Coaching practices for Present Moment Awareness

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Present Moment Awareness, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

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

  • I keep straining to "get into" a meditative state like awareness is something I have to switch on and aim
  • I’m hardly ever actually here
  • I’m almost never actually here
  • In a still moment I sometimes catch a glimpse of just being the space everything is happening in, not the things happening
  • The good moments slide right past me

Practices that may help

  1. Glimpse practice: a 10-second recognition of aware space
    Pause, drop the question "What am I aware of?" and simply notice that awareness is already on.
    Non-Dual Awareness, Made Practical
  2. Contact with the present moment
    Bring flexible attention to here and now, instead of being lost in past or future.
    Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Made Practical
  3. Entering the present moment
    Drop attention out of past and future and into direct sensory contact with now.
    The Power of Now, In Practice
  4. Rest as the witness rather than in objects
    Allow the inquiry to culminate in resting as the awareness that perceives, rather than in any object perceived.
    Self-Inquiry: Ramana Maharshi’s Path of Direct Investigation
  5. The impermanence gratitude turn
    Use the awareness that pleasant things are temporary to intensify genuine appreciation for them while they are here.
    Anicca: Working Practically with Impermanence
  6. Absorb the present — slow down and attend fully
    Pause whatever you’re doing and engage all your senses with the experience that is happening right now.
    Savoring the Moment, Made Practical
  7. 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
  8. Develop introspective metacognition
    Train the ability to notice, in real time, when attention has wandered — before you’ve been distracted for a long time.
    Shamatha: The Buddhist Practice of Calm Abiding
  9. Cultivating a present-moment aesthetic
    Train yourself to notice and appreciate the unrepeatable qualities of the present moment — light, weather, the texture of today.
    Mono no Aware: The Pathos of Things
  10. Savoring the present moment
    When something good is happening, deliberately slow down and soak in the sensory detail.
    Savoring: Getting More From the Good

Related concerns

Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.

Practice this with IX Coach

Try this practice