Part I: SPC and developing Greater Mental Focus and Willpower

Have you ever stopped to ask yourself, exactly what is willpower and how can it be developed? One definition of willpower is a person's mental ability to produce or change any behavior at will by focusing sufficiently on the appropriate thought. The keywords here are "focusing sufficiently". If you had a means of increasing your mental focusing ability, you should be able to increase your willpower. This is exactly what SPC is all about. To begin with, the SPC techniques are based on the premise that words and thoughts have the ability to produce reflexive or automatic responses. To illustrate this point you might want to try a little experiment here:

Picture yourself slicing the lemon in two and biting into each half. Now squeeze some of the lemon juice onto your tongue. if you have done this, you should find your mouthautomatically watering - a physiological response produced by the word or thought "lemon".

Thus, it should be possible, by focusing sufficiently on the appropriate positive thought, to produce just about any positive reaction you wish. Of course we know that ordinarily, words or thoughts don't always produce the appropriate response. This is why it so often happens that good advice "goes in one ear and out the other." But the capability of words and thoughts to produce desired responses is always there. All we need is to bring it out. This is what the SPC techniques do.

You could say SPC is based on the age old power of positive thinking but with a new twist - SPC teaches thought focusing techniques that provide immediate positive feedback i.e. instant proof of the power of positive thinking. This feedback increases your belief and therefore your mental focus.

Three excellent examples of this principle in action are the "Arms", the "Magnetized Fingers" and the "Pendulum" techniques.

Extend both arms in front of you. Make sure they are both at the same level to begin with. Now with your eyes closed, picture one of those gigantic weather balloons capable of almost lifting a man off the ground attached to one of your wrists and pulling up.

After you have focused on that image for a few seconds, imagine holding a bucketful of water in the other hand. Continue to focus on this image until you can really feel the heaviness. After a total elapsed time of 30-60 seconds open your eyes and look to see where your arms are.

The greater the difference between the "bucket arm" and the "balloon arm" when you finish, the more focused and powerful your mind is, the more in control you are and the easier it is going to be to program in your new behavior. Practice this technique until you can eventually cause the arms to separate completely (i.e. one arm pulled straight up while the other has touched down).

Clasp your hands in front of you. Separate the forefingers as far apart as you can. Now concentrate on the thought that your fingers are two magnets being drawn together by a powerful magnetic force. Think of this force as the power of your mind. The closer your fingers come, the more powerful the force.

A great feeling of strength will come over you when you see your fingers touch, a feeling that you can do anything you set your mind to. For further reinforcement after your fingers have touched, you can focus on the thought that your hands will become so tightly clasped that you will not be able to pull them apart. After you are sufficiently convinced of this you can tell yourself that at the count of three your hands will relax and you'll be able to unclasp them.

First, make a pendulum with a piece of thread and any small object such as a ring, paper clip or key. It should be about two-thirds the length of your forearm. Now, sitting up, holding the pendulum gently between your forefinger and thumb and resting your elbow on the arm of a chair or on a table, keep your eye on the ring or clip, which should be reasonably motionless to start.

Now look for the pendulum to start swinging from left to right. Keep focusing on this thought. Soon it should start to move as if by itself. Once it starts, tell yourself it will swing even more. Expecting the pendulum to swing causes an automatic, unconscious movement of the hand in the appropriate direction.

The more you can get the pendulum to move, the more concentrated your mind is becoming and the greater your willpower. For further reinforcement you can focus on other movements of the pendulum as well (e.g. back and forth, circular and diagonal). With each positive response your willpower and mental focus will be further strengthened.

After going through the above techniques, your mind is much more responsive to your positive input, i.e. your will power is at a high point, and you can more readily program in anything you set your mind to.