These pointers are from the article:  Self-Directed Neuroplasticity: A 21st-Century View of Meditation by Rick Hanson, PhD in which he answers a question about ways to shift the neurobiologic habit of the mind from going to negativity.  He is talking about how to use mindful attention to rewire our brain so we can rest our attention on what is useful and away from fear and desire. 

He says, "the untrained mind is continually scanning for either something to want or something to fear – in other words, for a problem to solve." These are ways to turn that tendency of the mind to shift to being present. 

The following five steps are a synthesis from the article and you can find the complete question and answer, from which these were taken, below.

1.  Bring your awareness to the sensations of breathing and set an intention to stay with the object of your attention while doing the practice. 

2.  Relax. Take some long exhalations, longer than your inhalations, and take care to relax your tongue.

3:  Feel as safe as you reasonably can.

4.  Open to feelings of simple well-being.

5.  Get a sense of your awareness being like boundless space.

You can include these steps in formal meditiation our mindfully refer back to them throughout the course of your day. 

According to Dr. Hanson, "The point here is to use mindful attention to rest our awareness on what is useful to us and then work skillfully to get those neurons firing together so that they wire together wholesome tendencies inside ourselves."

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The following is the segment from the original article from which this was taken.  It's a good idea to read it to get familiar with the longer explanation and have a deeper understanding of how to do the process.

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Vieten: You talk about practical neuroscience and training so that we can begin to shift that habit of mind. What are some of the ways we can begin to do that?

Hanson: First, to contextualize it, there are thousands of