Practice mindfulness to clearly observe your thoughts, urges, and emotions, which helps identify unhelpful mental habits and reduces emotional reactivity.
Cultivate the ability to recognize the simple, receptive quality of natural awareness or ‘pure knowing’ in any moment, which brings ease and non-clinging to experience.
Consciously shift away from habitual reactivity that centers on personal impact (‘what does it mean to me?’), fostering a more peaceful mind and compassionate responses.
Recognize that suffering often stems from making everything about oneself; observing your own ’torment’ (greed, hatred, confusion) impersonally can lead to freedom from self-referential views.
Pay attention to the arising of wanting and aversion in your mind, as recognizing these states frees you from their influence and allows for clearer perception.
When you find yourself struggling or suffering, recognize this as a sign that you are not being mindful of some form of holding, denial, aversion, or delusion.
If wanting, aversion, or confusion is driving your thoughts, distrust any assessments made by your thinking mind in that moment, as they are likely clouded and unreliable.
Strive to find peace within your own mind and heart, particularly by welcoming difficult emotions into awareness, as this enables you to bring peace to others.
Understand that mental states have inertia; actively cultivate wholesome states like generosity, as awareness helps break unwholesome habits and promotes positive mental patterns.
Engage in acts of generosity, tuning into the open-hearted joy and wholesome motivation that arises from sharing, which cultivates genuine happiness and encourages further generosity.
When your mind is clouded, reflect on past acts of generosity, focusing on the happiness they brought, which clears the mind of passion, aversion, or fear.
Regularly practice gratitude by reflecting on things you are thankful for, which shifts your inner mental atmosphere towards joy and contentment.
Strive to cultivate a mind without preferences, accepting ‘it’s all this right now,’ which leads to total presence and avoids creating suffering through distinctions.
Recognize the powerful pull of habitual mental patterns and commit to continuously ‘resetting’ and reminding yourself of awareness and freedom to sustain practice over time.
Embrace the understanding that every moment is new and requires renewed commitment to practice, fostering persistence in cultivating awareness.
Set aside 20 minutes daily to sit quietly and gently notice simple, obvious sensations like those in your hands or sounds, allowing them to be known without intense focus.
Practice recognizing sensory experiences, like hearing or seeing, as processes themselves rather than immediately getting absorbed in the object or story, which fosters receptive awareness.
When unpleasant experiences or aversion arise, recognize them within awareness without clinging, which reduces their hold and brings a sense of ease.
Practice recognizing moods and emotions by directly feeling their physical and mental sensations, which increases daily awareness and reduces reflexive reactions.
When experiencing anger, shift your attention from cognitive narratives to its physical sensations in your body, which can prevent reflexive, habitual reactions.
When you detect aversion or wanting influencing your immediate response, especially in communication, pause before acting to gain clearer perspective and avoid tunnel vision.
When difficult feelings arise, observe the accompanying personal narratives and stories without getting triggered, allowing for equanimity, clear seeing, or compassion to emerge.
In triggering situations, use awareness to understand your emotional reactions and pause before responding, allowing for a more connecting or less angry interaction.
Bring awareness to your motivations for action, especially regarding ethical conduct, to foster non-harming behavior and a sense of lightness.
Pay attention to the subtle positive feelings that arise from acts of non-harming, even small ones, without judgment or creating a story, reinforcing wholesome conduct.
When you catch yourself gossiping, simply stop and notice the feeling of refraining from causing harm, which brings a sense of lightness and happiness.
At the end of each day, reflect on all the small, positive actions you performed, focusing on the wholesome motivations and feelings to reinforce positive habits.
Upon waking, consciously find small things to be grateful for, such as warm feet, to positively shift your mental atmosphere and promote wholesome states throughout the day.
Practice walking meditation for 20-30 minutes in the morning, focusing on the sensations in your feet to settle a scattered mind and recognize simple awareness.
Actively cultivate wholesome states like gratitude or loving kindness even during neutral or dull moments, making them more available during challenging times.
Engage in intensive practice of wholesome states like loving kindness, not just reactively, to strengthen these mental ‘muscles’ and make them more readily available.
When overwhelmed by suffering, consciously open into the sorrow with awareness rather than pushing it away, which can bring a sense of freedom.
Actively seek and recognize moments of non-conceptual awe or peace in daily life, without attaching stories or self-reference, to experience freedom from self-centeredness.
Instead of actively chasing spiritual progress, surrender and trust the process, allowing the Dharma to unfold naturally without forceful striving.
Become aware of your tendency to love or cling to the causes of suffering, even while disliking the suffering itself, to break the cycle.
When you realize you are ‘caught up’ in a mental state, appreciate this recognition as it is a crucial step out of identification and into awareness.
Engage in Buddhist meditation to decrease the influence of unproductive mental habits and foster a less reactive state of mind.
Cultivate a relaxed and receptive awareness throughout your day, not trying to focus on one thing but noticing all experiences as they arise.