I keep coming back to this question, especially on days when practice feels flat.
For a long time I assumed progress would show up as clearer states or longer stretches of calm. Lately it seems more subtle than that. Fewer mental pile-ons. A slightly quicker return after getting hooked. Sometimes just noticing that I’m lost sooner than I used to be.
None of it feels very convincing in the moment. It’s easy to miss or to discount.
I’m curious how others recognize progress in their own practice.
What signs do you trust, especially when things don’t feel super noticeable?
It points out that growth usually doesn’t show up as obvious states or measurable wins, but as changes in how you relate to your mind over the course of the day. More awareness of what’s happening internally. Less time stuck in reactivity. Taking things a bit less personally.
Through that lens, the signs you’re naming make a lot of sense. Noticing you’re lost sooner. Adding fewer layers once you see it. Returning more quickly. None of that feels huge in the moment, but those shifts are exactly what a “fitter” mind looks like.
I also appreciate the reminder from that article that we’re not very good judges of our own meditations. The mind wants something tangible to point to, and this kind of progress rarely provides that. It tends to show up sideways, in ordinary moments, and often only in hindsight.
This was a great question– I know a lot of us have felt this way on our journeys.
I’ve been thinking about this in terms of tolerance.
Not tolerance for discomfort in a dramatic way, but tolerance for ordinary mental noise. There’s still restlessness, distraction, self-doubt. What’s changed is that I’m less surprised by it. It feels more like weather passing through than a verdict about how I’m doing.
Another small marker for me is curiosity. Even on flat days, if I can stay interested in what’s happening rather than trying to fix it, that feels like movement in the right direction.
It’s not flashy, and I still question it sometimes. But the baseline relationship to experience feels steadier than it used to. That’s probably the clearest sign I have.
You are right where you need to be. I doubt this happens to you, I tend to get irritated when a stressful thought comes straight into view in my consciousness during meditation like an unscratchable itch. It could be absolutely anything, especially with my vivid imagination. Whenever it happens i swiftly recognize it, and push it back on its shelf, among all the other responsibilities, lust, adventures, collectibles —-they’re all on its own shelf. Once I can see my shelf from afar, I know I accomplished at least the ability to disconnect from fleeting ideas. That this whole process suppose to be serine around the chaos of melodramatic ideas. Having the time and the choice to do one thing over the other.