Hello all,

After yet another break in my practice, I am back. I've been reading Rob Burbea's Seeing That Frees, which I'm sure someone on here recommended to me (thank you). Of course I know Ingram's book, and I've tried the TMI method. I'm not at all sure that I should be starting over, but here's what I've been doing for a few weeks:

-trying to maintain some attention to my breath at all times while awake
-seated concentration practice (pretty shaky)
-the anatta and anicca practices (more or less as described in STF -- making the fact of impermanence, or the fact of not-self, the object of attention) -- I often do this when walking around from place to place, but also sometimes in simple timed walking meditation at home.
-the metta practice from TMI, where you give metta to any phenomenon at all. I've seen it described as noting+metta.

My "attention to breath" practice seems to help with general survival a lot, although I'd be hard pressed to say exactly how. It just seems to remindme of my practice all the time, and to spot-apply anicca or anatta as I need to.

My concentration practice (seated) feels shaky. I don't get lost for long, and my attention seems to return to the breath without any effort, but I do wander off at times. Occasional piti.

The anatta and anicca practices are the most surprising to me. I can't tell for sure that I'm doing anything at all, but piti often arises and I do feel rather concentrated (for me) at times when doing them (10-25 minutes at a stretch so far). It feels very odd to me to concentrate on the fact of impermanence or the fact of not-self. But, what can I say, I'm trying.

-The STF metta practice also often leads to metta and seems to bring a fair degree of concentration with it. 

I'm not sure where to go from here, or whether anyone else would think this is a sane set of practices. I have a week off work coming up and will have a good chunk of time alone each day, so I'm going to try to make a mini-retreat -- really just more intense formal practice. 

Would be glad of any words of advice about my daily practice or my upcoming "extra time" practice.

Attention to breath all the time feels like a game-changer. If I can maintain it for a few months (it's imperfect -- but I mean maintain the practice or tryingto maintain it) I feel like something good will come of that.

​​​​​​​Thank you all.