“Enlightenment for a wave is the moment the wave realizes it is water. At that moment, all fear of death disappears.” Thich Nhat Hanh

Sitting by a body of moving water can create a natural sense of meditation. The rolling in and out of the waves, the breath of the water reflected by your own breathing. The inhale, the exhale, the space between. It’s that place that is so easily overlooked: the pause between breaths, the silence between waves. The space that defines inhale and exhale, existing as an absence — the breath as non-existence. The wave, too, is brought to silence until another takes its place, subsumed by the sand, river bank, or undertow.

For this exercise, sit by a body of water, be it a river or sea, and close your eyes. Simply listen, not for the waves, but for the silence. The space between the roll of the water, the quiet we all have access to, be it in breath or nature, or inside your own roiling mind.

For more mindfulness exercises, look here.