Our simple practice helps us release the unhelpful preoccupations that creep into our minds as we sit quietly and observe our thoughts. Releasing these, I find I have less need for quick “hits” of distraction, like the news.

What would it be like to spend more time absorbed in the awe of existence, rather than the awe of your newsfeed?

The twentieth-century novelist and philosopher Lin Yutang observed:

Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.

And isn’t much of what comes up on our newsfeeds truly non-essential?

In his 1968 collection of journals, The Other Side of the Mountain, Thomas Merton observed how eliminating non-essentials was at the very heart of his monastic vocation:

“I just need to have long periods of no talking and no special thinking, and immediate contact with the sun, the grass, the dirt, the leaves. Undistracted by statements, jokes, opinions, news.”

Through our mindfulness practice, we breathe, eat, and even wash in mystery and awe in every moment. It offers us glimpses of a fundamental “okay-ness”—a limitless, essential freedom that is our birthright.

We learn to pay attention in a way that allows us to not be sucked into whatever storms may arise in the mind, letting them pass. We rest in the settled mind, simply knowing whatever arises in the present moment.

These storms are like clouds obscuring the sun of our clear mind. I get that. But sometimes, my mind isn’t just cloudy—it’s a full-on supercell thunderstorm with hail the size of my unresolved childhood issues.

Despite these moments, we train patiently, gently returning our minds to our chosen anchor.

When we rest this way—simply present, awake, and aware, with no agenda at all—we step out of our habitual comfort zones of control and manipulation, and into a space of natural, open awareness. Little by little, we open into the warmth and tenderness of our essential vulnerability, discovering our own heart of awareness, which we all need so much in these times.

Our lives become more livable. Love may visit more often. And we become more and more present for it all, with care and compassion.