That’s a fantastic question and an opportunity for me to address the mental shift from one more angle. Both could happen but each arise from a different aspect of us.
When we are in our thinking mind, attention acts to focus the thinking mind. I’m saying mind instead of consciousness because our thinking mind is a very small part of the consciousness. When we use attention or we can call it concentration to focus our mind, it takes mental effort. There will be a corresponding contraction within our body, we tighten up or stiffen up to be able to focus our attention on a particular thing and not get distracted by anything else.
When we allow consciousness or awareness to help us focus, we would be shifting our of the thinking mind into our Aware mind. Correspondingly our body relaxes and opens up or loosens up. This shift is variously termed as regaining earth energy connection, regaining grounding, returning back into presence, returning back to our happy place within etc. I have written many posts and answers on these and you may like to browse through my Quora profile to read some.
The best way to understand this is by practice. We can bring about a balance in our energy body by doing the crossing movements and then sit with the focus energy movements holding a fixed gaze and breathing consciously (FGCB) for a couple of minutes. Please experiment with this and see how shifting into a quiet space within our mind helps us remain focused effortlessly.
You can find the energy movements videos in my YouTube Channel and then four articles on Energy movements in my blog post. I have provided the links for convenience.
Selvan Srinivasan
This channel is dedicated to the healing of the suffering humanity. May this content guide you to find the path to the place within to experience and live a life of complete freedom from suffering. We provide Mentoring and guidance along a journey into your Awareness to help you cultivate a habit of staying in your happy place as your default mode of being. www.awarenessjourney.org
The following article may also be helpful.
Selvan Srinivasan · 1y
How do I listen to a 2-hour audio without falling asleep or losing concentration?
Have you noticed that it is easier to watch a two hour video I without falling asleep but not so easy when we listen to an audio? I’m not too sure if I can do that because I have never attempted it! What is the goal here? Is it to just ensure that some time is saved and you finish the two hour audio exactly in two hours? Is it not possible to have three of four ten minute breaks in between to simply nap, stretch your body, walk around, etc? Concentrating on something is heavy mental work. Just the act of concentrating. Absorbing, assimilating, understanding and remembering what you are hearing becomes a secondary work because the primary work is concentration and fighting off sleep. What if it is possible to simply do only the absorbing, assimilating, understanding and remembering work with your mind without burdening it with the heavy duty work beforehand of concentrating? Simply being in a non-doing state, without doing any mental activity gives complete rest to the mind. Before starting to listen to the audio please ensure that your mind is rested. Learn how to find out whether the mind is rested or not and how to rest it when it is tired from the article below. Learn how to fully absorb all that you listen and fully retain it in your long term memory from the article below.