A Daily Dose of Now: 365 Mindfulness Meditation Practices for Living in the Moment

By Nita Sweeney

Reduce stress, ease anxiety, and increase inner peace—one day at a time—with a year of easy-to-follow mindfulness meditation techniques.

 

Certified mindfulness teacher, bestselling author, ultramarathoner, wife, and dog-mom Nita Sweeney shares mindfulness meditation practices to help anyone break free from worry and self-judgment.

 

Mindfulness meditation trains you to live in the present moment—the now. Feel calmer. Think more clearly. Respond more effectively and enjoy a more fulfilling life. Even in tiny doses, mindfulness is scientifically proven to enhance physical and mental health, boost creativity, and improve cognition function.

 

CONVENIENT, ACCESSIBLE FORMAT: Each of the 365 short entries includes a meditation-related quotation, a real-life example of how Sweeney uses mindfulness to enhance her life, and a new practice to show how to apply that day's technique to your life. No need to stop your thoughts, travel to a monastery, or contort your body into a pretzel. Go at your own pace. Follow the suggestions in order or use the comprehensive index to find entries tailored to your needs.

 

BACKED BY SCIENCE: Numerous studies show that mindfulness meditation is an antidote to scattered thinking and emotional distortion. Instead of escaping from reality into denial or distraction, each daily entry offers an expert meditation method for escaping INTO reality as a powerful way to deal with life's inevitable ups and downs.

 

BASED ON CENTURIES-OLD TRADITION: In A Daily Dose of Now, Sweeney not only draws on her life and meditation experiences, her coaching and teaching, but also on her decades of study with highly respected teachers in traditions that date back centuries. These include Shinzen Young, author of The Science of Enlightenment and founder of Unified Mindfulness, Natalie Goldberg, Zen practitioner and bestselling author of Writing Down the Bones, and Sensei Sean Murphy, author of One Bird, One Stone and co-founder of Sage Institute for Creativity & Consciousness.

 

RELATABLE, PRACTICAL ADVICE: Sweeney has lived with depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder for most of her adult life. She formulated the exercises over thirty years as she experimented to find the most effective tools to recover from addiction, improve her mental health, and gain insight into the nature of reality. The resulting book, written in her uplifting, straightforward style, is a wellness toolkit for beginning and seasoned meditators alike.

 

Discover the power of now as you incorporate the time-tested wellness tool of mindfulness into your life with this daily meditation practice guide.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mind, Mood, and Movement
• Release date: Oct 10, 2023
• ISBN: 9798988074410

Nita Sweeney

Nita Sweeney’s articles, essays, and poems have appeared in Buddhist America, Dog World, Dog Fancy, Writer’s Journal, Country Living, Pitkin Review, Spring Street, WNBA-SF blog, and in several newspapers and newsletters. She writes the blog, BumGlue and publishes the monthly email, Write Now Newsletter. Her memoir, Depression Hates a Moving Target: How Running with My Dog Brought Me Back from the Brink, was short-listed for the 2018 William Faulkner – William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition Award. Nita earned a journalism degree from The E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University, a law degree from The Ohio State University, and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Goddard College. For ten years, she studied with and assisted best-selling author Natalie Goldberg (Writing Down the Bones) at weeklong writing workshops teaching the “rules of writing practice” and leading participants in sitting and walking meditation. Goldberg authorized Nita to teach “writing practice” and Nita has taught for nearly twenty years. When she’s not writing and teaching, Nita runs. She has completed three full marathons, twenty-six half marathons (in eighteen states), and more than sixty shorter races. Nita lives in central Ohio with her husband and biggest fan, Ed, and her yellow Labrador running partner, Scarlet (aka #ninetyninepercentgooddog).

Book preview

Foreword

People ask me to teach them to write. But my method, writing practice, is really Zen. I train people to study their minds. Zen drew Nita Sweeney to my workshops in Taos, New Mexico. But in class, she nearly flew off her chair with so much fidgety, insecure energy. She was the queen of angst. Then she had the audacity to move to Taos. Who was this Midwestern farm girl and how did she convince her seemingly smart husband to join her on a grand New Mexican adventure? Was she dangerous?

No. Not dangerous. Tenacious. She wanted writing bad.

As I watched, I caught glimpses of commitment, stillness, and her resolve to spend hours on a zafu, with a notebook, letting her mind take her dark places so she could come out the other side. She moved back to Ohio where, despite wild mood swings, family crises, and bouts of crippling self-doubt, she continued.

Nita’s new book, A Daily Dose of Now, resulted from her staying in there. She found the structure to most effectively share how meditation practice saves her life. While Zen talks about enlightenment, it provides little instruction. Here, Nita breaks it down, with a tincture of mindful medicine on each page.

Enjoy the quirky quotes and glimpses of Nita’s mind. Follow the instructions. At the end of a year, you will have practiced every day. It might crack you open or simply be a good use of time. The year will pass anyway. And the book will bring you into this moment—the only thing that exists. Nita’s just pointing to what’s already there.

Natalie Goldberg

Santa Fe, NM

July 10, 2023

Introduction

I don’t know how to stay in the moment, a young man across the room from me said. We both sat in folding chairs arranged in a recovery meeting circle. It was 1993. Person after person agreed it was important to live in the now, but most seemed uncertain how to do it. As I listened, I felt confused that no one knew what to do. My husband, Ed, and I had just returned from a weekend silent mindfulness meditation retreat and I’d been meditating for a year. Mindfulness meditation was teaching me how to do what the young man, and others, found challenging.

Then, I remembered that my fellow recoverers hadn’t attended the retreat. And most didn’t practice mindfulness. The idea for this book bloomed. Perhaps my recovering friends, and others beyond the recovery community, could benefit from a daily mindfulness reader—a book of specific daily instructions on how to live in the moment.

I was familiar with daily readers. When I was growing up, my mother read several Christian versions. And, early in my recovery, someone directed me toward recovery-themed books that had a similar format: a relevant quotation, a brief paragraph explaining the idea, and a closing directive.

I’m a memoirist at heart. My version of a daily reader needed to reflect my personality and practice. I quote an eclectic variety of characters—fictional and real—from Popeye to Euripides. The explanations ground theory in experience using details from my life. And each Today’s Practice instructs readers in a technique I use.

But these aren’t just Nita’s little theories.

Mindfulness is a centuries-old, evidence-based, scientifically proven method to boost physical, mental, cognitive, and creative wellness. When I trained to become a certified meditation leader and mindfulness teacher with Sage Institute for Creativity and Consciousness and International Mindfulness Teachers Association, I learned the science behind why mindfulness is so effective, which I describe in Make Every Move a Meditation: Mindful Movement for Mental Health, Well-Being, and Insight. Mindfulness meditation is more than navel gazing or zoning out. It may be more effective than any other wellness tool, including medication and therapy, but I’ll leave that to the experts to research, and you to decide for yourself.

With most things, you get what you put into it. This is sort of true with meditation, but meditation is a natural mind state. We can simply fall into it. Sometimes, even when you’re not trying, meditation happens on its own. But with tools like those offered here, that natural mind state is more likely to occur and more likely to occur more often. In the same way you train a muscle, meditation literally trains your mind.

Among the useful results of mindfulness, one abiding benefit stands out: insight. Through regular practice, we discover who we are. We see our cravings and aversions in real time. We watch as they make us suffer. We experience the impermanence of all things. We learn how to let our experience be. And, we learn to suffer less. Who doesn’t want to suffer less?

I hope this book will make meditation more accessible. Newbies will find the instructions easy to follow. Long-timers will discover new takes on methods they’ve mastered. Hopefully, everyone will laugh, cry, and enjoy the ride.

January 1

To dream of the person you would like to be is to waste the person you are.—Unknown

I stopped making New Year’s resolutions several years ago. I rarely kept them. Instead, I used them to punish myself, recalling my downfalls during the rest of the year. Without the burden of resolutions, I enter each year with more ease. Letting go of these torture lists allows me to change things that used to be on my resolution list. I no longer focus on my failure. Rather than dreaming about, promising to become, or trying to be someone else, I am learning to accept myself as I am. In the process, I am becoming the person I want to be.

Today’s Practice:

Instead of making resolutions, take out a sheet of paper and list your traits. Include painful ones and those that bring joy. As you write, feel what arises in your body when you recall these hallmarks of who you are. Is what you experience pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral? Allow it to flow within you.

January 2

Meditation: why bother?—Bhante Gunaratana

Why indeed? Mindfulness meditation is scientifically-proven to help us overcome challenges and navigate the treacherous waters in which we all live. In their extremely well-researched work, Altered Traits, Daniel Goleman and Richard J. Davidson document physical, emotional, and creative benefits of various types of meditation. These altered traits include increased focus, physical efficiency, a greater sense of well-being, improved relationships, and possibly even longer life. People begin to practice mindfulness for many reasons. These benefits lead them to continue.

Today’s Practice:

Start your practice right now by feeling this book in your hands. Notice the texture, the weight, the shape. Notice without judgment. Be curious. Open. Now is when we begin.

January 3

Once you realize that the road is the goal and that you are always on the road, not to reach a goal, but to enjoy its beauty and its wisdom, life ceases to be a task and becomes natural and simple, in itself an ecstasy.—Nisargadatta Maharaj

I’m nothing short of driven. I have three college degrees, have run more than 125 races including three ultramarathons, and written ten more books than I’ve published. In 1992, my then boyfriend (now husband), Ed, noticed how miserable my future orientation made me. He introduced me to sitting practice. By practice I mean setting the microwave timer for five minutes and trying not to wriggle. My mind screamed. I fidgeted. And, I did not die. With practice, my mind calmed. Now, when I’m chasing a goal, I focus on the process. Medals, diplomas, and even books, will age. But the experience? That’s the prize.

Today’s Practice:

Use your breath as a simple entry point to the present moment. Whether you are standing, sitting, lying down, or moving, feel your breath go in and out. Does it rasp or flow? Does feeling it make you uncomfortable or calm? Can you let it be?

January 4

Doubt everything. Find your own light.—Buddha

In the final days before the Buddha’s enlightenment, he sat under a tree. As the legend goes, in the last hours before his awakening, the demon god Mara tempted him with greed, power, and finally, with doubt. As the Buddha sat under the tree, Mara asked, Why you? What did the Buddha think was so special about him? What made him the one to see the truth? The Buddha acknowledged the question. Doubt plagued him as he sat. Truly, why was he deserving? Why not someone else? As the Buddha continued to sit and ponder, the answer came. He touched the ground with his fingertips. I am here, he said. Mara vanished. The Buddha deserved enlightenment because he showed up.

Today’s Practice:

Can you show up for the present moment? Can you show up for the breath right now? Sit still. Find the place in your body where you most easily notice your breath. Feel it. When you show up for your breath, you show up for yourself.

January 5

This too is passing.—Shinzen Young

Most of us are familiar with the phrase, This too shall pass. I felt such joy the first time I heard Shinzen reframe it as This too IS passing. In the present moment, everything is passing, now and all the time. Buddhists call this phenomenon anicca, which translates as impermanence. When we become aware of everything constantly passing, even as we experience it, each moment becomes the only reality that exists, a safe haven.

Today’s Practice:

What is happening right this second? Can you feel movement anywhere in your body, even if you’re sitting still? Can you examine these movements to see a second-by-second, tiny change? Can you see each second as unique and fluid? Can you feel impermanence working right now? Stop periodically during the day to sense into this constant change.

January 6

Peace is not something you must hope for in the future. Rather, it is a deepening of the present, and unless you look for it in the present you will never find it.—Thomas Merton

I used to think meditation meant escape, zoning out, or blissing out. Instead, meditation is a way of escaping into life. By focusing on thoughts and body sensations as they occur in real time, I sink in, fully aware of each blip on the radar of my consciousness. Rather than zone out, I sometimes freak out. With practice, the freak-outs happen less often and bliss is more frequent. Bliss isn’t the goal, but it’s a wondrous by-product.

Today’s Practice:

Set a timer for five minutes. Find a comfortable position with your back straight, but your body relaxed. Notice where you most easily experience the breath. Let it move in and out without pushing or pulling. Pay attention to the space after the exhale and before the next inhale. This pause sometimes brings peace. If not, don’t search for it. Let it come to you.

January 7

The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.—Joe Klaas

Different people respond to anger in different ways. Some yell, scream, and hit, while others push anger away and deny it. I sometimes even enjoy anger’s power. It can energize. But it might also feel prickly and dangerous. It might come out sideways. Or, I suffer depression from suppressing it. Mindfulness asks us to sit with anger and experience it fully, exactly as it is. Be with it. Devour it even. Let it ripple through.

Today’s Practice:

If you feel angry, stop for five seconds to sense that emotion in your body. Is the top of your head hot? Are your hands clenched? Is your back rigid? Does your stomach burn? Let whatever presents itself be without pushing or pulling on it. Does it pass? If so, is there an afterburn? The more we notice anger with neutral regard, instead of acting out or turning away, the less it controls us and the more easily we can choose an appropriate response.

January 8

Sometimes, I feel the past and the future pressing so hard on either side that there’s no room for the present at all.—Evelyn Waugh

For me, this quotation represents anxiety at a level that could easily spill into panic. My mind races between the past and the present, reliving the terrors of yesterday and inventing disasters that are sure to happen tomorrow. To calm myself, I turn to my breath. Not the panting, hyperventilating breath that comes with rushing thoughts, but the deep belly breath that reveals a calm pool within.

Today’s Practice:

If you feel anxious, lie on the floor with your lower legs on a chair and your knees bent at a 90-degree angle. Feel your back against the floor. Notice how solid it feels beneath you. Put your hand on your abdomen. Focus on your rising and falling hand as it moves. Do not push or pull on the breath. Let each inhale naturally follow each exhale. Notice the space after each exhale before the body naturally inhales. Let your body breathe. You are being breathed.

January 9

It ain’t over ’til it’s over.—Yogi Berra

The trainers who prepared us to take the Ohio Bar Examination warned us to pace ourselves and fully attend to every question. Of those who do not pass the three-day exam, they explained, more fail the questions that are given after lunch on the third day than during any other time in the exam. Why? The failing examinees reported a short-timer attitude. Even though they weren’t yet finished, their minds jumped to completion. They didn’t attend to the final questions with the same care they had given the previous ones. They didn’t stay in the moment.

Today’s Practice:

Choose one task for seeing meditation. Focus your vision on that selected task. See the shape of whatever you are doing. Note the colors and any variations. Notice if your mind wanders. Has your attention to visual detail slipped? If so, gently, without chiding yourself, refocus on some part of the task. Notice what you see.

January 10

Petting, scratching, and cuddling a dog could be as soothing to the mind and heart as deep meditation and almost as good for the soul as prayer.—Dean Koontz

I got on the floor tonight to scratch our dog Scarlet behind the ears and rub her belly. It’s easy to be in the moment when I play with her. Every touch receives a reaction. Every rub earns a tilt of her head and each scratch elicits a sigh. When I’m focused and awake, my time with her counts as meditation. I feel her fur against my skin. I hear her contented breathing. I notice that I’m at peace.

Today’s Practice:

If you have a pet, pay attention to your awareness as you stroke or cuddle them. What does their fur feel like? What sounds do they make? Stay fully present to your sensations. If your mind wanders, gently bring your awareness back to sensations and sounds. Let this time be a meditation, a time of focus, calmness, and awareness. If you don’t have a pet, borrow one, or take the day off.

January 11

Your nearest exit may be behind you.—Federal Aviation Administration Safety Briefing

In the terror of an airline emergency, I’m the one most likely to push for an exit seventeen rows in front of me when there’s a perfectly good door one row back. Tension creates hyperfocus. The mind contracts, pushing out anything beyond what seems like the immediate answer. Meditation helps. We develop equanimity, a balanced mind open to possibilities. We see impermanence, the natural ebb and flow of life. I experience it most often in writing. When I’m trapped in a riddle, I step back and relax my grip. I sit, walk, run, shower, eat, or play computer Solitaire. I loosen my grasp on the problem, giving my mind room to breathe.

Today’s Practice:

What are you struggling with right now? When you think of it, pay attention to how your body feels. Do you sense the tension, the fight? Notice that. Be with it. See if it changes on its own.

January 12

Do what’s in front of you. Nothing else exists.—Ed Sweeney

A motivational speaker sat in a hotel restaurant eating breakfast after giving a lecture. A woman attendee sheepishly approached and asked to talk to him. He invited her to join him and summoned the waiter. The woman ordered and began to talk. She talked about her adult children who used drugs and stole. As her food arrived, she complained about her job, which she feared she might lose. She agonized about her husband, who she thought might leave. She began to cry, waving her toast in the air. Finally, she gasped, What should I do? The man looked into her eyes, smiled, and said, I think you should eat your toast.

Today’s Practice:

If you catch yourself fretting about something that might happen in the future, remember this lady. Turn your attention to what is right in front of you. Begin doing only what is there. If there’s toast, eat it. Notice how it tastes.

January 13

The road to success is always under construction.—Lily Tomlin

Some days, I catch myself thinking that I’ll really be happy when I get there. Certainly the road will be complete when I get there. Part of my brain knows this is a myth. But who hasn’t thought, If only I could get a different job or, If only I lived in a different city. Despite having had several jobs and lived in various places, I still fall prey to wishful thinking. But now, when I notice myself thinking of the future in an unproductive way, I can bring my mind back to the present. There’s nothing wrong with a good daydream, but I don’t want to live in a fantasy world. I don’t want to miss today.

Today’s Practice:

Are you wishing your life away? Of course, that dream house (or car or job or lover) sounds better than the stack of work in front of you, but the work must be done. Feel your body. Is it uncomfortable? Are you restless? Acknowledge that, then tackle the next task.

January 14

The keenest sorrow is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities.—Sophocles

If something within me is askew, I do my best to remedy it and ease the sorrow. If I am at odds with people I love, I do work in the outside world to foster change. But I must also do the inner work. I see where I am quick to judge. I put myself in another’s place and understand where they are coming from. Then, I’m more effective. If I assume the other person is bad-hearted, I limit my ability to change. Only through softening my heart and opening my mind can I ease both my own pain and possibly theirs too.

Today’s Practice:

When you are angry at someone, sit with the anger. Instead of trying to make it go away, feel where it wells up in your body. Also, notice your thoughts. Sticky and painful? Sharp and cutting? Now focus on your breath. Is it sharp as well? Can you let it ebb and flow? Can you relax around it?

January 15

Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits…—Winnie the Pooh (A. A. Milne)

Just sit. That’s meditation in a nutshell. Of course, the mind has other plans. The mind’s primary job is to think thoughts, to generate ideas. So why does it surprise us when we try to just sit and find ourselves thinking? Mindfulness suggests we let the thoughts pass. Notice, but don’t attach or judge. Sit and think, but don’t be annoyed by this completely normal brain activity. You can’t actually quiet your mind. You can create conditions that help your mind quiet on its own, but the mind’s job is to think thoughts. Let it be what it naturally is. Let those thoughts come and go without judgment. Let them pass like clouds.

Today’s Practice:

Take some time to just sit. Are you also thinking? Fine! Just sit and think. Notice those thoughts and let them pass. Watch the horizon of your mind. Is another thought bubbling up? Watch it rise and let it go. There you are! Perfectly normal like every other human being.

January 16

We all want to do something to mitigate the pain of loss or to turn grief into something positive, to find a silver lining in the clouds. But I believe there is real value in just standing there, being still, being sad.—John Green

When my niece died at the age of 24, many people who loved her jumped to the she’s out of her pain story to soothe themselves. I needed to be sad. I took long, slow walks with my dog. I wrote, cried,