By Leo Babauta

In any moment, it’s possible to drop into the present moment and let go of stress, overwhelm, frustration.

The Zen practice for doing this might be termed, “dropping into direct experience.”

I believe this mindfulness practice can lead to a more peaceful experience of any moment, and less frustration and stress over time. It’s powerful.

I’m going to talk about what “direct experience” means, explain how it can lead to letting go of stress and frustration, and then talk about how to practice.

What’s “Direct Experience”?

“Direct experience” is having your attention on the physical sensations that are happening in this very moment. For example, the sensations of sight (light, color, shape, movement) or sound or touch or taste or smell.

You can focus on some particular physical sensations — how your breath feels going through your nostrils, or a sound in the distance, or the feel of the ground under your feet.

Or you can focus on a wider awareness of all the sensations you notice around you in this moment.

But no matter which sensations you focus on … direct experience is about experiencing something happening right now, in this moment.

Not thoughts about the future or the past, not concepts like some problem you’re worried about, not judgments about someone else or questions about why they have to act that way. These are things that take us away from direct experience.

How Direct Experience Leads to Letting Go

So let’s imagine that you’re frustrated with someone else. You’re caught up in thoughts about why they shouldn’t act the way they’ve been acting, and how unfair that is to you.

With a practice of direct experience … you might notice that you’re frustrated, and let yourself feel the direct sensations of that frustration in your body. Instead of thinking “I shouldn’t have to feel frustrated,” you can simply let yourself feel the sensations. Just rest your attention on them for a few moments, and relax with them.

You might also turn your attention to other sensations happening in this moment — the light coming in the windows, the sound of wind outside, the colors of the leaves of nearby trees, birdsong, your chest rising and falling with your breath.

Whatever sensations you turn your attention to in the moment … you are out of the conceptual world and into direct experience. You’re in the moment, and in this moment, nothing is needed. There are no worries, just an experience.

It’s relaxing, it’s peaceful, it’s rich and always enough.

The Practice of Direct Experience

How do you practice this? To start with, it’s pretty simple (not always easy):

  1. Sit still for a few minutes. Commit to doing nothing but practicing with the direct experience of physical sensations in this moment.

  2. Notice something in this moment. It might be the sensations of your breath. It might be the sounds all around you. It might be the visual texture of something in front of you. Or the light in the room. Or the ground beneath your feet. Choose one thing and just experience that. If you switch to something else midway through, that’s OK, but don’t switch rapidly.

  3. Let yourself relax into the experience. This isn’t a “do it exactly right” kind of practice, but just relaxing and accepting the experience you’re having.

  4. If you slip into thoughts, that’s OK, just think of them as a part of the experience of this moment. But if you notice thoughts, don’t get caught up in them, return to some other sensation happening right now.

Let it be calming and peaceful. Let it be delicious.

As you practice with this each day, you can do it for a little longer, until 10 minutes is doable.

Then try doing it at different times of the day, when you’re doing something else: washing a dish, going for a walk, having tea.

Slowly, you’ll increase your skill at this practice, and be able to do it at any time.

And then you’ll find that peace is always available to you, no matter what is happening.