When I first started meditating, I would drift off almost as soon as I sat down and closed by eyes.
The stillness felt like an invitation to sleep, and within minutes I was far away in dreamland.
Of course, I was generally exhausted in those days. But part of it was also because my mind was unaccustomed to this kind of quiet—still, silent, and wakeful.
When the mind senses “nothing much is happening”, it tends to wander off into autopilot, or even switch off entirely.
In the early stages of practice, we come to realise that some gentle effort is needed to stay awake for as long as we intend to meditate.
To be mindful is to be wakeful.
Wakefulness is a quality of presence—a soft and steady alertness that allows us to meet life as it unfolds.
It is the opposite of autopilot, the fog that carries us through life without noticing. Wakefulness clears that fog, bringing us back to what is real in the moment:
The breath moving through the body. The temperature of the air. The occasional chaos of the mind. The tension in a conversation.
To be wakeful is to be alive to all of it, beautiful and painful, without turning away.
It is to see clearly, with curiosity and compassion, and cultivate the capacity to choose how we respond to our experiences.
To be mindful is to remind ourselves—again and again—that life is happening right here, right now, and this present moment is worth staying awake for.
In this Take A Pause session recorded on 25 May 2025, the TAP community practiced staying awake in their meditation by engaging our senses and waking up to our experiences.
At the end of the practice, we reflected on a passage from Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Wherever You Go, There You Are.
Meditation Begins: 13:15
Reading Begins: 32:10
Meditation Duration: 19 minutes
The Practice of Conscious Silence
I was first introduced to the practice of conscious silence (also known as "noble silence") at my first mindfulness meditation retreat.
