Coaching practices for I'm Tired of Techniques and Counting and Focusing on Something I Just Want to Sit with Everything as it Comes and Goes Without Grabbing at it or Pushing it Away but I Keep Tipping Over Into Either Gripping for an Anchor or Spacing Out Completely
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For I'm Tired of Techniques and Counting and Focusing on Something I Just Want to Sit with Everything as it Comes and Goes Without Grabbing at it or Pushing it Away but I Keep Tipping Over Into Either Gripping for an Anchor or Spacing Out Completely, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- I’m tired of techniques and counting and focusing on something
- I’m comfortable following the breath, but the moment I’m told to drop the anchor and just be present with nothing to hold onto, I either spin off into thinking or go blank
- A feeling shows up and I’m instantly grabbing at it or shoving it away
- My attention scatters the second I try to settle
- I’ve got the breath thing down
Practices that may help
- Shikantaza (just sitting)
Sit in open, objectless awareness — not focusing on anything, not following anything.
Zen Practice (Zazen and Beyond) - 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 - Non-grasping awareness: letting arise and pass
Watch thoughts, sensations, and emotions arise and dissolve without grabbing or pushing.
Shikantaza: Just Sitting - Mindful breathing
Anchor attention on the natural breath and return to it, gently, each time the mind wanders.
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) - 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 5-4-3-2-1 senses exercise
Name 5 things you see, 4 you hear, 3 you feel, 2 you smell, 1 you taste, to anchor in the present.
Grounding Techniques for Acute Distress - Working with restlessness-and-worry (uddhacca-kukkucca)
Restlessness and worry require settling, earthing, and narrowing the attentional field — not more vigilance.
The Five Hindrances: Diagnosing and Working with Meditation Obstacles - Basic noting — rising and falling
Label the physical sensations of breath as "rising" on the inhale and "falling" on the exhale.
Noting Practice, Made Practical - Using trataka to break a distraction spiral
When you notice you've been hopping between tabs for ten minutes, anchor back with two minutes of trataka.
Trataka: The Yoga Practice of Fixed-Gaze Meditation - 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)
Related concerns
- When Open Monitoring Meditation Choiceless Awareness
Sit with attention open and receptive, letting whatever arises in experience be the meditation object — without choosing, pursuing, or rejecting any of it.
Choiceless awareness — resting without an object
- Blank Mind Wrong Meditation
Self-inquiry is investigation, not suppression — don’t try to empty the mind.
Avoid the "blank mind" trap
- No Technique Meditation
Let the technique be passive and easy — TM’s central claim is that effort is counterproductive.
Effortlessness (the “no concentration” principle)
- When Breath Counting Meditation Count On Exhale
Count silently on each out-breath — one, two, three — up to ten, then restart from one.
Counting on the exhale
- When Five Hindrances Sensual Desire Antidote
When craving or distraction toward pleasant experiences pulls you out of meditation, use anicca contemplation to see the transient quality of what is craved.
Working with sensual desire (kamacchanda)
- Anchor Attention Breath
Label the physical sensations of breath as "rising" on the inhale and "falling" on the exhale.
Basic noting — rising and falling
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