Health Journal Online

Tag: difficult emotions

  • Slow Your Breath and Your Thoughts: 12-Minute Meditation

    Slow Your Breath and Your Thoughts: 12-Minute Meditation

    Paying attention to the gentle, natural flow of our breath can help us witness the chatter of the mind without judgment.

    By becoming more aware of our inhales and exhales, we gradually bring calm to our mind and our nervous system. We’re giving ourselves permission to slow down for a few minutes. And as we breathe, we can also witness the active chatter of our mind without being swept away, and the thoughts about the past or worries about the future.

    Mindfulness practice reveals how our thoughts and emotions are constantly changing, and this simple, relaxing meditation gives us a chance to release expectations and judgments. A state of mind awareness is strengthened each time we notice the mind wandering and choose to come back to the sensations of the breath moving in and out of our body.

    A Guided Meditation to Slow Your Breathing and Your Mind

    1. First, get yourself ready. You can sit in a comfortable position, in a chair, on a traditional meditation cushion, or on the floor. If you’re sitting, try to sit up tall, working for that dignified spine. Or, maybe you want to take this lying down.  
    2. Let’s start by finding our breath. Empty the breath all the way out, and let it go. Then take a big breath into your belly, then let it go out the mouth nice and easy. Keep breathing like this: really big inhales, slow the breath out. See if you can deepen the breath on each round. 
    3. Become aware of the flow of the breath. Instead of thinking about your breathing, just be curious about it. Curiosity is so nice, because you can step back and just observe the sensations of the breath, allowing it to help slow things down. 
    4. Bring a hand onto your belly, or maybe both hands onto your belly, or right hand in your belly, left hand on your chest. Use the hands to feel more of that breath flowing in and out and focusing just on the simple flow of the breath. By deepening this breath and becoming more aware of the breath, we naturally begin to slow our neurological processes down. We begin to naturally slow the biology down, the heart rate, the blood pressure. We begin to naturally, cognitively slow down the mind. 
    5. Now, let the breath rest in its natural state. It doesn’t have to be as big as the first few minutes. Using the breath as the focusing tool, stay with the flow of the breath as it inflates and then expands the belly and also deflates and contracts the belly. If you’re only breathing into your chest at this point, try to invite the breath down deep into the belly. It’s okay if you’re not breathing this way right now, but just be with the breath as it is, where it is, and be aware without judgment.  
    6. By focusing in this way, you’re going to be able to see the cleverness of the mind, trying to pull you somewhere into the future or drag you into the past. Notice that you’re thinking. You can even label it: That’s thinking. Then come back to the awareness, the simple awareness of your breath as it fills and spills. Be with the mind and the body as they are. The mind is made to be distracted. It always has a sense of alertness to it, but we don’t have to attach to the mind.  
    7. Be curious with the subtleties of each passing breath. Be aware emotionally, as well. Are you beating yourself up when you get attached to a thought? Or swept up in an emotion? Just let that go, too, and come back to the breath. 
    8. Notice, too, where you are holding expectations, and gently let them go. Maybe you came to your practice with the sense of, Oh, I should feel more peaceful right now. I should be experiencing this. I was hoping today that my meditation would yield this. Let it all go. No expectations, no attachment. Being with things as they are inside and outside: inside, just following the breath as it is; outside, letting the world around you be as it is.
    9. Remember, it doesn’t matter if you need to come back 1,000 times to one breath. That’s the practice. It’s not about getting it right or being perfect. It’s about showing up, doing the best you can with where you are physically, mentally, and emotionally in this moment. 
    10. Take a moment and thank yourself for taking the time today to honor your practice and honor your commitment to this course. Thank you for practicing. We’ll see you back here again tomorrow. Have a fantastic day. Way to show up.

    Never Miss a Meditation

    Enter your email below to get new podcast episodes delivered straight to your inbox! You’ll also get insights from expert mindfulness teachers and exclusive deals on Mindful Shop products, events, and more.



    Source link

  • The Top 10 Guided Meditations of 2024

    The Top 10 Guided Meditations of 2024

    At Mindful we aim to deliver practical resources so you can build your mindfulness practice at your own pace. Our top guided meditations are comprehensive and walk you through the practice step by step, so you can benefit from mindfulness regardless of your level of experience. 

    The Top 10 Guided Meditations

    1) A 12-Minute Meditation for Grief and Loss

    Our hearts break, but our hearts also heal. The thread that pulls us from heartbreak to healing is love, says Judy Lief in this practice for working with grief. We don’t want to let go of anything, but through grief, we learn to love and appreciate what we’ve had and lost—friends, family, a way of life, a job, our youth, we grieve it all. Grief is heavy, painful, difficult, and powerful. We need to touch into it at all levels, really acknowledge it, before we can release it.

    Our hearts break, but our hearts also heal. The thread that pulls us from heartbreak to healing is love, says Judy Lief in this practice for working with grief. Read More 

    • Judy Lief
    • January 25, 2022

    2) Tune In to What You Need with the H.A.L.T Practice 

    This is a short self-regulation practice known as H.A.L.T from Chris Willard. This is a practice that’s been floating around self-help circles for many years, Willard says. What we want to do is simply check in with a few of our basic needs and our emotional state. 

    In a nutshell, H guides us to ask ourselves: Am I hungry right now? A means checking in to see: Am I angry or anxious, or otherwise dysregulated and activated? L stands for lonely: Am I feeling lonely in this moment? And T stands for: Am I tired? 

    Sometimes we need to drop into our body to discern what we need in this moment. The four questions in this practice allow us to self-regulate by attending to what our difficult emotions or physical sensations may be telling us. Read More 

    • Christopher Willard
    • December 15, 2022

    3) A 4-7-8 Breathing Meditation

    This easy breathing practice from Ni-Cheng Liang helps us to release stagnant air in the lungs and find calm. The 4-7-8 breath was introduced originally by Dr. Andrew Weil, a pulmonologist and current fellow of the University of Arizona Integrative Medicine Fellowship who is also considered the grandfather of integrative medicine. The 4-7-8 breath can be used for situations when you’re feeling particularly anxious, stressed, and even if you have some difficulty falling asleep.

    This easy breathing practice helps to release stagnant air in the lungs and find calm. Read More 

    • Ni-Cheng Liang
    • August 23, 2022

    4) Notice How Sadness, Loneliness, and Anger Show Up in Your Body

    When we’re caught in the throes of an emotion like sadness, loneliness, or anger, shifting our awareness into our body allows us to experience the ever-changing nature of these strong and often unpleasant emotions. This practice from Sharon Salzberg will help you get used to the feeling of paying attention to difficult emotions in the body with curiosity and without judgment.

    Instead of trying to make difficult emotions change or go away, you can simply tune in to how they show up in your body, and see how they’re always changing on their own. Read More 

    • Sharon Salzberg
    • October 14, 2022

    5) Savor the Moment by Tapping Into Your Senses

    One morning in early October, Elaine Smookler glanced at her cell phone and noticed the weather app ominously predicting many days of snow and icy temperatures ahead. As we’ve all experienced at some point, life’s challenges were seemingly everywhere. And yet…Smookler was smiling. Cheerful. Grateful. Difficulties were still present, but awareness of her gratitude shifted her view, letting her see that everything was not dark and cold—in fact, many sights and sounds were quite lovely. Cultivate gratitude for life’s small delights as you’re guided through the senses by Smookler. 

    Cultivate gratitude for life’s small delights as you move through the senses. Read More 

    • Elaine Smookler
    • December 20, 2022

    6) A Trauma-Informed Meditation to Uncover the Potential for Healing

    Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction teacher John Taylor offers a five-step meditation for finding a greater sense of peace and freedom after trauma. When we’re under stress, it’s often more difficult to take deep, calming breaths, but here we practice simply doing what we can in this moment. This practice helps us recognize that the potential for healing, for positive change, for a greater sense of inner peace and even freedom, lies within each of us.

    MBSR teacher John Taylor offers a five-step meditation for finding a greater sense of peace and freedom after trauma. Read More 

    7) A 12-Minute Meditation to Remind Yourself That You Are Enough

    In this practice from Jenée Johnson, we hold our attention on five affirmations that can help us be more compassionate toward ourselves. Try doing this in moments when you feel overwhelmed—breathing in, “I do my best,” breathing out, “I let go of the rest.” You can do it right before you go to sleep at night. You did your best, you let go of the rest. Tomorrow is a new day.

    In this guided meditation, Jenée Johnson offers affirmations to help you remember your inherent worth and reconnect with compassion. Read More 

    • Jenée Johnson
    • June 21, 2022

    8) A 12-Minute Meditation for Healing Through Hope

    Embrace change and hope with this guided mindfulness practice from Rose Felix Cratsley. Felix Cratsley offers affirmations for cultivating self-compassion, embracing growth, and healing through hope. She says, “I think mindfulness is an essential and fundamental human right. We come into the world open and curious, but oftentimes self-judgment, criticism, fear, and anxiety come about.” 

    Embrace change, self-compassion, and hope with this guided mindfulness practice from Rose Felix Cratsley. Read More 

    • Rose Felix Cratsley
    • December 27, 2022

    9) A Breathing Meditation to Cultivate Attention

    The simple act of paying attention is the kindest thing you can do for yourself. When our mind is scattered it creates pain and disconnection, and that pain and disconnection gets picked up by others. It’s contagious. You’ve likely experienced what it feels like to take on that pain and disconnection from other people. The fact is, we’re sending it and sharing it all the time. That’s really what this last practice is about—a little bit of the basic breath-awareness practice, followed by a generosity practice.

    A basic mindfulness practice for creating more harmonious circumstances for ourselves, and for others, raising our awareness and stirring our curiosity. Read More 

    • Barry Boyce
    • August 2, 2022

    10) A Guided Meditation for Navigating Difficult Emotions

    Sometimes when a painful emotion comes up, we layer shame and blame on what’s already difficult. For example, we may think to ourselves, “I should be able to do my job better.” We also tend to project into the future and worry about what the pain may feel like tonight, next week, or next year.

    When we do this, we’re not only facing the pain of present difficulty, but the anticipation of pain, which is actually in our imagination. The first thing we can do to cultivate our resources for managing difficult emotions is to allow ourselves to feel the emotion, shift our attention to noticing the sensations present in our body, and forgive ourselves for what we feel.

    From self-blame to fear, it’s easy to get tangled up with sticky emotions. Sharon Salzberg helps us create space around our emotions by tuning in to our breath. Read More 

    • Sharon Salzberg
    • April 26, 2022

    Guided meditations to nourish compassion, resilience, and calm. Read More 

    • Mindful Staff
    • June 28, 2021

    When we meditate, we inject far-reaching and long-lasting benefits into our lives: We lower our stress levels, we get to know our pain, we connect better, we improve our focus, and we’re kinder to ourselves. Let us walk you through the basics in our new mindful guide on how to meditate. Read More 

    • Mindful Staff
    • November 14, 2022

    Mindfulness apps are trending in a big way. Here are five we’re happy we downloaded. Read More 

    • Kira M. Newman and Janet Ho
    • November 15, 2023



    Source link