My Year of Meditating Virtually

A year of streaming my weekday morning meditation practice during the pandemic.

Take It All In

Life is a beautiful thing.
Just take it all in and breathe,
breathe, breathe.

~ Creola Johnson

The Ability to Tell the Difference

"The success of Homo sapiens as a species is built on our inability to tell the difference between a fiction and a reality."

~ Yuval Noah Harari

Removing Barriers to Entry

"Do I think one minute is going to be the thing that changes your life? It could be really powerful, but...what I love about one minute is it's a very low-cost option. Very few barriers to entry.

Because if you start saying, Oh, I don't have a minute to meditate, we really got to start evaluating some things going on in your life, because you definitely need more than meditation if you make that argument.

It's hard to argue yourself out of it."

~ Cory Muscara

Oops! Did I Do It Again?

Broken streaks are demoralizing. This is why shooting for unbroken streaks leads so easily to feeling disappointed in ourselves and giving up on the whole project.

What can you do when you break your attentional fitness training streak?

Practice in Life, BeginningDaron LarsonFebruary 7, 2017practice, exercise, attention, habits, obstaclesComment

Exercise Your Attention with Mindfulness

Comparing mindfulness practice to what we already understand about physical fitness can help you adjust your expectations and increase the chances that you will stick with the exploration long enough to experience its numerous beneficial effects.

Beginning, Myths & MisperceptionsDaron LarsonOctober 18, 2016attention, exercise, training, research, science, cultureComment

Why Meditate?

"Why meditate? As you suffer less, are more fulfilled, as you understand who you are, and as you have a handle on changing how you carry yourself, all of that sums up ultimately in how you contribute to making this world a better place."

~ Shinzen Young

Beginning, Practice in LifeDaron LarsonAugust 30, 2016Shinzen Young, happiness, meditation, habits, behavior, service, self-awareness, suffering, satisfactionComment

Anxious and Uncomfortable Has Really Been My Home Base

"I have a very hard time with things, you know, just being quiet. Like, if I sit alone, you know, for ten minutes with nothing happening, you know, which I guess some people would call meditating, I just lose my mind. I'm, like — how does anyone deal with this horrible silence and awareness that everything's almost over?"

~ Marc Maron

Getting Better at Noticing Directly

When you begin a walking or running program, there are several details you can track as evidence of improvement. Your step count. The length of your stride. Your pace. The amount of time it takes your heart to return to its recover its baseline resting rate.

But how will you know when you’re getting better at noticing perceptions?

Don't Try To Be Mindful

What keeps us holding out for these perfect, comfortable lives that we imagine? And how can training your attention help address these habits?

Constant State of Unrest

The universe began with our eyes closed.

Beginning, See OutDaron LarsonSeptember 7, 2015Sleeping At Last, music, change, impermanence, history, expansion/contraction, breath, lifeComment

Is This What Being Vulnerable Feels Like?

i’ll run the risk
of being intimate with brokenness.

~ Sleeping At Last

Beginning, EquanimityDaron LarsonAugust 19, 2015Sleeping At Last, music, musicians, self, memory, growing up, struggle, risk, intimacy, hope, vulnerability, equanimity, liberation, Martin KlimasComment

Familiarity with One's Own Mind

"The implication here is that every moment of your life becomes an opportunity for changing your worldview and facilitating a sustainably healthy mind."

~ David R. Vago, Ph.D.

To Tell the Modes Apart

Mindfulness practice doesn’t eliminate my personal narrative. It gradually changes my relationship to it.

Beginning, Clarity, Myths & MisperceptionsDaron LarsonJuly 6, 2015narrative, attention, intimacy, self, self/other, freedom, liberation, practice, awarenessComment

Benefits Before Mastery

Mindfulness meditation is extraordinarily simple to describe, but it isn't easy to perform. True mastery might require special talent and a lifetime devotion to the task, and yet a genuine transformation in one's perception of the world is within reach for most of us. Practice is the only thing that will lead to success.

~ Sam Harris

Anderson Cooper Learns to Love Silence

On a mindfulness retreat, Anderson Cooper puts down the microphone and learns to love silence, as well as life without a cell phone.

A Way to Get (10%) Happier

"Nightline anchor Dan Harris embarks on an unexpected, hilarious, and deeply skeptical odyssey through the strange worlds of spirituality and self-help, and discovers a way to get happier that is truly achievable."