Sit,Walk,Work (SW^2)

As we step into 2026, I pause to reflect on the Sit, Walk, Work episodes from 2025 that listeners returned to most—meditations that offered grounding, equanimity, and practical ways to work with attention both on and off the cushion.Top 5 Most Downloaded Sit, Walk, Work Episodes of 20251. Guided Meditation on Equilibrium and Heart AwarenessA meditation on integrating head and heart through breath awareness, conscious sighing, and heart-centered attention to cultivate clarity and self-compassion.2. Finding Your Middle WayA practice focused on balance, kindness, and sustainability—inviting listeners to begin again without extremes, especially at the start of a new year.3. Start Here: Your First MeditationA beginner-friendly meditation that reframes distraction as part of the practice, using the Three A’s: Arrive, Attend, and Allow.4. One Step to EquanimityAn exploration of how breath, body, and thought interact, including practical ways to recognize thinking patterns and consciously choose where attention rests.5. Take 10: A Breath and Body Awareness MeditationA short Vipassana-inspired body scan designed for busy days, reminding us that even ten minutes of presence can be grounding and transformative.Across all five episodes, the invitation remains the same: pay attention with kindness. Meditation isn’t about fixing yourself—it’s about learning how to stay with your experience as it is.If 2025 taught us anything, it’s this: meditation isn’t about becoming someone else. It’s about learning how to be with who you already are.Thank you for practicing with me and for giving your attention to this work. I look forward to continuing the journey together in the year ahead.May you be well.May you be safe.May you keep returning.Follow me on all the socials* Substack* Website* Instagram* Facebook* YouTube This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sitwalkwork.substack.com

How often do we judge our meditation—or our lives—against an invisible standard we never chose?In this guided meditation, Dominic Stanley explores the habit of comparison and how it pulls us out of the present moment. Inspired by a story from Tara Brach’s Radical Acceptance, this practice invites you to ask a simple question: As compared to what?Through breath awareness, a full-body scan, and a gentle breath-moving visualization, you’ll practice letting go of internal measuring and meeting your experience with more curiosity and compassion.Best enjoyed seated or lying down.⏱️ Episode Breakdown00:00 – Welcome & Orientation Setting the tone for a practice of paying attention.01:16 – Theme Introduction: Comparison Exploring how comparison shows up in meditation and daily life.04:16 – Story: The Biscuit Standard A Zen teaching on unconscious comparison and unrealistic standards.07:21 – Anchoring in the Breath Noticing inhale and exhale without trying to change them.11:12 – Body Scan: Sensation & Space Scanning from head to toe while noticing both sensation and inner spaciousness.19:02 – Grounding Through the Lower Body Connecting with the legs, feet, and the body’s support.26:25 – Breath Moving Through the Body: Imagining the breath traveling up the front and down the back of the body.30:22 – Gratitude & Closing Reflection: Acknowledging the act of showing up and practicing.🌱 Key Themes* Comparison vs. presence* Letting go of internal measuring* Breath as an anchor* Sensation, space, and awareness* Meeting the body as it is* Compassionate attention📚 MentionedRadical Acceptance by Tara Brach💬 Let’s Reflect Together* Where do you notice comparison showing up most in your daily life?* What changes when you ask, as compared to what?* What would it be like to acknowledge effort instead of outcomes?Share your reflections in the comments—I’d love to hear how impermance is alive in your practice.Follow me on all the socials* Substack* Website* Instagram* Facebook* YouTube This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sitwalkwork.substack.com

Lately, I’ve been noticing how narrow my attention can become.When I’m stressed, overwhelmed, or rushing from one obligation to the next, my awareness collapses around whatever feels most urgent. A thought. A problem. A sensation. A feeling that says, fix this now.Today’s meditation grew out of a practice I’ve been returning to again and again: open focus.Open focus is a way of paying attention that doesn’t lock onto a single object. Instead of gripping the breath or wrestling with a thought, we let attention widen. We allow the body, the breath, the thoughts, and the environment to all exist at once—moving, changing, coming, and going.I notice how helpful this is in everyday life.In traffic, for example, when someone cuts me off and irritation spikes. The mind zooms in: They shouldn’t have done that. But when attention widens, there’s suddenly more room. I feel my hands on the steering wheel. I hear the hum of the road. The breath is still moving. The irritation hasn’t disappeared—but it’s no longer the whole story.That’s what this practice invites.We begin by settling the body into a posture that feels alert and at ease. Not collapsed. Not rigid. Just supported enough to stay present. You can feel this immediately in the breath—whether it can move freely or feels restricted.As attention turns inward, the moment starts to reveal itself more subtly. Sounds arrive and fade. Sensations pulse and dissolve. The breath expands and contracts the body from the inside out. None of this requires effort. It’s already happening.In open focus, we aren’t trying to improve the experience. We’re learning how to witness it.We explore the space around the body—the air touching the skin, the distance between us and the room. Then the space within the body: the breath moving through the nostrils, throat, chest, and belly. Even the pauses between inhales and exhales become noticeable. These spaces are easy to miss in the busyness of daily life, yet they’re always there.This becomes especially powerful when thoughts arise.Instead of getting pulled into the content of thinking—planning, replaying, judging—we start to notice the space between thoughts. Maybe just a brief gap. Maybe a soft pause after a thought passes. And in that space, there’s often relief.I see this show up in relationships all the time. When a difficult conversation triggers a familiar story, the urge is to react immediately. But if there’s even a little space—one breath, one pause—the reaction doesn’t have to run the show. There’s choice again.As the practice continues, awareness widens further. The whole body becomes sensation. Tension isn’t isolated or fought—it’s held in context, surrounded by space. Even emotions like anxiety, sadness, or restlessness are allowed to rise and fall like waves, held by something larger than themselves.This is one of the quiet lessons of the practice:There is room.Room for discomfort.Room for change.Room to start again.Toward the end, we gently narrow attention back to the breath—not as a restriction, but as an anchor. And when the mind wanders (because it will), we practice returning with patience rather than judgment.We finish by acknowledging the simple fact of showing up.Gratitude for the breath.For the body as it is.For a moment that may not be perfect—but is okay.Open focus isn’t something we do once and master. It’s a way of remembering, again and again, that life is larger than whatever feels most pressing right now.And sometimes, that remembering is enough.Follow me on all the socials* Substack* Website* Instagram* Facebook* YouTube This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sitwalkwork.substack.com

This practice began the way so many moments in life do: with the eyes open.I’ve been paying closer attention to vision lately—not just what I’m looking at, but how I’m looking. Our vision shapes how we take in information, which shapes how we think, which shapes how we react. When my attention feels scattered or overwhelmed, it’s often because my field of awareness has collapsed down to a single problem, a single thought, a single irritation.So we began this meditation by resting the eyes on one simple point in front of us. A wall. A picture. A patch of light. And then, without losing that focal point, we gently widened the view—allowing peripheral vision to come online.This is the same skill we need in traffic when someone cuts us off. We can stay focused on the road and aware of the wider field. We don’t have to collapse into the moment or harden around it.When the eyes closed, we carried that same principle inward.The breath became our anchor. In and out. Rhythm. Pace. And then—space. Not just the movement of breathing, but the room the breath moves through. The space in the nose, the throat, behind the eyes, and the crown of the head. Breathing becomes less of a task and more of a relationship with the body.At work, when deadlines stack up or emails keep arriving, this practice shows us another option: you can stay engaged without being clenched. You can focus without losing your sense of space.As we stayed with the breath, thoughts naturally appeared. Planning thoughts. Old memories. Emotional reactions. Instead of trying to push them away, we practiced meeting them the same way we met the breath—with patience, curiosity, and compassion.This is especially useful in relationships. When a familiar argument starts looping in your head, you don’t have to solve it right away. You can notice it. Feel how it shows up in the body. And remember: thoughts arise, change, and pass.This is where impermanence reveals itself.Every breath dissolves and recreates the moment. Every sensation shifts. Even tension, when met with space and attention, begins to change. In parenting, in caregiving, in moments of physical discomfort—this truth can soften our resistance. Nothing is frozen. Nothing stays the same.As the practice widened, attention opened to the body as a whole. Sensations blurred at the edges. The body breathed itself. The system took care of itself.Meditation isn’t about clearing anything out. It’s about becoming a better steward of what’s already here.We closed by welcoming gratitude—not as something to manufacture, but as something to notice. Gratitude for breathing. For showing up. For the quiet effort it takes to care for yourself.Eyes open or eyes closed, it turns out we’re always practicing. The same rules apply. And that’s the beauty of it.💬 Let’s Reflect Together* Where in your life do you notice your attention becoming narrow or rigid?* What changes when you allow space around uncomfortable sensations?* How do your thoughts behave when you meet them with curiosity instead of control?* Where could impermanence offer relief rather than uncertainty?* What does it feel like to care for yourself without trying to fix anything?Share your reflections in the comments—I’d love to hear how impermance is alive in your practice.Follow me on all the socials* Substack* Website* Instagram* Facebook* YouTube This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sitwalkwork.substack.com

When I guide this practice, I’m always struck by how quickly the mind can spiral — and how quickly the breath can interrupt that spiral. Most of us don’t need more advice or more willpower. We need a small wedge of space inside the moment where everything feels tight, urgent, or overwhelming.Today’s meditation is that wedge.In this episode, I lead you through a breath sequence called 20 Connected Breaths. It’s simple: inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale — four times — followed by one big inhale and a soft release. That’s one round. We repeat the cycle so you can feel layers of tension dissolve without forcing anything.But the real practice isn’t just breathing.It’s learning to interrupt your body’s momentum.Because spirals don’t just happen in the mind — they happen in the chest, the jaw, the shoulders, the nervous system. And when you learn to regulate the breath, you regulate the spiral.I see this every day, not just on the cushion:* Traffic: That flash of irritation when someone doesn’t move at a green light. One connected breath creates room for patience instead of frustration.* Work stress: Before the email sends you spinning, the breath grounds you enough to answer instead of react.* Parenting: When your kid refuses to put on their shoes, breath becomes the difference between snapping and staying steady.* Relationships: When someone says something sharp, breath turns defensiveness into curiosity.* Body discomfort: When tension rises, connected breathing keeps you from bracing, gripping, or shutting down.Through each round of the practice, you’ll hear me invite you to soften the effort. That’s intentional. Spirals thrive on force — on trying harder, pushing more, doing something. This breathwork teaches the opposite: presence over performance.Some rounds will feel smooth.Some will feel clunky.Some will energize you.Some may challenge you.All of that is part of the practice.As the meditation closes, we return to simple nasal breathing and relaxed shoulders — the embodied reminder that you can come back to yourself at any moment. You can interrupt the spiral. You can choose your next move.Thank you for practicing with me.May these breaths find you in the moments you need them most. Repeat as needed. May you be well.💬 Let’s Reflect Together* What situations most often trigger your spirals — and what do you feel in your body first?* Which round of the breathing practice felt the easiest or the hardest for you?* Where could you use more emotional space in your everyday life?* Think of a recent moment when you reacted quickly — how might one slow breath have changed the outcome?* How does your body tell you it’s time to pause?* What part of the spiral do you want to interrupt this week?Share your reflections in the comments—I’d love to hear how impermance is alive in your practice.Follow me on all the socials* Substack* Website* Instagram* Facebook* YouTube This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sitwalkwork.substack.com