Attention & Focus · “You Become What You Hold”
Open Monitoring Meditation
To rest in choiceless, nonreactive awareness of whatever arises, rather than fixing attention on one object.
What it is
Open monitoring is one half of a foundational distinction drawn in 2008 by neuroscientist Antoine Lutz and colleagues, including Richard Davidson, who contrasted focused attention (resting on a chosen object) with open monitoring (nonreactive awareness of the whole field of experience).
In open monitoring there is no single anchor; attention stays broad and receptive, watching sensations, thoughts, and sounds come and go without latching onto any of them.
The Method
Step 1 — Begin with an anchor.
Sit and settle briefly with a few breaths to stabilize attention before opening it out. Step 2 — Widen awareness. Release the single focus and let attention become spacious, aware of the entire field of sounds, sensations, and thoughts at once. Step 3 — Watch without choosing. As experiences arise, simply notice them appear and pass. Do not pursue, suppress, or analyse any of them. Step 4 — Stay nonreactive. If you catch yourself getting absorbed in a thought or story, recognize it, let it go, and return to open, receptive watching. Step 5 — Rest as awareness. Increasingly, identify with the open awareness itself rather than its contents, letting experience flow through undisturbed.
Source
Antoine Lutz