Fixing Your Focus - 005 Addicted To Same Behaviors & Thoughts

Water\Dragging – The Antithesis To The Power of Focus

With siyata d’shmaya we continue here to explain the power of focus\concentration. Until now we explained four problems related to focus which are related to the soul’s element of earth, which were earth-of-earth, water-of-earth, wind-of-earth, and fire-of-earth. We will now explain problems with focus which stem from the element of water, and in this chapter, we will explain specifically the problems with focus related to the “earth” aspect of water.

The element of water, in general, is an element that drags things with it, just like any running body of water. Water pulls and drags things down its course. The nature to become “dragged” after anything is the total antithesis to the very idea of focus, as we can see for ourselves clearly and simply.

Focus is an ability to be stabilized and concentrated in one thing, remaining in place, whereas the nature of water is that it does not stay in one place. Water does not stay within boundaries; it will not stay constantly in one place. Water by nature is always spreading outward. That is why water, the element that drags with it, is also the source of desires, which is an outcome of this nature to become dragged after things. Thus, to become “dragged” after anything is a total contradiction to the soul’s power of focus.

That is all true about the element of water in general, and now we will explain specifically the aspect of “earth” within water.

Earth-of-Water: The Power of Focused Movement

Earth-of-water, when rectified, can keep water bounded. A person who repairs his “earth-of-water” element will be able to limit how much he becomes dragged after something. He will be pulled towards something, but only slowly and with proper boundaries. Such a person will be able to have proper “expansion” – with proper limitations and boundaries. His soul will able to stay focused and in its place.

When a person has a stronger amount of earth in himself and not that much water, he will be too constricted. He will never want to expand – which means that he will find any change to be difficult, because he does not know how to expand past his current place. In contrast, if a person has a strong amount of water, he can easily expand and he is flexible with change.

For example, if a person has a house full of children and it is time to renovate his home and break down the walls so that he can make more rooms in his home, he may have a difficulty with doing this, if he has too much earth in himself and not enough water. It doesn’t even enter his thoughts to break down the walls. Until he gets really desperate where he feels that he can’t live anymore with such tight space, he doesn’t think of any possibility of expanding his home.

In contrast to this, a person with more water in himself has no problem seeing what he can do to make his home bigger and he is flexible to making the changes. “Why not?” is his thinking, and “If not, it’s possible for us to move.” With a strong amount of the element of water, a person can easily spread past his current bounds and expand.

Perfect Focus Is Not Possible

“Earth-of-water”, in its rectified form, is the ability to expand, but sensibly, with limitations. However, earth-of-water can also hamper a person’s of focus somewhat, because the person deep down is busy thinking deep down, “Maybe things can things be different? Maybe we can move from this house?” This is a minor disturbance in his focus, though, because he is making sure not to spread past his bounds too much. He is placing some limits in his idea to expand. He will not just move to any place. He is just aware that there is a possibility for him to expand his horizons a bit.

The truth is that there is really no way for a human being to fully concentrate on one thing alone. The only One who can do this is the Yachid (Individual One) of the world, Who is called “One”. What, then, is the power of focus in a human being?

The entire ability of a person to focus is an ability to somewhat limit a person’s inner movements, both in their frequency and in their nature.

There is a well-known concept about our inner world that every person needs to “run and retreat” (ratzu v’shov) between different modes in the soul, and the very idea of this is a deterrent to the power of focus. Indeed, if any of the movements are too intense, or if they are too frequent, it will be difficult for the person to focus. And if a person is always inwardly moving in different directions, this creates “scattering of the soul”, which is worse. All of these factors do not allow a person to remain focused.

A lack of focus is when a person is doing too much inner “running and retreating”, but the power to remain focused, when properly balanced, must also be in the form of “running and retreating”. We explained earlier that the element of earth is the root of the power to focus, but if a person has too much earth in himself, he will only want to be in the “retreat” mode, staying in his place and never budging from there. Therefore, a person needs to balance out his earth by deliberately “moving” in an opposite direction of where he wants to stay, so that he can allow himself to spread past his boundaries – with the proper balance.

It is not a healthy state for the soul if a person never budges from his place. The soul needs to move. The ‘healthy’ way to move the soul is when we have focused movement – the power which we need to acquire, which is a balance between focus and movement, whereas a less ‘healthier’ way of moving is the soul is when a person is ‘dragged’ towards something. In any case, every person needs to be able to move and become ‘dragged’, to some extent, so that he can be able to have the ability of “expansion”, to expand past his bounds somewhat.

If a person repairs his element of earth-of-water, this expansion will be sensible and with proper limitations. Although this still hampers the power of focus somewhat, we have explained that it is not really possible for a human being to be 100% focused on any one thing, so there is nothing wrong with this slight deviation from focus. It is also constructive and necessary for a person to do.

Impaired Earth-of-Water: Permanently Dragged After The Same Thing

We have so far explained what “repaired” earth-of-water is – now let us learn about “impaired” earth-of-water, the negative use of this power. Water is the element that drags a person towards various stimuli, and earth is the ability of permanence. Earth-of-water, when impaired, is when a person is “permanently dragged” after a certain thing.

Later we will explain about impaired wind-of-water, which is when a person is always pulled towards different things. But with impaired earth-of-water, a person is consistently being dragged after the same things.

There is somewhat of a “stability” in this dragging, which appears to be an advantage, because the consistence and stability of it allows a person to remain aware of where he’s being dragged towards. But it is also a disadvantage, because since the person is constantly pulled towards the same thing, it is a stronger kind of dragging, so it is addictive and difficult to pull away from.

“A righteous person falls and rises seven times” – one kind of person will keep falling to a different sin each time, but another kind of person will keep falling into the same pit. Here we are talking about the second kind of person - “like a dog which returns to its vomit”, when a person is consistently dragged towards the same thing, each time.

Causes For Permanent Dragging

How does it happen that a person become ‘permanently dragged’ after the same thing, again and again?

In some people, it is because they have a strong amount of earth in themselves, so even when they are dragged after something, they are just being immature, like a child who is always being pulled after the same childish behaviors. An adult as well may be pulled after certain childish behaviors, especially if they are nostalgic, but this is really a form of gross immaturity, because he is acting like a child. So a person may become constantly dragged after the same thing again and again if he remains with an immature, childish perspective or orientation which he hasn’t yet grown out of.

Similar to the above, another reason which would motivate a person to become permanently dragged after the same thing is because there is a rule, “Habit becomes second nature.” When a person gets used to certain habitual practices, eventually they become a “second nature” he acquires for himself, which he gotten used to and which is now his natural orientation.

In the first scenario, a person is dragged after the same things again and again because he remains with a childish attitude towards life, so he is being immature. In the second scenario, the person is not being immature. He may be a very mature person, but he is simply dragged towards the same thing again and again simply because he has gotten used to it. These are very similar reasons, but they are different.

A person can become constantly dragged after the same thing, when he gets used to certain habits and certain lifestyles which cause him to lose awareness of everything else around him, as he is involved in those habits. For example, a person may become obsessed with his bank statements, always thinking about it whenever there is a chance. He gets used to thinking about it obsessively and it becomes his habit to think about it constantly.

Another example: What does a person think about when he’s in the restroom? It is forbidden to think about Torah there, and we won’t get into here if he can think about emunah there. What is he thinking about? Some people will obsessively think about the same things - their thoughts keep returning to these topics – their minds are always getting ‘dragged’ after the same kinds of thoughts.

Now with the advent of smartphones, the nature of the world has changed a bit and now people can keep viewing different things each time they use the restroom. But whenever a person has time to himself and he is thinking about whatever he’s thinking about, his thoughts may keep returning to the same thing, again and again. What causes this? Some people will think about whatever happened that day, where the thoughts are not consistent, but others will always think of the same things, again and again. Where does this nature come from? As mentioned, it can either come from habits which he has acquired, which has become his “second nature”, or it may come from childish immaturity.

Another reason of why a person may keep thinking of the same things, though, which we will be explaining more about in this chapter, is because it may be part of his “first nature” to keep thinking the same kinds of thoughts. This is a fundamental aspect of life to know about, which we will now elaborate upon.

Imbalances In The Soul Cause A Lack of Focus

To be brief about this, each person has his various good middos and bad middos. There are two powers related to our middos which can cause a person to have inner disturbances. The first cause is the worst character trait that a person possesses. The worst character trait of a person, when left unfixed, creates an imbalance in the soul, which causes a person to be inwardly disturbed. In addition, even the best character trait in a person can cause a person to feel inner disturbance, if it is too extreme, which causes imbalance in the soul. When there is imbalance in the soul, a person cannot focus properly.

This is a very important concept to be aware of, and most people aren’t used to thinking about it. A very large amount of problems with focus are due to the reason we are explaining here. When a person has a negative character trait, it explodes outward every so often. It may be anger or conceit, which stems from the element of fire, or it may be idle talk, which stems from wind. It may be desire, which stems from water, or it may be sadness or laziness, which stems from earth. Whatever the negative character trait is, it can “drag” a person into all kinds of directions.

Since each person has at least one unfixed negative character trait, more or less, it is bound to make its appearance, and when it does, a person will become ‘dragged’ by the negative trait to whatever place it takes him. Besides for the evil of the negative character trait itself, which is a separate problem and which we are not dealing with here, it also causes a problem of “dragging” a person all over the place, which causes a person to lose focus.

Thus, the root negative character trait in every person is a big factor, and perhaps the central factor, in causing a person to lose his ability of focus. (This is besides for all of the other problems that the root negative character trait causes.)

To make things worse, if a person is very imbalanced in his soul, (which may very well be the case, since there are many forces in every soul, as the Vilna Gaon said that there are 70 forces in the soul), a person cannot stay focused, whenever any of these imbalanced forces make their appearance. It is like having 70 robbers living inside your house! Can anyone have peace like this? Reb Yeruchem Levovitz said that a person contains a complete ‘zoo’ inside himself [referring to all of the negative character traits]. If a person would just have a ‘lion’ in himself, or just a ‘bear’ in himself, he would be able to restrain his animalistic forces within, because there would only be one problem to deal with. But there is a ‘lion’, a ‘bear’, a ‘snake’, a ‘scorpion’, and many other dangerous ‘animals’ there….

All of the inner negative character traits in a person cause a person to lose focus, and even the positive forces in a person can cause a person to lose focus, when they are imbalanced and when they are clashing with each other. When a person is lacking balance in his four elements, his fire and water will clash, and his wind and earth will clash. These inner contradictory forces within the soul do not allow a person to be calm inside. What is the result of this? An inability to stay focused.

Problems With Mental Focus Begin In The Heart, Not In The Mind

Thus, the problems with focus all begin with a lack of inner calm, which is more of an emotional and “heart” matter, rather than a problem with the brain\mind. When a person’s heart is not calm (due to the inner imbalances of the soul that are within in), his mind cannot either be calm, so he will not be able to focus.

Compare it the following. When a person is in the midst of a joyous occasion, and people are coming over to him to wish him a “Mazal Tov”, for how long can he stay totally focused during that time? He may be in a state of joy, but he cannot stay focused for that long. Often people misplace things when they are amidst a very joyous state, and they don’t remember much of the event, because they weren’t able to totally pay attention to what was happening, due to all of the joy they were feeling. The intense emotional state doesn’t allow for mentally focused concentration.

(In fact, this loss of mental awareness is what allows for complete joy– when the joy is so big that it takes over the person entirely, and as a result he can’t concentrate as much. The more joyous a person is and the less he is mentally focused, the more of a complete joyous state it is.)

Thus, whenever one’s inner character traits are imbalanced, a person loses his inner calm and therefore he won’t have the calmness to be able to focus. The mind and the heart do not function independently of each other – they are interconnected, and therefore the imbalances in the soul, which are in the [spiritual] heart, will hamper the mind’s ability to focus.

The mind and heart are each affected by the state of other. The mind can influence the state of the heart, when one internalizes the knowledge of his mind into his heart. The heart can also influence the mind, from the state of the character traits that are in the heart. In addition to the evil character traits and evil desires found in the heart, the good and evil inclinations which reside in the heart also cause a lack of inner calm in one’s heart, because they are contradictory forces. These two warring forces are constant, the Mesillas Yesharim says. If the heart is not calm, how can the brain\mind be calm….?

There are some people who have a vast disconnection between their mind and heart. Their heart is like a “heart of stone”, they do not feel emotions, and therefore their minds can function very well, because they are never affected by emotions. Sometimes there is a kind of person who always appears to have yishuv hadaas (a settled mind), who is always calm, peaceful, and serene, and who can easily have calm mental reflection. This appears to be a quality, but if we examine it truthfully, it can very well because the person’s heart is dead from emotion, so he is left with nothing but a cold, rational intellect. His ability to have calm mental reflection is not a quality - it is a sign of a deep issue, of a hardened heart. If his heart would be a bit more alive with feeling, the person would see that the states of the mind and heart are interconnected, and he would see that it’s not that easy to have inner calm.

From the above, we can discover the inner reason of why many people who have problems with focus and concentration – it is because they have a very emotional nature, a heart that feels deeper things, and their emotional turmoil causes them to have difficulty with focusing.

A person with this nature may go to a professional or a therapist for help, when the professional or therapist has more of a cold, rational nature and who is not that emotional, and the person hopes that the therapist will understand what is bothering him, but the therapist may not be able to understand what the client is telling him. Why not? Because the client is an emotional kind of person, and therefore more things bother him, so they think about their issues more and therefore they can’t concentrate.

We can say more about this issue, but the root of the issue is that the heart\emotions can affect the state of the mind. When a person has an unfixed negative character trait [which everyone has on some level, unless they have fixed it], this is really an inner disturbance in the heart, and when combined with imbalances between the various character traits of a person which are present in his heart, it creates a lack of calmness in one’s heart. Examples may include too much sensitivity, too much emotion, and any other imbalances within the inner forces of the soul, which are in the heart.

When the heart is not calm, the mind of a person will have a problem with concentrating\focusing. For example, if a person has a very emotional, hypersensitive nature, and someone makes a small comment to him which he finds a bit harsh, he may obsess over it for three hours straight and he won’t be able to take his mind off the hurtful comment. Then he goes to the Beis Midrash to learn with his chavrusa, but he doesn’t hear anything his chavrusa is saying, because he cannot stop thinking about the hurtful comment which he heard three hours ago. He is so insulted that he simply cannot take his mind off it.

He may try to take his mind off it, and be more or less successful doing this. If he is not that aware of his inner state, he may be simply aware that his mind is confused right now and that he can’t concentrate right now, because there is some kind of inner disturbance in him; he may think there is a “kelipah” (evil spiritual husk) upon him which isn’t letting him concentrate. But it is really because he lives with a very active heart, which is easily disturbed on a deeper level by things that bother him, and therefore he cannot focus properly.

(In general, there are two kinds of people – those whose intellect are more in control, and those whose emotions are more in control. When one rectifies his heart\emotions, this is “A new heart You created within me”, but this is a very high spiritual level, which takes a long time to reach.

On a deeper level, the difference between intellectual people and feeling people is because there are different soul roots. Dovid HaMelech and Shlomo HaMelech argued if wisdom is found in the brain\mind or in the heart\emotions. Dovid HaMelech said that wisdom is in the mind, whereas Shlomo HaMelech said it is in the heart.

One whose soul root is in “heart” (which also corresponds to “the moon”, for the word “moon” in Hebrew is “levanah”, similar to the word “lev”, heart), who can also control his emotions through his mind, has the rectified state of the heart. This is a level of Ruach HaKodesh (the holy spirit). But if the heart is not rectified – which is the state of most people, for “The inclination of the heart of man is evil from his youth” ­– what is the result? The heart will control the mind, and this will not allow a person to have proper mental focus.

In review of the above: Every person (unless his heart is totally dead from emotion and he doesn’t have any active feelings), the heart contains some lack of inner calm, since every person generally has an unfixed character trait and imbalances in the soul. This hampers a person’s ability of mental focus somewhat. In addition to this, those who have a very emotional nature, whose hearts are more in control than their minds, have an even harder time with focus.

Those with a more emotional nature have more active character traits, and that is also why they are often more sensitive to insults than others. Without getting into the details of this nature, their general inner makeup is that their hearts are more in control than their minds are. Therefore, their ability of emotion is more dominant than their ability of rational intellect. What is the result of this? In most cases, a person has not yet given balance to his internal forces which are in his heart, so he will not have inner calm.

For such a person, it is very difficult to attain proper mental concentration. Whenever he wants something badly, in most cases, his heart “runs” after the thing he wants and inwardly he is not calm. When that is the case, the heart will control the mind, and since his heart is not calm, his mind will not either be calm. As a result, his mind cannot properly focus.

In Summary

We have so far explained the nature of impaired “earth-of-water”, which is when a person is permanently being dragged towards the same thing, and we explained so far several reasons which may bring about this nature: (1) A childish, immature nature which the person hasn’t yet come out of; (2) Habitual practices, which have become his “second nature”; (3) “First nature” – he was born with a nature for this. We explained that this is due to imbalances in the soul, due to the main negative character in a person when left unfixed, as well as contradictory forces within the soul (even when they are each positive natures), and a more emotional nature, which prevents a person from proper mental focus.

Thus, when a person is having problems with focus\concentration, we need to examine deeply what his inner makeup is like. It will not suffice to simply look at it as problem with “concentration” per se. We will also need to deal with the actual concentration problems, but in order to solve the issue at its root, we have to get to know what the person’s inner makeup is like. When we discover it, we are then much closer to discovering what truly bothers him, which is disturbing his ability to focus.

Giving Order To The Inner Forces of the Heart

Therefore, let’s understand the following important point. As long as a person has not yet given “order” (seder) to the inner forces of the heart (which is a huge amount of inner work, and a separate discussion for itself), he will not be able to reach proper mental focus.

In the event that he is able to focus properly, it may be because he has born with an exceptionally powerful mind, which some people are born with (a person like this may be the type to become a professor and the like), which enables them to have strong mental focus. Or, he may be able to strongly focus because he does not experience that much emotion – his heart is ‘dead’ (we mentioned this before), and therefore he is never inwardly bothered by anything, so he has an easy time focusing (unless he goes through an extreme kind of experience which shakes him up and which awakens his emotions).

Anyone who is not of the above two exceptions will not be able to reach proper mental focus, as long as he has not yet given “order” (seder) to his inner forces in his heart. Thus, practically speaking, a part of our inner work in attaining the power of focus is built upon giving “order” to the inner forces present in our heart. The better a person can give “order” to the inner forces in our heart (this is our work with our middos, which is its own discussion and which we cannot explore in detail right now), the better he will have a power to be focused in his thoughts on something.

Complete Focus – Concentration of Mind and Heart Together

If the above has all been understood, we can now proceed to the next step.

There are two steps to traverse. In the first step, the emotions in the heart cause a disturbance to the mind, and don’t allow the mind to focus. The work here, in general, is to give “order” to the forces of the heart, and as a result, the emotions will no longer disturb the mind from focusing. We have explained about this above. After this first step has been traversed, where the heart is no longer disturbing the mind, the second step is to use the heart to aid the mind’s concentration.

Let us explain how the heart can actually “aid” the mind’s power of concentration. It is clear to any sensible person that if the mind and heart of a person would be totally separate components that are independent of each other, he wouldn’t be able to concentrate that much with his mind. If the mind and heart were completely separated from each other, a person would be inwardly scattered, and he wouldn’t be able to focus. But if the mind and heart are both concentrated on the same topic, one will be able to focus very well.

For example, if a person is davening, and his mind and heart are each concentrating on different areas, can he be completely focused? Clearly, he cannot be. True focus is when a person is concentrated with both his mind and his heart on the same thing. The more a person gives “order” to the inner forces in his heart, and in addition, he also purifies the heart, the heart becomes opened, and in turn, the more his mind and heart will fuse together.

(The mind is compared to man, and the heart is compared to woman, and just as man and woman are meant to fuse together to become one creation, so are the mind and heart meant to become fused together.)

When the mind and heart are fused together, they can both concentrate on the same thing together, and this greatly intensifies one’s power to focus. This is the depth of how we attain a rectified, repaired level of the power to focus.

Becoming Aware of Your Subconscious Thoughts and Emotions

Even more so, there is also a deeper aspect here, of repairing our power of focus.

A person has many layers in his soul. The power of thought in a person contains two levels – simple thought, and deep thought. Within deep thought, there are many levels, as in the verse, “Very, very deep are Your thoughts”. In the heart as well, where the emotions are seated, there are many layers of emotion, as we can all recognize. There is superficial emotion, and there are deeper feelings.

The more superficial a person’s emotions and thoughts are, the less quality his power of focus will have, and in contrast, the deeper one’s thoughts and emotions are, the more quality his power of focus will have. Here is where we come to the entire secret of the power of focus.

If the heart’s emotions are never integrated with the mind, this usually is a negative sign, of a person who is out of touch with his emotions. On the opposite extreme, if the heart’s emotions overtake the mind and bother it, one has the task to rectify this and achieve a balance between the mind and heart. What is the intermediate level between these two extremes (mind without heart, and heart without mind)?

If one’s thoughts and emotions are superficial, a person usually has difficulty with concentration. This is why most people have problems with problems with concentration.

Compare it to the following. A person can go to Daf HaYomi and he can hear the shiur and words of the people there, but it may be a very superficial level of hearing, and he is connected to it on the same level of how he is connected to his job. But when one deeply immerses himself in the Torah, he is much more connected to his Torah learning. A big part of acquiring the power of true focus is to penetrate into the depths of the brain and heart, and to fuse them together. When one lives with both deep thought and deep feeling, he will be a very focused person.

Until now we explained the positive side of this concept, and now we will see its negative use.

There are layers within our powers of thought and emotion, and these deeper layers are essentially the area of the “subconscious”. A person may be consciously thinking of a certain thing, but in his subconscious, he is thinking of something else. What is the result of this? He loses his concentration. In his consciousness, he is thinking of one thought, but in his subconscious, he is really thinking something else – of course he cannot be focused when he is thinking of two different thoughts at once!

A person can also have two contradicting emotions at once. When a person is informed that his parent has passed away, on one hand he is sad and in mourning, but at the same time, if he is receiving an inheritance, he makes the blessing of “Shehechiyanu”. These are contradicting emotions, and they exist at the same time, because there are many layers within the soul. These many layers of the soul will mean that there are inner contradictions. These inner contradictions are actually a primary reason of why a person may have a difficulty concentrating and focusing on something.

This is the case whenever a person lives superficially, and his thoughts and emotions are only superficial and never deep, there will be contradictory thoughts or feelings taking place at once, which a person may not be aware of, and which are really hampering his focus. Understandably, most people will not identify this as a source of a lack of concentration, because they do not see a connection between superficial thought and problems with focus. But that itself is an indicator that they are only using their superficial layer of thinking.

The more inner that a person becomes and the more he works to understand his conscious thoughts and feelings as well as his subconscious thoughts and feelings, he recognizes his inner contradictions, and he can then see the root of his problems with focusing. He will recognize it from within, and not because he has heard of any definitions. He can first recognize this matter from hearing about it and understanding it, but after that, he can slowly recognize the matter from within his own experience. He can become aware of his superficial thoughts as well as his deeper, subconscious thoughts.

One cannot completely know what his subconscious thoughts are, because the soul is incredibly deep and complex, and no one can ever know it perfectly. But with much inner work, slowly throughout one’s life, a person can still get very far into his conscious and into his subconscious.

That is how one can fuse together his superficial thoughts and feelings with his deeper thoughts and feelings, and this improves the quality of his power of focus. This is the ultimate, rectified level of the power of the focus, and herein is the key of how a person can become attached with HaKadosh Baruch Hu and his Torah.

The Deepest Solution To Repairing Problems of Focus Which Stem From Earth-of-Water

Based upon the above, we can understand the following point. We have come to explain “earth-of-water” in this lesson, but the concepts explained here are really more encompassing. Let us now complete this lesson and how we can repair problems with concentration stemming from “earth-of-water” specifically, the subject of this lesson.

Part of the reason of why a person may have a hard time focusing is because his thoughts are ‘running’ – and to where do the thoughts ‘run’ to? The thoughts ‘run’ to what a person is thinking about subconsciously. A person is not aware of this, because it is taking place on a subconscious level. This is really the depth of the problem behind impaired earth-of-water.

Now we have another reason of what causes a person to become consistently ‘dragged’ after the same thing again and again, in addition to the reasons mentioned earlier. It is because a person’s conscious thoughts run to his subconscious thoughts, and the person is not aware of this process. That is what causes a person to think about the same thing over and over again. The person is not aware of what is taking place inside him, in his subconscious. His subconscious keeps pulling him to the same thoughts. This is also known as the “bribery” of the mind.

Most people cannot deal with concentration problems by doing the inner work which has been described here, because it requires a huge inner overhaul, of many layers in the soul. To complete the picture here, one needs to understand what the root of his inner disturbances are. Therefore, whenever there are various thoughts bothering a person, he really needs to examine where the thoughts are ‘running’ to, and what the reason for it was (childish orientation, habits, or his nature). As a person gets used to this, he will slowly get to know his subconscious.

This is a long inner task to traverse, and not an idea which you can actualize so quickly. It is an understanding of how our inner workings are, of what is really causing our inner disturbances which prevent our concentration. Earth-of-water is the root of permanent disturbances in the mind, which really stems from one’s deepest subconscious thoughts.

This is the deep reason of why earth-of-water keeps ‘dragging’ a person towards the same activities\thoughts. The simpler reasons we explained before are also true (childish habit, habitual patterns that became his second nature, or ‘first nature’ which are due to imbalances in the soul) but the deeper reason is because of the subconscious, which ‘drags’ him. A person can get in touch with his subconscious if he has an ability of subtle feeling, and if he does not have this ability to feel subtle feelings, he can still discover his subconscious thoughts by noticing any sudden, random thoughts which suddenly pass through his conscious mind.

In this way, one can slowly do the inner work of getting to know his subconscious thoughts, and with much effort and inner order, a person can merit with siyata d’shmaya to reach the depth in his thoughts and emotions and fuse them together. Then he can become a truly focused person, connected in both his mind and heart.

In Conclusion

There is where true d’veykus (attachment with Hashem) lies, for d’veykus is really an absolute kind of concentration and focus, which is the outcome of fusing together the mind and heart, our conscious with the subconscious, our external layer with our inner layer – all connected together.