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Does meditation always make things better?

“Meditative presence & mindful-flow are what you might call perineal life pre-skills. The better you are at them the more ways you find to be effective & content amidst a wide range of circumstances”

Dear Integral Meditators, 

This week’s article explores meditation as a life-skill, as opposed to a formal practice. It articulates why, if you understand this, the danger of your meditation becoming imbalanced in any way reduces substantially.

This week sees the start on Saturday of the  Meditations for transforming negativity and stress into energy, positivity & empowerment deep-dive sessions. All welcome, particpation can be doen in person, on line or via recording.

In the spirit of flowing presence,

Toby


Article: Does meditation always make things better?
 
I recently received an article from a college entitled Meditation can help and it can harm. This is what happens when it goes wrong. It legitimately points out that not everyone who tries meditation benefits from it, and that sometimes meditation can ‘make things worse’ in the sense of creating imbalances, or increasing things like anxiety. What I want to do in this article is:

  • Offer some pointers around what meditation and mindfulness are in the broadest sense
  • Propose that, done in balance, these three fundamental aspects of meditation will be helpful to anyone
  • And give an example from my own experience 

Meditation is:
 
So then, speaking in broad, overarching definitions, the basic meditation state is:
 
“Not being lost in thought, not falling asleep, present to an object of awareness in the moment, and aware that you are aware of it”
 
This definition is basically a fancy way of saying that meditation is practising being present! When you are meditating you grow capacity high quality presence. Broadly speaking, the greater your capacity for presence and being present is, the more effective you will be in life. The reason for this is that good quality presence releases what I would call your natural intelligence in that moment. This facilitates better self-regulation, awareness, decision-making and so forth.
 
Mindfulness is:
 
Broadly speaking (again) mindfulness is attention training. In order to be present, you need to be able to pay attention well. Good quality mindful attention has two aspects, focus and flow.
 
There are essentially two extremes that you can go to with mindful attention:

  • You can try and focus too hard which means the mind can’t settle
  • You can relax too much, and forget what you are trying to pay attention to

Like meditation presence, building mindful flow, i.e. balanced, good quality, sustainable attention will generally only help you in your life. It will help you with being present, with basic reality orientation, with sustainable effort and so on…the better you are at it, the more capable and resilient you will be in the face of life challenges.
 
Another definition of meditation:
 
“Meditation means to focus our attention on an object that, when we contemplate it, causes our mind to become positive, calm and/or happy, in a balanced way”
 
This is a definition that I was taught in my Tibetan Buddhist days, back in the 90’s. In this sense, meditation is simply the art of remaining oriented in a positive manner as life happens to you. Like the first two definitions, the better you are at the ‘positive mindfulness game’ of meditation, the better things will get.
 
A personal reflection:
 
When I left my life as a monk in 2001, I was in many ways under a lot of stress:

  • I had left an old familiar life
  • I was in a foreign country with no job, so a lot of uncertainty
  • I was quite isolated
  • There was a lot of emotional trauma I was working thru
  • I had a high learning curve from starting my own business

 
I was also quite burned out from having overtrained in formal meditation (over quite a long period of time), so doing a lot of formal, sitting meditation was not that helpful for me. However, the fundamental meditation/mindfulness skills of:

  • Being present in a relaxed, focused manner
  • Orienting and centering around positive objects of awareness

 
Was always fundamentally helpful to me during that time. The fundamentals of meditation and mindfulness are what you might call perineal life pre-skills. The better you are at them the more effective you are, and the more ways you find to be content amidst a wide range of circumstances.
 
One final point, understood in the above manner, we can start to understand that meditation is a creative activity, not a narrow, rigid set of parameters. Without wanting to fall into a cliché, it’s a way of life!
 
Listen to Toby’s meditations on Presence & flow, as well as mindful positivity.
 
Related reading: The foundational pillars or goal-poste of meditative presence
Your basic mindful flow state
Meditation – Life as a positive mindfulness game

© Toby Ouvry 2026, you are welcome to use or share this article, but please cite Toby as the source and include reference to his website www.tobyouvry.com 

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creative imagery Inner vision Integral Meditation Life-fullness meditation and creativity Meditation and Psychology Presence and being present Stress Transformation

Never the same meditation twice

“Being consciously, creatively responsive to the present moment is a powerful tool (maybe the most powerful) that we have for making the world a better place, & we all have it within us”

Dear Integral Meditators, 

This week’s article explores one of the main driving practices in my meditation practice; creativity. 

This week also sees the start of three stress-transformation programs: 

The theme for this weeks stress-transfromation sessions is ‘Karuna: Using compassion & wisdom to transform your pain & create connection’. 

In the spirit of creative transformation,

Toby
 


Article: Never the same meditation twice
 
I was in a weekly class at a Business school last recently that I have been running for the last decade. A guy came to the session who has been coming since around 2018. At the end of the experience he said “Toby, I have never been in a session of yours that was the same, I always hear and experience something new!”. This is actually true, as whilst there are always themes and principles that are consistent in my guided meditations, I am always responding to the moment, and trying new ways of expressing and practising meditation.
 
The beginners mind
 
One of the reasons for the variation and novelty in my sessions is that part of being a meditator is having a beginner’s mind, a sense of each moment being a new moment, different from the moment before. Every time I come back to a familiar practice or theme, I notice there is something new about it, because in this moment, the experience is different from all the other times I have done the practice.
 
The artist and creative evolutionary in you
 
Another reason for the creativity in my sessions is that I am originally an artist by training, and so the idea of creating in the moment, and of life being like a work of art is very strong in me. Not just that, one of the things I am trying to communicate in my work is that you also are creative. Being consciously, creatively responsive to the present moment is a powerful tool (maybe the most powerful tool) that we have for making the world a better place, and we all have it within us.
Alfred North Whitehead, the philosopher also described the process of evolution as the ‘creative advance into novelty’. When we align with the evolutionary impulse of the universe, we become much more spontaneous and creative, naturally. You might say we express the spirit of evolution when we get in touch with our creative nature and express it skillfully.
 
To create, you need a framework
 
So, in order to create in meditation, as in other areas of life, you need to have framework, or a set of principles that give you the basis. For example, in my stress-transformation meditations, I tend to work off four main principles:
 

  1. Witnessing – from fighting stress to being curious about it 
  2. Flowing – from resisting emotions to feeling and releasing them
  3. Framing – from being lost in the inner conversation to creating it
  4. Appreciating – from feeling unlucky and hard done-by to appreciating the opportunity

From these four principles there are a huge variety of types of stress transformation that I have come up with and teach. Also, in my daily life I use these principles to improvise meditations that help me with a presenting challenge. For example, last night I had jet-lag from a recent trip to the UK. Not being able to sleep, and feeling the presence of a variety of challenging emotions and thoughts about my life, I set up a three-stage pattern of meditation:

  1. Head – nine breaths of brain relaxation meditation to move into non-conceptual presence
  2. Heart – nine breaths of letting emotions come and go, acknowledging them and letting them flow
  3. Belly – nine breaths of reverse abdominal breathing to build energetic strength and balance

 
Practising this as I lay down in bed, after five minutes or so I was feeling really quite good already, a state almost as good as being asleep. After half an hour or so I drifted off into a restful sleep. Waking up the next morning I felt good despite being tired.
I’ve never done a meditation in exactly that manner before, it was new, I created it! But it was based upon the four principles of stress-transformation, which were the basis from which I improvised from.
 
Wishing you creativity in your own life and meditation practice!
 
Related article: Four stress-transformation ‘flips’


© Toby Ouvry 2026, you are welcome to use or share this article, but please cite Toby as the source and include reference to his website www.tobyouvry.com 

Follow Toby on: LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram

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Enlightened Flow Inner vision Insight Meditation Integral Awareness Life-fullness Meditation and Psychology Mindful Resilience Mindful Self-Leadership Presence and being present Stress Transformation

Patient, or positively impatient?

“Is now the time to be patient and accepting, or is it time to rattle the cage, shake the tree and be positively impatient?”

Dear Integral Meditators, 

This week’s article focuses on a theme that I have found very real and useful in a number of my coaching sessions with clients over the past few weeks.

Making the distinction between patience and positive impatience releases the potential for greater balance and harmony in our life, even when under duress! 

The 15minutes a week Stress-Transformation online program starts next Monday!
It is available at a 50% discount if you get it with either the Wednesday class, Saturday Deep-dive or workshop versions of the stress-transfromation programs (which can be done live, online or via recording). 

In the spirit of patient impatience,

Toby


Article: Patient, or positively impatient?
 
Patience, and patient acceptance are major life-skills that, when applied effectively give us more peace of mind, help us reduce unnecessary energy wastage, and increase our effectiveness in the face of challenges.
Patient acceptance can be contrasted with impatience, pushing too hard and at the wrong time, in a way that is often impulsive and not thought out.
 
However, the patience described above also has a ‘lower expression’ characterized by:

  • Accepting things that we should not/ don’t have to accept, for example out of fear and insecurity
  • Going with the flow of a situation that it may be better not to tolerate or stay in
  • Not recognizing that things have changed, and what was appropriate to have been accepting is now something to be appropriately intolerant to

 
Similarly, the imbalanced impatience described above also has a place or context where it becomes ‘positive impatience’. We can use the energy of positive impatience to change things that it is time we changed, break out of patterns that it is time we broke out of.
 
Micro and macro expressions of this balance
 
The patience/positive impatience balance can play itself out on both a larger scale and a more short-term daily/hourly manner.
On a larger time-scale for example, this year I have decided to make certain changes to my work-life where I am really trying to be intolerant to certain older patterns that served me in the past, but if they persist, they are I danger of limiting my progress. Towards these I am applying ‘positive impatience’ or ‘balanced intolerance’. At the same time, I have also noticed that I am feeling tired and impatient with certain of my work practices, but I feel the time to change these or give them up is not yet here. So, in regard to these, I am adopting an attitude of patience and acceptance, relaxing into the flow of them rather than agitating for change.

On a smaller, micro timescale, today I am mixing up family activities, work and household tasks. There are times where I am itching to get on with work, where I will need to accept that urge and then let it go, being accepting that now is not the time. At other times in the day, I may be feeling lethargic or avoidant regarding work but, because it is the right time, I need to be positively impatient and push through the resistance, utilizing my positive impatience. On a daily basis I might oscillate several times between the two, moving from acceptance to impatience as the circumstances demand, or as I see fit.
 
So then, a good question to ask yourself in situations that you face is:
“Is now the time to be patient and accepting, or is it time to rattle the cage, shake the tree and be positively impatient?”
 
 
Related article: Are You Going With the Flow or Just Drifting With the Current?

© Toby Ouvry 2026, you are welcome to use or share this article, but please cite Toby as the source and include reference to his website www.tobyouvry.com 

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Four stress-transformation ‘flips’ – article & guided meditation recording

“A confident relationship to our stress sets us up for a lifetime of curiosity, wonder, excitement & adventure. An adverse relationship to it sets us up for a path of anxiety, oppression, limitation and fear”

Dear Integral Meditators, 

This week’s newsletter is on four stress-transformation ‘flips’. If you are wondering what stress-transformation looks like as a meditation you can also listen to  a 15minute guided meditation on these four aspects of stress-transformation. 

The 15minutes a week Stress-Transformation online program features a wide, creative range of meditations like this 15minute recording. As well as it’s buy-alone price, it is available at a 50% discouont if you get it with either the Wednesday class, Saturday Deep-dive or workshop versions of the stress-transfromation programs (which can be done live, online or via recording). 

In the spirit of confidence in transformation,

Toby

Article: Four stress-transformation ‘flips’
 
There are many, many ways of transforming difficult, debilitating stress into positive or growth stress. Over the years I’ve developed lots of fun, creative techniques for doing so that I continue to teach in my meditation classes, and coach around in my coaching sessions. What I am going to do here is to outline four essential ‘stages’ or ‘flips’ that are foundational to all stress transformation practices. They work as individual units of practice, but I find that when they are put together and practiced sequentially in this order, they become exponentially more effective. In this context ‘flipping’ simply means flipping from debilitating stress to growth, or positive stress.
 
Witnessing – from fighting it to being curious about it
 
The first position then is witnessing. It means to step back from your stress and, rather than being caught up in, identified with or fighting it, to observe and be curious about it. Watch it and get to know it with your observational awareness, try to take it incrementally less seriously, give yourself room to play.
 
Flowing – from resisting emotion to feeling and releasing them
 
The second position is to notice your experience of emotions around the stress, if possible, naming them. Having done this, then rather than trying to get rid of them, or indulging them, or repressing them, set up a pattern of breathing whereby as you inhale you are feeling/experiencing some of that emotion, and exhaling you are relaxing into it/releasing it. An emotion is a type of feeling; feelings want to be felt. By consciously allowing yourself to feel and then release stressful emotions, they become much more workable.
 
Framing – from being lost in the inner conversation to creating it
Here we take position one, witnessing, and apply it specifically to noticing our inner conversation around the stress. Simply watching and dis-identifying from the self-talk can be really useful in itself. But here was are also then concerned amount making creative alterations to the narrative that ‘spin’ the conversation in a more useful direction. “I can’t do it and so I’ll never be able to do it” is a completely different conversation from “I can’t do it yet, but by trying and failing I will learn how before too long”.
 
Appreciating – from feeling unlucky and hard done-by to appreciating the opportunity
In all situations with stress, there is an opportunity to grow, something to be learned, something that we can put to use. Appreciating what the stress we are under can do for us gives us a way to value it, to get excited about it rather than feeling anxious or oppressed by it. It also gives us a purpose and direction to move our stress towards, something we can do with it. Rather than being in the way of our path, it can become the path itself!
 
Stress is so much a part of our life that our relationship to it is literally ‘life-defining’! A positive relationship with our stress sets us up for a lifetime of curiosity, wonder, excitement and adventure. An adverse relationship to it sets us up for a path of anxiety, oppression, limitation and fear . These four ‘flips’ give us a chance to make even our most difficult stress workable, and to make us confident in the face of it.
 
Listen to the four stress-transformation flips guided meditation by Toby

© Toby Ouvry 2026, you are welcome to use or share this article, but please cite Toby as the source and include reference to his website www.tobyouvry.com 
 

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Stress transformation article re-works

Dear Integral Meditators,

I’ve been editing a few articles from my archive, you can find them linked below. They date back to the first time I started doing mindful stress-transformation workshops, & this is a theme that ties them together.

Enjoy browsing, if you like the material, do check out the upcoming Stress-transformation meditation courses coming up this September.

In the spirit of the journey,

Toby

Soft forms of Psychic Self-Defence 

“With soft forms of psychic self-defence, negativity is understood as simply an energy that can be flowed with and re-directed, rather than something to fear”…read full article

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The Inner Sharks of the Mind – Staying on the tail 

There is quite a famous nature documentary sequence where a seal is being attacked by a white shark. Having escaped from the shark’s jaws one time, rather than making a run (or swim) for it, the seal instead stays behind the sharks tail, following it very closely, until it gets close enough to the land to quickly leap on shore. Rather than running away or confronting the shark the seal dealt with the threat by staying close to the shark, watching and following it very closely…read full article

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Four essential stages to transforming negative stress into positive energy

This article starts with the assertion that stress in and of itself is a neutral energy that can be experienced in a positive or negative way, and that, to a large degree our experience of stress is defined by our approach to the stressful situation, rather than the situation itself. So what is positive and negative stress? Here is a working definition…read full article

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The double bind (& opportunity) of emotional repression

One of the reasons why people find it such a challenge to keep up a daily meditation practice is that, after a while it starts to reveal within them painful emotions that lie repressed, and that  they would rather remain repressed and forgotten. The process of meditation itself causes a release of the “knots” in the mind that hold the pain that we have repressed, and this “untying” gives us access to enhanced self-awareness that frankly we might rather we did not have!

However, there is both a carrot and a stick that we can use to encourage us to face our painful emotions and inner stresses with courage…read full article

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The Way to be ok, always – liberation and the Witness-Self

Cultivating the experience of the witness-self means cultivating your experience of self as a detached observer of your mind, body and life experiences, as opposed to having your sense of self totally caught up in them.
 
The witness or observer self has three main qualities:

  1. It witnesses our life with detached awareness
  2. It has no physical or mental form, it is merely formless awareness
  3. It is the ultimate subject of our awareness, the irreducible ‘I’…read full article

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The Way to be ok, always – liberation and the Witness-Self

“Skilful witnessing creates an increasing sense of ever-present calm even when under multiple forms of stress. We find ourself increasingly “always ok”, nothing we can’t handle”

Dear Integral Meditators,

 
This week’s article looks at the relationship between witnessing practice & your fundamental sense of freedom. It’s a slighly edited verson of something I wrote in 2013, witnessing practice is something that just gets deeper & better over time. It was working well for me in 2013, but the experience I have now 14 years later is undoubtedly richer & better!

This week’s chakras & non-duality meditation sessions: Wednesday @ 7.30pm SG time,  at 5.30pm, Saturday afternoon, & noon at Space2B. The subject will be ‘Third chakra – Confidence, power, union with mind’.

Heads up for the new series’ for September are out, The weekday & Saturday ‘ Meditations for transforming negativity & stress into energy, positivity & empowerment sessions. 

In the spirit of liberation, 

Toby


The Way to be ok, always – liberation and the Witness-Self
 
Cultivating the experience of the witness-self means cultivating your experience of self as a detached observer of your mind, body and life experiences, as opposed to having your sense of self totally caught up in them.
 
The witness or observer self has three main qualities:

  1. It witnesses our life with detached awareness
  2. It has no physical or mental form, it is merely formless awareness
  3. It is the ultimate subject of our awareness, the irreducible ‘I’

 
The path to liberation from pain and suffering has an enormous amount to do with the cultivation of the witness self.
 
To the extent that we are able to detach (not dissociate) ourself from our pain we can control it. If we can detach ourself from our pleasure we can engage it without clinging to it and thus avoid the experience of pain that happens when we are separated from that pleasure.
 
In meditation we cultivate and strengthen the witness self, but it is important to understand that the witness self is present with and available to us right now, whatever stage of development we are at. Hee are two short stories that illustrate this in a slightly funny way:
 
As a fifteen year old at school I had a friend the same age (let’s call him Tony) who went out with a seventeen year old girl. She left Tony for an older boy who was a mutual friend. Tony subsequently told me the story of how he had confronted the older boy, shouting and screaming at him in an emotional outburst. He then told me, looking slightly sheepish about how he had felt that there was a part of him watching the whole episode (including himself screaming and shouting) that was not upset at all, but felt detached and calm. That “watcher” that he had experienced amidst his emotional outburst was his witness self.
Later I had a female friend at collage who similarly discovered that her boyfriend had been having an affair with another woman whilst away at university. Again with a similar sense of sheepish confusion she described to me how she had shouted and screamed at her boyfriend whilst simultaneously feeling that a part of her was observing the situation with total calm and detachment. Like my friend Tony, my female friend had found herself aware of her witness self at the same time as she experienced, and was identified with, her emotional turmoil.
 
So, with meditation we cultivate awareness of this witness self, making it increasingly “front and center” of our daily experience, finding an increasing sense of ever-present calm even when under multiple forms of stress. We find ourself increasingly “always ok”, nothing we can’t handle.
 
Reading this some people may think that cultivating the witness self may make us cold, uncaring, emotionally mono-syllabic and so on. The reality is however that when practised in an integrated, balanced way, centring our awareness in the witness increases our capacity to enjoy deeper and more positively a wider range of emotion, pleasure, happiness and wellbeing. You could say that it liberates us to a whole new level of the human experience. We leap in and out of our roles with playful freedom.
 
A final point; being centred in the witness self also liberates us substantially from the fear of making mistakes, looking foolish, taking an appropriate chance. So, whilst finding an experience of liberation through the detachment of the witness, we concurrently find a new way of engaging in our world and human experience more freely and dynamically.
 
Related reading: Witnessing – Being That Which is Not


© Toby Ouvry 2026, you are welcome to use or share this article, but please cite Toby as the source and include reference to his website www.tobyouvry.com

Follow Toby on: LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram

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A Mind of Ease Beginners mind, resilient body Energy Meditation Inner vision Life-fullness Meditation and Psychology mind body connection Mindful Resilience Presence and being present Stress Transformation

Slowing down to speed up – Staying productive & creative when you are low-energy

“Acknowledging & accepting low-energy, gives us a choice to work with it rather than against it. From a position of acceptance, we can then make choices that move us toward energy & creativity”

Dear Integral Meditators, 


This week’s article looks at how to work with low-energy states skillfully, rather than just fighting them and getting even more tired!

A few chances to bolster your energy through mindfulness & meditation this week: 

In the spirit of wise fast & slow, 

Toby


Slowing down to speed up – Staying productive & creative when you are low-energy
 
As we reach the mid-year mark, I’ve been having to manage my energy level fairly mindfully as it comes under stress from various different directions. When there is a lot going on it can be difficult to realize how low on energy you are getting until it is a too late. Below are a few mindful methods I’ve been using to navigate the run into the summer break without breaking apart!
 
Mindful of the possible vicious cycle with low-energy
 
When we are in a low-energy state, we are also in a reduced willpower state. This means that it is very easy to try and start a task, but then simply getting distracted by something. For example, I have an intention to get a few emails done, but I get sidetracked by youtube instead. This now means that I am low-energy and my energy has been further depleted-dissipated by distraction. This then means that I am even more tired, but I have not gotten the task done. This might then mean that I stay up later in the evening to get things done (also in a distracted manner), which then means I get to bed too late, which then means I wake up feeling low-energy, and so-on in a vicious cycle. Sometimes going to bed too late also means I am ‘to tired’ to fall asleep, or I sleep in a non-relaxed or stressed manner.
With a cycle like this, low energy breeds distraction, which breeds self-judgment and stress, which makes us even less able to stay productive, which leads to feelings of overwhelm, which leads to lower energy and so on…
 
Going slower to go faster
 
If I am in a low-energy state, I find the faster I can recognize it the better. From this awareness, normally my next position is acknowledgment and acceptance of the state of tiredness, and a choice to work with it rather than against it. From this position of acceptance, I then make choices like:

  • Reducing my ambition for the rest of the day, achieving less, but in a way where I feel good about what I have done and get to bedtime on time, ready to recharge for tomorrow.
  • If I’m feeling too tired to do anything, I normally take a few minutes to do nothing. Doing nothing helps my energy to gather, and for me to get clear on the next task that I want to do engage in.
  • Look at my inner narrative, and ‘spin’ it in a positive manner. A simple example of this is I focus on what I have achieved (today/this week/this month) already, and how I can feel good about that, rather than all the things that I haven’t done yet/should have done by now. This helps me to feel happy where I am presently, which takes the edge off any feelings of stress or tiredness.

‘More haste less hurry’ as the saying goes, or, if you like, ‘Less haste, more hurry’!
 
Observing outside influences (or perceived ones), and setting your own pace
 
A final point here, when we are tired, it can be quite easy to be pushed out of balance by environmental influences. A stressed-out colleague or boss, the opinion of our partner, the anxiety of our children, an uncomfortable commute home in the evening. These can all push us out of balance, adding dis-orientation, dissipation and confusion to our already low-energy state. The more you can be aware of this, the less likely it is to influence you unconsciously, and the more likely you are to be able to find and keep your center in the eye of the storm.
 
Related reading: Tired of being tired – Relaxing into, not fighting with your fatigue
You already have what you seek – Getting resilience from resilience


© Toby Ouvry 2026, you are welcome to use or share this article, but please cite Toby as the source and include reference to his website www.tobyouvry.com

Upcoming classes & workshops

Ongoing on Wednesday’s (live & online), 7.30-8.30pm – Weekly integral meditation classes

Ongoing on Saturdays, 5.30-6.45pm SG time – Saturday Integral meditation deep-dive sessions with Toby

12noon on Saturday – Meditation Masterclass Series at Space2B

Sat 20th, 5.30pm & Weds 24th June, 7.30pm – Summer solstice balancing & renewing meditation

Sunday 28th July, 9am-12noon – Mindful Resilience workshop – Practices for sustaining effectiveness, happiness & clarity under pressure

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You already have what you seek – Meditating from wholeness 

“You are whole, a lot of the things you seek, you have already. Proceed from there”

Dear Integral Meditators, 


This week’s article looks at approaching meditation, & life from a perspective of wholeness, & noticing how much easier it can make things!

Head’s up for the Mindful Resilience workshop – Practices for sustaining effectiveness, happiness & clarity under pressure that I’ll be doing on the 28th June, I also talk about an approach to improving resilience in the article…

In the spirit of the effortless, 

Toby


You already have what you seek – Meditating from wholeness
 
Meditating to express your awakened nature
 
One of my favourite expressions from Zen meditation is ‘You don’t meditate to attain awakening, you meditate to express it.’ What this means is that, you already have an awakened, whole and complete essential nature, so you don’t need to achieve it, you need to recognize it! Initially it can be difficult for us to relate to ourselves as whole right from the start of our practice, but this is what Zen and other forms of meditation invite us to do. It means inverting the usual ‘doing something to achieve something’ mentality, and relate to your wholeness, in the sense of having awakened nature right now.
There are also ways in which we can meditate in a wise way, where instead of trying to achieve something, we simply recognize that it is already there. Here are three examples that I have bee working with over this weekend with coachees and students.
 
The presence of stillness and silence
 
‘I wish my mind could be more still, but it’s so hard!’ Really? Reflect upon the environment you are in right now; the sounds and activity are all contained by the stillness and space that enables your environment. There is loads of physical space and stillness. Inwardly, yes you may have many thoughts, but they are arising in the open space of your awareness, which Is pervaded by stillness and silence. With a bit of skilful attention, we start to see that we are swimming in stillness and silence, like a fish in water!
 
The feeling of being alive, now
 
Why are you trying to achieve things? So that at upon achieving that thing, you can then really have the feeling of being fully alive. But wait, you are also alive right now, perhaps if you can open more fully to the simple feeling of being alive in the moment, you can experience the fulfilment and joy of it today, now, without waiting until you achieve your goals.
 
How much happiness can you accept?
 
We all have our problems, and those problems can make us unhappy at times, no doubt. But there are also many things in your life great and small that can be causes of happiness. If you can relate to those things now, and accept the happiness that is on offer. This way you can have genuine happiness now, right away. This happiness will then help you deal with your challenges and problems more effectively.
 
Getting resilience from your resilience
 

  • Relating to yourself and life from a position of wholeness
  • Realizing that you already have what you are looking for in many ways

These are the two essential principles here. I use them in many ways, both in my own life, and in my teachings. For example, in the mindful resilience workshop that I teach, the first practice is to:
 
“Understanding the different levels of mindful resilience and tapping into the inner resilience that you already have (but may not be leveraging effectively upon)”
 
So right off the bat, I encourage participants to relate to their resilience as something that they already have, rather than something they lack and need to ‘achieve’. All of this is to say that it is an approach that is ergonomic and flowing, sailing with life rather than struggling against it.
 
You are whole, a lot of the things you seek, you have already. Proceed from there.

© Toby Ouvry 2026, you are welcome to use or share this article, but please cite Toby as the source and include reference to his website www.tobyouvry.com

Follow Toby on: LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram

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A Mind of Ease Chakra meditation Enlightened Flow Gods and Goddesses Inner vision Insight Meditation Meditating on the Self Meditation techniques Mindful Resilience Presence and being present Primal Spirituality Zen Meditation

Why non-dual meditation should be your go-to practice

“Non-duality is a view of our experience that invites effortlessness and flow. Integrating it into your practice invites this experience of effortlessness into your life, now.”

Dear Integral Meditators, 
This week’s article looks at non-dual meditation, why it is great to make as a central part of your meditation, and how to get started with a simple non-dual breathing practice. 

If you are looking for a rich way to integrate non-dual meditation into your life, this week sees the start of the Wednesday evening & Saturday afternoon chakra’s & non-duality meditation programs, they will also be the subject of the Saturday noon meditation masterclass series at Space2B that I run. 

In the spirit of the effortless, 

Toby

Why non-dual meditation should be your go-to practice
 
What is non-dual meditation?
 
Non-dual meditation is a type of meditation that emerged in the 6th-8th centuries, explicitly within the eastern Buddhist, Taoist and Hindu (eg Vedanta) traditions, but also implicitly within the western esoteric traditions of the time. Essentially it focuses on the collapse of the subject-object divide within our consciousness into a ‘Just This’ experience. Before that time, the vast majority of meditation was dualistic in nature; there was a subject of consciousness, the ‘I’, meditating on an object of consciousness, this object could be:

  • Something obvious, like the breathing, “I am focusing mindfully on my breathing”
  • Something more subtle, like my mind, “I am aware of my thoughts”
  • Something really subtle, for example “I am aware of my formless timeless consciousness”

Whatever you meditated on, there was a subject and an object of consciousness.

Why it’s a great practice to make your go-to practice

Non-dual meditation is a great practice to make front and centre of your daily meditation because:

  1. It offers access to an effortless level of stress transformation – Non-duality is a view of our experience that invites effortlessness and flow. Integrating into your practice invites this experience of effortlessness into your life, now.
  2. It is the final destination of all meditations. In all of the different great meditation traditions of the world, non-dual reality is the ‘highest’ attainment, the final destination. Since it is that, you may as well bring it in today!
  3. You can practice it on the level you are at – Non-dual meditation is deep but simple. You can practice it on the level you are at today, and have some degree of success. You don’t need to wait until you get ‘better’.
  4. You can integrate your other meditations into your non-dual practice. You can MAKE your current meditation into a non-dual meditation, simply by changing your perspective on it. Non-duality is a VIEW of reality, if you integrate it into your current meditation, it becomes a non-dual practice. For example, in the Chakra meditation series I am about to teach this week, it integrates Chakra meditation with non-duality, which is a great, and very do-able combination!
  5. You being the result into the path – Non-dual meditation focuses on the recognition that awakening is not something you achieve, it is something that you ARE. This is a wonderful understanding to integrate into your daily life; you are already whole and complete as you are, right now!
  6. It is fantastic for living in the world – Non-dual meditation enables us to transform everyday activities into our spiritual practice in ways that would be difficult otherwise. It’s a type of technology that really helps you be ‘in the world but not of the world’.

 
A simple example
 
Non-dual breathing meditation – Settle into a rhythm focusing on your breathing, just like a normal mindful breathing meditation. Notice that in the meditation there is a sense of an ‘I’ or self that is focusing on the breathing. Once you have a certain degree of focus and relaxation, gently ‘drop’ the I, so that it is just the breathing doing itself. There is no subject or object of consciousness, just the breathing. Put another way, the ‘self’ is experienced as nothing more than the breathing. To quote Shunryu Suzuki:
 
“The inner world is limitless, and the outer world is also limitless. We say “inner world” and outer world,” but in reality, there is just one whole world, our throat is like a swinging door. The air comes in and goes out like someone passing through a swinging door. If you think “I breathe,” the I is extra.”
 
So, one really simple example there, we’ll be looking at seven simple examples in the chakra meditation & non-duality course, which, I promise will be a whole lot of fun!
 
Related reading: The swinging door – when the breathing does itself
Non-Dual meditation & Organismic reality
Practical dimensions of chakra meditation


© Toby Ouvry 2026, you are welcome to use or share this article, but please cite Toby as the source and include reference to his website www.tobyouvry.com

Watch Toby’s video on  chakra meditation & non-duality: 

Upcoming classes & workshops

Ongoing on Tuesday’s & Wednesday’s (live & online), 7.30-8.30pm – Weekly integral meditation classes

Ongoing on Saturdays, 5.30-6.45pm SG time – Saturday Integral meditation deep-dive sessions with Toby

12noon on Saturday – Meditation Masterclass Series at Space2B

Starts on Wednesday June 10th, 7.30-8.30pm – Chakra meditation as a gateway to non-duality, energy & the integrated self -an 8-week course

Starts Saturday June 13th, 5.30-6.45pm – Chakra meditation as a gateway to non-duality, energy & the integrated self – an 8-session deep-dive practice series

Sat 20th, 5.30pm & Weds 24th June, 7.30pm – Summer solstice balancing & renewing meditation
 

Follow Toby on: LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram

Integral Meditation Asia

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A Mind of Ease Chakra meditation creative imagery Energy Meditation Inner vision Life-fullness Meditation and Psychology Meditation techniques Mindful Resilience Presence and being present Stress Transformation

3 levels of chakra meditation video, & article on varying your intensity level

Dear Integral Meditators, 

A video & article for you today!

The video is a short introducton to the three different levels of the chakras, & how to work with them in meditation. It’s partly for those who may be interested in the Wednesday evening & Saturday afternoon chakra meditation & non-duality summer courses. But it should be interesting & of value to those who are simply curious!

The article on ‘Yin & yang levels of intensity in meditation’ asks the question: “What level of intensity do I want to bring to my practice, & my life today? Which level will work best in the circumstances?”

In the spirit of creation & adaptation, 

Toby

Watch Toby’s video on the three aspects or levels of chakra meditation: 

Yang & yin levels of meditation intensity
 
In the same way that there are different levels of exercise, there are different levels of intensity regarding your meditation. If you have an exercise routine, you will likely have:

  • Some days that are high intensity days, where you are looking to push your body’s capacity by exercising intensely and close to the limit of your capacity
  • Other days you may exercise at a low level of intensity with the aim to help your body recover its energy
  • Other days it may be an intermediate level of intensity, somewhere between a 4-6 out of 10 (with 10 as max effort)

Similarly, when you sit down to do a meditation, it can be useful to distinguish whether you are going to meditate:

  • At a relatively high ‘yang’ intensity level, emphasizing clarity and capacity growth. This may take some energy to do, but if you feel your energy levels are quite good already, then you can invest some of that energy in improving your meditation ‘level’
  • At a lower, easy ‘yin’ regenerative level. Here you are not going to worry too much about ‘performance’, rather you are creating a space for your meditation that is aimed at recovery and rest. This type of meditation you may well come out with more energy, feeling refreshed and renewed, almost like you had a bit of a sleep

 
Of course, you can also choose a level in between, at an intermediate or balanced level of intensity, that ‘4-6’ level that I mentioned above!
The point here is that, if you make a conscious decision about the level of intensity before you start your meditation then that can set you up for a better meditation experience as you actually engage in the meditation.
You can create a formal program if you like where you have set days each week that are designated ‘yin meditation’ others ‘yang’ and one or two intermediate days. What I generally like to do is simply decide on the day, according to how I feel.
 
A daily example
 
On the way to work on the train this morning, I did a 15minute meditation. Before I started, my body felt really quite tired, so I decided to do it at a low intensity, ‘yin’ recovery level of intensity. So, I began with this ‘soft focus’ type approach, not worrying too much about precision, brightness or energy. As the meditation went on however, I did feel my state moving from a low energy toward a higher energy level as I progressed. In the second half of the meditation, I picked up the intensity and finished feeling both refreshed and quite ‘on point’ around my energy level. It turned into a ‘bit of both’ type meditation!
 
A final point, you can use the above principles to vary the level on intensity that you bring to your life appropriately. Some days can be high intensity days, others recovery, ‘yin’ days. Yin days can involve work, yang days can involve recovery or leisure. It’s more about the mindful modulation of your effort, rather than the activities themselves.
 
Related article: Zen ergonomics – Sailing with, rather than rowing against life

© Toby Ouvry 2026, you are welcome to use or share this article, but please cite Toby as the source and include reference to his website www.tobyouvry.com

Upcoming classes & workshops

Ongoing on Tuesday’s & Wednesday’s (live & online), 7.30-8.30pm – Weekly integral meditation classes

Ongoing on Saturdays, 5.30-6.45pm SG time – Saturday Integral meditation deep-dive sessions with Toby

Starts on Wednesday June 10th, 7.30-8.30pm – Chakra meditation as a gateway to non-duality, energy & the integrated self -an 8-week course

Starts Saturday June 13th, 5.30-6.45pm – Chakra meditation as a gateway to non-duality, energy & the integrated self – an 8-session deep-dive practice series

Sat 20th, 5.30pm & Weds 24th June, 7.30pm – Summer solstice balancing & renewing meditation
 

Follow Toby on: LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram

Integral Meditation Asia

Online Courses * 1:1 Coaching * Books * Live Workshops * Corporate Mindfulness Training *Life-Coaching *  Meditation Technology