Loch Kelly is a meditation teacher, psychotherapist (LCSW, with 30 years of practice in New York City), and author. He is the founder of the nonprofit Effortless Mindfulness Institute. His central teaching is effortless mindfulness, also called nondual mindfulness, and it works differently from the meditation most people have tried.
Start with a short guided "glimpse" practice, led by Loch himself, through the Effortless Mindfulness Institute. Glimpses are brief exercises, often a few minutes long, that you do with your eyes open. They are the core of his method, and everything else he teaches builds on them.
Start here rather than with a long talk or theory because his approach is experiential. Rather than watching your breath, sensations, or passing thoughts, you are invited to be aware of awareness itself. That shift is hard to understand from description and easy to recognize once you feel it. A five-minute guided glimpse gives you a direct sense of whether this is for you.
The facts I have don't list specific book or album titles, so I'm not naming any. Browse the Institute's offerings and pick the shortest guided practice you can find.
1. Repeat the same glimpse for several days. The second step is depth, not variety. Familiarity lets you recognize the shift without effort.
2. Try a dialogue or inquiry session. Loch teaches through conversation as much as instruction. Listening to him work with participants' questions shows you the practice from the inside, including the confusions you'll likely have yourself.
3. Explore his written work. He is an award-winning author, and his books lay out the framework: how neuroscience, contemporary psychology, and ancient wisdom practices fit together. Read after you've had a few direct experiences, the explanations will make more sense. Check the Institute's site for current titles.
Expect warmth and humor. Loch is not austere. He assumes the awakeness, wisdom, and love you're looking for are already inherent in you, so the tone is invitational rather than corrective.
Expect the practice to be short and simple. You may feel a subtle shift: a spacious, relaxed, less effortful way of being aware. It may be quiet enough that you wonder whether anything happened. That is normal.
Expect eyes-open practice, which you can do in a chair, on a walk, or in a kitchen.
"This is just relaxation." Relaxation can happen, but the aim is recognizing awareness itself, not calming down.
"I'm doing it wrong because nothing dramatic happened." The glimpses are subtle. Trying harder works against an effortless practice.
"It replaces therapy or emotional work." Loch is a psychotherapist, and his knowledge includes Internal Family Systems. His work aims at relieving suffering at its root, but nothing in it asks you to bypass difficult feelings.
"It's only for advanced meditators." It is described as an advanced yet simple form of mindfulness. Beginners can start with it, and experienced meditators may find it a different angle.
"Awakening is a distant goal." His view is that awakening is the next natural stage of human development, already available in glimpses, not a prize at the end of decades of practice.
It tends to land when effort-based approaches have stopped working. If you've tried to quiet your mind and ended up more self-critical, a practice that begins from basic goodness can feel like relief.
It also lands during stress and transition, such as burnout, loss, or a career or relationship shift. Short eyes-open practices are usable in the middle of a busy day, when a thirty-minute sit is not.
It suits people drawn to both science and spirituality, since Loch bridges neuroscience and contemplative tradition without asking you to choose.
Day 1: Do one short guided glimpse. Afterward, write one sentence on what you noticed.
Day 2: Repeat the same glimpse. Don't look for a bigger result. Notice what's familiar.
Day 3: Do it twice, once in the morning and once in a mildly stressful moment, such as before an email or a commute.
Day 4: Practice with your eyes open while walking or doing a simple chore.
Day 5: Try a different guided practice from the Institute, or listen to a dialogue session with questions and answers.
Day 6: Return to your first glimpse. Compare it with Day 1.
Day 7: Review your notes. Decide whether to continue, and if so, choose one book or program to go deeper with.
Keep every session short. Consistency matters more than length, and the practice is built on ease.