Where to Start
Welcome to Your Cosmic Body. This site is designed to be an ongoing resource for your meditation practice, no matter what your experience level is. There’s an entire world of practices out there, and my hope is to offer a broad overview of some of the more practical and effective ones to help kick off your meditation journey or deepen your current practice.
The site is split into three main categories: Mind, Body, and Heart. Each one focuses on a different dimension of practice and includes information and tools to support your meditation or inner work. There’s also a resource page where you can find books, podcasts, guided meditations, local resources, and much more. There’s no right place to start, so take your time to look around and see what resonates with you. This work can be profoundly transformative, so finding a practice you enjoy is critical for staying consistent and actually seeing change.
If you’re brand new to meditation, I recommend starting with a phone app. The section below has a few great options to try. If you’re interested in learning on your own through self guided practice, or if you already have some experience, you can jump straight to one of the other pages.
Starting a Practice
Like forming any new habit, starting a consistent meditation practice can be tough, especially when your mind seems completely out of control the moment you sit and pay attention to it. For most people, it’s the first time they’ve ever tried to follow their breath or observe their mind. As thoughts flood in and you can barely track the breath for more than a few seconds, the initial reaction is usually to assume you’re bad at it, but this is where everyone starts. The untrained mind is chaotic, constantly pulling you into thoughts, worries, and daydreams. With practice, over time the mind gradually settles, becoming more stable, and the frequency and intensity of thoughts subsides.
Our minds have been shaped by years of conditioning from our home life, school, work, and interactions throughout the day. Shifting those patterns takes time, effort and patience, so the goal at the beginning is to develop consistency. Finding a few minutes each each day to sit down and turn inwards, can go a long way. Over time as you start to notice the benefits, finding time to meditate will become easier. Eventually, it may become a bigger part of your day, choosing longer meditations in place of other activities you used to fill your time with.
If you’ve never meditated before, I highly recommend starting with an app. You can find a few great options below, with each one offering a guided introductory course. They all offer a free trial so you can explore different teachers and approaches before committing to one. These apps also offer a large library of resources including daily guided meditations and additional courses to help take you further into your practice when you’re ready.
Headspace - App
Headspace is the most accessible of all the app listed here, and is great for anyone with no prior experience. “Meditation has been shown to help people stress less, focus more and even sleep better. Headspace is meditation made simple. We'll teach you the life-changing skills of meditation and mindfulness in just a few minutes a day..”
Price: 14 day free trial, then $17.99/month or $89.99/year
Waking Up - App
“Understand Your Mind, Step-by-Step: Learn the fundamentals of mindfulness from Sam Harris—neuroscientist, author, and creator of Waking Up—as he also guides you into the deep end of meditation.” Waking Up has a 28 day introductory course, new daily guided meditations, and a deep catalogue of lessons and conversations with some of the top teachers around the world.
Price: 5 day free trial, then $19.99/month or $129.99/year (Prices in USD)
*If you can’t afford the app, they offer a free subscription with no questions asked. Click here to request a free account.
Brightmind - App
This app was build with input from Shinzen Young, a well respected teacher and creator of the Unified Mindfulness training system. It breaks meditation into clear, structured techniques, and takes you along a progressive training path.
Price: 7 day free trial, then $11/month or $129.99/year (Price in USD)
The Way - App
“The Way is a meditation training program for anyone who wants to deepen their practice. It’s the only app with a single, long-term pathway going deep into the teaching of millennia-old meditation traditions. Guided by a beloved Zen Master, Henry Shukman. A step-by-step journey towards understanding the mind, the nature of the self, and the possibilities of truly unconditional wellbeing.”
Price: 12 free guided sessions, then $14.99/month or $119.99/year
Mindfulness Daily by Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield - Web Only
“Mindfulness Daily brings you an online 40-day training in mindfulness meditation with two of the world’s most respected meditation teachers, Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield. To create this program, Tara and Jack distilled their extensive body of work into the 40 essential sessions you need the most. Each daily 10–15 minute lesson includes a short talk and guided meditation designed to assist in establishing a meditation practice.”
Price: Free
Explore More
Select a category below to start exploring some of the practices and resources available.