The following talk is given by Tara Brock, meditation teacher, psychologist and author.

There are many different ways to practice, as most of you know, and some of the common denominators

are that whether we've been practicing for a long time or just real fresh to it, most

of us need some time dedicated to simply coming back.

So I call it, just noticing that we've drifted off into trance and just gently arriving

back again.

So mostly I want to encourage you as you kind of enter into retreat to keep it that simple,

just to notice, oh, am I here?

You know, there's a mind off in some sort of yesterday or tomorrow, my time traveling,

you know, come back, come back.

In the coming back, the key piece, and this is probably, I think, one of the center pieces

of a whole path is the quality or attitude that is attending.

And our habit usually is when we notice we've been often thoughts or we notice we're sleep

here or whatever, is to think there's something wrong with that.

We just add on this layer, sometimes it's conscious and we're really critical and sometimes

it's just a subtle thing, but there's something's wrong with how it is kind of.

Does that resonate for you?

Okay.

So just include that in mindfulness.

Just say, oh, okay, there's that too.

And have the intention to really create space for how it is.

It's absolutely the nature of mind to go drifting.

...