It’s easy to think of meditation as a one-way street. I do this myself. Unfortunately, I often reinforce this impression when teaching.

“Let’s slow down,” I say at the beginning of a practice session. “Slow down and let your attention surrender to the absorptive draw of somatic mindfulness. Then let somatic mindfulness guide you into this embodied moment, help you settle into the fullness of this embodied instant.”

This is the basic instruction I offer over and over and over again. I share it in classes and workshops. To beginners and more experienced practitioners. Online and in-person. Slow down, surrender, and settle.

Without qualification or correction, this is also the one-way street mentioned above. Travel down Meditation Avenue. Cross Slow Down Lane and Surrender Crescent. Keep going until you find your way to Settle Boulevard.

Someone in an introductory class once took this impression to it’s logical conclusion. Raising a tentative hand she said, “So I guess at one point you get to a place where you’ve mastered this. Where you just settle and that’s that.”

Only meditation really doesn’t work this way.

In spite of the countless number of downward arrows I sketch out on whiteboards both real and virtual, the meditative journey is more accurately depicted by a long series of alternating pointers. There’s one down, then one up – and over again for as long as we practice.

Put another way, meditation is a constant alternation between settling and unsettling. We slow down, surrender, and, yes, we do settle – at least to some extent. Wait another minute or two, however, and that relatively restful attention will rise up and begin wandering again. This is simply what mind does.

At which point, we return to those three handy instructions: slow down, surrender, and settle. Until we’re not so settled anymore. Then we slow down, surrender, and settled again. Until we’re not so settled anymore. Then we…

Well, I’m sure all of us know the drill. Despite the assumption so many of us slip into – despite the assumption I slip into – I’m sure all of us know meditation is actually a two-way street.