The one who concentrates will be well poised, centered. The one who allows their mind to aimlessly wander will be easily upset, anxious, and emotionally turbulent. When you are able to concentrate, you will have peace of mind. It is important to practice thinking peace and acting peace until you can easily achieve peace of mind, and you will be able to concentrate on anything you want.

You have the power to do and to be whatever it is that you want to be. Whenever you begin to lose your mental poise, say, “Peace,” and concentrate entirely upon that thought until you have regained your mental poise.

This is an excellent practice for whenever you feel influenced by distracting thoughts, thoughts of fear or anxiety, or by thoughts of doubt. What you concentrate upon is what you give your energy to. So, when you recognize negative influences crowding your mind-space, practice peace and concentrate upon it, and give your attention and energy to peace and not to negative influences.

Concentration is paying attention to a chosen thought. Your mind can only focus the attention on one thing at a time. You may think it can when you are multi-tasking, but you cannot concentrate fully upon one thing while doing another thing.

For example, if you are walking down the street and you are thinking about what you need to do for work, then you probably won’t remember much of what you saw on your walk because your attention was elsewhere. Likewise, if you were walking down the same street and you saw something that attracted your attention, you are likely to be able to remember that thing very well, but if asked to describe other things that were around the object of your attention, you would most likely not be able to describe those things in great detail.

It is the same with your mind. You have many influences coming in all of the time, different thoughts and different feelings, but it is the ones you allow your attention to concentrate on that make the largest impressions. To maintain mental poise, you must make a conscious effort to choose the things to concentrate upon that will maintain your mental balance.

Study Yourself.

“Everyone has some habits that can be overcome by concentration. We will say for instance, you are in the habit of complaining, or finding fault in yourself or others; or, imagining that you do not possess the ability of others; or feelings that you are not as good as someone else; or that you cannot rely on yourself; or harboring any similar thoughts of weakness. These should be cast aside and instead thoughts of strength should be put in their place.” – Theron Q. Dumont

A little self-study will shock you if you do it well enough. I’m a pretty positive person and with a little self-study I discovered I wasn’t as positive as I thought myself to be. I rarely get upset or anxious, but I did notice that I would let negative thoughts creep in, and I’d concentrate on them until I recognized what I was doing and then practiced thought replacement.

“Just remember every time you think of yourself as being weak, in some way you are making yourself so by thinking you are. Our mental conditions make us what we are. Just watch yourself and see how much time you waste worrying, fretting and complaining. The more of it you do the worse off you are.” – Theron Q. Dumont

Replace negative thoughts with positive ones. Replace thoughts of failure with thoughts of success. Replace thoughts of weakness with thoughts of strength. It can be difficult to do this all the time. But you can set aside some time each day to supercharge thoughts of a positive nature.

“Set aside some hour of the day, wherein to hold rapt converse with the soul. Meditate with sincere desire and contrite heart and you will be able to accomplish that which you have meditated on. This is the keynote of success.” – Theron Q. Dumont

The way I do this is on each inhale I think a positive “I” statement, such as, “I am successful.” Then, on each exhale I think the same statement in “you” form, such as, “You are successful.” You can use the “I’s” and “You’s” mediation for all aspect of things such as health, wealth, success, the list goes on and on. Be sure to use only positive affirmations and to concentrate upon them and to not let negative thoughts enter your mind-space.

Because the universe is mental, we must treat our lives as if they are a result of our thoughts because besides the situation that you were born into, they are. That which we create in the thought world will someday materialize, and we have the power to direct our thoughts, and because of that we are responsible for the results of our thoughts. We are the ones that limit ourselves, there in nobody else to blame.

If you are not receiving what you are concentrating on, it’s probably because you just expect it to come to you and don’t put in any effort into securing its attainment. I once heard the phrase, “Pray like it’s up to God; work like it’s up to you.” This is an excellent mindset to have. Thinking it is not enough, praying for it is not enough, you must put forth your best effort if you want to see results.