NEAR FOCUS MEDITATION (Nikat Tratka)

 

Near Focus (Nikat Tratka) is a meditation technique which involves focusing the eyes and the mind through intent but relaxed gazing.

Safety Measures: The relationship between eyes and the brain starts in your first days of foetal life. Your eyes start to develop just two weeks after conception, with the retina and the optic nerve developing as a direct outgrowth of your brain. So the retina is actually a piece of the brain that has grown into the eye, and also shares a similar structure. On top of that, sight is so important that almost half of the brain is dedicated to vision and seeing. Mental health conditions translate into specific eye movement patterns. That is why people with good emotional intelligence are able to read your mental state through your eyes. Mental conditions involving attention are accompanied by and increases inerratic eye movements.

Always do this process mainly in a peaceful environment. If you can focus your eyes, you can also focus your mind. Avoid body movements during the process of gazing your palms. Close eyes for some time if the eyes start watering, and restart it. If done overly forcefully, in a tense manner, you can damage your eyes.

Method: Let Near Focus be performed as follows:

Step 1: Sit in Thunderbolt Pose (Vajrasana Pose) and relax your body.

Step 2: Enter into Pranayama by practicing slow and deep breathing through nose. Simultaneously do Pratyahara by the practice of turning the mind to introspection by voluntarily shutting out distractions provided by the senses.

Step 3: Keep your palms upwards and hands joined in front of chest and fingers in Handful of Flowers Position.

Step 4: Focus your vision at the middle of palms. Keep staring until you feel inconvenient. Keep spine erect, body relaxed while breathing deeply. 

Perform at least one round of ten deep gentle breaths.

Benefits: Your vision is tightly connected to your mind. Your mental/emotional states affect your eye movements. You can also affect your mind, and even manage trauma, by doing certain practices with your eyes. It cleans mind of negative thoughts. It calms the anxious mind, clears accumulated mental/emotional complexes, and brings suppressed thoughts to the surface. When the mind is charged with emotions, it helps keep the mind stable. The mind remains calm and concentration power is developed and memory power increases.

Near Focus (Nikat Tratka) balances the activity in the two hemispheres of the brain. It improves concentration, memory, will-power, visualization skills and cognitive function. It helps with insomnia. It increases nervous stability and has soothing effect on the cranial nerves. It enhances self-confidence and patience.

It cures many eye diseases, makes the eyes stronger, clearer, and brighter. It eliminates strain on eye muscles and strengthens eyesight. It increases voluntary control, for some time, on eyelid muscles.

While practicing it‚ you also avail benefits of Thunderbolt Pose (Vajrasana Pose). It is a great stomach, liver and uterus exercise. It also strengthens the lower back. In addition to it, you are benefited from Pranayama, Pratyahara and Handful of Flowers Position.

Final Position: Inhale a deep breath through nose and exhale it through mouth to come out of this stage. Take another similar breath and release it moving to next stage. Take one more similar breath before the start of next stage.