The Still Room

Mindfulness · Stillness · Presence

The
Still
Room

This room asks nothing of you.
No insight to reach. No problem to solve.
Only this: to notice what is already here.

Jon Kabat-Zinn brought mindfulness into medicine. What he found is simple and profound — most human suffering is not caused by what is happening, but by our relationship to what is happening. The Still Room is where that relationship begins to change.

Begin Here · The Breath

—
Press begin to start
 

The Foundation

You are not your thoughts.
You are the one who notices them.

This is the entire teaching, condensed. Every thought that arises in the mind — every worry, every memory, every judgment, every plan — is an event in consciousness. It is not you. It is something you can observe.

Kabat-Zinn defined mindfulness as paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally. Four words do all the work: on purpose (not accidentally), present moment (not past, not future), non-judgmentally (without adding good or bad to what arises). The practice is not complicated. It is simply very difficult to sustain, because the mind was designed to wander. That is not a flaw. Noticing that the mind has wandered and returning — that moment of return is the practice. Every single time. Ten thousand times.

"You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf."

Jon Kabat-Zinn

The research behind MBSR — Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction — is now among the most robust in all of clinical psychology. Significant reductions in anxiety, depression relapse, chronic pain, immune function, sleep quality, and emotional reactivity. None of it requires believing anything. It only requires practice. The Still Room is where you practice.

First Practice · The Body Scan

Coming home to the body

The body scan is the foundational MBSR practice. You move your attention systematically through the body — not to fix or change anything, but simply to notice what is present. Sensation, tension, numbness, warmth. Noticing without needing it to be different.

Find a comfortable position — lying down if possible. Tap each area when you're ready to move your attention there. Stay with each region for as long as feels right. There is no wrong way to do this.

一
Feet & toes
Bring your full attention to the soles of your feet. Notice any sensation — warmth, pressure, tingling, or simply the absence of sensation. Whatever is there, let it be there.
二
Lower legs & knees
Let your awareness travel slowly upward. Notice the weight of your legs, any tightness in the calves, the temperature of the skin. You don't need to change anything. Just witness.
三
Thighs & hips
The large muscles of the thighs, the hip joints. Many people carry tension here without knowing it. Breathe into this area. Notice what happens — or doesn't happen.
四
Belly & lower back
The breath is most visible here. Let the belly rise and fall without controlling it. Notice the lower back — this is where many people hold unexpressed emotion. No need to interpret. Only notice.
五
Chest & heart space
The chest. Feel it rise and fall. Feel the heartbeat if you can locate it. Notice any quality here — openness, tightness, heaviness, or lightness. The heart has been working this entire time. Simply acknowledge it.
六
Shoulders & arms
The shoulders are where we carry what we cannot put down. Notice their weight. Notice whether they are raised without reason. Let them be exactly where they are, not where you think they should be.
七
Neck & throat
The throat, where voice lives. The back of the neck. Many people have chronic tension here they have never consciously noticed. Breathe here. Nothing else is required.
八
Face & skull
The jaw — often clenched. The space around the eyes. The forehead. The scalp. Let the muscles of the face soften. No expression is required of you right now. Let the face be empty, like water at rest.
∞
The whole body, at once
Now let your awareness expand to hold the entire body simultaneously. Not each part — the whole. You, here, breathing. This body that has carried you through everything. Rest in that wholeness for as long as you like.

Everyday Practice · The Three-Minute Breathing Space

A doorway you can walk through anywhere

The three-minute breathing space — developed within MBSR and MBCT — is the practice designed for daily life, not the meditation cushion. Three steps. Three minutes. It can be done on a train, at a desk, in a bathroom, before a difficult conversation. It is the anchor that brings the practice into the world.

一
Awareness — What is here right now?
Take a moment and ask: what am I thinking? what am I feeling? what sensations are present in my body? Simply notice, without judgment or analysis. You are taking stock — arriving at your current inner weather report, as it actually is, not as you wish it were.
二
Gathering — Collect attention on the breath
Now narrow your attention to the breath. The physical sensation of breathing — the air entering, the slight pause, the release. Not controlling the breath. Simply following it. When the mind wanders (it will), gently return. This is the entire practice. Return and return and return.
三
Expanding — Let awareness open outward
From the breath, expand your awareness outward — to the body as a whole, to the room, to the sounds around you. A sense of spaciousness, even briefly. Then, from this slightly larger perspective, continue with your day. The breathing space doesn't solve anything. It creates a gap between stimulus and response. That gap is where choice lives.

The Sitting Practice

Simply sit

The formal sitting practice is where the capacity is built. Choose a duration. Sit with your spine upright, eyes soft or closed. Follow the breath. When the mind wanders — notice, and return. There is nothing else to do. There is nothing to achieve. The return itself is the practice. Every single return.

5:00
ready

"Wherever you go, there you are."

Jon Kabat-Zinn

The Most Common Question

What do I do when thoughts come?

They will come. Constantly. Planning, remembering, judging, narrating. This is not failure. This is the mind being the mind. The instruction is always the same, and it is always enough:

Notice that you have been thinking. Name it gently — "thinking" — and return to the breath.

The complete instruction

Not with frustration. Not with self-criticism. The way you might notice that you've been daydreaming while reading the same sentence three times — a mild, friendly recognition — and then return. The quality of the return matters more than the quantity of wandering. A harsh return undoes the practice. A gentle return deepens it.

Some practitioners find it helpful to imagine thoughts as clouds passing through an open sky. You are the sky. The thoughts are weather. They arise, they pass. You remain. This is not metaphor — it is a description of what becomes experientially true with sustained practice.

You have always been
the stillness underneath.

Practice does not create stillness.
It reveals the stillness that was always there,
beneath the noise, beneath the thinking,
beneath the doing and the needing and the becoming.

Come back whenever the world gets loud.

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