Daily exercises for developing presence and relaxation

In meditation we may have exceptional realizations which break through our conceptual ways of dealing with experiences, and these realizations help us to see from a more enlightened point of view. We contact the calmness and clarity which lie below the conceptual level. Meditation is then our refuge, for we can call on it whenever we need it to give balance. Taking refugee in ourselves in this way gives a stronger basis and greater confidence to cope with everyday life. This is refuge at a higher level.

Day 10 – Meditation Exercise

We breathe. We feel. We notice.

We are not noticing anything in particular, not picking objects out of the background. We are just noticing; just relaxing.

Notice, then relax; then notice some more, and relax some more.

Maybe this is less complicated than we think, and less conceptual; maybe there is no point that could not be opened, if we are gentle and patient enough.    

Daily exercises for developing presence and relaxation

Mostly we spend our breath verbalizing. As we talk, each word we use goes to our thoughts. Used this way, the breath is like a horse: It tires as it runs. If we carefully watch when we speak, we can see how our energy level is drained. So this is a first guide: Use as little energy as possible in verbalizing. The less we waste the breath, the more still it becomes, and the more we grow calm. It is this calm, inner breath that we can transmute into something blissful. As we relax into it, we discover a kind of pure energy that has great value or potential.

Day 9 – Expanding Feeling Exercise

Sit very quietly, breathing gently and evenly, with your mouth slightly open.

Cast your mind back to a wonderful memory and allow it to become very real in your mind –perhaps your first love, a beautiful sunset, a scenic walk along a river bank. Recreate the positive energy of the past time, expanding it throughout your being.

Let your body heat up and your breath move a little higher in your chest, until you feel a physical sense of exhilaration.

Expand the sensation throughout the body and beyond, so that you are the centre from which feelings ripple out in all directions. Now slowly draw this vital feeling back into your body.

Let this energy unite and cleanse the body and mind.

Continue to expand and retract your exhilarating feeling in this way for 15 to 20 minutes. If you do this whenever you have beautiful ideas, images, or feelings, you will enhance your sensory awareness.

Daily exercises for developing presence and relaxation

We need to connect our own experience through the heart.

It doesn’t matter whether what you are feeling is positive or negative – just bring it close to your heart. Once the heart feeling is there, it naturally opens up in positive ways. It begins to expand, and the sense that you are separate from others becomes questionable, so that you can easily imagine sharing positive feelings with others. You don’t have to work out in advance what you want to do or how you can be of benefit. All that comes naturally. You can find ways to communicate that don’t depend on external conditions or holding the same values and ideas.

Day 8 – Connect Through the Heart Exercise

Connect your experience through the heart. Let it open and expand.

Imagine new ways to communicate that don’t depend on external conditions or holding the same values and ideas. Be sure to focus on new ways rather than depending on external conditions or holding on to a familiar routine, repetitiveness, or reactive behavior. Consider – “You don’t have to work out in advance what you have to do”.

Connect through the heart.

Daily exercises for developing presence and relaxation.

Day 7 – Touching Feeling Exercise

This exercise releases tensions in the neck and shoulders. At the end sit in the sitting position for five to ten minutes expanding your sensations and feelings.

1. Sit cross-legged on a mat or cushion with your hands on your knees. Relax your belly.
2. Inhale and slowly lift your shoulders as high as possibly, allowing the position of your hands to shift as needed. When you think your shoulders are as high as they can go, relax while holding them up, and you may find that they can be raised a little more. Let your neck settle down between your shoulders. Now hold your breath a little and slightly imagine the back of your neck to be fresh and warm like that of a happy baby. 
3. Very slowly exhale, as you do so rotating your shoulders back and down, feeling the sensations in the back of your neck and spine. Keep your belly relaxed. Let your hands and arms be very relaxed—you may feel sensations of warmth and softness there.
4. Slowly continue to rotate your shoulders forward, up and down 3 or 9 times, spending at least 1 minute on each rotation. Then find a place in the movement where you can comfortably change direction and make 3 or 9 rotations the other way.

Daily exercises for developing presence and relaxation.

Day 6 – Empty House Exercise – Sitting Meditation

It may help to imagine mind as empty house with open doors and windows.

Breezes drift in and out like birds, now cool and now warm, entering and leaving through the open windows and doors.

Some are quiet and calm, some are noisy and demanding.

Like an empty house, you can simply be, welcoming all that arises — open, spacious, and accommodating, allowing the flow of experience to arise and fall without comment. 

As you relax and allow the mind to open like the sky, let go of any thought of what relaxation is.

There is no need to adjust or change anything; no need to improve or wonder if you are doing it ‘right’.

Let even these instructions fly in and out of sky-like mind like a gentle breeze, or a small, lovely bird.

Meditate for 20-30 minutes

Daily exercises for developing presence and relaxation.

People think of relaxation in a variety of ways: as a state of dreaminess as a strategy for escaping life as a means to fill in or mark our time. However, true relaxation is the state of perfect balance. When we relax, we open to new sensory fields and dimensions, expanding the sensations and feeling that integrate the body and mind. In this way we learn how to generate and accumulate energy and use it so that the body and mind work together in a flowing, open way: thoughts and sensations flow smoothly because the mind is clear and vibrant, the body is vital and energetic. During true relaxation there is no longer a self that experiences—we become the experience, totally at one with our bodies, minds and senses.

Day 5 – Appreciate Each Moment

The point is to appreciate each moment as fully as possible—whatever comes. This does not mean that we forget the future, but it does mean that the goal, the fruit, is already here. We could spend our whole lives slowly starving to death, selling the present for the future and getting nothing nourishing in return.

But we can also do it differently.

Through a refined searching and inquiry, through watching our own minds, we can learn great lessons.

The silent space between thoughts is always available.

The unborn is always there, and ‘there’ is not a place. 

Contemplate with attention for 15 minutes or longer

Daily exercises for developing presence and relaxation.

Because breathing charts the life rhythms, the way we breathe signals the disposition of our energies. When we are agitated or excited, our breath tends to be uneven and rapid, when we are calm and balanced, our breathing is even, slow and soft. This close relationship between our breathing patterns and our energies means that we can alter our mental and physical states by the way we breath. For example, when we are very upset, we can calm and balance ourselves simply by breathing slowly and evenly.

Day 4 – Tasting Relaxation Exercise

Breathing deeply about 10 times and slowly relax your whole body.

Relax your eyes, closing them if you wish, and let your mouth fall open.

Let tension slip away from your forehead an scalp. Slowly sense every part of your head—your nose, ears, jaw, cheeks, the inside of your mouth—until your while head becomes completely relaxed.

Then relax the back and sides of your neck, your throat and the underside of the chin before moving to your shoulders, chest, arms and hands, belly back, legs, feet and toes.

When you find a tense place, enjoy the sensation of tension melting away.

Taste the feeling of relaxation, enjoying it more and more until it nurtures every part of your body.

Continue 15 to 30 minutes. 

Daily exercises for developing presence and relaxation.

Day 3 – Opening the Heart Exercise

Make yourself comfortable on your chair or meditation cushion.

Let your body become still and your breath become soft and even.

Rub you hands together until you feel warmth.

Place on hand on your heart and the other over the first.

Feel your heartbeat.

That’s all, just feel the beating of your heart.

Gently invite the warmth from your hands to penetrate your clothing and skin and warm the very center of your heart relaxing and healing it.

Sit awhile, savoring this feeling.

Stay with the feeling even after you take your hands away. 

Daily exercises for developing presence and relaxation.

Day 2 – Morning Exercise

As soon as you get up in the morning, take three deep breaths, aware of the inhale and exhale. At first you will have to remind yourself to do this, but soon it will become a habit, one that can be deeply rewarding.

Before the first thought or concern enters your mind, let this positive experience shape the coming day. Let yourself enjoy the way the whole body engages the breath, together with the way that breathing connects you to the world around you.

Later in the morning, but still before you begin your round of daily activities, take a few moments to reflect on your good fortune.

Even if you are dealing with obstacles or with sad and painful circumstances, you can remind yourself how remarkable it is to be alive and in possession of your faculties. You have made contact with teachings that can help you get more out of life, and you can form positive intentions and act on your own values.

Let this reflection inspire you.

With this feeling of inspiration active within you, take another step – a kind of visualization. Say to yourself, “Today I will be kind to myself. I will take care of my body, I will nurture my spirit, and I will cultivate positive feelings. I will create a positive atmosphere around me, and I will appreciate the riches my senses make available to me.” 

Daily exercises for developing presence and relaxation.

Beginning today, until January 1, 2026, the daily quotes will be exercises. Exercises taken from Tarthang Tulku’s writings that work to relieve stress, transform negative behavioral patterns, promote balance and health and increase our enjoyment and appreciation of life.

These days, we may need a reminder to bring relaxation and ease into our lives.

While it is preferable to commit time each day to practice, if you miss a day, note how come, and let it go. 

Begin again the next day.

The exercises are sitting, movement, breathing that lead to the integration of body and mind in all activities, resulting in less stress, greater awareness and a welcome sense of well being.

Day 1 – Opening the Senses Exercise

Sit comfortably in the sitting posture or on a straight back chair, and begin to breathe softly through the nose and mouth.

Lightly pay attention to the inhalations: gently slow them down as much as you can, while keeping the breath as soft as possible. Feel the sensations in and around your body as your inhalations slow; go deeply into these sensations, expanding and accumulating them with the breath.

Continue for 10 to 15 minutes.

Now lightly pay attention to your exhalations: breathing out very slowly through both the nose and mouth, keeping the breath light and soft, the inhalations normal. As you develop the quality of these slow exhalations, try to open your whole sensory field as much as possible- every cell, tissue and organ. Let your feelings spread like a halo throughout and around your body.

Continue for 10 to 15 minutes.