Stillness · “Stillness Reveals”
Mental-Muscle Drills
Strengthen concentration, will, and memory by treating the mind as a muscle — brief, repeated daily exercises practised consistently and logged for progress.
Ten minutes daily: hold attention on one point, direct your will against distraction, memorise and recall a short passage, form a clear mental picture — and log the gain. Treat the mind as a muscle; train it consistently.
What it is
Grenville Kleiser’s approach to mind-power from How to Build Mental Power (1917): the mind, like a muscle, grows with deliberate, repeated exercise.
Rather than seeking sudden insight, the practitioner does brief daily drills in concentration, attention, will, and memory, practised consistently over time and tracked for steady, incremental gain. It is self-culture as disciplined daily training.
The Method
Kleiser’s compendium supplies lessons and exercises in concentration, ordering one’s thoughts, imagination, memory, and will. As a daily practice it distils to:
- Set a short fixed session. A brief, regular daily period (10–15 minutes) — consistency over duration is the principle.
- Concentration drill. Hold attention steadily on a single object, idea, or sentence for a set time, returning whenever the mind drifts; lengthen the span gradually as it strengthens.
- Will / attention drill. Deliberately direct and sustain attention against the pull of distraction — choosing where the mind rests is the exercised “muscle.”
- Memory drill. Commit short passages, lists, or facts to memory and recall them later, stretching the load over time.
- Imagination / thought-ordering drill. Practise forming clear mental pictures and arranging thoughts logically on a chosen topic.
- Log progress. Note what was practised and improvement (span held, items recalled) to make gains visible and reinforce the habit. (Sourcing note: the drill structure paraphrases Kleiser’s stated exercise themes in How to Build Mental Power; the “mind as a muscle” framing reflects his practice-and-discipline philosophy.)
Source & Lineage
Grenville Kleiser (1868–1953), a Yale public-speaking instructor turned prolific self-development author, published How to Build Mental Power (Funk & Wagnalls, 1917), a ~600-page manual of mental exercises. The work sits in the self-culture/mind-power stream adjacent to New Thought.
Common refinements
Marathon sessions, then quitting. Short and daily beats long and sporadic — consistency is the active principle.
- No measurement. Without logging, progress is invisible and motivation fades.
- Straining. Forced effort breeds fatigue; increase difficulty gradually.
- Expecting transfer everywhere. Drilled skills strengthen most in the trained domain; spread practice across faculties you actually want to build.