You may find this hard to
believe, but your mind is a puppy. Train it well, treat it with respect, and
you’ll have a lifetime of devoted service sitting between your ears. Wet nose
optional.
Writing is hard work.
It’s even harder if you have no control over the most important tool you need
in order to write. And no, I don’t mean your pen. I’m talking about your mind.
You sit down to write and your mind veers away. It’s almost like the page is
made of rubber – you just bounce right off. You know you want to write about
how the light catches the blue feathers in a magpie as it darts across the sky,
but your mind starts to wonder what’s for tea…
Did I remember to post
that birthday card, I’ll just check my email, that’s an unusual beard, what
does this button do, oh wow, that’s useful, maybe. Now what was that about a
magpie?
Don’t worry, this is
perfectly normal behaviour for a writer. Or a human, for that matter. The mind
is naturally distractible. This is handy when you need to be alert to potential
dangers, especially the possibility of being eaten by something larger and
hairier than you. It’s not so useful when you need to write about birds, or
beards, or whatever it was.
Fortunately the mind is
also very good at staying focused on one thing, even to the point of obsession.
You can concentrate when you want to. The trick is to persuade your mind to
move from surface level distractibility into deeper engagement. But how?
You pretend your mind is
a puppy.
The Puppy Technique
This incredible mind
training technique isn’t mine. It comes from meditation master Jack Kornfield,
and can be found in his book A Path With
Heart. It’s adapted from a simple mindfulness meditation method:
Imagine a puppy. Here’s
one…
Now imagine what happens
when you try to train the puppy to sit and stay. It’s not remotely interested.
It gets up and wanders off.
Do you give up? No.
You bring the puppy back
and sit him back down.
“Now stay!”
Off he goes again.
Exploring. Ripping up the furniture.
Again you bring him back.
“Sit. Stay.”
Off he goes again, and
again you bring him back. Slowly the puppy learns to stay put.
“Our minds are much the same as the puppy, only they create even bigger messes. In training the mind, or the puppy, we have to start over and over again.” – Jack Kornfield
Training your mind to
stay focused on your writing is exactly like training a puppy. When you find
your mind has wandered, just bring it back. Simple. There’s no need to beat
yourself up every time you lose focus, violence never helps. You wouldn’t be mean
to the puppy – he’s so cute!
Your mind may not be
cute, but it can be trained. All it takes is a little practise.
Image: Nice Guys
