How Training Focus TRASHED My Fantasies
Throughout most of my life, the ability to focus happened randomly. I also used to daydream a lot. When the brain suggested an idea or part of it, I followed it actively and wholeheartedly. It meant surfing on the waves of fantasies. They could be interpretations of events that happened, an emotion, or an entirely new fantasy story – I was aboard. Every single time. Aimlessly. I didn’t know an alternative existed, nobody told me.
Being alive meant being on constant overdrive. Is it possible for the mind to be quieter and not be in constant red alert?
Over the past 3,5 years of meditation practice, I’ve learned how focus is actually a side effect of our ability to filter out distractions - and not being caught by them. So due to training daily, I don’t get lost in thought anymore. I don’t need to always actively participate in my brain’s attempted distractions. And even though aimless fantasizing and daydreaming have lost their place in my life, fantastical ideas can still be found - now under controlled and repeatable conditions.
Daily practice can amount to drastic shifts.