Cultivate the skill of dropping effort and being satisfied with the present moment, rather than constantly striving for a future outcome, to break the endless habit of future-oriented striving.
Release effort in meditation by surrendering the striving mind and giving up the agenda of constantly trying to achieve something.
To achieve effortlessness, bring your attention to bodily sensations, as the body naturally models effortless self-regulation and present moment awareness without striving.
When caught in striving, drop into bodily sensations, acknowledging that effortlessness is momentary and the practice is to gently start again each time striving returns.
Use “effortless” as a mental mantra to remind yourself that knowing sensations and thoughts requires no inherent effort, and that any perceived effort is added by the thinking mind.
Periodically ask yourself, “What’s the attitude in my mind right now?” to uncover underlying striving or other mental patterns, allowing you to pause and release them.
Seek “great exhaustion” of concepts in meditation by allowing the mind to run its course until it naturally settles into a state of effortless ease, similar to physical exhaustion after intense activity.
Instead of suppressing, avoiding, or escaping uncomfortable emotions, turn towards them, create a holding environment, and learn to “love” them to break the cycle of reactivity.
Embrace difficult feelings in the body with kindness, allowing them to naturally free themselves rather than trying to force their release.
Reframe intense emotions (like frustration, anger, impatience) as “energy events” or “subtle body ripples” rather than “negative emotions” to de-demonize them, allowing you to approach them with kindness and embrace them as a natural part of being human.
Relate to difficult emotions with care and compassion, like tending to a suffering friend, recognizing that these emotions are often the organism’s unskillful attempts to protect itself.
Befriend different parts of your mind and emotions, even if it feels counterintuitive, to foster a sense of wholeness and reduce internal conflict.
Accept that emotions, even “disturbing” ones, are a natural and human part of being an animal, and they have a positive side, contributing to empathy and compassion.
Practice “GROW” (Ground, Relax, Open, Wonder) by cultivating a sense of awe and fascination for whatever is happening in the present moment.
Ground yourself by shifting attention from the thinking mind to the feeling body, noticing present sensations to gain stability and connection to the earth.
Practice relaxation as a skill by noticing areas of tension (e.g., back, stomach, face), breathing into them, and exhaling to release habitual gripping.
Open your awareness to the surrounding environment, accepting all sounds and external phenomena as part of your meditation practice rather than creating boundaries against distractions.
Untangle daily residue by noticing your mood and underlying feelings with attention and compassion, inviting them into your practice rather than trying to power through or escape them.
Nurture the “pure witness” or bare attention—the part of yourself that notices the present moment without judgment or identification—which lies beneath the thinking mind.
Dissolve separations between attention and body, and between self and world, resting in a sense of non-separateness.
During meditation, after focusing on the breath or noting sensations, ask “known by what?” or “who is knowing all of this?” to explore the mystery of consciousness and the non-local nature of awareness.
Embrace the experience of “not finding” a separate knower during meditation, as this non-finding can lead to a sense of boundless openness and is considered a form of “finding” in Zen tradition.
Cultivate an awareness of the inseparability of body, energy, and mind, recognizing their oneness as a path to experiencing integration and non-duality.
Recognize that awareness (the “awareness body”) pervades your entire embodied experience, not just the brain, and cultivate this embodied consciousness in meditation to move beyond solely intellectualizing practice.
Pay attention to the subtle body (energetic/feeling body) to notice emotions as they arise as energetic experiences, meeting them in the body rather than just the mind, allowing them to dissolve over time.
When meditating, bring your attention to the base of your body where it contacts the earth to find a place of rest, stability, and grounding, which helps settle a flighty mind.
Pay attention to your body’s present moment sensations (e.g., feet on the ground) to engage in somatic mindfulness, as the body is inherently present and aware.
Meditate in nature (e.g., near a tree, in a park) by blending your body with natural cues like bird sounds or grass, as this helps awaken your inherent “natural state” and makes meditation effortless.