FOCUS AIDS

[Yuki]

Written by Dutch.

 

I've always had trouble focusing on one thing for too long. I have issues keeping my mind on my tulpas for extended amounts of time, seeing as I like to get distracted and let my thoughts go on whatever tangent, temporarily forgetting about my tulpas and what I'm doing in my head. While my monologues are great, I wanted to choose when I give them to myself, so working on improving my concentration and focus has been a priority for a while. In this post I'll explain a few of the things that have helped me improve. There's a couple cheap tricks that can give you results right away, and some advice for longer term, structural change. You can improve with cheap tricks, but structural improvement is probably more useful in the long term.

 

Cheap tricks:

-Actively describing things

I've found that while active forcing, where I spend time with my tulpas in our wonderland, I can keep my attention on things much more easily if I narrate what's going on to myself. If I don't just see or imagine something, but also think a description out loud, it's easier to keep my mind on the things at hand. Try not to forget listening to your tulpa in the meantime.

 

“I'm sitting on the windowsill, my feet dangling outside. I feel the sun and a slight breeze on my face. I can see trees close by and cliffs in the distance. I notice a whale shark swimming above me. Yuki sits back and kicks her legs next to me.” Et cetera. Just describe whatever you're paying attention to. Use all your senses, try to paint a picture not just with your sight, but your hearing and touch and smell and taste as well. It will help with feeling like you're really there.

 

Narrating like this can keep your mind focused during a boring silence. When your tulpa isn't vocal yet, you could narrate this kind of thing to them constantly, in and out of forcing sessions, by explaining what is happening around you. It'll keep you busy at the very least. Even with a vocal tulpa, you can describe things in conversations with them, so as to keep talking to them instead of to yourself. They could even help you immerse by describing details you might not notice by yourself.

 

-Speaking out loud

Just thinking to yourself and your tulpa is the standard way of communication for most people, but it's easier to stay focused and not get off track when you're speaking out loud. You might also find that your conversations become more consistent and coherent this way. A bonus feature of talking out loud is that it'll be easier to differentiate between who's saying what, something many people have trouble with with young tulpas, and it might help if you have trouble hearing your tulpa at all. This is also the easiest way of staying involved with and focused on your tulpa while doing other things. People will know that you're crazy once they hear you talking to yourself, so be careful.

 

-Writing stuff down

Similar to the above tips, here you'll actually be writing or typing down your interactions with your tulpa. This method is kind of slow, especially if you're bad at typing, but it'll be easy to stay involved and keep your mind on the conversation at hand. It's probably best to let everyone involved speak in turn so you can keep track and note everything down. You can also just jot down details and little bits of info.

 

Upsides of this method are that your interactions with your tulpa will become less fleeting, you'll actually have a physical memory of a moment, one that will be the same in a year, or twenty. Also, everyone in school always told me that writing things down fortifies your memories, and a quick search will show you that that is indeed the case. Writing down things your tulpa does, quirks they have, things you learn about them, or things that you narrate to them will make it easier to remember these things. This will help with their development in the long run.

 

Structural change:

-Meditating

The best way of teaching yourself to focus better is learning meditation properly. Clear your mind, learn to think about nothing, to just be. It will help you to learn to not constantly be concerned about the daily hustle and bustle of life, and to be able to force with a clear mind. If you have structural focus issues, regular meditation will help you in all areas of your life. If you don't have structural focus issues, regular meditation will help you in all areas of your life.

 

Mindfulness meditation is good for you, and being mindful makes for a great mindset and attitude in life. Mindfulness in Plain English is a good read on the topic.

 

-Association

Associating outside influences with your tulpa will help you think of them more often, and in the case of the incense story in the linked post, will help you stay focused on them.

 

-Practice.

[Yakumo]

Sounds reasonable.

I found all the mentioned suggestions useful, even though I don't manage to keep them up to the extent that I want to.

 

But that thread title - could use some improvement.

[Luminesce]

Writing aids in caps really changes the meaning.

[Yuki]

I found all the mentioned suggestions useful, even though I don't manage to keep them up to the extent that I want to.

Dutch: Practice is the only way. It'll be easier to stay with things the more you work on getting good at any of these tips, especially when combined with meditation. I've found that writing is the one that will have the easiest, quickest results, but all the tips are useful to me in their own way. Anything to fight the ADD, I guess.

[sushi]

Sorry I took so long to reply to this. Slipped my mind.

 

Approved for Tips and Tricks. Good advice, well presented. My only complaint would be what Reisen said -- once you've seen it, you can't unsee it.

[Sands]

I think we need to watch that one South Park episode with the dude who wants everyone to have aids.

 

But yeah, tips and tricks, approved.

[Linkzelda]

Approved for Tips & Tricks.

[waffles]

Yeah, approved for Tips.

[schlondark]

Jared from subway approves for tips