Yogi: I have ‘meditative’ headaches and I feel the tension around my eyes and temples. It’s just the tension without the pain. It builds up towards the evening and I can get tired and averse to it.

Sayadaw: You’re a little bit intense, like you’re quite serious in the way you’re practicing. There’s a little bit of trying too hard.

Because you’re doing it continuously day after day, it builds up. Practice continuously but lightly.

Yogi: If I take it lightly, then I wouldn’t be practicing continuously.

Sayadaw: It doesn’t have to be continuous. It’s like you practice lightly – when you lose mindfulness and you remember, then it comes back. Realize that because you’re practicing, it comes back and you can continue to be mindful again – when you lose it, it comes back. 

So, just keep noticing that it comes back, again and again.

If we feel that it must or has to be a certain way – you notice the words ‘must’ and ‘has to’ – then there is going to be tension.