In a sense, meditation is about controlling the mind, without forcing it. You certainly don’t want to indulge in a battle of wills with yourself as that would be counterproductive! Meditation does require concentration and focus, yet techniques for improving those skills never seem to appear in meditation guides. So I’m going to give you three, to help you on your way.

Kim’s game

Played by children in many countries, this is a great place to start. Simply get someone to place several objects on a tray and cover them with a tea cloth. Remove the cover for a set time (start with 20 seconds and them shorten the period to make it tougher) and study the objects.

When the time is up and the cover replaced, pause for a minute or two and then try to remember as many objects as you can. Start with a relatively small number of objects and then increase the number as you become more skilled at the game.

If you’re playing on your own, here’s a variation – get a deck of cards, shuffle them, close your eyes and deal a set number, face up. Open your eyes, study the cards for the set period, then close your eyes and remember as many cards as you can (or turn your back on the cards if you want to write down what you remember).

Kim’s game (Advanced version)
Start out as above but when it comes to recalling the objects describe their position in relation to each other as well. You may prefer to draw the tray and mark the location of the objects.

Countdown

I got this from a book by Dr Clark Wilkerson. Simply concentrate on counting down from 100 to zero, one number at a time, and if you want to, visualise the each number in front of you. Focus on each number as it comes, avoid thinking of the next number in the sequence.

This becomes even more important when you take this exercise to the next stage; experiment with counting down with every other number (ie 100…98…96… etc), every third number (100…97…94…etc) or whatever interval you prefer. If you make a mistake, or if your mind wanders, start again from 100. With the bigger intervals, it’s quite a challenge to not start working out the next number ahead of time.

When 100 is too easy, increase the number to 200, then 300 and so on.

These three exercise will help you to develop your focus and concentration, therefore complementing your meditation practice.