Meditate Anywhere, Anytime — Or Everywhere, All the Time
Meta-awareness in daily life
One of the recent slogans from Mingyur Rinpoche, one of our teachers, is “anywhere, anytime meditation.” He has even developed an entire curriculum with this as the title.
Meditative awareness — the intentional recognition of the knowing quality of the mind — is available to us all the time.
Psychologists and neuroscientists call this meta-awareness: the ability to know what the mind is doing. We do not need to be sitting in any special posture. We do not need to be on a mountaintop in the Himalayas. No incense is required.
Dentist Dharma
Part of this essay was drafted while waiting in a dentist’s office for a 3-D printer to manufacture a crown for my tooth. As the dentist was drilling, I meditated. I found myself appreciating his skill and the staff’s care for people’s oral health.
By practicing loving-kindness and compassion for everyone in the office, an uncomfortable procedure transformed into something enjoyable — even nourishing.
Opportunities in Daily Life
These brief moments of practice that we can sprinkle throughout the day add up. Over time, they can lead to enduring change.
In our upcoming book Born to Flourish (to be released in March 2026), we describe these brief “micro-practices” and how to weave them into daily routines. Waking up, brushing teeth, sharing a meal, preparing to sleep — all of these are opportunities to reconnect with awareness and innate goodness.
Dharma Lab Micro-Practice: Upon Waking
Pause before reaching for your phone.
Take one gentle breath.
Silently remind yourself:
“This day is a gift. May I meet it with awareness and compassion.”
Another moment I often use for practice is right after my morning meditation. Before diving into back-to-back meetings, I scan the calendar for the day. For each person I’ll meet, I briefly reflect: How can I be most helpful to them?
This two-minute intention-setting changes the texture of the entire day.
Travel also presents rich opportunities. Airports can be stressful, especially with climate disruptions and delays. Walking through terminals, I look at people, smile, and remember: each of them wants to be happy and free of suffering, just like me. When possible, I help — whether it’s lifting luggage or letting a rushing traveler pass.
Every meal, for instance, offers a chance to appreciate all those who contributed to the food on our plates. This simple act deepens our sense of interdependence and helps counter loneliness.
Dharma Lab Micro-Practice: Before a Meal
As you sit down to eat, pause.
Look at your food with appreciation.
Silently reflect:
“So many hands and lives contributed to this nourishment.
May I receive it with appreciation.”
What the Science Says
Effects of Very Short Practice
A growing body of scientific evidence shows that even very brief meditation sessions can be beneficial. Studies demonstrate that single practices lasting 10 minutes or less can produce measurable psychological and physiological effects, including shifts in the autonomic nervous system.
Advanced meditators can intentionally shift into meditative awareness virtually instantaneously. In a study at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) in India, long-term practitioners were asked to alternate between meditation and rest every minute. Their brain activity shifted reliably with each change, showing how awareness itself can be deployed at will (Nair, Sasidharan, John, Mehrotra, & Kutty, 2017) and is associated with systematic changes in the brain.
The Power of the “View”
And what is even more remarkable: benefits can arise from simply adopting the view, even without formal meditation.
The view is a mindset — a way of relating to inner experience. Two core elements are:
Thoughts are not reality.
Every human being has innate basic goodness.
In a large clinical trial at the Center for Healthy Minds, over 1,100 depressed participants were randomly assigned to three groups:
The full Healthy Minds Program (view + meditation)
A modified version (view only, no meditation)
Usual care (standard community treatment)
Both the full and modified versions outperformed usual care. For depression and anxiety, the view-only group benefited as much as the group that also practiced meditation. Interestingly, on measures of flourishing and inflammation, the full program with meditation provided additional advantages.
The key takeaway: exposure to the view — without any formal practice — was still profoundly beneficial.
Dharma Lab Micro-Practice: Before Sleep
Lying in bed, rest your hand gently on your heart.
Recall one moment from the day you are grateful for — no matter how small.
Silently reflect:
“May I rest well. May I meet tomorrow with kindness.”
Closing Thoughts
Mingyur Rinpoche, in his first book The Joy of Living, explained:
“When we talk about the Buddha, we’re talking about a man who understood that life doesn’t always afford the opportunity or leisure to practice formally. One of his greatest gifts to humanity was the lesson that it’s possible to meditate anytime, anywhere. In fact, bringing meditation into your daily life is one of the main objectives of Buddhist practice. Any daily activity can be used as an opportunity for meditation. You can watch your thoughts as you go through your day, rest your attention momentarily on experiences like taste, smell, form, or sound, or simply rest for a few seconds on the marvelous experience of simply being aware of the experiences going on in your mind.”
The invitation of Dharma Lab is the same: practice doesn’t need to wait for perfect conditions. Awareness and compassion are always available — anywhere, anytime.
For Reflection
Where are the natural “pause points” in your own daily routine that could serve as reminders for micro-practice?
Which is easier for you right now — short formal meditation sessions, or simply holding the view?
How does it feel to carry awareness into ordinary moments, like eating or waiting at the dentist?
With warmth and appreciation,
Richie
🪷 We’d love to hear from you.
Share your reflections or your own “anywhere, anytime” practices in the comments below — your stories help the Dharma Lab community learn from one another.
Reference
Nair, A. K., Sasidharan, A., John, J. P., Mehrotra, S., & Kutty, B. M. (2017). Just a minute meditation: Rapid voluntary conscious state shifts in long term meditators. Consciousness and Cognition, 53, 176–184. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2017.06.002
This post could not have been timelier. Yesterday and today I've had some mental "weather" blowing through. Reminding myself again and again, "thoughts are not reality," is an umbrella I can carry with me.
Love it. At some point formal practice starts to naturally spill over into your life and it strikes me from what you’ve said that liturgy is actually a framework for supporting this. We can keep the religious bits or make them universal whatever works best for us as individuals. My family often teases in a kind way about the Buddhist stuff I do but we have adopted a shared household chore practice at home on the weekends (Samu) where we ditch the devices meet for quiet check in and then all do our cleaning chores at the same time - I was surprised that the experiment worked and has been adopted into the family ritual!