I have often found that small doses taken often do more for me than large doses less often. So, I had a disinclination to engage in meditation for long periods. I have still not attended a multi-day meditation session. I suspected I would not pay attention for very long and I suspected that it would not do much for me if I made myself do something I didn't find attractive. Such feelings fit with today's antsy, impulsive, jump-around atmosphere.
I noticed books, articles and statements of the value of frequent, short meditation and attention-training sessions. I also noticed that American authors, probably shy about seeming to turn Christian right-thinking folks into budding Hindu or Buddhists, tended, in the 70's, to write about "relaxation", not meditation or mindfulness. The books "The Relaxation Response" by Benson and "The Inner Game of Tennis" by Gallwey both gave ideas about mind, attention and directing one's thoughts. More recently, Chade Meng-Tan's books "Search Inside Yourself" and "Joy on Demand" show applications of meditation and mindfulness to knowing one's self, liking one's self and enjoying one's life and existence.
Two approaches to just sitting and being with one in the moment are called "one-point" or "single-point" meditation and vipassana or mind-watching. With a month or two of daily practice of single point focus on a visual point or on the breath, suggestions of possible things to think about that come into the mind will be noticed, as opposed to being quietly accepted without noticing what the subject and feelings about it are. Watching the mind and its produced ideas and feelings is fun but a little dangerous since it is easier to get caught up in sticky or attractive subjects and harder to maintain a little distance and control over one's thoughts.
However, watching the mind is easy to transfer to something done continuously. Once the attention and alerting system are trained to notice changes in direction, any change and all changes can be noticed and approved or rejected. Then, on the meditation chair or cushion or off, irritations with the President or fears of dementia or whatever can be noted, faced full on and logically questioned at will.
