Quotes About Focus

Don't do any task in order to get it over with. Resolve to do each job in a relaxed way, with all your attention. Enjoy and be one with your work. Without this, the day of mindfulness will be of no value at all. The feeling that any task is a nuisance will soon disappear is it is done in mindfulness.

Even if you only stop and focus on your breathing for a few breaths, or for a minute or two, it's very valuable.

Whenever you're carried away by thinking, overwhelmed by strong emotions, or feeling restless and dispersed, return to your breathing. Bring body and mind together and anchor your mind. Become aware of the air coming in and going out of your body.

Doing things with mindfulness means you perform each action with clear awareness of what's happening and of what you're doing in the present moment, and you feel happy as you do it. Mindfulness is the capacity to shine the light of awareness onto what's going on here and now. Mindfulness is the heart of meditation practice.

Writing a letter is a form of meditation practice.

If you feel that your dreams aren't coming true, you might think that you need to do more, or to think and strategize more. In fact, what you might need is less—less noise coming to you from both inside and outside—so that you have the space for your heart's truest intention to germinate and flourish.

The past is an object of our study, of our meditation, but the way to study it or meditate on it is by remaining anchored in the present moment.

Dwell peacefully in your in-breath and out-breath in the present moment. When the emotion is too strong and the breathing isn't enough to get you to stop and relax, go out and walk. Focus on your footsteps to help your mind stop. Don't let your mind carry you away with thinking, judgments, irritation, strong feelings, or projects. Come back to the present moment, stop, and relax.

Making an effort at the wrong time or place dissipates our energy.

There are two ways to wash the dishes. The first is to wash the dishes in order to have clean dishes and the second is to wash the dishes in order to wash the dishes.

If we don't practice mindfulness, our cravings and sensual desires will overwhelm us.

Remember that there is only one important time and that is now.

We study better in hostile surroundings than in hospitable ones, a student is always well advised to choose a hostile place of study rather than a hospitable one, for the hospitable place will rob him of the better part of his concentration for his studies, the hostile place on the other hand will allow him total concentration, since he must concentrate on his studies to avoid despairing

We always look for everything in the immediate proximity, that is a mistake.

But instead of thinking about my book and how to write it, as I go pacing the floor, I fall to counting my footsteps until I feel about to go mad.

The single-minded focus on scoring political points over solving problems, escalating over the last several decades, has reached a level of such intensity and bitterness that the government seems incapable of taking and sustaining public decisions responsive to the existential challenges facing the country.

The intentions as to reading, working, and learning, which he had so precisely formulated only a few minutes earlier, were suffering a curious collapse into a corner, he knew not how.

It depends entirely upon what is meant by being truly great. But the long and the short of the matter is, that men must stick to a thing if they want to succeed in it—not giving way to over-much admiration for the flowers they see growing in other people's borders; which I am afraid has been my case.' He looked into the far distance and paused.

He moves smoothly and slowly, carrying his concentration like a brimming cup.

He follows several trains of thought at once, without distraction from any, and one of the trains is always for his own amusement.

This is the hardest time, Starling. Use this time and it will temper you. Now's the hardest test - not letting rage and frustration keep you from thinking. It's the core of whether you can command or not. Waste and stupidity will get you the worst.

One can only see what one observes, and one observes only things which are already in mind. ALPHONSE BERTILLON

Problem-solving is hunting;

Respice finem; that is to say, in all your actions, look often upon what you would have, as the thing that directs all your thoughts in the way to attain it.