gaze Point:  Here is an exercise that you may want to try with someone. Ask the following question to your friend, “what where you doing last Sunday morning?” & see his response. While recollecting the Sunday morning event, he may start to gaze upward to recollect the event from his memory. This is a natural automated response of all. We tend to look upward when we want to recollect some incidents. So, an upward gaze allows us to get connected to our deeper SELF.

So, it is not only gazing is a requirement but also an upward gaze of above 45 degree. So, to skip the mind, just look at your eyebrows. This simple gesture allows you to expand your awareness more than your present perceived boundaries.

Focus: As explained earlier, eyes are connected to the opposite side of the brain. When one focuses on the centre point between the two eyebrows, the left and right sides of the brain balance each other. This integration helps to expand his range of awareness. So, focus on the space in between your eyebrows.

Gazeà Upward à Centre point

Try this practice daily for five minutes & experience the powerful effect of this practice.

Why willpower does not work?

We take resolutions to change ourselves for good. The resolutions may be many such as: get your ideal weight, build good relationship, earn certain amount of money etc. Unfortunately, most of the resolutions will not find their ways to their respective final destinations. Typically, our New Year resolution that we take in January eventually dies by February.

In spite of this, there are few who can through this transition phase to reach out the final destination. So, what is the strategy used by this few to really see the smooth path and get into the end result that one deserves. I am writing here my own personal experience & the strategies that I used personally in transforming myself to my higher version.

Interplay: Before describing the strategies, I would like you to first understand certain basics. Our willpower plays a crucial role at the beginning phase. Let us say that we have made a resolution to become fit & we used our willpower to kick start the workouts regime. Remember, resolution means it is something new/unknown and hence we are trying to force ourselves out of our comfort zone. Our old habits that reside in the comfort zone are strong neurological pathways which prohibit the new habit/new neural network that we intend to develop through our new resolution.

Yes, there is an internal conflict between your old habits & your willpower. When the fight happens between these two entities, clearly always the dominant one wins & in this case, the winner is simply your old habits. We are forced again to lead the same lifestyle that we have been leading for years. There is NO change & hence no good transformation. Bottom line is to understand quickly that willpower alone is not good enough for the change to happen. It has to be accompanied with the rightful strategies to undergo the desired transition.

Minds: Willpower is part of the conscious mind & old habits are the design of your subconscious mind. As, we know subconscious mind is 95% active & conscious mind is active for 5% active for all our activities. So, old habits are always the winner.

Strategies: I have used these three key elements: Inspiration, Faith & Controlled ambience that aid me to undergo the transformation.

1.       Inspiration: We need to have some sort of role model who has already achieved the things that we look for. First important thing for us is to get emotionally attached to the goodness of the end results that the role model currently enjoys. Through good emotions, we get the ability to talk to the subconscious mind & make it understands our intention.

2.       Faith: We need to have great faith in ourselves, the tools that we use for the transformation & the person/team that is responsible in providing the tools & techniques to us. Importantly, our belief that the tools & techniques work 100% for you. More the faith, better we could clearly communicate to the subconscious mind.

3.       Ambience: We need to control and design our ambience that helps in achieving our goals. It is not ideal to have fridge full of junk foods when you want to get into your ideal fitness level. Instead, it is good to have some workout charts printed & kept in your vicinity, stuff the fridge with healthy foods, etc. So, designing of ambience is important to avoid the temptation that is driven again by our subconscious mind.