Why practice yoga? There is a multitude of different answers to this question. As with any longterm relationship, over time, our practice evolves; it ebbs and flows. Sometimes our practice feels fresh and vital; other times it may feel as if we’ve hit a plateau. At times we may drop the practice for a while, and at others we may look forward to stepping onto the mat or sitting on our meditation cushion. It can be helpful to remember why we decided to prioritize yoga practice in the first place. Reflecting on our initial motivation to practice can help us maintain not only consistency, but also inspiration.

3 Tips for Developing Motivation to Practice

When I look at my motivation to practice, I’ve found that it’s really simple. I practice because after 37 years of meditation and 43 years of yoga, I recognize the immeasurable value they bring to my life. I don’t practice because some awful harm would befall me if I don’t. It’s not simply something I’ve added to my daily to-do list. It’s not a should. I trust the practice. I have faith in the practice. And it’s not blind faith, but a faith that’s been verified through decades of experience.

How do we develop motivation to practice? Whether our core practice is yoga or meditation, we often need to be reminded why we’re doing it. Here are some tips for staying on the path:

• Think of your practice as part of your morning ritual, a way to maintain the health of your body/mind. We don’t think twice about eating a decent breakfast, brushing our teeth, showering, etc. Yoga and meditation practices are they ways we bring equilibrium to our bodies and minds.
• When you set aside the time to practice, give it your full attention. You’ve got plenty of time to go over your to-do list, or to reflect on that difficult conversation you had with someone yesterday. You’ve got time to formulate your reply to that person—later. Use your practice time to invest your full awareness into what you feel in your body and mind, here and now. Your practice time is precious. It deserves your attention and care.
• Reflect on the value of your practice in your daily life. According to the yoga sutras, the benefit of asana practice is the cultivation of equanimity in the face of the ups and downs of our lives. This can apply to minute daily annoyances, or it can apply to major challenges and losses. The benefits can be subtle or obvious. What benefits have you experienced? Reflecting on this can remind you why you practice and can help you stay motivated.

Trust Your Yoga and Meditation Practices

Reflecting on the value of practice in your life can be tricky. While there are benefits you can feel right away when you practice yoga and meditation, some of the deeper benefits are subtle. This is where reflecting on the millennia-long history of these practices can be helpful. Yoga and meditation have survived for thousands of years. They’ve survived because millions of people have reaped their benefits. So even if you’re just starting out, and the benefits you experience are on the subtler side, trust the process. Approach your practice with an open, curious mind. Reflect on why you love your practice. Then grab your meditation cushion or your yoga mat, open your mind and see where your practice takes you today.

We’ve all seen idealized images of meditation. Perhaps it’s a young woman on a deserted beach, hands in a meditation-friendly mudra, enjoying a sunset. Or maybe it’s an image like the one at the top of this post—a person with serene countenance, fingering mala beads in deep contemplation. It’s true that meditation can be peaceful. But sometimes, it’s marked by cascading thoughts and memories, raw emotions and/or physical discomfort. It’s important to remember that in mindfulness practice, the latter experience doesn’t mean you’re doing something wrong. Those thoughts, memories, emotions and discomforts are simply what is present. They are, in a very real sense, what there is to be mindful of. But when these experiences become overwhelming, mindfulness has a solution: a breath awareness practice designed to calm the body and mind.

When I teach mindfulness courses, many new meditators doubt their ability to practice. They’ll say, “Every time I sit down to meditate, my mind goes crazy. My thinking amps up more than ever.” To that, I tell them that they’re not thinking more when they meditate; they’re instead observing for the first time what’s been happening in their minds all along. I explain that mindfulness is not about stopping your thoughts. It’s about dealing with your thoughts in a skillful way.

We can be mindful of the process of thinking, instead of getting caught up in the content of our stories, memories, worries and dramas. Mindfulness of thinking is actually one of the four foundations of mindfulness. But sometimes, we need to slow the process down so that we can be with the thinking process with more equanimity. That’s where the breath awareness practice I’m about to describe can be invaluable.

Breath Awareness to the Rescue

On an 18-day retreat at Spirit Rock Meditation Center a few years ago, this breath awareness technique helped me navigate what I can only describe as a “massive memory dump.” Starting in the wee hours of the morning one night, memories began flowing, completely uncontrolled, at a pace I didn’t think possible. Life events I hadn’t thought of in decades were flashing through my consciousness nonstop, and at warp speed. None of it was traumatic, but it became exhausting after a while.

After several hours of experiencing this memory dump, I remembered a breath awareness practice that I thought might be able to slow things down a bit. It’s a very simple practice that I’d heard on an instruction CD by author/Insight Meditation teacher Joseph Goldstein. After just a few minutes of practice, the whole rapid-fire movie slowed down, and I felt a deep sense of calm.

How to Practice Calming Breath Awareness

1. Gather your props: a Meditation Cushion and Zabuton. If you don’t have a Zabuton, you can place your Meditation Cushion on top of a couple folded Yoga Blankets for extra padding under your knees or ankles.
2. Relax into your sitting position and tune into your breathing. Notice where you feel your breath most clearly—nostrils, chest or abdomen—and let your attention rest there. Feel the process of breathing, noting each inhalation and exhalation.
3. Now, as you inhale, make a gentle suggestion to calm the body and calm the mind. Do the same on your next exhalation. When I practice this, I simply say to myself “calm” each time I inhale and “calm” each time I exhale.
4. Feel your body/mind receiving this suggestion with each inhalation and exhalation.
5. Practice this as long as you like. You can practice for a few rounds at the beginning of your meditation, or you can practice it for the entire duration.

This breath awareness practice may seem too simple to be effective, but I’ve found it to be an essential tool in my meditation toolbox. You can practice it any time—when you’re feeling impatient while sitting at a stoplight, when you’re in the midst of a challenging situation, when you’re feeling stress or anxiety, when you’re lying awake at night, and of course, when your mind is wandering during meditation. You can practice it at the beginning or end of your yoga practice. It’s an especially nice way to begin your Savasana (Final Relaxation).

Over the years, I’ve attended quite a few metta meditation retreats at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. A few years ago, a fellow attendee asked a question that I think a lot of us were struggling with. Metta (kindness) is considered to be a boundless, all-inclusive state. So how can we practice metta for people who are causing great harm in the world?

The Pali word, metta, doesn’t have a direct English counterpart. We often translate it as lovingkindness, good will, friendliness, or simply, kindness. Metta is the first of the brahma viharas (divine abodes), in Buddhist practice. The brahma viharas include four qualities—metta, karuna (compassion), mudita (sympathetic joy), and upekha (equanimity). With practice, these qualities can become “divine abodes” for us. They become habits of the mind and heart. They become our home base, the foundation for our thoughts, intentions and actions.

Practicing Metta Meditation

In metta meditation practice, we begin by cultivating kindness toward those who are easiest for us. These can include our loved ones—human and non-human. We then move to practicing kindness toward ourselves. From there, we practice goodwill toward our mentors, family and friends. These categories of beings can pretty easily conjure up kind feelings for us.

After spending time in these categories, metta meditation progresses toward more challenging groups. If our kindness is to be boundless, we can’t exclude people outside our circle of loved ones. The next category is “neutral” people. These are people we don’t really know. They can include someone we work with, but don’t really know; or someone we see at the grocery store, our favorite restaurant, or some other daily life situation. In a future post, I’ll explain the deeper significance of this category.

The final frontier, of course, is the “difficult person,” or less judgmentally, “the person with whom we’re experiencing difficulty.” We all have experienced people with whom we’re not really in sync. This can range from minute differences of opinion to threats or abuse. Why should we spend our good will on people who have hurt us or the people we love? If our metta is to be boundless, how can we practice in a way that feels authentic?

The Practice

Metta meditation is taught in many different ways. In the tradition I learned, we practice sending kindness to the categories as listed in the above section. We use phrases to help us generate the feelings of good will. (Below are the phrases that have evolved for me over time. Please note that there are many ways to word these phrases to suit your own preferences.):

• May you be safe.
• May you be happy.
• May you be healthy.
• May you live with ease.

In another post, I can elaborate on how we might alter these phrases, or suggest others that might resonate.

In the meantime, you can find much more detailed instructions for practice in this post.

Who Are Our “Difficult People?”

There are several different categories of people with whom we may be having difficulty. They range from mildly difficult to threatening or scary.

• Friends or family members with whom we’re experiencing minor disagreement. These are people we care about, but with whom we are experiencing some sort of mild difficulty.
• People who have antagonized us in some way, whether verbally or physically, with threats or cruelty.
• Political figures who are causing harm to great numbers of beings.

How to Practice Metta Meditation Toward the Difficult

In metta meditation practice, it’s most beneficial to start where it’s easiest. We begin practicing with easy beings so that we can generate a foundation of kindness that will be easier to extend to more challenging people. So when we decide to embark on the difficult category, it’s a good idea to start with someone in the first group above. These are people we care about with whom we’re having a mild or temporary disagreement.

People who have antagonized or threatened us are more challenging. For years, I lived next door to a man who suffered from schizophrenia. He threatened my spouse and me constantly, mostly verbally, but on one occasion, physically. He spent a few days in jail for this, and I ended up getting a court-ordered stalking injunction against him when he violated his probation. For years, until he moved away, I was afraid to work in my own front yard because of his threats. In metta practice, I didn’t feel safe inviting him into my personal space. But I could still generate kindness for him if I imagined that he was halfway around the world, where he couldn’t harm me.

Metta Toward a Harmful Person in Power

The most challenging metta practice for me has been to offer kindness to a political figure who’s causing immeasurable harm. Wishing them to be happy, healthy, etc., has been impossible. When asked about how to approach this, one of the Spirit Rock teachers suggested this phrase: May you be free from hatred. That’s because it is hatred, after all, that causes people to do harm. Practicing metta in this way does not condone the harm this person is causing. Instead, it’s a skillful way to free ourselves from the poison of hatred in our own minds and hearts. Even though I’m still not at a place where I can wish my particular difficult political figure to be happy, I can honestly wish him to be free from hatred.

Mending Friendship Through Metta Meditation

For several years, I used as my “difficult person” a friend/coworker who had, several times, dressed me down in public. While I’m fine with constructive criticism, the way in which the person approached it was very hurtful, and caused fractures in our shared community. As a result, we became estranged for several years. Still, I continued to practice metta for the person on retreat.

After a few years, I was on a metta meditation retreat, all set to make him/her my difficult person again. But I was happy to realize there was no sting left in my feelings for him/her. At that point, the person resumed their place in my “friends and family” category. Later, we met for lunch and I told him/her about the evolution my practice for them. We spoke truthfully, and with kindness, and were able to resolve our differences. Since then, we’ve returned to being close friends.

In some ways, what kindness practice comes down to is how do we want to live in these minds and hearts? Do we want to live in hate and resentment? (Remember: Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for someone else to die.) Or do we want our baseline to be kindness and caring? We become what we practice. Practicing metta, even for those who are difficult, can help us live with greater ease and peace.

Round meditation cushions—zafus—are standard fare in most yoga and meditation spaces. For many people, these cushions do the job. They elevate the pelvis to make it easier to sit with a relaxed, straight spine. But for some, especially for those with hip joints that easily externally rotate, the contact point where your thighs hang off the edge of the cushion can get uncomfortable, especially in long sittings. That’s why Hugger Mugger designed the V-Shaped Meditation Cushion.

How do you know if you have hip joints that externally rotate easily? Sit cross-legged on a folded blanket (3-5 inches thick). Are your knees lower than your hip bones? If so, the V-Shaped Meditation Cushion is a good choice for you. If your knees are higher than your hip bones, the “legs” of the cushion won’t be able to support your legs and knees. Try a zafu or Zen cushion instead.

What Makes the V-Shaped Cushion So Comfortable?

• Adds height under your pelvis so that your spine can maintain its natural curves.
• The legs of the cushion give gentle, continuous support for your thighs.
• The zippered opening in the cushion allows you to customize the amount of organic buckwheat filling to your own sitting position.

The V-Shaped Cushions are covered in upholstery-grade fabrics in solid colors and prints. All are filled with organic buckwheat and include a convenient handle for transport. These cushions are handmade in our Salt Lake City-based manufacturing plant.

On a personal note, I bought my V-Shaped Meditation Cushion from Hugger Mugger in 1998 and have used it daily ever since. I’ve brought this along to many long meditation retreats and have always been very happy I did. These cushions are a great investment and will give you decades of comfort in your meditation practice.

It’s early January. The festive lights have dimmed, the last of the holiday treats are gone, and life is settling back into a familiar pace. While the holiday season may leave you with beautiful memories, it can also bring a sense of imbalance. Your body might feel stiff from long car rides, heavy meals, or late nights, and your mind may still be humming with holiday buzz.

Now is the perfect time for a gentle yoga recovery process: a slow, intentional way to reawaken your practice and restore harmony in body and mind. Think of this period not as something to “fix,” but as an invitation to nurture yourself. Below, we’ll explore how to ease tension, rebuild energy, and pave the way for a steady start to the new year. We’ll also touch on how to transition mindfully back into more dynamic styles like Vinyasa or Ashtanga when you’re ready.

1. Start small with gentle movement for your yoga recovery

After weeks of indulgences and irregular schedules, jumping straight into intense flows can feel jarring. Instead, begin with simple, soothing poses that help your muscles gently unwind. A yoga recovery approach highlights comforting postures that release tension, especially in areas that tend to tighten during busy times—shoulders, neck, hips, and lower back.

Suggested Poses:

• Child’s Pose (Balasana): Enhance the relaxation factor by placing a yoga bolster beneath your torso. Letting go in this posture can ease tension from your spine and hips.
• Supported Bridge (Setu Bandha Sarvangasana): Using a foam yoga block under your sacrum allows a gentle backbend that opens the chest and realigns the spine.
• Neck Stretches: Slow head rolls and side bends release the neck and shoulders, helping to melt away holiday stress.

2. Rediscover your breath

To truly reset, look to your breath. Deep, mindful breathing can soften the edges of post-holiday tension, shifting your state from scattered to serene. By paying attention to each inhale and exhale, you create mental space to refocus on yourself.

Try This:

• Three Part Breath (Dirga Pranayama): Inhale slowly, filling your belly, ribs, and chest, then exhale just as steadily. This simple technique clears mental clutter and reconnects you with the present moment.

Pro Tip: Enhance this quiet time by draping a blanket over your legs. The comforting weight reminds you to slow down, settle in, and embrace your yoga recovery journey.

3. Embrace restorative yoga for deep reset

Restorative yoga is a powerful method for yoga recovery, encouraging profound rest and balance. With bolsters, blocks, and blankets, these postures require minimal muscular effort, letting you linger in each pose and gently reset your nervous system.

Restorative favorites:

• Reclined Bound Angle (Supta Baddha Konasana): Lie back on a bolster placed lengthwise along your spine, allowing the chest to open. Support your knees with blocks or folded blankets. This heart opening pose can lift holiday heaviness and welcome in fresh, compassionate energy.
• Legs Up the Wall (Viparita Karani): Resting your legs against a wall soothes weary legs and fosters calm. Drape a soft blanket over your belly for warmth as you let gravity and time do the work of relaxation.

4. Releasing the need to “Make Up” for the holidays

Your yoga recovery period isn’t about punishment or burning off those extra holiday cookies. It’s about healing and honoring your body’s current needs. Swap out any guilt driven thoughts for a mindset focused on replenishment and kindness. Yoga should always be a space of self respect and compassion, not a chore.

Gentle Flow ideas:

• A few rounds of Cat Cow to awaken your spine.
• Low lunges to stretch hips tight from sitting.
• Gentle twists to aid digestion and help you feel lighter.

By listening closely to your body, you create a space where yoga becomes truly nourishing rather than another stressful item on your to-do list.

5. Returning to your vinyasa or Ashtanga practices

Once you’ve spent time nurturing yourself with gentle and restorative yoga, you may feel ready to reintroduce more dynamic styles into your routine. Vinyasa and Ashtanga practices, known for their flowing sequences and building internal heat, can eventually help restore your strength, flexibility, and stamina.

Tips for transitioning back:

• Shorter Sessions: Start with a shorter Vinyasa flow or a Half Primary Ashtanga sequence. Just 20–30 minutes of focused movement can rekindle muscle memory without overtaxing your body.
• Extra Props: Even in a more dynamic practice, props are friends, not crutches. Use blocks for stability and modify postures if you feel any lingering tightness.
• Pace Yourself: Don’t rush back into advanced variations. Focus on foundational poses first. Sun Salutations, standing sequences, and gentle backbends. Only adding more complex asanas as your body regains strength and fluidity.

Remember that yoga recovery isn’t a separate world from your regular practice. It’s a stepping stone, a gentle bridge that leads you back into the rhythmic flow of Vinyasa and the disciplined structure of Ashtanga, but without risking burnout or injury.

6. Set intentions for the new year

As you navigate this yoga recovery period, consider what you’d like your practice—and your life—to feel like in the coming year. Maybe you want more patience, steadiness, or joy. Your mat can be a sacred space to set these intentions, allowing them to guide both your slower sessions and your stronger flows.

Try Journaling:

After each practice, note how you feel. Over time, these reflections become a guiding compass, helping you identify when it feels right to step up intensity, or when to continue gently nurturing yourself.

7. Consistency is key in all phases of your practice

Whether you’re easing into a gentle flow or gradually reigniting your Vinyasa or Ashtanga routine, consistency helps solidify positive habits. Start small, a few minutes each day, and trust that time will bring clarity and comfort.

Consistency Tips:

• Short Sessions: Begin with short practices to rebuild trust and stability in your body.
• Identify your best time: Mornings can gently wake you up, while evenings help release the day’s tensions.
• Visual cues: Keep your props visible and accessible. Seeing them is often all it takes to remind you of your intention to practice.

Conclusion: A compassionate path forward

The holidays may have left you feeling scattered or fatigued, but embracing a period of yoga recovery allows you to move back into harmony with yourself. By starting gently and focusing on nurturing postures, you can gradually reintroduce more dynamic practices like Vinyasa or Ashtanga as your body and mind become ready.

This new year, let your yoga journey be guided by kindness, patience, and a steady, supportive foundation, no matter which style you return to. As you step onto your mat, remember that you’re always allowed to pause, adjust, and honor the place you find yourself in today.

Ready to build a supportive environment for your yoga recovery and beyond? Explore Hugger Mugger’s mats,bolsters, blocks, and blankets to create a cozy, welcoming space that nurtures your body and spirit at every stage of your practice.

On every silent Insight Meditation retreat I’ve attended—at The Last Resort in Southern Utah, or at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California—meals have always been always been the most reliable source of daily pleasure. This is partially due to the expertise and caring of the people who plan and prepare the meals, which are always wholesome, flavorful and prepared with love. Another reason retreat food brings such pleasure is that it’s not up to me to plan the menu, buy and assemble the ingredients, and prepare the food. I love to cook, but I also love to be surprised. It’s wonderful to walk into the dining hall not knowing what’s in store, but knowing it will be delicious and fortifying, because it always is. But perhaps the most important part is that we practice mindful eating. After days or weeks of practicing mindfulness, every activity—sitting, walking, showering, doing your yogi job and eating—becomes a part of the practice. Slowing down and being present with your daily activities makes everything you do more satisfying.

Benefits of Mindful Eating

Here are some of the benefits I’ve noticed from eating mindfully:

• The textures and flavors of food spring to life.
• Slowing down helps digestion.
• I tend to eat less because I’m more aware of when my body is full. I eat what I need rather than what I want.
• Practicing mindful eating takes your meditation practice off your meditation cushion and into your life, where it can make a greater impact.

Mindful eating is really common sense. But most of us lead busy lives, juggling many responsibilities. We often eat on the fly, or multitask while we’re eating. I’m as guilty as anyone, but I do try to slow down and enjoy at least one meal every day. Here are some tips that might help you cultivate a mindful eating habit.

How to Eat Mindfully Every Day

• Set a doable intention. Start with something easy, maybe eating one meal each day—or even each week—slowly and mindfully. Intentions are powerful. Deciding that you’re going to explore mindful eating is the first step.
• Invite a buddy. If you have a partner or family, encourage them to join you. It’s a lot easier to start a new practice when you and a friend can keep each other inspired. For example, you could commit to sitting down to one mindful family meal each day. If you can’t do it every day, then try three times a week, or once a week.
• Start with a moment of silence. Before digging in, take a few moments to savor the sights and smells emanating from your plate. Cultivate gratitude.
• Be mindful of the entire process. Here’s how this might look: Be aware of the movements and sensations in your arm and hands as you reach for your utensils. Feel the weight, texture, coolness or warmth of your fork, spoon or knife. Follow the movement of your hand and arm as you move it toward your plate. Feel the weight of the food on your fork or spoon as you lift it toward your mouth. Be mindful of the movements of your jaw and teeth, and the flavors and textures of the food you’re eating. Chew, with presence, until the food is completely broken down. Be present with swallowing.
• On one meditation retreat at Spirit Rock, Sally Armstrong talked about the practice of “putting down the fork.” Quite often we’ve already got our next bite on the fork, ready to shovel in, before we’ve finished the food we’re currently chewing. Instead, while you’re chewing your food, set your fork or spoon on your plate and refrain from picking it back up until you’re ready for another bite.

A Few More Tips for Mindful Eating

If you like to journal, write down your experiences. Writing can help you clarify your intentions and the benefits of your practice.

Mindful meals don’t have to be at home. You can follow all these steps when you enjoy restaurant fare.

It’s not always easy to develop new habits, so go easy on yourself. Set your intention, but know that you may not always be able to make good on it. If you miss a day, it’s okay. You can begin again with your next meal.

Eating is essential. Consuming healthy, nourishing food replenishes our prana. We’re going to eat anyway, so why not pay attention?

A while back, I wrote a post on mindfulness of the body, centering the practice on breath awareness. In the Theravada tradition, breath awareness is the starting point, the foundation of beginning to stabilize the mind. Breath awareness gives us a continuous process on which to rest the mind. Of course, that doesn’t mean that the mind won’t wander off into its own worries, memories and reveries even as we intend to stabilize our minds on the breathing process. But it’s in the process of continually recognizing that the mind has wandered off, and redirecting it back to the breath, that we begin to cultivate a new habit of mind. In today’s post, I’d like to invite you to play with expanding awareness into the rest of the body, utilizing a body scan.

How Does a Body Scan Work?

Body scans are foundational in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Goenka-style Vipassana meditation. Moving awareness systematically through the body is integral to Yoga Nidra practice. I’m sure there are other methodologies that use a form of body scanning as a way to stabilize awareness as well. Practicing a body scan can help us connect with the body internally, and as a whole.

In body scan practice, we systematically move awareness through the body. This can include intentionally relaxing areas as we acknowledge them. It could also be simply visiting these areas without a particular agenda.

In some forms of the practice, we start with the feet and move up the body. In others, we start with the head and work our way down to the feet. It’s simply a matter of preference. In the practice I’ll introduce below, I start with the head. That’s because, at least for me, visiting the anatomy of the head seems to have a softening effect on everything below.

Breath Awareness vs. Open Awareness

Since breath awareness is usually where mindfulness practice begins, we may tend to think that it’s an “elementary” practice, and that open awareness of the body as a whole is more “advanced.” Joseph Goldstein addressed this at an Insight Meditation retreat I attended a few years ago. When asked which form of body mindfulness practice was preferable—breath awareness or open awareness—he paused for a moment, and then said “whatever works.”

Which practice you choose on a given day depends on the state of your body/mind. If your mind seems scattered and unfocused—aka “monkey mind”—breath awareness can help you stabilize it. If you’re practicing breath awareness and find that your body and mind are feeling tense and stuck, you might want to invite the rest of your body into awareness. The practice that’s best for you on a given day will be the one that allows you to be most mindful.

There’s More than One Way to Practice a Body Scan

Before I suggest the practice below, I want to reiterate that this is not the only way to practice a body scan. This is simply what I’ve used that has seemed to work with my mindfulness students. The practice below attempts to tune us into some of our internal anatomy, as well as general categories such as arms, legs, torso, etc.

You might want to record a voice memo on your phone so that you don’t have to look at the text. Or, if you’re like me, and hearing your own recorded voice is distracting, you can have a friend record the body scan instead.

Head-to-Toe Body Scan

You can practice this body scan sitting on a Meditation Cushion, lying down or in Tadasana (Mountain Pose). If you’re feeling tired, sitting or standing may help you stay more alert. If you’re feeling tense or stressed, lying down might work best.

Here’s how to practice. Remember that you can intentionally relax these areas, or simply be aware of the sensations you’re feeling as you touch into them:

• Be aware of your facial muscles and scalp.
• Your skull
• Your brain inside the skull
• Eyes
• Cheeks
• Inner ears
• Outer ears
• Jaw
• Upper palate
• Upper row of teeth
• Inner cheeks
• Lower row of teeth
• Throat
• Tops of the shoulders
• Upper arms
• Forearms
• Hands
• Fingers
• Ribcage
• Muscles between and around the ribs
• Contents of the ribcage: heart and lungs
• The diaphragm: Feel the diaphragmatic movement as the muscle flattens downward on the inhalation, making room for the lungs to expand, and pressing on the abdominal organs, causing the abdomen to expand. Then as you exhale, feel the diaphragm doming upward to help push air out of your lungs, allowing the abdominal organs to settle back into place. (You can practice this awareness for several breaths if you like.)
• Abdominal muscles
• Low back
• Pelvis
• Abdominal organs
• Perineum
• Thighs
• Knees
• Feet
• Toes

Feel free to reverse the process and make your way back up, from the feet to the head, or proceed to the next instruction.

Open Awareness of the Body

Once you’ve finished your body scan, you can settle back and invite the entire body into awareness. Here, you can simply feel all the sensations arising—sensations of contact, temperature, tension, hardness, softness, pulsing, vibration—whatever is arising. If a particular sensation becomes predominant, you can rest your attention there, feeling its process. Does it intensify and then wane? Does it come and go? If nothing in particular feels predominant, rest your awareness in the whole body, feeling the breath arising within this larger frame.

As Joseph said, there’s no hierarchy between breath awareness and open awareness. Use your own meditation practice as a guide to which practice works better for you at a given moment.

The Buddha said: “There is one thing that, when cultivated and regularly practiced, leads to deep spiritual intention, to peace, to mindfulness, and clear comprehension to vision and knowledge, to a happy life here and now, and to the culmination of wisdom. And what is that one thing? Mindfulness centered on the body.”

Most spiritual systems consider concerns of the body to be subservient to those of the mind and heart. But in the practice of mindfulness, awareness of the body is the most crucial foundation. If you want to be truly present, mindfulness of the body is essential. The body is always in the present. It can’t be otherwise. When we are awake in our bodies, we are truly in the here and now.

In the Satipatthana Sutta, the sutta on the practice of mindfulness, there are considered to be four foundations of mindfulness. I introduced these in a previous post. I consider mindfulness of the body to be the “foundation of the foundations.” This is because everything we experience in this life is experienced as sensation in the body. At any given moment, there are six things we can be aware of: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, feeling or touching, and thinking. All these are experienced as sensations in our bodies.

Breath Awareness: Anchoring Mindfulness of the Body

How do we practice mindfulness of the body? The foundational practice of mindfulness of the body is breath awareness. Humans breathe an average of 23,000 times a day. Our bodies do this all on their own, without our guidance or awareness. However, we can use our breathing as an anchor for our awareness.

Often, when we sit down to practice mindfulness, it can be tempting to resolve to be mindful for the entire period of practice—10, 20, 30 minutes or more. When our minds inevitably slip off into thinking, often within seconds of sitting down to practice, we can feel like giving up. Instead of committing to something that’s likely unattainable, I suggest practicing this simple, and powerful, technique:

At the beginning of each inhalation and exhalation, commit to being aware of just this inhalation, and just this exhalation. That’s it. You simply recommit to being aware of each part of the breath as it arises.

I feel fortunate to have learned this instruction early on in my practice, more than 30 years ago. I still use it, pretty much every day.

How to Practice Mindfulness of the Body and Breath

1. Sit comfortably on a meditation cushion or chair.
2. Close your eyes, or leave them slightly open and look at the ground a foot or two in front of you.
3. Tune into your breathing, feeling it in your body.
4. As you become aware of your breathing, note if there’s an area in the breathing passage where the breath feels most clear for you. This could be your nostrils, chest or abdomen. Settle your awareness there and simply feel the sensations of breathing in that area.
5. Commit to staying aware of just this inhalation, and then just this exhalation.
6. When your mind wanders off, which it most likely will, when you notice it, simply redirect your awareness back to your breath. You may need to do this many, many times in your practice. Each time you notice your mind has become lost, and you bring yourself back to the breath, you are slowly but surely developing a habit of being present. So don’t despair if you find your mind wandering off many times during a practice. In many ways, the practice is about noticing that your mind has become distracted, and continually corralling it back to your breath.

Refining Breath Awareness

There are several other traditional techniques that can help you refine your awareness of the breath. You can add these to your breath awareness as a way of framing your practice:

• Notice whether your inhalations and exhalations are relatively short or relatively long.
• Be aware of the beginning, middle and end of each inhalation and exhalation.
• As you inhale and exhale, make the suggestion to calm the body and calm the mind. For example you can note: inhaling-calm, exhaling-calm.

Mindfulness of the Body: A Big Subject

When I began writing this post, I intended to include all the different ways of practicing mindfulness of the body. But when I got into the weeds of it, I realized that it’s too big a subject for a single post. In future posts, we’ll explore other ways of practicing mindfulness of the body. For now, let the simple breath be your mindfulness anchor.

This post explains one of the 4 Foundations of Mindfulness. Normally, I might have chosen to write this after the first foundation (mindfulness of the body). But mindfulness of change has been at the forefront of my mind recently, so I’m offering this now, while it’s most alive for me.

Labor Day marked the first dusting of snow in the Wasatch Mountains here in Utah. I’ve lived in Salt Lake City since the early ’80s. I don’t remember a time when the mountains saw snow anywhere near this early. Just a week before, I was hiking in these same mountains enjoying the profusion of wildflowers. In a few weeks, the aspens will begin to turn golden. Transition is not only a part of life; it is the nature of life itself. Practicing mindfulness of change can help us learn how to navigate this truth.

Many years ago, a longtime student asked Suzuki Roshi (author of the seminal book, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind) to sum up Zen practice in a single sentence. His answer was, “Everything changes.” But change does not happen simply in the transitions from season to season.

We can easily see the truth of change if we reflect on our lives. I recently saw the Barbie film. It was a fun romp to watch, but it also reminded me of how important my Barbies (and my trolls) were in my early life. Where are they now? I barely batted an eye when my mother told me she’d given them away. In college, an active social life (read: partying) was super important to me. Sometimes I wonder who that person was who inhabited this body during that time. It’s not that I regret those years; it’s just that it’s so far from where my priorities lie these days.

Mindfulness of Change at the Micro Level

We can all reflect on the many phases in our lives to help us understand the truth of change at a macro level. But practicing mindfulness of change can give us an intimate view of the process of change that is happening literally all the time. When we look closely, we can see that everything is changing constantly. There is not a single moment that passes that is the same as the previous one, or the next one.

Tuning into the flow of change can help us understand one of the late Vietnamese Zen master, Thich Nhat Hanh’s, most profound teachings: “Birth and death are only notions. They are not real. The Buddha taught that there is no birth; there is no death; there is no coming; there is no going; there is no same; there is no different; there is no permanent self; there is no annihilation. We only think there is.”

I won’t pretend to be able to explain this teaching. It’s something I’ve been trying to understand for many years—the continuity of life within the flow of change. But understanding this concept, I believe, is key to living our lives with equanimity amidst the inevitable changes we will go through in our lives. Practicing mindfulness of change can help us navigate transitions—pleasant and unpleasant—we all experience.

How to Practice

1. Sit in a comfortable position. You can sit on a Meditation Cushion, or if sitting on the floor is not comfortable, feel free to sit in a chair.
2. Settle back in your body. Close your eyes gently and allow them to relax back into their sockets.
3. Now open your sense of hearing. Be aware of the sounds arising in your environment, and perhaps, within your body. Relax back and allow sound to come to you. There’s no need to reach out for it; it’s coming to you anyway. Be aware of how the sounds arise, change and pass away. Continue this practice for a few minutes.
4. Now become aware of bodily sensations—sensations of contact with what you’re sitting on, sensations of temperature, sensations of pulsing or vibration, sensations of breathing. Feel your body as a whole, tuning into the flow of sensations—seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching. When thoughts arise, are there physical sensations that accompany them?
5. Become aware of how these sensations are changing moment to moment. So rather than simply labeling the sensations you’re feeling, relax into the flow of change from one moment to the next.
6. Thoughts will come. That’s okay. When you notice that you’re lost in a thought, redirect your awareness back to the flow of sensation. What do you feel when you let go of the thought?

Let Go of the Past, the Future and the Present

Several years ago while I was on retreat, author/mindfulness teacher Joseph Goldstein offered a practice I found to be a profound doorway to the awareness of mindfulness of change. In mindfulness practice, we’re often reminded that there really is only this moment. Past is past; future has not yet happened. Neither exist in reality. Past and future exist only as thoughts in this moment.

So we’re invited to let go of the past and the future. But Joseph took it a bit further and suggested that we explore letting go of the present as well. So while you’re practicing meditation, set an intention to let go of each moment as it arises.

Feel free to leave a comment. I’d love to hear about your experience.

When I first began practicing mindfulness in earnest in the 1980s, relatively few people had heard of it. Over the past 10 years or so though, awareness of mindfulness has grown. As of today, Googling “mindfulness” yields a staggering 1,020,000,000 results. These days, people practice mindfulness in places as disparate as yoga studios, meditation centers and corporate retreats. While the practice appears to be simple, it’s not easy. As anyone who’s ever attempted to practice knows, our minds are like a wild monkey, constantly leaping from one thought or sensation to the next. That’s why this ancient technology for awakening spells out 4 foundations of mindfulness, to help us get a handle on our unwieldy minds.

What Is Mindfulness?

If you ask pretty much anyone what mindfulness is, most would say that it’s “being in the moment.” This is true. We must be in the moment to be mindful. But there’s more to it than simply being in the moment. Mindfulness also includes knowing what’s actually happening in the moment. We can be in the moment but not really be aware of what we’re experiencing.

For example, back in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, I was a fan of the Grateful Dead. I went to Dead shows whenever I could. It was sooooo much fun. When I was dancing to the Dead, I was totally absorbed in the moment, but I can’t say I was all that aware of what I was experiencing. So while I was in the moment, I wasn’t actually being mindful.

Mindfulness requires knowing what is happening in our experience. Knowing is key to developing wisdom. Mindfulness also requires that we are aware of our responses to what is happening. Are we clinging to pleasant sensations, hoping they won’t go away? Are we responding with aversion to unpleasant experiences? Awareness of our responses to present experience allows us to make choices about how we deal with the vicissitudes of our lives. This ultimately leads to the development of equanimity.

What Are the 4 Foundations of Mindfulness?

Whenever I teach a mindfulness class, one or more students invariably lament the fact that their minds seem even more jumbled and confused when they sit down to meditate. The key word here is “seem.” Our minds are no more out of control when we practice meditation than they are in the rest of our lives. What’s different is that we’re actually observing the normal state of our minds for the first time. That can be both daunting and humbling.

This is where the technology of the 4 foundations of mindfulness can be so helpful. The 4 foundations give us a framework with which to understand what is happening in each moment. The foundations help us connect with the quality of knowing. In this post, I’ll introduce the foundations. In subsequent posts I’ll delve into each foundation, and give you some ideas for how to practice with them.

The 4 Foundations of Mindfulness

1. Mindfulness of the Body: This is really the foundation of the other three foundations. That’s because everything we can be aware of arises as a sensation in the body. This practice includes awareness of whatever is coming in through our senses.
2. MIndfulness of Feeling Tone: In mindfulness practice, feeling tone is not the same as feelings or emotions. Mindfulness of feeling tone is awareness of whether what we are experiencing is pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. This provides a crucial link to understanding our responses to experience.
3. Mindfulness of Mental States and Emotions: Our mental states and emotions color our perception of experience. So it is important to understand when they are present. Knowing what filters may be distorting our perception helps us see more clearly into our experience.
4. Mindfulness of Dhammas: This foundation is quite vast. Joseph Goldstein’s book, Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening, spends a whole lot of chapters explaining the many different aspects of this foundation. It includes mindfulness of the flow of experiences, as well as unpacking universal truths of our life experience.

A Work in Progress

After 35 years of practice, I’ve come to understand mindfulness as a work in progress. It’s a practice, not a performance. I’ve found it to be helpful to approach practice with a beginner’s mind. So as I describe the 4 foundations of mindfulness in this and future posts, I’ll remind myself, and you, the reader, that what I write reflects only my present understanding, which is likely incomplete. Still, I offer this exploration into the 4 foundations of mindfulness as a jumping-off point, a way to explore mindfulness and perhaps, to give you some tools to make sense of the practice. Happy exploring!