Deliberately choose where to place your attention, focusing on steadying or comforting things instead of worries, because what you attend to ultimately shapes your life.
Practice meditation by accepting and welcoming all aspects of your current experience, whether it’s a busy mind, few feelings, stable attention, or distractibility.
Cultivate an easygoing, non-strict attitude towards your meditation practice, welcoming external sounds and internal sensations without bracing against them or engaging in internal battles.
Maintain a lightly held aspiration or intention for your practice, but avoid becoming overly attached to achieving specific progress in any single meditation session or retreat.
Connect to the inherent pleasure of the meditation practice itself, sitting for its own sake rather than seeking immediate rewards or specific outcomes.
Avoid excessive straining or effort in meditation, as it creates restlessness; instead, find a sweet spot between deliberate vigilance and leisurely relaxation, like tuning a string.
Focus preliminarily on settling, grounding, and stabilizing the mind before moving into insight or mindfulness, as this builds greater capacity for clarity.
As you breathe in, stretch up or out to lift the spine and find alertness; as you breathe out, allow for a downward motion, settling and arriving in the present moment.
If you feel keyed up or energetic, extend your out-breath slightly to promote a feeling of settling and relaxation as the diaphragm relaxes.
Choose a simple ‘home base’ or ‘anchor’ for your attention that is not your worries, especially if your mind has a lot of momentum.
Select a settling anchor point like body sensations (warmth in hands, feet contact), sounds (tones, hums, birds), or visual sensations (back of eyes), avoiding the breath if it causes anxiety.
Notice the simple sensation of your body making contact with the seat or ground, as this can serve as a profound and supportive anchor point.
Engage in ‘sinking in’ to your chosen anchor by letting your interest flow into it sensually and without straining, allowing your attention to expand within that object.
Understand that meditation doesn’t require perfect focus or the disappearance of thoughts; split attention between your anchor and thoughts is normal and acceptable.
Foster an unhurried, leisurely quality in your attention, allowing your chosen anchor to come to you rather than forcefully seeking it.
If you prefer a wider focus, open your attention to include sounds in the space or the sense of space itself, with or without your body at the center.
To help settle the mind, count your breaths by assigning a number (one to ten) to each out-breath, then repeating the cycle.
For the final moments of meditation, practice letting go of all specific focus and simply ‘be’ as you are, coasting on the existing momentum.
If sleepiness arises during meditation, give yourself permission to fall asleep and avoid struggling against it, as this can paradoxically make it less likely to occur.
If intellectual inquiry in meditation feels dysregulating or restless, try backing off and coming into your body without making it ‘a big deal.’
If you are overly relaxed or checked out in meditation, try incorporating more deliberate, animated inquiry or curiosity to enliven your practice.
As an advanced practice, observe worries as a meditation object, noticing their qualities (voice, pauses, tone) rather than getting lost in them unconsciously.
Approach meditation as a process of self-attunement to discover what your unique system and body need, rather than strictly following universal instructions.
Evaluate meditation success by its positive impact on your daily life, not by specific experiences during a sit; consistent practice builds capacity to engage with life.
View meditation as a lifelong practice with changing seasons; consistently returning to it over time builds a greater capacity to be present with all experiences.
Incorporate walking meditation into your practice to extend awareness beyond formal sitting sessions, bringing mindfulness into movement and daily life.
Explore relational practices like ‘insight dialogue’ where you engage in conversation with a partner while maintaining meditative awareness, applying mindfulness to social interactions.