Meditating Towards Secure Attachment with Reality
Four part video series on finding pleasure in meditation through safety and attunement
I recently had the opportunity to teach "Secure Attachment with Reality," a four-session series for the Buddhist Geeks Jhāna Community exploring how to adapt our meditation practice to create a safe, attuned holding environment that allows our nervous system to harmonize, naturally opening doorways to pleasure, well-being, and jhānic states.
This approach integrates attachment theory with contemplative practice, focusing on the relational qualities that create optimal conditions for deeper states to emerge organically.
The series follows a progressive arc: establishing the foundational holding environment through connection with earth and ground (Session One), allowing internal coherence to emerge as fragmented parts feel safe to integrate (Session Two), learning receptive attunement with pleasure that allows natural amplification (Session Three), and finally experiencing how this organically opens into absorption states (Session Four). Each session combines 15-20 minutes of teaching with a 25-30 minute guided meditation, creating a balance of understanding and direct experience.
Session 1: Establishing the Secure Holding Environment
In this first session, we explore how to establish a secure holding environment in meditation practice through the qualities of loving awareness, safety, and attunement. Drawing from attachment theory and contemplative traditions, we learn how to use the imaginal faculty to evoke genuine experiences of being held by reality itself.
This session covers:
Introduction to spirituality as secure attachment with reality
The three core qualities of the holding environment: loving awareness, safety, and attunement
Working with the imaginal to create real physiological and emotional responses
Guided meditation using earth/ground connection as foundation for secure attachment
How this approach differs from concentration-first meditation methods
Perfect for meditators interested in integrating psychological wisdom with contemplative practice, or anyone seeking a more relationally-grounded approach to meditation.
Session 2: Allowing Coherence to Emerge
Building on the secure holding environment from Session 1, we explore how safety and attunement naturally invite fragmented aspects of our experience into consciousness where they can be met, integrated, and allowed to unfold toward greater internal coherence.
This session covers:
Understanding internal coherence and its role in spiritual development
How the secure holding environment evokes "parts" or aspects that need integration
Working skillfully with whatever emerges without forcing or bypassing
Extended guided meditation focused on allowing natural alignment to occur
Helpful for those interested in parts work, somatic approaches to meditation, or understanding how psychological healing and awakening can work together.