“Do you remember?
that time and light are kinds

of love, and love
is no less practical
than a coffee grinder

or a safe spare tire?”

~ Tony Hoagland

Practice in Life, See Out, Feel InDaron LarsonDecember 22, 2019Tony Hoagland, poetry, mundane, life, time, attention, paying attentionComment

Something Slower, But More Tangible

“Can we tell ourselves when we need to walk away from chatter, turn it off entirely for half a day, or a full day, or a whole weekend, ease into a realm of something slower, but more tangible?

Can we go outside and listen?"

~ Naomi Shihab Nye

Hear Out, Hear In, EquanimityDaron LarsonSeptember 20, 2018poetry, Naomi Shihab Nye, listening, time, life, attentionComment

Short Circuit Your Reflexive Tendency to React

“If we don't become aware of our own reactions so that we can short-circuit precisely the kind of addictive and reflexive response that we have to these things, and if we're unwilling to turn them off, we will participate in the continuing debasement of our democracy.”

~ Brooke Gladstone

An Inherent, Trainable Capacity

"Meditation practice supports mindfulness, but meditation is not mindfulness; meditation merely helps train the mind to be in a mindful state."

~ Manuel A. Manotas

If These Clouds Could Talk

What does it mean to let our thoughts drift by like clouds?

Shifting our awareness from what our thoughts mean to how they fluctuate is an attentional exercise that develops liberating abilities over time.

Observing the movement of clouds can provide a glimpse into how we can relate to mental activity more objectively, but it oversimplifies things when the analogy is taken too literally.

Practice in Stillness, Practice in Life, Notice Flow, Clarity, EquanimityDaron LarsonNovember 16, 2017flow, impermanence, thought, mind, attention, thinking, metacognition, analogyComment

Naked and Aware: Bare Attention in the Shower

There are many obstacles to establishing a consistent mindfulness routine. Three big ones are finding time to practice, being distracted by thoughts, and feeling bored.

I discovered an exercise that obliterates all three simultaneously, but I’m pretty sure you’re going to hate the idea of it.

As with any good attention exercise, it leverages an ordinary activity as an opportunity to build capacities that for responding more effectively to the challenges of ordinary life.

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

I Want To Be Astonished

"i want to feel tectonic shifts.
i want to be. i want to be astonished."

~ Sleeping at Last

Daron LarsonApril 7, 2017wonder, life, senses, taste, waking up, shadow, awareness, attention, music, music video, Sleeping At LastComment

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

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

To Broaden And Deepen Your Own Sense Of Presence

"I began to realize that the only place where things were actually real was at this frontier between what you think is you and what you think is not you."

~ David Whyte

Clarity, See In, Hear In, Feel In, Practice in LifeDaron LarsonMay 20, 2016David Whyte, On Being, self-awareness, self/other, belief, attention, futureComment

Rest in the Unrest

An attention exercise on the theme of rest barely disguised as a poem.

The Hidden Discipline of Familiarity

"Half of what’s about to occur is unknown, both inside you and outside you."

~ David Whyte

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?