Coaching practices for Whenever I Try to Sit in That Open Spacious Awareness I Just Drift Off Into Daydreaming and Lose Twenty Minutes I Think I'm Skipping the Settling Part Jumping to the Freedom Before My Mind is Quiet Enough to Actually Hold it
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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
- Sitting with my eyes closed to “let my mind drift” feels like too much effort and I just end up tense
- I’ll surface from a daydream and realize I’ve been gone for twenty minutes without ever noticing I’d left the task
- I’m tired of techniques and counting and focusing on something
- I keep straining to "get into" a meditative state like awareness is something I have to switch on and aim
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 - Use a single, undirected object-gaze to invite daydreaming
Gaze softly at a single object (window, wall, sky) without trying to think anything in particular.
Boredom and Creativity: Why Your Best Ideas Need Idle Time - Catch the drift with meta-awareness
Notice you have drifted before the wandering steals whole minutes.
Mind Wandering and the Default Mode Network - Shikantaza (just sitting)
Sit in open, objectless awareness — not focusing on anything, not following anything.
Zen Practice (Zazen and Beyond) - 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 - 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 - Small glimpses, many times — the micro-dose delivery model
Train non-dual awareness through many brief touches across the day rather than long sittings.
Non-Dual Awareness, Made Practical - 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 - 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 - 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
Related concerns
- Open Awareness 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.
- Alpha Wave Mind Wandering
Mind wandering is the brain’s default activity when attention is not actively directed outward. Research by Jonathan Schooler and others shows it consumes roughly 47 % of waking hours, is associated with lower momentary happiness, but also serves planning, creativity, and self-reflection — making the goal regulation rather than elimination.
- Bare Awareness Meditation
Pause, drop the question "What am I aware of?" and simply notice that awareness is already on.
Glimpse practice: a 10-second recognition of aware space
- Mind Wandering Meditation
Occasionally sit without a task and simply observe the thoughts and images that arise, treating them as creative raw material.
Practice observing where your mind wanders without redirecting it
- Mindfulness Without Meditation
Bring full attention to one routine daily activity — eating, washing dishes, walking — as a practice.
Informal everyday mindfulness
- When Non Dual Awareness Glimpse Practice
Pause, drop the question "What am I aware of?" and simply notice that awareness is already on.
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