Coaching practices for How Do I Start Meditating and What is the Right Way to Do it

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For How Do I Start Meditating and What is the Right Way to Do it, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

• I’m brand new to this and when I try to meditate my mind just wanders off and I don’t even notice for minutes
• I meditate in long bursts when the mood strikes and then go weeks without
• Every time I try to meditate my mind is so scattered I’m daydreaming within seconds and the whole sit dissolves into mental noise
• Every time I meditate I’m straining to "do it right"
• When I try to meditate, “just watch your breath” gives me nothing to hold and I drift instantly

Practices that may help

1. Counting the breath (susokukan)
   Count breaths from one to ten and start over, a traditional on-ramp to a steady mind.
   Zen Practice (Zazen and Beyond)
2. The 20-minutes-twice-a-day routine
   Practice roughly 20 minutes in the morning and again in the late afternoon, every day.
   Transcendental Meditation (TM)
3. Anapana — breath observation as the entry point
   Settle the mind by observing the natural breath at the nostrils before doing anything else.
   Vipassana Meditation, Made Practical
4. Effortlessness (the “no concentration” principle)
   Let the technique be passive and easy — TM’s central claim is that effort is counterproductive.
   Transcendental Meditation (TM)
5. Counting on the exhale
   Count silently on each out-breath — one, two, three — up to ten, then restart from one.
   Breath Counting Meditation
6. Everyday integration — using commute and errand walks as practice
   Transform a portion of routine walking into meditation by choosing one formal practice element to maintain for the duration.
   Walking Meditation, Made Practical
7. Right effort — the middle way between straining and slack
   Calibrate effort in meditation and in life to the lute string: neither too tight (strain) nor too loose (laxity).
   The Noble Eightfold Path as a Practical Life Framework
8. Rest-and-digest activation — understanding your baseline state
   Learn to identify your current autonomic state before practicing, so you choose the right tool for where you actually are.
   The Relaxation Body-Mind, Made Practical
9. Silent mantra repetition
   Silently repeat an assigned mantra, letting it become faint and effortless rather than forcing focus.
   Transcendental Meditation (TM)
10. RAIN Meditation: Tara Brach’s Four-Step Practice
    RAIN is a four-step mindfulness practice developed by Tara Brach that stands for Recognize, Allow, Investigate, and Nurture. It is designed to meet difficult emotions — fear, shame, grief, anger — with mindful awareness rather than avoidance or overwhelm. The steps draw on mechanisms shared with acceptance-based therapies (ACT, MSC, MBCT); the RAIN sequence itself is practitioner-developed and not yet independently trialed as a protocol.

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