That’s a challenging question because my practices have been and are so eclectic. However, it usual starts out lying down in bed in the morning while waking up. Yup, I found out I don’t need to sit so I dropped that. I’ll do ‘morning in bed’ practice for about an hour or so.

I’ll frequently start with mindfulness of body sensations, sweeping attention up and down the body from head to toe with an open and non-judgmental awareness.

Almost always, some tension, thought stream or image stream will pop up and grab attention. Sometimes they are negative feelings associated with daily life issues, aka, “ordinary suffering.”

Then I start running through the four voices. What do we feel and think about this? What does the body, heart and mind think about this situation? What else is going on with the body heart and mind? What does impersonal thinking observe?

Then the lead conscious part (the committee chair) pursues a conversation with the thoughts and images that are at issue. In the way you would converse with a friend. Using any conversational technique, idea, or technique that you would use with a friend to help them out.

By allowing my ‘parts’ to have recognition and an independent seat at the table of consciousness, a part of me (or you!) can lead these other parts to change. And it has been incredibly helpful to be able to do this.

Yes, Virginia, you can “do therapy” on yourself!

For safety, health, and sanity, by your original intention, always return to the personal, primary “I” voice.

Another key aspect of daily routine is that my ‘default mode’ is now whole body awareness of sensations, sometimes by sweeping, though now mostly as an always-on gestalt.

This is combined with the personal voice (primary) for both internal and external experience, with switching into and out of the other voices on an as helpful or needed basis.