Annaka Harris

I mean, the exercise is really so simple.

It's just paying attention to your present moment experience.

And it's an extremely challenging thing to do.

It's not the natural state of the brain.

It's an exercise in concentration, which is why, you know, athletes and other people who spend a lot of time needing to focus intensely find it so useful.

I mean, it's really a focus, a concentration practice.

But all it is really, I mean, there are different ways, there are different methods, but it really is quite simple at its core, which is just paying close attention to your present moment experience.

And so that's...

in Vipassana, which is what I've mostly been trained in, you're usually paying attention to the breath, but there's always some focus of concentration.

And the focus can even be just an open awareness, just watching your mind go, just what comes into your experience.

And part of that is the mind, part of it is the external world.

So you hear a sound, you think a thought, you feel a feeling, you're

cheek is itching?

Am I going to scratch it?

Am I not going to scratch it?

Just like, sounds like the most boring thing in the world.

And what's interesting is

the most paying close attention to the most boring thing in the world is incredibly fascinating.

Noticing that each breath, no two breaths are the same, that time keeps moving, that your thoughts keep appearing.

Um, it's there.