How To Get Perfect Focus In Mediation

Many people doing meditation knows that the key to enter a deep meditative state while being totally awake and aware is to have a certain degree of steady yet relaxed focus on the breath, the third eye, the flame of a candle or something else.

But we fall asleep or drift off in our thoughts easily. We continue our practice on the relaxed focus and take our attention back, again and again, time after time, and every now and then when we reach this relaxed focus we get inner experiences.

In the book Vigilance written by Jim Robbins in 2000, he explains what happened when he experimented with increasing a specific range of brainwaves, known as the SMR brainwave frequency range (Sensorimotor Responce 12-15 Hz), in cats by the use of a tone stimulating this range.: "The animal entered a unique state it remained absolutely still, though extremely alert, waiting for the tone to end. It is the same state a house cat waits in, feigning heavy-lidded indifference, as a bird makes its way near enough to be pounced on. (P. 39)"

If you are into meditation you might find this interesting, because the state described above (even if it's a cat) is the ideal state for focusing your attention in meditation. Will this tone" have the same effect on humans? Yes. Can you use this tone on yourself? Yes.

The importance of SMR brainwave frequencies

They are associated with relaxed, yet focused, behavior. It is believed that SMR brainwave frequencies make people feel more present and aware in the moment. Low SMR causes a lack of focus and attention, reflecting ADD. Increasing SMR through brainwave entrainment can produce relaxed concentration along with improved focus and attentive abilities.

Western science meets eastern spirituality

There are two sides to explaining meditation: The western scientific approach and the eastern spiritual" approach. What you are doing when you focus on things like the breath in your meditation, scientifically speaking, is to increase the SMR amplitude in your brain while at the same time moving deeper and deeper within yourself. If you maintain this spiritual focus" (eastern approach), or maintain the SMR frequencies (western approach), at the same time as getting more and more relaxed, moving down through the relaxed alpha state and down to the meditative theta state you will feel fantastic, get inner experiences and get very good effects from your meditation.

This is why so many meditation teachers and guru's" say how important focus is. Just reaching the meditative theta state without any focus will just get you to near sleep without any memory of the time spent in this state when you return to awake state, and after a few minutes without this focus in the theta state you will fall asleep. This is extremely common amongst meditators and according to me the number one reason why people give up meditation.

You may also have heard some guru say that you can not meditate. That meditation just happens by itself if you practice focus. This is easily understandable too since if you have an amplified SMR range and let go of everything, your brain will move down to a very relaxed state, maybe even near sleep, but you are still awake, experiencing all things this near sleep" state has to offer. Even OOBE's (out of body experiences) is more easily attainable with a good amplitude of these brainwave frequencies. This is why meditation just happens" but still takes practice.

Too much TV is bad for meditation.

I'm certain that you know at least one person that watches a lot of TV and have problems being concentrated. Science has showed that too much time spent watching TV can cause a general unfocused state of mind and the inability to concentrate. If this behavior becomes a habit, the risk is that the lowered ability to focus becomes more permanent. You can still get out of this permanent" state by practicing concentration.

What do you get if someone is unable to focus, and at the same time is hyperactive? Sounds like something happening more and more to our children. The cartoons nowadays can be very hyperactive. So they will become both unfocused and at the same time hyperactive if spending hours of TV watching each day. Doesn't this remind you of ADD?

Using EGG to measure brainwaves, you can by 96% reliability diagnose ADHD. When checking the brainwaves of these children, there is almost always an inability to produce higher brainwave frequencies like the SMR range. This is what happens when your brain is never challenged to create the frequencies corresponding to focus. It gets permanent in the brain.

Did you ever start a day with watching TV or watching a screen for some other entertainment, then meditated and got irritated because you kept getting disturbing thoughts or falling asleep? This is why meditation is so effective early in the morning before doing anything else according to me. Now, are you beginning to see how important the SMR brainwave frequencies are?

Boost your brain with SMR brainwave frequencies

Get a CD or MP3 file using brainwave entrainment sounds to stimulate this range. There's also software that will let you create these sounds on your own, but they can be expensive. You can improve your meditation a lot using this just before you meditate. You might notice that you also start sleeping better and feel more able to stay relaxed yet focused in you every day life. This will give you more energy because you will stay relaxed when you focus which lowers your stress a lot.

There are so many areas in the field of mental ability where the problem can me solved by increased SMR brainwave activity. Just lowering your brainwaves to alpha or theta will make you lazy. You need to have some degree of relaxed concentration.