IMPROVING MENTAL CONCENTRATION WHILE YOU EAT

Learn To “Get Into The Zone” and Access “The Flow State” When Eating

Mental Concentration (leading to strong overall mental focus) for “Getting Into The Zone” and achieving “Flow State” can be effectively learned through a particular method of eating your food. By adapting the way you eat so that you improve your ability to control your attention in defiance of internal thought-based and physiologically impulsive distractions, you will be able to take that experience onto the golf course (or any other field of play), into the classroom, onto the stage, into the boardroom, or anywhere else you want to perform ever-more brilliantly.

Many people have been writing to me about learning more about “The Flow State” and about “Getting Into The Zone” – actually, both are the same state of mental concentration – so that they can apply the cognitive powers inherent in that state for peak performance in all areas of life, but especially in career, business, and social situations.

I’ve given effective advice and provided a free training course to get people started, but the most powerful way to begin mastering the ability to instantly get yourself into a singular state of mental concentration (while still being in control enough of your attention that you are not tense) is EVERY DAY PRACTICE at being fully engaged in the most mundane activities you do nearly every day!

Eating is one prime example. A great number of us are fortunate enough to have the privilege of eating several times a day. You can turn every meal into a powerful training routine for helping you MASTER your ability to achieve Flow State and get into The Zone.

The practice of “EATING IN THE PRESENT MOMENT” (being totally mindful, not allowing your attention to wander off into any form of thought) opens the door for improved cognitive skill at mental concentration itself, as well as a sense of genuine happiness no matter what the food.

In the practice of being fully engaged – of being willfully mindful when eating – work at keeping your attention and perception in the here and now; centering your attention – detaching it from whatever thoughts may be going on and bringing it back into the room with you so that you know that you know that you know where you are and what you are doing.

It is not merely that you look about the room and think to yourself, “Okay, I can see I’m here in the dining room.” It’s much more viscerally involved than that. You are to not only realize where you are, but in spreading your attention like a bubble from your mind, you are to allow yourself to perceive such stimulus cues as the feel of the clothing on your body, the temperature of the air on your skin, the fact that you are breathing, and the awareness of the physical experience of your musculature – is there any tension, ‘knotted’ areas, or anxiety? If so, WHAT ARE YOU THINKING IN THAT MOMENT? You’re not supposed to be thinking, but attending to the moment, fully engaged in THIS reality as opposed to the synthetic, 3-dimensionality of the mechanical chatter going on in your head. Break out of it and come back to yourself.

Effort of attention is the essential phenomenon of Will. —William James

Your Power Of Attention Control

The secret, ALWAYS, is to get a handhold on the one thing you have power to control, which will give you power over those things which are more difficult to control. That simple thing is ATTENTION. By doing so, you activate what Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote of as, “…the spasm to collect and swing the whole being…”

The cognitive dissonance (the natural ability to be aware that the vehicle is in motion but you aren’t actually directing it) allows you to detect that your mind and body aren’t obeying your will; simultaneously, the Executive Control Function centered in the frontal lobe of your brain allows you to seize control of your attention, which disconnects the power source that automatonic portions of your brain require in order to carry out your day without your conscious participation.

When you consciously disconnect your attention from the automatonic process, the chaotic thoughts and feelings and wild urges that come with it begin to slow down and will eventually come to a halt. Of course, the fact that ‘living unconsciously’ has such momentum in your life means you’ll have to continually work at repeatedly disconnecting your attention until doing so becomes easy, giving you a masterful ability to bring your mind under your control almost instantaneously. The experience is somewhat like suddenly disengaging the cruise control on a vehicle moving at eighty miles per hour. You can FEEL the slight lurch that occurs right as the machine begins slowing down; then, YOU place your foot on the accelerator to power it in moving at the pace YOU want it to.

An Example Of Mental Concentration During Eating To Touch The Zone And Flow State

Using myself as an example, once I’ve shaken myself from mental slumber, fully gathering my attention, disconnecting it from thoughts and concerns, I slowly sit to table, breathing deeply, letting go of any physical tension by allowing my attention to move about my entire physical form in order to detect tension, shallow breathing, anxiety, etc. Once I discover any such, I breathe deeply and release them purposely, and do not commence to chowing down until I’m ‘right’.

When YOU conduct this approach for yourself, remember that there is NOTHING else of importance during this gustatory training session. If you were trying to sink a fifteen foot putt during a major golf tournament to win a couple million bucks, would anything other than the putt be of importance? Of course not. Same here. You’re not to be watching television or reading or playing handheld games or dealing in any form of entertainment. There is only the meal, and the aroma, and the sight of the fare. What a succulent level of dimensionality can be added to the act of eating when you do this! Then again, some foods or preparation methods may cause you to pause, wondering, “What the heck am I putting into my body!?!”

When centered in this near-meditative and utterly alert state of mind, quieted (so to speak), I attentively take in the sight and aroma of the food, slowly, fully, as though that were the only thing that exists in the moment for me. I give it ATTENTION, so that I may experience the richness of it.

Then, slowly, I reach for the utensil, and, slowly, put the first bite of food upon it and bring it toward my mouth. The entire time, I hold my attention in the present moment, declining the tempting invitation of any thought (bearing content of past, present, or future – “NO THANKS, I’M BUSY NOW!”).

When the first bite goes into my mouth, I give it a moment before I start to chew. I allow the flavors of the first bite to paint my tongue and my senses as I breathe in slowly. Sometimes that can be a staggering experience, to finally realize the effect of a food’s flavor on the body and how your physiology truly reacts to it.

Then I begin chewing. You’ve probably already guessed that it is to be done with slowness, giving attention to taste, texture, and accompanying aroma – to how everything changes as ingredients are mixed further in the mouth. Swallowing is similarly done, feeling the food go down my throat, then pausing to ensure I’m still fully engaged before I silently will myself to take the next bite.

HOW IS THIS EFFECTIVE FOR MY PEAK PERFORMANCE?

Thanks for asking. I was wondering when you’d chime in.

Often – and THIS IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT – you can sense things in your body that give a glaring clue as to why we overeat, why we hurry, why we make clumsy mistakes in the heat of the moment, and what is at the root of our being compelled to act in ways we truly wish we did not. These are clues (profound LESSONS, really) that can instruct you in ways no amount of counseling or therapy can do. The reactions you sense within yourself when eating while fully engaged are the same physiological and psychological events that affect you in all areas of life, for they are HABITS.

The compulsion you feel to gobble your food is the same culprit that causes people to say stupid things in social situations and at work. THE VERY SAME.

In many cases, there’ll be occasion to sense the insidious psychological fears and deeply hidden loneliness that cause people to sabotage their own success, blow money they shouldn’t spend, and keep company with people who are toxic to be around.

The chaotic thoughts that work to steal your attention away from being fully engaged in your meal (and which your will decline, and decline, and decline to participate in) are the same chaotic thought habits that keep people from being extraordinarily productive in their business and career; the same repetitive mental beasts that maul someone on the playing field when the game is on the line.

When you encounter such things in the process of working to do a simple thing such as eating a meal, the tactics you use to keep yourself out of their grip are the same sorts of tactics that the highest performers in society use to be in The Zone; to access The Flow State; therefore, you want to take notes on WHAT you do to stay present to yourself, in staving off the attack of mechanistic mental noise and bodily tensions, to stay relaxed and fully engaged.

Your job in this gustatory mental concentration training is to simply keep a handhold on your attention, centered in the here and now, and quietly observe with your expanded bubble of attention – simultaneously delighting in the heightened experience of the meal as you witness (sometimes with amazed fascination) repetitive mental events that you never consciously noticed before; witness them rise, and without your participation (without your FEEDING THEM your attention) witness them FADE AWAY!!!!  THAT IS THE POWER YOU’RE LOOKING FOR:

The POWER you’re looking for is that of simply allowing a mental
event that once owned you (due to your previous lack of awareness) to fade
away into nothingness, over and over and over again until
it has no chance of ever overtaking you in the future!

THAT is one way the most superior performers can remain the calm center of any storm, able to act with efficiency, proficiency, and and serenity, while everybody else is running around screaming.

Keep watch for the sudden onset of tension or impatience or the temptation to drift of into thought, the state of which causes us to eat in ways that deprive us of food’s genuine enjoyment, and also deprives us of the body’s natural signals of fullness and satisfaction. The reason why so many of us overeat is because we’re lost in mechanical thoughts and don’t listen to our bodies.

One great benefit I enjoy as I continue to eat in this way is that my body tells me clearly when it has had enough of so rich an experience, and I often find that I have food left over (of course, not being a tiny fella, I have plenty on the plate initially).

The benefits go way beyond merely immersing one’s self in the experience of the meal. Indeed, it has to do more with the expansion of self-awareness, especially in noticing and dealing with thoughts and impulses that affect nearly everything we do throughout the day. It’s a door to letting go of a lot of hidden pain, and through that door, in the moment one walks through it sitting there at the table, lies happiness.

At some point, you are going to experience a very interesting sensation, one of everything feeling unified, of everything making sense, of confidence and intuitive knowing, as though you can do anything you set your mind to. This is touching The Zone, or Flow State. When you are in this place – this mindset – you are at your best, because you are not at the mercy of the kinds of cognitive phenomenon that causes mistakes and errors in judgment or bad actions.

An Example Of Applying The Lessons Learned

Let’s say you’ve been practicing this approach for a couple weeks and you’ve learned much, plus you’ve been taking copious notes on your experience. Now you want to see if you can actually apply it to one thing to observe its effects.

Your boss obligates you to partner with her in a golf foursome so that she can kiss up to a higher-level Exec who has her ticket to a higher-paying gig. If you make her look bad, you’re toast. Feel the heat on that one? Good.

You’re up on the driving tee and everybody’s looking at you; your chaotic thoughts are a hurricane of fearful pressure.

With the experience you’ve picked up by simply enjoying your meals in a different way, you use the very same tactics to draw the attention out of the hurricane and find your center of relaxed peace. In your perception, there is no boss, no higher-level Exec, no risk of failure. There’s just you, a gentle breeze, the club, your well-trained and conditioned golf skills, and the ball, the contour and dimples of which you can see as clearly as if it were three feet across. When you send the ball sailing in a beautiful arc straight down the fairway, you simply smile to a chorus of voices complimenting, “Nice shot!”

You quietly maintain this state of mental concentration until you sink a long put at the 18th green, and then you let it go. It continues to resonate with you during the social gathering afterwards, allowing you to feel totally comfortable listening and speaking (mostly listening) to the Exec who finds you fascinating though she can’t figure out why. Next day, your boss invites you to another outing, because you’ve got the stuff.

So, this is just one example of how you can take the skills you acquire through a simple, mundane activity like eating ‘consciously’ and transfer those skills to other activities for brilliant performance through strong mental concentration. You are invited to try this approach and contact us by email to let us know of your experience.

T. Lavon Lawrence, NCMFT
Brain Training Expert & Author
The NEURO-SCULPTING!© Mental Fitness Training Studio
Skype ID:  dynamic.mental.fitness
www.neuro-sculpting.com
trainer@neuro-sculpting.com
Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/dynamicmentalfitness
Twitter:  http://www.twitter.com/brain_fitness
Myspace:  http://www.myspace.com/dynamicmentalfitness
Linkedin:  http://www.linkedin.com/in/tlavonlawrence