# Meditation is a practice to control consciousness
Controlling consciousness is learnable, and meditation is a form of practice to control consciousness. It is a fallacy to think that meditation is a practice to empty your mind, it’s a practice that focuses your attention on something at will (To control consciousness is to be able to focus attention at will). Think about meditation as a gym for mental control. Yogi would meditate by focusing their attention on their breathing. Other meditation trainer would encourage meditation by focusing on counting from 1 to 10. It doesn’t seem to matter what you focus on, as long as you are training your focus.
# References
Mihaly, Flow (p. 104).
In Sanskrit Yoga means “yoking”, […] The second step, niyama, involves “obedience”, or the following of ordered routines in cleanliness, study, and obedience to God, all of which help to channel attention into predictable patterns, and hence make attention easier to control.
Blinkist: Puddicombe, Andy. 10 Minutes Can Make All the Difference. Hodder & Stoughton Ltd : [distributor] Bookpoint, 2011.
As you let your eyes close, take five minutes to draw your awareness to your body. […] Now it’s time to begin focusing on breathing. […] Silently count as the in-breath as one and the out-breath as two and continue breathing and counting until you reach ten.