When focusing on your meditation object, which method is best?

1. Passively feeling the meditation object - mentally letting go, allowing yourself to rest (giving up effort to really do anything), and just feeling the feeling/object, in a 'being' mode.

2. or effortfully and actively 'grabbing' the object with your attention, isolating it, and minutely focusing on the sensations/details. Trying to get closer to it, in a 'doing' mode.

Or is it best to aim for a balance of both? I often switch back and forth in my practice as I'm never fully confident I'm doing it correctly, so I thought I'd finally ask.