When we talk about attention, we often use active and extractive verbs: pay, give, court, leverage. In mindfulness, attention isn’t a commodity to be used; it’s a gift to be nurtured. What might it feel like to rest our attention?

This week, teacher Sharon Salzberg offers a guided meditation that’s down-to-earth and deeply restorative as we practice holding our awareness with the lightest touch possible.

Sharon Salzberg is a meditation teacher and New York Times best-selling author. She is the co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, and has played a crucial role in bringing Asian meditation practices to the West. Sharon has been a student of meditation since 1971, guiding retreats worldwide since 1974. She is a columnist for On Being, a regular contributor to The Huffington Post and the author of many books including Real Happiness, Lovingkindness, and Real Change.

The transcription of this guided meditation will be online and in our app at Mindful.org next week.

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Show Notes

Find more from Sharon Salzberg here.

Go Deeper

Our attention—where we give it and why—is one of our most powerful assets. Learning how to train our awareness to rest in the present moment is one of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves and others. To learn more about how mindfulness can help you build your attentional strength, check out these resources from Mindful.org:

• 3 Simple Ways to Pay Attention

• Get It Done With Mindfulness: How to Be Productive with Attention, Kindness, and Wisdom

• Attention! How Mindfulness Training Is Helping People Reclaim Their Ability to Focus

• How to Give Your Full Attention

At the very heart of mindfulness is the practice of training your attention, moment by moment, with compassion and care. For more practice, try A 12-Minute Breathing Meditation to Cultivate Attention.

And more from Mindful here:

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