Practice mindfulness by being aware of physical sensations arising and passing away in your body. This directs your attention out of habitual storylines and into the present moment, as the body is always in the moment.
During meditation, drop the phrase “there is a body” into your mind at your own pace. If your mind is scattered, use it more frequently (e.g., every 30 seconds) to redirect your attention to physical sensations.
To maintain focus in a less formal meditation style, use soft mental notes to label sensations like “Tension,” “Rising,” “Falling,” “Seeing,” or “Hearing.” This helps maintain focus and awareness without being uptight.
When you get distracted during meditation, label the distraction with a soft mental note (e.g., “Thinking,” “Planning,” “Anger,” “Doubt”). After noting, gently return your attention to the sensations in the body, as distractions are not a problem when acknowledged.
Before starting a meditation session, take three deep breaths, making the inhale as deep as possible and aiming for the exhale to be three or four times as long. This practice can send a message to the body that it’s “meditation time,” helping to prepare you.
Begin your meditation by getting comfortable, which can involve a mix of comfort, relaxation, and a little uprightness in your spine, though lying down is also acceptable. Comfort helps facilitate the meditation practice by allowing you to settle without unnecessary physical tension.
If something is bothering you or feels unpleasant, contemplate that it might mean you’re not being mindful of it. When you approach physical pain or boredom with curiosity, examining its constituent parts, it can still be unpleasant but ceases to be a “problem” because you are not fighting with it.
If you choose to focus on your breath during meditation, do so within the context of the whole body, rather than being overly rigid about focusing on one specific point. This allows for a less militaristic and more expansive awareness of the breath.
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