Bring your mind home

In her book How to meditate: a practical guide to making friends with your mind, Pema Chödrön writes:

During meditation, we maintain a simple attitude, and that’s the attitude of ‘keep coming back.’ The basic frame of mind we want to take is that we should always come back and be present.”

Here’s one very simple way to do that, from Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh:

Just recognise: this is an in-breath, this is an out-breath. Very simple, very easy. In order to recognise your in-breath as in-breath, you have to bring your mind home to yourself.”

Because this practice is so simple, you can fit it into your busy day, almost anywhere you are. See if you can find time to recognise three or four of your in- and out-breaths, a few times each day, to bring your mind back home.