Since we are the only ones who know what’s really going on during any session of meditation, or in life generally, we have a responsibility to be our own meditation instructors, working with the patterns that capture our particular mind from time to time • many years ago I was introduced to pairs of qualities that can help us in identifying different kind of traps, or extremes, we can fall into, as ways to bring ourselves back into balance • the first pair talks about the two poles of anxiety and tranquility • in this example, we are working to find a middle ground where we are not falling into anxiety, and we are not becoming overly tranquil to the point of being disengaged or blasé • the second pair is agility and heaviness • the third pair is inflexibility and pliancy • the fourth pair is too firm and too soft • the fifth pair is self-doubt/uncertainty and a rigid sense of proficiency • the final pair is insincerity and genuineness/uprightness.