How Sensual Desire Affects Your Concentration.

By Allen W. McLean

Say you are alone at work, busy doing a task your manager had given you. Like many, you keep your phone in your pocket. You get a message and your pocket vibrates; what do you do next?

Our attention span is like a light-source with a focusing lense. We have the ability to focus on a single object like a flashlight illuminating a box in the basement. We can concentrate the lense into something like a laser to inspect smaller elements of an object, such as teachers do when pointing at something on a chalkboard, or when we are looking for an object inside of a box. We therefore also have the ability to unfocus our proverbial light-source to be like a wide lightbulb that illuminates a whole room.

Our attention is a versatile tool for finding and making objects our center of focus. However, we tend to lack complete control of our "lense" and the tool can become a hindrance. Naturally, an outside source sometimes causes us to unfocus and refocus on a different object.

We have control over our attention, but can we strengthen our ability to stay focused when overwhelmed with desire?

The answer is yes. But, in order to properly do so, one should have a proper understanding of the "what" and "how".