Coaching practices for How to Get Started Meditating and What Do I Need to Focus on
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For How to Get Started Meditating and What Do I Need to Focus on, 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
- Every time I try to meditate my mind is so scattered I’m daydreaming within seconds and the whole sit dissolves into mental noise
- When I do manage to focus, I do it by clamping down hard on the object, and within a couple of minutes I’m tense and worn out
- When I try to focus on nothing my mind just floods with everything, and I have no idea what to even rest my attention on
- I’ve got the breath thing down
Practices that may help
- 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) - 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 - Distinguish applying from sustaining attention
First, aim attention at the object (applying); then, stay with it without tightening (sustaining).
Shamatha: The Buddhist Practice of Calm Abiding - Use the breath as the primary anchor
Rest attention gently on the sensations of breathing — not on the idea of breathing.
Shamatha: The Buddhist Practice of Calm Abiding - Choiceless awareness — resting without an object
Sit with attention open and receptive, letting whatever arises in experience be the meditation object — without choosing, pursuing, or rejecting any of it.
Open Monitoring Meditation, Made Practical - The return — working with a wandering mind
Treat mind-wandering during the body scan as the practice, not a failure — the noticing and returning is the rep.
Body Scan Meditation, Made Practical - Sequencing focused attention and open monitoring
Use focused attention to settle the mind first, then release the object and shift to open monitoring — this is the standard contemplative sequence.
Open Monitoring Meditation, Made Practical - Preparing the kasina object
Create or find a clean, simple, uniform kasina disk and position it correctly before each session.
Kasina Meditation: Concentration Through a Physical Object - Silent mantra repetition
Silently repeat an assigned mantra, letting it become faint and effortless rather than forcing focus.
Transcendental Meditation (TM) - Releasing the object: sitting without a focal point
Let go of fixing attention on the breath, a mantra, or any other anchor — simply be present.
Shikantaza: Just Sitting
Related concerns
- Focused Attention Meditation
Deliberately widen attention from its usual narrow focal point to include the full field of sensory experience simultaneously.
Expanding to panoramic awareness
- Focused Attention Meditation How To
First, aim attention at the object (applying); then, stay with it without tightening (sustaining).
Distinguish applying from sustaining attention
- Meditation For Concentration
Kasina meditation is a Theravada Buddhist concentration method from the Visuddhimagga in which the meditator gazes at a simple physical object — earth disk, coloured circle, fire, water — until a stable mental counterpart image (the 'nimitta') arises and can be held in the mind alone. It is the classical route to the jhana absorption states. Evidence is mechanistic; no modern RCTs test kasina specifically.
- When Vipassana Anapana Breath Anchor
Settle the mind by observing the natural breath at the nostrils before doing anything else.
Anapana — breath observation as the entry point
- Wide Attention Meditation
Deliberately widen attention from its usual narrow focal point to include the full field of sensory experience simultaneously.
- Attention Return Meditation
Train the ability to notice, in real time, when attention has wandered — before you’ve been distracted for a long time.
Develop introspective metacognition
Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.