Open Monitoring Meditation

On my blog "Getting Older With Bipolar" I published an article on some of the benefits of open monitoring meditation.  Here are some instructions on how to do it:


Sit comfortably, but upright with good posture, either cross-legged on a cushion or seated on a chair.  Place your hands palms down on your thighs, close your eyes, and breathe naturally.

For a few minutes focus your attention on the breath, fully feeling each inhale and each exhale.  Don't force the breath or think too much about it.  Just breathe naturally and hold your focus on where in the body you most feel the sensations of your breath.  The rise and fall of the abdomen is a good place to feel this.

When thoughts distract you, let each thought go without internal comment, or even completion of the thought, and return the attention to the breath.  Over and over.

After a few minutes of holding the attention on the breath, allow the attention to open up and take in the whole room in which you're sitting.  Listen to the sounds, feel the temperature of the room on your skin.  Just sit aware of the space in which you're sitting.

Include sensations within your body in your attention as well.  Feel any areas of discomfort or tension.  Maybe you'll feel an itch.  Check on the feeling of your breath.

Continue to release thoughts that distract you.  This isn't a time for idle mind-wandering, even if the point of focus of the attention is less well-defined.

Notice the attention jumping from sound to feeling to thought and off again to some other point.  Just observe how the mind jumps around for a bit, then come to a full stop and hold the attention on the opportunity that seems most assertive.

Say it's a sound from outside.  Maybe a bird, or traffic, or kids playing.  Sit with the attention focused on the sound.  Hold the attention there until something else takes you.

If what you notice is something other than a thought, say a feeling in the body or a different sound, move the attention to this point and hold it there as long as you can.

If the distraction is a thought, let it go and return the attention to the point of focus it rested on before you realized you were just sitting lost in thought.

Practice this way, following the attention, strengthening your focus, for a few minutes.

Now turn the palms up, hands still resting on the thighs.

Notice if anything feels different.  You may feel more open to experience.  You may feel a bit anxious.  You may feel more settled.  Just take it all in and note any change in emotions, body tension and thoughts.

Sit this way for a few minutes, as long as you can, then turn the palms down.  Note any changes you experience.

After sitting this way for a while narrow the attention and bring it back to the breath.  Sit holding your focus here for a few minutes and then relax, open your eyes, and come fully back to the room, your full self and the way you feel.

That's it.

I find open monitoring meditation a great practice here at my home in the city.  So many sounds intrude on the room where I sit, and it's a great practice to follow each one and hold it until another comes and pulls my mind away to it.

Just remember, the point is not to sit there and let the mind wander and fall into a forgotten period of distraction.  The point is to find objects of intense focus.  Open the mind to what the environment, both internal and external, presents to you, and train the mind to consider more than what comes up within and takes you away to a place of reverie, reactivity, or regret.

This practice, done consistently, will foster more divergent thinking: the ability to generate several solutions to problems you face.


My book Resilience: Handling Anxiety in a Time of Crisis is available now.