How can I concentrate without being disturbed by external as well as internal influences?

Answer 1

by doing things close to my heart which I have been always dying to do.

Answer 2

Meditate at least an hour a day. With practice you can enter the state of mind any time you wish and not be affected by internal or external forces.
An I am a Christian I do not think meditation and Christianity are opposed (Paul said to meditate upon the word of God)

Answer 3

You need both physical and mental training.

1) Do your work actively and with full involvement. Do not postpone anything.
2) Have some good physical exercises like walking jogging, cycling etc to make yourself physically fit.
3) Do Pranayama and Kapalpadhi.
4) Do meditation - japa type or visualisation type for at least 20 to 30 minutes.
Do everything regularly for a minimum period of 21 days. Then everything Will become your regular habit.
visit http://www.yogaguruonline.com/ to refer about pranayama, meditation etc.
Good luck
Baba

Answer 4

If you are finding it hard to relax and take things off your mind the best way to do so is, basically what everyone here is saying and that is to meditate. Meditation frees the mind of unwanted thought, relaxes you and has been proven to help with many things like healing, inspiration, self awareness, confidence and willpower.

First of all you want to be either sitting comfortable or lying down. I always choose lying down because if you drift off to sleep then you are comfortable in the right position to do so and you wont wake up aching. Take deep breaths, but make sure they are relaxed breaths, don't try and hold it in or rush it, when you need to breath, breath.

Second thing is to count down from say about 20, 30 or 40, slowly, and while you are counting in your head imagine the number, picture it inside your mind. As you count down you may feel your self going into your subconscious which is called the Alpha state of mind. This is when you are in that twilight zone just awakening in the morning and when you sometimes feel yourself drifting off to sleep, for example, and at times when we are relaxed, focused and in the zone. Basically, our brains are producing a rhythm of 7-14 cps, where as with normal conscious thought we are producing a Beta rhythm of 14 cps and up.

Then try to focus on each and every part of your body. This may be difficult at first and you may not know weather you are doing it correctly but each time you meditate it will become easier and you will notice that you can feel your skin without touching it. As you are focusing on the body you may feel yourself going light or heavy. When you feel this it can be quite strange because we rarely witness it, but don't let it slip away, keep focusing and soon your body wont feel like it belongs to you. Your body has fallen to sleep but your mind is still awake.
The feeling is wonderful.

Ok, so your body is relaxed, but you still might be thinking of all those things that are stressing you out. You now need to block away those thoughts and focus on something. The first thing i tried was picturing a lit candle. See it in your minds eye, see the wax dripping down the candle, use all your imagination to make the image beautiful. You will find it is a lot harder to do than to imagine doing it. Just try it know. You probably wont be able to focus on it and keep this the single thing in your mind for more than 10 secs without something popping up in your head and taking over. A soon as you notice the focused image has gone, bring it back and do so every time something comes up.
If you can focus solidly on this one image for a minute or 2 you are doing very well. The more you do it the easier it will become, like anything you do.

As well as your body being fully relaxed, now you mind is also.
If at any time you don't feel comfortable and you wont to come back to the Beta state of mind, count from 1 - 5, the same way that you counted from 20 - 0 and on the count of 5 open your eyes and you are now awake, hopefully feeling refreshed and a lot happier within yourself.

The best time to meditate is in the mornings, when you wake and at night before your go to sleep.

I've meditated for the past year and have found that Alpha helps me sleep, produces a mild euphoria, and just makes me feel better. You don't need expensive biofeedback equipment to achieve the Alpha state - to slow down the mind and relax the body. All you need is some simple instruction and about 10-15 minutes per day to feel a difference.

If you go on the web site SilviaMind.com you can learn a lot more about meditation and you can have free guild on how to meditate and you will get a 45 minute audio piece that will help you reach your Alpha state if your are struggling to do so.