Coaching practices for Open Mind Contemplative
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Open Mind Contemplative, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- Whenever I try to sit in that open, spacious awareness I just drift off into daydreaming and lose twenty minutes
- I never just let my mind off the leash and watch where it goes on its own
- I walk into everything already sure how it’ll go
- I walk into the same meetings and conversations already certain how they’ll go, running on a script I wrote long ago
- I take every thought that crosses my mind as the literal truth of who I am and what’s real, so a harsh or anxious one just becomes my whole world
Practices that may help
- 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 - Practice observing where your mind wanders without redirecting it
Occasionally sit without a task and simply observe the thoughts and images that arise, treating them as creative raw material.
Boredom and Creativity: Why Your Best Ideas Need Idle Time - Open Monitoring Meditation, Made Practical
Open monitoring meditation (also called choiceless awareness or open presence) is the practice of resting in an expansive, receptive awareness without directing attention at any single object — observing whatever arises in experience without preferring or pursuing any of it. It complements focused-attention practices and is associated with different neural signatures in contemplative neuroscience. Direct outcome evidence is limited compared to focused-attention methods. - Pu — simplicity and the uncarved block
Return regularly to an unconditioned, open state before adding complexity or opinion.
The Tao Te Ching, Made Practical - Approaching a familiar situation with fresh eyes
Before entering a recurring conversation or task, set aside your established conclusions and look again.
Pu: Taoist Simplicity and the Uncarved Block - Witnessing thoughts — observing without being them
Watch thoughts arise and pass without identifying with them — you are the awareness in which thoughts appear, not the thoughts themselves.
Open Monitoring Meditation, Made Practical - 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 - Expanding to panoramic awareness
Deliberately widen attention from its usual narrow focal point to include the full field of sensory experience simultaneously.
Open Monitoring Meditation, Made Practical - Learning from the Desert Fathers and Mothers
Study and apply the radical simplicity, discernment, and watchfulness of the desert tradition.
Contemplative Prayer: The Inner Journey - Practicing with eyes open and lowered
Keep eyes softly open and cast downward — in Zen, the open eye is the practicing eye.
Kinhin: Zen Walking Meditation
Related concerns
- How To Do Open Monitoring Meditation
Open monitoring meditation (also called choiceless awareness or open presence) is the practice of resting in an expansive, receptive awareness without directing attention at any single object — observing whatever arises in experience without preferring or pursuing any of it. It complements focused-attention practices and is associated with different neural signatures in contemplative neuroscience. Direct outcome evidence is limited compared to focused-attention methods.
- Open Eye Mindfulness
Keep eyes open and soft-focused, or anchor on an external object, to reduce the risk of dissociation during practice.
Use external anchors instead of closed-eye inward attention
- Open Monitoring Meditation As A Caregiver
Open monitoring meditation (also called choiceless awareness or open presence) is the practice of resting in an expansive, receptive awareness without directing attention at any single object — observing whatever arises in experience without preferring or pursuing any of it. It complements focused-attention practices and is associated with different neural signatures in contemplative neuroscience. Direct outcome evidence is limited compared to focused-attention methods.
- Open Monitoring Meditation As A Parent
Open monitoring meditation (also called choiceless awareness or open presence) is the practice of resting in an expansive, receptive awareness without directing attention at any single object — observing whatever arises in experience without preferring or pursuing any of it. It complements focused-attention practices and is associated with different neural signatures in contemplative neuroscience. Direct outcome evidence is limited compared to focused-attention methods.
- Open Monitoring Meditation At Work
Open monitoring meditation (also called choiceless awareness or open presence) is the practice of resting in an expansive, receptive awareness without directing attention at any single object — observing whatever arises in experience without preferring or pursuing any of it. It complements focused-attention practices and is associated with different neural signatures in contemplative neuroscience. Direct outcome evidence is limited compared to focused-attention methods.
- Open Monitoring Meditation During A Big Change
Open monitoring meditation (also called choiceless awareness or open presence) is the practice of resting in an expansive, receptive awareness without directing attention at any single object — observing whatever arises in experience without preferring or pursuing any of it. It complements focused-attention practices and is associated with different neural signatures in contemplative neuroscience. Direct outcome evidence is limited compared to focused-attention methods.
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