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Tag: guided meditation

A Meditation to (Gently) Interrupt Habitual Reactions
If you find you often react without thinking, explore this practice to respond with greater awareness.
Daily life is full of irritations: moments of inconvenience, situations where we don’t get what we were hoping for, delays, disappointments, prickly interactions that can leave us confused and exasperated.

If we’re honest, we can probably admit that sometimes our reactions in those moments tend to be reflexive rather than intentional. We feel our anger or annoyance rise, and we react almost as though we’re reading a script.

Can we explore these habitual reactions in a way that gives us enough space to respond differently? In today’s practice, teacher Patricia Rockman guides us through a meditation to help us meet whatever is arising, so that we have more agency when the next moment arises.

This meditation is about working with habits. In particular, our habitual reactions to difficult situations that commonly arise. These could be anger at being stuck in traffic, sadness at not getting what you want, or frustration when dealing with companies that keep you on hold for what feels like eternity. Whatever it may be, whether it is something significant or something that might seem mundane, mindfulness practices can help us deal with our habitual reactivity in more skillful ways.

A Meditation to (Gently) Interrupt Habitual Reactions

Read and practice the guided meditation script below, pausing after each paragraph. Or listen to the audio practice.
1. Get into a comfortable posture, one that is familiar to you and that you use when engaging in a practice, and bring attention to your body. If you are sitting, bring attention to your points of contact; where your sitting bones are on your chair or cushion, or where your feet or legs are in contact with the surface.
2. Bring attention to where your hands are in relation to your body, whether they are resting on your thighs or folded in your lap. Bring attention to your chest rising, your chin in line with your navel, and your tongue at rest behind your teeth. If you are choosing to lie down for this practice, it is preferable for you to lie on your back.
3. Bring attention to your body as it makes contact with the mat, floor, or bed. Note your points of contact, and also note where your body is not in contact. Whatever your position, allow the surface that you are lying or sitting on to take on the work of holding you up. Bring attention to the front body and the back body, and everything in between.
4. Now shift your attention to the sensations of breathing where they are most readily available, whether at the nostril, the chest, or the abdomen. Really hone in on the sensations of the breath as they make themselves known to you, picking one place and resting your attention there.
5. Attend to the in-breath and the out-breath. Attend to the movement of the body as the air moves in and out. Attend to the nostrils; you may be noticing the coolness of the air as it goes in, and the warmth as it moves out. Attend to the breath or the chest, focusing on the expansion of the body with the in-breath, and the deflation of the body as the breath leaves.
6. Allow the body to settle. Allow the breath to settle. Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out. Each breath is a new breath. Each breath is a receiving and a releasing.
7. You will notice from time to time that your attention will move into thinking, into the future, past, planning, anxiety, or daydreaming. Your task is simply to notice this habitual tendency of mind, and gently return to your breath over and over again, without judgment and without a story. There is no right or wrong here, there is simply attending to your breath, noting when your attention moves, and bringing it back again.
8. Notice when the breath is low, and when the breath is short. Notice when it is shallow, and when it is deep. Mindfulness is about coming to know our experience in its entirety, whether wanted or unwanted, and in this case it is coming to know the experience of breathing.
9. Breathe out and let go of this primary focus on the breath, and allow it to be present but in the background. On an in-breath, establish attention in your entire body. Bring an open receptivity to experience and to sensations in the body as they come and go. Note their arrival, persistence, or passing, and explore these. Bring a friendly interest and curiosity to this investigation of the sensorial nature of experience, whatever it is.
10. Notice how your body feels. There may be ease, tension, relaxation, discomfort, or pain in a part of your body. Whatever it is, when a sensation calls out for attention, investigate it and explore its depth and various qualities. Whether you lean into it or lean away, whether it is pleasant, unpleasant, or even neutral, without changing anything in this moment, simply attend to what is arising in your body as it shows.
11. Attend to what is arising as best as you can and without judging it, but notice judgment or aversion if they do arise. As best as you can, explore the sensation as it is, without judgment.
12. Investigate sensations as they arise. Once you are finished investigating one sensation, wait for another to arise and investigate that one. Remember that a sensation may be internal or external. Perhaps sounds are making themselves known as they come and go. Get to know your bodily sensations, in your body, in this moment.
13. Note when your attention moves into thinking, or you feel an impulse to act or shift position. Acknowledge that this is what is here right now. Turn your attention back to your body, over and over again. Explore one sensation, let go of it, and then bring your attention into another as it enters your awareness.
14. Now, if you want to, bring to mind a manageable stressful situation. Maybe it’s a recent time when you were irritated, sad, confused, or anxious. Perhaps it was a situation in a relationship or at work. Bringing to mind this situation, remember that if what comes up is at all overwhelming for you, feel free at any time to turn your attention back to breathing with your body.
15. If your eyes are closed, open them. Consider a stressor and note what arises immediately. It could be a bodily sensation, a thought, or an emotion. Perhaps there is a behavior or an impulse to act. Start to get to know your stress reactivity signatures.
16. If there are thoughts, observe them as best as you can. If there are emotions, try naming them, such as “sadness”, or “anxiety”. Remember that labeling emotions helps to settle them and make them more manageable. Labeling emotions creates an opportunity to give you a choice about what happens next.
17. If there are body sensations, make a note of these, and actually turn your attention to them. Explore them even if they’re unwanted. Get to know them. Stay with them for as long as they are holding your attention. Note whether they increase, persist, or fade. Recognize that this is a moment of stress, and that it’s ok; it’s already here. Bring a compassionate and kind holding to this experience. Be with it as it is, even though it may be unwanted. Explore your body and the sensations for as long as they’re here.
18. Now, shift your attention back to the sensations of breathing, perhaps in your belly. If there are any remaining sensations, hold attention at the same time. Engaging in the option, should you choose, to expand into these on the in-breath, softening, expanding, and releasing on the out-breath, letting go, or allowing and letting be, if this is possible. If this is not necessary, then simply bring attention to the belly and the rising and falling of the breath that comes and goes.
19. Expand around the breath to the entire body once again, to any and all sensations. Be with the body, with your breathing in the background and sensations in the foreground, from head to toe. Bringing a feeling of spaciousness to your experience; be open and receptive, with an open front and strong back.
20. When you’re ready, let go of this practice, and if possible bring a more expanded and spacious awareness to your next moments.
21. Now, if you feel inclined, take a paper and pen and write down any words, thoughts, emotions, bodily sensations, and impulses to act that came to mind. Write down what came up for you in that practice when you introduced the stressor. Name the emotions, and listing them. What bodily sensations and what impulses to act or behaviors, if any, went through your mind? These components of experience may show themselves in a variety of ways, moving from thoughts, to emotions, to bodily sensations, to behaviors, and back to emotions and thoughts, and that’s OK. Record these as they show up to you.
22. Once you’ve finished, take a moment to look at what you’ve written and think about where in your habitual reaction you might intervene with mindfulness. How might you bring awareness to these habitual reactions when they arrive, to provide more choice if this is needed, or to introduce other options about how to respond? How might you stop yourself, to be able to take a step back and gain perspective?
Bring Mindful Attention to Habitual Reactions

Perhaps make a commitment to yourself about how you might practice with this in some small way when difficulty arises. Perhaps once a week or once a day, simply bring mindful attention to an experience, or bring the breath your mind when difficulty shows, or shift an attitude, or engage in a different behavior.

Whatever you may do, remember that awareness is always a moment away, and mindfulness is portable it can be with us wherever we are, in any moment, at any time.
Shift Your Mind From Crisis Mode to Calm

Unchecked stress may lead to overwhelm, unhelpful coping, and burnout. When you learn to recognize the warning signs, you can take wise action to manage your stress—with a little kind attention, and a lot of self-compassion. Read More

Patricia Rockman

February 9, 2023
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March 19, 2026
A Meditation to Help You Let Go and Accept Change
Explore this loving-kindness practice variation to cultivate more ease and openness within the moment-to-moment unfolding of life.
One of the hardest parts of life for me, and I think for everyone I know, is that it’s always changing—and sometimes in unpleasant, unpredictable, and unplanned ways. And when changes happen like this, things that we don’t want to happen—someone we love dies or we have a breakup or a divorce, maybe an injury or an illness of ourselves or others, or even getting fired—then we struggle not only from the pain of this loss, but from the unexpected nature of it. Part of the reason for this upset is because so little is in our control.

One of the hardest parts of life for me, and I think for everyone I know, is that it’s always changing—and sometimes in unpleasant, unpredictable, and unplanned ways.

Everything is impermanent. It’s always changing, coming together and falling apart. And it’s frustrating to not be able to make things go our way. But paradoxically, when we can accept that everything is not up to us, and we stop trying to control what we can’t change or trying to predict what we can’t predict, then we can feel a lot more at ease and more open to the moment-to-moment unfolding of our lives. By accepting change, we can bring kindness to our experience, even if it’s painful and sad at times, and we can feel more at peace with changes in life.

Key Summary

Benefits of Acceptance:
- Reduces suffering caused by resistance to inevitable change
- Builds resilience for navigating life transitions
- Develops psychological flexibility
- Creates space for new possibilities to emerge
Key Principles:
- Distinguishing between acceptance and resignation
- Working with impermanence as a natural law
- Cultivating an open attitude toward uncertainty
- Practicing letting go as an active, compassionate choice
Application: Particularly helpful during major life transitions, loss, relationship changes, and when facing situations beyond our control.

Guided Meditation: Let Go and Accept Change
1. First, find a place where you can just sit down and be still. Turn off your devices, close your eyes, and just take a few breaths. Noticing your feet, your seat, your belly. Bringing your attention to your forehead, your cheeks, your jaw, allowing sound to enter your ears, allowing taste to enter your mouth.
2. Put your hand on your belly. Just notice how you feel your belly inflates as you inhale and how it contracts when you exhale.
3. Call to mind someone you know who’s struggling right now. You could maybe imagine that they’re here with you, visualize them, or just have a sense of their presence. If you like, put your hand on your heart and silently offer them this phrase: May you be at peace with the changes in life. May you be at peace with the changes in life. May you be at peace with the changes in life. Continuing silently repeating this, as though you’re giving a gift to this struggling being.
4. Notice: Where is your attention? If you’ve lost the connection with this struggling being, reconnect, begin again. May you be at peace with the changes in life.
5. Let go of this connection with this other being. Noticing your feet, feeling your seat, relaxing your shoulder blades, bringing your attention to your breath, to the light entering through your eyelids.
6. Next, put your hand on your heart and connect with yourself. You can imagine that you’re looking in the mirror, imagine yourself as a child, or just connect with your beautiful presence. Give yourself the same wisdom: May I be at peace with the changes in life. And continue here just for a minute or two, giving yourself this compassion and wisdom.
7. Notice where your attention is. If you’ve lost your connection to yourself, and gently come back, reconnecting. May I be at peace with the changes in life. Just for one more minute, giving yourself this kindness. May I be at peace with the changes in life.
8. Keep this connection with yourself, and now include that first being and perhaps everyone that you know and love. May we be at peace with the changes in life. May we be at peace with the changes in life.
9. Expand the phrase to include all of the beings. All of the living creatures in this ecosystem we call Earth. All of us struggle with change, with loss, with impermanence. Giving your wisdom and your kindness and your good heart to all of us, including yourself. May we all be at peace with the changes in life. May everyone be at peace with the changes in life.
10. When you’re ready, conclude your meditation. You can close your practice by thanking yourself for your good intention, for your beautiful heart, for these joyful efforts.
Remember that you can practice in this way whenever you need to. Stop, feel your feet, put your hand on your heart, and say to yourself, May I be at peace with the changes in life. If you’re struggling with an unexpected loss, be sure to be patient and kind with yourself, and check in with your good heart as often as possible.
A Meditation on Endings

By drawing our attention to endings and our developed habits about the way we meet endings, we can learn how to step fully into our lives with appreciation and gratitude, says Frank Ostaseski. Read More

Frank Ostaseski

January 6, 2026
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February 27, 2026
A Meditation to Return to Ourselves When Practicing Feels Impossible
If you’re burned out, discouraged, and disconnected by all the struggle and suffering in the world, you’re not alone. In times of intense upheaval, mindfulness practice can feel impossible. Try this simple, grounding meditation to pause, reconnect with compassion and clarity, and return to yourself.
Many of us are bearing witness daily to suffering all over the planet. We care about others, and we want desperately to be of use—and seeing the horrors in images and videos and stories every day can be deeply dysregulating to our nervous systems.

When we get overwhelmed by this vicarious trauma, we tend to shut down. We disconnect for ourselves and each other. We’re so spun out in our anxiety, anger, or overwhelm that it can feel impossible to engage in any kind of mindfulness or meditation practice.

This week, Shalini Bahl offers tender and practical guidance for how to pause, reconnect, and return to ourselves and our essential practice in times of intense internal and external upheaval.

A Meditation to Return to Ourselves When Practicing Feels Impossible

Read and practice the guided meditation script below, pausing after each paragraph. Or listen to the audio practice.
1. Welcome and thank you for being here, for caring enough to practice despite the gazillion things you could be doing with your time. The world needs people right now who can stay grounded while engaging with the suffering we’re all witnessing with open hearts and minds, people who can act from wisdom rather than overwhelm. People who haven’t lost themselves in the chaos. But we do lose ourselves, all of us.
2. When we bear witness to crisis after crisis after crisis, our nervous systems dysregulate. We lose contact with our wisdom, our intentions, our sense of what’s actually ours to do. This practice helps us return.
3. We’ll move through three pathways to return home to ourselves. First, inner calm, where you return to clarity and agency. Then compassion, where we are going to reconnect with our humanity and others. And finally curiosity, where you discover what’s actually yours to do, what’s possible for you to do. If you find one pathway calling to you more than others, feel free to linger there longer. Trust what you most need. So ready to begin?
4. Come to a posture that feels supported, lying down or seated. Feel the elongation along the back of your spine and neck. Roll your shoulders up, back and down. When you feel ready, lower or close your eyes.
5. From this place of presence let’s begin by taking three intentional breaths. Breathe in through the nose and exhale slowly through the mouth. If you like, you can make a sighing sound as you exhale.
6. Now return to your natural rhythm of the breath. Invite your mind to be here with your body, with your breath, resting in your awareness of the direct sensations of breathing in the region of your heart. Settle your attention in that one place in your body, in the region of your heart as you breathe in, perhaps noticing the space that’s created in your chest. And as you exhale the relaxation, letting go just for these few minutes letting go of any rushing, any expectations or judgments.
7. If you like, place one or both hands on your chest. Especially on days where our minds are busy, we feel fragmented. Placing one or both hands on the chest can really relieve the nervous system. Sense the warmth or coolness of your hands. The rising and falling of your chest under your hands, making contact with your body, sensing the beating heart.
8. Give your full care and attention to every inhale, to every exhale and resting in the pauses in between. Notice that space when your in-breath turns to an out-breath. And a slight pause before a new breath enters the body.
9. From time to time, your mind may wander away, and that’s natural. As soon as you notice that, with kindness invite your mind to return to this place of rest and awareness in the region of your heart. Connect with your direct experience of breathing, just the way you are. And notice if there’s any striving here, letting go of any effort to even meditate as the breath moves itself and your awareness. All you’re doing is returning to your awareness of this breath moving effortlessly in and out of your body.
10. Just for these few moments, allow yourself to rest. To replenish yourself, to feel resourced. And once your mind and body feel stabilized, listening within, ask yourself: What would support you in feeling rested, resourced? What would care for yourself look like in this moment? It might be as simple as turning towards yourself with kindness, appreciating the goodness of your heart and mind. Taking this time to listen within what you need more of, more rest, more movement, connection. Let yourself be held by your own loving kindness.
11. From this innate capacity for goodness, for compassion, gently note who you might have hardened against today. You don’t need to start with the hardest person, the one whose actions feel unforgivable. Start with someone easier. Maybe someone who said something online that rubbed you the wrong way. Maybe someone doesn’t understand or see you. Maybe a family member, a colleague, a stranger. Or maybe yourself. With kindness, simply notice the hardness. There’s no need to change it or fix it. Just feel the way it lives in your body, in your chest or belly, your throat. Breathe in to make space for it, to make space around it.
12. Recognize this hardness, its protection. You’ve seen unbearable things. You’ve been hurt. The hardness makes sense. And it’s also disconnection. Disconnection from our relational intelligence, from our capacity to see our shared humanity. And if it’s helpful gently invite this question: What if you had grown up in their circumstances? What if you’d received the same information, the same upbringing, the same experiences? Who would you be? Can you soften just a little when you consider this? That we’re all shaped by causes and conditions, often beyond our control. You may not agree with them or even condone what they’re doing. Can you consider saying this person has suffered just like me? This person also wants to be happy just like me?
13. Using your breath as an anchor to stay connected with yourself and with your good heart—can you feel that invisible thread connecting you? You’re both breathing the same air, drinking the same water. Living on this one planet we all call home.
14. Take a few moments to listen within. What shifts when we touch this shared humanity?
15. From this place of connection with yourself and our shared humanity, let’s explore what’s important to you, what’s possible, and what’s yours to do. So return to our open awareness. What’s most important to you in this moment? Take this time to reconnect with your deepest intentions and values. You might ask questions like: What am I not seeing? What might your body be trying to tell you that your mind is missing?
16. Without trying to find something special or seeking answers, just staying connected with your body. Trust your inner knowing as you consider the possibilities for actions you can take that are aligned with your intentions, with your unique gifts, with your values. What if there’s something you haven’t tried yet? Some approach you haven’t considered or some alliance you haven’t imagined? Open your mind and heart to new possibilities. Even if you don’t receive specific answers right now, just hold that question, being willing to love the unanswered question and being willing to live the question.
17. From this place of open curiosity, willing to see what you’ve been missing, ask what’s actually possible here. Not what you’ve always done, not what everyone is doing or telling you to do but what is yours to do and what would actually help If you need more clarity. Try journaling, being in nature and any other activity that supports you in returning to yourself to feel connected, alive, present with the gift of this life at this time on this planet Earth.
18. Even as we end this practice, remember that you can come back anytime. Every time you notice you’re lost in the scroll, in the rage and the numbness, you can return to your inner calm, your compassion, and your innate capacity for keeping an open and curious mind. This is where clarity, humanity, and creativity live.
Thank you for your practice. May our practice together benefit us and benefit all beings.
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February 19, 2026
A Meditation to Tap Into Your Agency When Things Are Chaotic & Uncertain
Feeling overwhelmed can be so uncomfortable that we often want to rush to make it go away. Here’s a practice to slow down, meet yourself, tap into your agency, and connect with clarity.
We often treat experiences like restlessness, uncertainty, or the overwhelm of difficult emotions as a problem to be solved. And of course, it’s normal to want relief. So how can you tap into your agency, even when things are swirling around you and you’re not sure how to move forward?

Today, teacher Chery Vigder Brause leads a guided practice that’s centered around meeting ourselves exactly where we are. In that pause, where we encounter ourselves without trying to fix anything, even if just for a moment, we actually create a space where we can get clarity on how to respond to ourselves, others, and the world.

Cheryl Vigder Brause is a nationally recognized mindfulness and meditation teacher, writer and speaker, specializing in leading corporate clients, schools, and individuals across the country in programs and meditations on stress management, boosting happiness, and living their best lives. She is the Co-Founder of Pause to be Present, a mindfulness and meditation studio. To learn more about Pause to be Present’s programs, visit www.pausetobepresent.com.

A Meditation to Tap Into Your Agency When Things Are Chaotic & Uncertain

Read and practice the guided meditation script below, pausing after each paragraph. Or listen to the audio practice.
1. Today we will exercise our power to pause, to take a breath, to down-regulate our nervous system, and to choose how we want to meet this moment. Let’s begin. I invite you to gently arrive in this moment, where so often busy going, doing, and moving, trying to get somewhere else, instead of arriving exactly where we are.
2. Arrive fully in this moment. Find a comfortable posture or position with your body. You can be seated or lying down for this meditation. Get comfortable. Feel free to move a bit until you can settle the body into a comfortable and supported posture. If you’d like, you can gently close your eyes or simply lower your gaze.
3. Take a slow, deep breath, breathing in through the nose. And a long steady exhale through the mouth. Notice how that feels. Notice how it feels to simply stop all that forward momentum and simply allow yourself to fully arrive in this moment. Again, take a nice slow breath in, feeling that air fill your lungs and torso. And then slowly and fully exhale. Feeling the release of air and the release of tension in the body. One more slow, deep breath together, breathing in fully, and breathing out.
4. Remind yourself that in this moment and in this meditation, there is nothing you need to do right now. There’s no way you have to be in this moment and nothing you need to fix or change or accomplish.
5. I invite you to simply pause to be. Rest in the fullness of this moment just as you are. Notice how that feels to simply be here. Give yourself permission to simply be present.
6. Notice what’s here for you. Are there sounds around you? If so, simply notice them. Can you feel a coolness or a warmth of the air on your skin? Can you notice the contact your body is making with the ground beneath you? Can you notice what is beneath you supporting you? Can you let yourself be supported?
7. Now, take a moment to relax the body. Sink into the ground beneath you. Notice if there are any places of tension or tightness in your body. We often hold our stress as tension in the body, in our muscles and our back and neck and face. Become aware of your own body and where you may be holding tension, what feels tight or constricted.
8. This is another moment of choice: the power of the pause to simply become aware of how you’re showing up in this moment and then choosing how to be in this movement. Are there areas of tension in the body? And if so, can you breathe into those areas? And as you exhale, can you invite in ease? Can you let go of tension? With each inhale, create spaciousness and openness in any areas of tension or tightness. And with each exhale, a letting go.
9. Often in our busy modern lives, we’re stressed, anxious, tense, or nervous. Another choice we can make each day is to exercise our own ability to pause, to connect inward, and to regulate our own nervous systems. In fact, one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself to improve your wellbeing and health is a regulated nervous system. It not only boosts health, but it aids sleep and digestion, can improve focus and clarity, and can help you make wise choices in navigating life.
10. Take another moment to check in. How do you feel? What is your emotional landscape right now? You may feel tired, you may feel excited or nervous or anxious or at ease. Simply notice whatever is happening in your inner experience in this moment.
11. Gently bring your attention back to the feel of the breath in the body. Notice where you feel that breath moving in and out. Notice how you can sit and receive the breath. Perhaps you feel your breath in the rise and fall of your chest, or the movement of the belly, or the air passing in and out of your nostrils. Just notice where you feel that breath and just focus your attention there for a few moments. There’s no need to change the breath. Just allow its natural and easy rhythm to move in and out of your body. With each inhale, feel the spaciousness in the torso. With each exhale, imagine the body receiving the message, It’s okay to soften. It’s safe to slow down. You might silently say to yourself, as you breathe in, I calm the body. And as you breathe out, I soften and release. Breathing in, I calm my body. Breathing out, I soften and release.
12. Take a few more slow, deep breaths. With each inhale, create space and openness in the body. With each exhale, there’s an opportunity to relax, to release, to let go.
13. Your mind will wander, and that’s okay. This is a moment of mindfulness, a moment of choice. You are noticing that your mind has gone and been distracted, and you are cultivating the power to place your attention where you want it. Gently bring that attention back to your breath without judgment, without criticism and with a gentleness. Each noticing that the mind has wondered is not a failure, it’s a moment of mindfulness, a moment of care, of choice, a moment of gentleness with yourself, an opportunity to exercise that mental power to place your attention where you want it. It’s a beautiful reminder that every moment is an opportunity to begin again.
14. Now gently bring your awareness to your whole body. Notice how it feels to sit. See if in the next few moments, you can make the choice to let go of any need to change anything. To let go of any reflexive criticism, of any notion you’re doing this wrong. See if you can hold yourself with gratitude for simply showing up for this meditation with an open heart and an open mind. Notice how that feels. Whatever you experience, see if you can choose to meet your experience and yourself with kindness. This is another choice we have.
15. Try this phrase: What if it’s not a problem? What if I’m experiencing discomfort in this moment? And what if it’s not a problem? What if my mind is busy in this movement? And what it’s not a problem. What if i’m feeling restless in this moments? And what is it’s is not a problems? This is a choice we can make each day. Seeing life’s challenges not as a problem to fix or a signal that something is wrong, but instead choosing to meet our experience with curiosity and as an opportunity to learn and grow and navigate what’s happening in this moment with more ease, less resistance.
16. If you like, place a hand on the heart. Feel the warmth of your own touch, and silently offer yourself these few gentle phrases, allowing them to and in the mind and heart. May I be kind to myself in this moment. May I meet myself with tenderness just as I am. May I know that in each moment I have the power to pause and to choose how to meet myself, how to meet others and how to meet this world with care and tenderness.
17. Let’s take a breath together, a nice inhale, breathing in. And a beautiful exhale, breathing out. Begin to sense the whole body grounded, supported at ease.
18. As we come toward the close of this meditation, reflect for a moment on the idea that this moment and every moment you can practice mindfulness, awareness, and choice. Every moment is a fresh opportunity to practice, a new beginning. As this new year begins, know that you can return to this place of presence, tenderness, beingness and choice again and again.
19. When you’re ready, slowly bring your awareness back to the room you’re in. You can wiggle your fingers and toes. And when it feels right, I invite you to softly raise up your gaze or open your eyes. Thank you so much for practicing with me.
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February 13, 2026
Connect With Loving-Kindness: Simple Meditation- Mindful

This classic loving-kindness meditation can help you to awaken to how connected we all are. You don’t have to like everybody, or agree with everything they do—but you can open up to the possibility of caring for them, because our lives are inextricably linked.

This classic loving-kindness meditation can help you to awaken to how connected we all are. You don’t have to like everybody, or agree with everything they do—but you can open up to the possibility of caring for them, because our lives are inextricably linked.

A Meditation to Connect With Loving-Kindness (Even When It’s Hard)

Read and practice the guided meditation script below, pausing after each paragraph. Or listen to the audio practice.

1. Begin by thinking about someone who has helped you; maybe they’ve been directly generous or kind, or have inspired you though you’ve never met them. When you think of them, they make you smile. Bring an image of the person to mind, or feel their presence as if they’re right in front of you. Say their name to yourself, and silently offer these phrases to them, focusing on one phrase at a time.

May you live in safety.

May you have mental happiness (peace, joy).

May you have physical happiness (health, freedom from pain).

May you live with ease.

Don’t struggle to fabricate a feeling or sentiment. If your mind wanders, simply begin again.

2. After a few minutes, move on to a friend. Start with a friend who’s doing well right now, then switch to someone who is experiencing difficulty, loss, pain, or unhappiness.

3. Offer loving-kindness to a neutral person who you don’t feel a strong liking or disliking for: a cashier at the supermarket, a bank teller, a dry cleaner. When you offer loving-kindness to a neutral person, you are offering it to them simply because they exist—you are not indebted to or challenged by them.

4. Offer loving-kindness toward a person with whom you have difficulty. Start with someone mildly difficult, and slowly work toward someone who has hurt you more grievously. It’s common to feel resentment and anger, and it’s important not to judge yourself for that. Rather, recognize that anger burns within your heart and causes suffering, so out of the greatest respect and compassion for yourself, practice letting go and offering loving-kindness.

5. Finish by offering loving-kindness to anyone who comes to mind: people, animals, those you like, those you don’t, in an adventurous expansion of your own power of kindness.

Loving-kindness offers us a profound sense of connection, guiding us to live our lives with greater intention and compassion. In this online course from Mindful, Sharon Salzberg—one of the world’s leading loving-kindness meditation teachers—offers us her distinctive approach to loving-kindness practice. Learn more and sign up today!

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February 5, 2026
A Meditation to Skillfully Connect With Your Anger
I’m delighted to offer you a series of meditations on building emotional resilience. Over the next four classes we’ll explore how to mindfully practice with four really common emotions: anger, anxiety, longing, and joy. I’ll offer some practices you can use both while you meditate and also in your life, when these emotions arise. Here, we’re looking at how to connect with your anger in a way that offers insight and choices, rather than just reactivity and overwhelm.

What’s An Emotion?

Let’s first explore what an emotion is. This is a rich topic that has even inspired some heated debate. If you find you’re interested beyond the scope of what we talk here, I encourage you to explore the work of two psychologists: Paul Ekman, and Lisa Feldman Barrett, who wrote a recent book called How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain. The work of these two author/scientists provides a good overview of the two differing viewpoints of the current discussion around human emotion. In the meantime, I’ll be sharing what I know with you here.

I don’t know about you, but I experience emotions as a combination of thoughts in my mind, plus physical or energetic sensations in my body, and the interaction between those two. When we’re meditating, we can see, via our moment-to-moment experience, that emotions are indeed made up of both mental content—such as visual and auditory thoughts—and physical sensations. And when we talk about physical sensations, let’s include all kinds: so, sensations we receive through our sense doors (seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling and touch), but also all of the physical sensations within our bodies.

I don’t know about you, but I experience emotions as a combination of thoughts in my mind, plus physical or energetic sensations in my body, and the interaction between those two.

There’s a great deal of nuance when it comes to our emotions and our understanding of them, but physical sensations in our bodies tend to get divided into two categories: physiological (ie: digestion, breathing, temperature, the feeling of our body and the weight of gravity); and what I refer to as emotional sensations or the felt sense in our body. A couple of examples: when we talk about having butterflies in our stomach when we’re nervous or excited; or the feeling of listening to a heart-warming story, which can actually produce a physical feeling of warmth in our chest. (Try to notice that the next time it happens).

Essentially, emotions are energy moving in our body. And that energy calls us to certain kinds of actions. Our emotions also help us connect with other people, and they provide us insight into our lives and a better understanding of what we value, what we want in the world.

Emotions In the Body vs. In the Mind

In my daily life, and in my meditation practice, I find it’s more helpful to attend to the physical sensations related to emotions rather than the thinking around those emotions. I say that because thoughts happen so quickly. It’s also so easy for us to get caught up and swept away in a story—to forget that thinking is happening and just be caught up inside of it. Physical sensations, on the other hand, are less subtle. That makes bringing our attention to them and holding them in our attention a lot easier. Physical sensations don’t move as quickly as thoughts, so we can notice them and notice how they shift and change. An added bonus: simply noticing the sensations in our body can provide us with a kind of grounding, an anchor. It’s a great starting point in both daily life and when we meditate, and we’ll explore that together here.

As we get to know our emotions, I really encourage developing an attitude of acceptance, respect and care for them—think of it as an honouring of our emotional world. Our emotions can offer so much rich information about our lives, about what we value, what we want; they also play a vital role in our relationships, providing the foundation of our connection in communication with others. In fact, some social scientists posit that the main role of emotions in our lives is really about social interaction and connection. It’s worth repeating: emotions deserve and are worthy of our attention, respect and care.

So together we’re going to practice skilfully connecting with and being curious about our emotions. And here’s our aim: not to act out with regards to the emotions we feel, but also not to suppress them. We’re going to practice just connecting with the emotion, holding it, being curious about it, with no expectation or drive to have to act it out, and not having to suppress or deny or ignore it either.

I really want to emphasize, too, that finding this middle way doesn’t mean we’re aiming to be indifferent or passive about our emotions. It just means that we’re going to take the time to actually be with the emotion long enough to figure out what the skillful response is—rather than get caught up in reacting to the surging energy of that emotion we’re feeling. Oftentimes we will still want to take action based on an emotion. In fact, that’s what they’re telling us: something has arisen that we need to act on. But what we’ll do in this practice is try to nudge ourselves into territory where we can act out of connection and care rather than a buzzing desire to get rid of the feeling we’re feeling—because that’s not acting, it’s reacting.

How to Connect With Your Anger Mindfully

In this first class together we’ll explore anger. We’ll think about a recent situation where we may have been angry, or for the lucky ones joining this meditation, maybe you’re feeling a little anger right now? (Talk about excellent timing!)

Before we get started, let’s talk a little bit about anger. Like every emotion, anger is totally natural and actually an extremely life-affirming emotion. Anger’s fundamental role is to protect us and protect what we care about in the world. It lets us know when a limit of ours, or a boundary, has been crossed. It lets us know when our needs are not being met or when someone we care about is in danger. So anger both lets us know something about what’s happening around us, and it energizes us to act. It rouses us to the necessary energy level to be able to respond to a threat. It’s essentially about protecting life.

At the same time, we know that when anger is misdirected or when we act on it compulsively, it can be a truly destructive force—for our own physical health, our relationships, and in some instances, in the wider world. So we want to learn how to respect, honour, care for and be with our anger—and gain some insight into the most skilful response in any given situation, rather than go with the reactive response that could cause more harm.

The first step, then, is to recognize and respect anger. This is what’s happening, and it’s part of the human experience. And we respect it by understanding that our anger is trying to take care of us in some way, even if it’s maladaptive for the situation. We’re aiming to learn how to be with the anger, see what’s really there, and then see how we want to respond. So let’s try this together.

Meditating on the Power of Anger

Watch the video:

Listen to the practice:

Read and practice the guided meditation script below, pausing after each paragraph. Or listen to the audio practice.
1. When you’re ready, come into a comfortable seated position. If it feels comfortable to close your eyes, please do so. Let’s take a few deeper breaths. Just allow yourself to feel the points of contact with the cushion or chair beneath you; feel your feet on the ground. Feel a sense of grounding here. Take a few longer inhales and exhales just to settle.
2. Now let’s bring to mind a recent situation when we felt angry. As with any practice around difficult emotions, for anger, let’s think about the angriest we’ve ever been as a level 10. What we’re seeking for the purposes of this exercise, then, is a situation that’s a three, or maybe a four. Consider something you experienced at the level of irritation or annoyance; don’t choose the last time you felt, say, enraged. When was the last time you felt irritated, annoyed or frustrated, perhaps about something someone did or said? Just bring to mind that situation.
3. Draw an image of this past situation into your mind. Recall the words that were spoken. Remember your own thought process related to the experience. At this point, you may be feeling some sensations in your body. Let’s go deeper. Can you recall the story you told (or tell) yourself around this experience? For example: What this person did or shouldn’t have done? How you were wronged? How it should have been different. Whatever it is, let that story run its course for you right now. Let it run until you begin to feel a sense of irritation or annoyance in your body.
4. Once you feel the irritation, we’re going to cut off the thoughts we’re having. Just cut off the storyline. This is vitally important with almost every difficult emotion. Step one: firmly direct your attention away from the story you’re telling. Next: bring your attention to your body. Really feel what’s going on inside your body. Where do you feel the anger in your body? Maybe in your chest? Your hands? Just notice that.
5. Now, what else is happening in your body? Find something that feels neutral, spacious or maybe even pleasant in your body. Maybe you feel this in your feet, or your contact with the chair. Maybe you’re focused on your hands touching. We’re simply creating some space around the anger. Notice the tip of your nose; notice your breath. If you can’t find any sensations in your body that feel safe or free from anger, take a moment to listen to the sounds around you. You can even broaden your awareness to include the whole room; and even further to include sounds that are far away. Rest your attention with these sensations for a few minutes. Allow yourself to find some ease and a bit of calm.
6. If you find your mind wanders back to the story, the thoughts about what’s making you angry, gently but firmly redirect your attention to the neutral sounds and neutral sensations you’ve identified. Just take a few breaths here.
7. Once we feel a little calmer, we can explore the anger more directly again. Let’s come back to where we feel anger in our body. Explore that: Do you feel tightness in your throat? Are there any sensations in your shoulders? How about your arms? Do you detect any sensations in your belly? If you find a place, really explore the sensation: Is there a temperature to this felt sense of anger, is it hot or cold? Is it throbbing? What are the edges like? Is it shifting and changing? As you stay with the felt sense of irritation, frustration, anger, and the directly felt sensations of hot, cold, vibrating, sharp—hold all of this with a lot of care and curiosity.
8. Now let’s notice what other emotions might be present. Is there anything else inside or beneath the anger? Can you detect any other emotions there? Fear? Sadness? Wanting? Just notice. Is there anything the anger might be masking? Be curious. Allow this to be very somatic. We’re not thinking about it, we’re not trying to understand it cognitively, we’re just letting the emotion reveal itself in a very direct, body-based way.
9. Notice if any other information arises from this anger. You could even drop in a question, such as: What does this anger need? What does it want me to know? Again, we’re just dropping the question into the felt sense in our bodies, and then seeing what arises. Are there flashes, images, words that could help you understand what’s needed? Do you get a sense of what action you may need to take? Let’s take another few moments of holding and being with the felt sensation of the irritation. Be curious about what your anger wants you to know, perhaps about what is needed.
10. As we bring this practice to a close, see if you have any insights into what you could do skilfully to respond to this irritation or anger. What would truly take care of this anger or frustration? Exploring our emotion in this way, we’re better prepared to respond in a rooted and grounded way; we’re better equipped to address what’s needed. As we finish, then, we can make a commitment to take whatever skillful action is needed. It might be something personal, such as some kind of self-care: maybe a walk, a nap, a meal. Or we might commit to having a direct and difficult conversation with someone, perhaps to ask for what you need or to set a limit. Just see if you can commit to taking one skillful action to address this situation.
11. When you’re ready, open your eyes if they’ve been closed and take a deep breath. Look around the room and orient yourself to your space, wherever you are.
Try to practice these skills in your daily life. If at any point you encounter in yourself feelings of anger or frustration, first: notice how you’re feeling: “Oh, anger,” or “I’m irritated.” Next, find some ground: feel your feet on the ground, feel the back of your body. And then notice what is not feeling angry in that moment, too. Get some space around the anger, and really open your awareness wide to the sounds and the space around you.

I can’t recommend this enough. And it can take as little as five seconds simply to connect with your feet on the ground and broaden your awareness. Then, when you feel some space and calmness around the anger, you can direct your attention back to the difficult emotion and ask that question: What is needed? What is needed right now? And then proceed from that place.
Calm Your Mind with Zindel Segal

Zindel Segal explores the 3-Minute Breathing Space practice to develop your ability to ground yourself, return your attention to the present, and fully find yourself at any moment. Read More

Zindel Segal

April 11, 2019
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February 3, 2026
A Meditation For When the Suffering In the World Feels Heavy
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the pain, uncertainty, and suffering in the world right now, here is a practice to find courage, peace, acceptance, and connection.
Many of us are carrying the weight of the world’s suffering right now. How can we acknowledge the immense suffering in the world, including our own—and still tend to our hearts, minds, and bodies in a way that keeps us grounded and able to take compassionate action?

This week, mindfulness teacher and author Wendy O’Leary shares a guided practice that offers refuge and reminds us of our real and loving connection to one another.

There are three main parts of the practice. First, stabilizing or grounding. Second, settling back, softening, and soothing. And third, the one for me, one for you practice, which is based on the giving and receiving compassion practice from the Mindful Self-Compassion Program.

A Meditation For When the Suffering In the World Feels Heavy

Read and practice the guided meditation script below, pausing after each paragraph. Or listen to the audio practice.
1. I invite you to get into a comfortable seated position. You can close your eyes or gently look down and soften your gaze. Whatever works best for you.
2. Begin by directing your attention into your body, allowing it to gently move in and drift down as it drops all the way down to your feeling the connection of your feet on the floor. If your feet aren’t on the floor, simply notice wherever the feet are connected. That experience of contact and pressure. Or you might feel the contact and pressure of the backs of your legs on the chair or cushion. Connecting with this felt experience of being grounded and rooted, supported and held here on earth. As you feel the somatic experience of those contact points, the feet or the seat. Rooted, grounded, steady and stable. Connected and supported by the earth.
3. From this place of steadiness and stability, bring to mind someone you know who’s having a hard time. It could be someone you know personally or more generally someone or a group of people you are aware of who are struggling at this time. On a scale of one to 10, choose an example of someone who is somewhere in the middle. So not the most difficult situation.
4. As you allow them to more fully enter your awareness, check in with your body. Often, when we’re focused on difficulty, ours or others’, there can be a habitual tendency to contract, to tighten, and to even lean forward. Check it out to see if this is true for you. Counteract this tendency. I invite you to gently lean back, physically or even energetically, just a little. Settle back.
5. Now, invite the body to soften and even widen, creating space to hold whatever is there. So we aren’t forcing anything here. It’s a very gentle invitation to settle back and soften. If it feels supportive for you, you can place your hand on your heart center as a way to care for and soothe the body, heart, and mind. Settle back, soften, soothe.
6. Now begin to gently direct your attention to rest with the breath, feeling the flow of the breath moving in and out of the body. Just this in-breath. And just this out breath. Connecting with this experience of the breath, moving through the body like a wave moves through the ocean. And bringing back to mind this person or group of people whom you know are suffering.
7. Check in with yourself to see what would best support you in being with their struggles. So that could be, for example, patience or calm, strength, acceptance. Whatever you feel would best support you. On the in-breath, offering that to yourself, and then gently releasing on the out-breath. If no word comes to mind, that’s totally fine. You can simply think to yourself, one for me on the inhale, and gently release on the exhale. One for me, and gently release.
8. If it feels right for you, you can now consider what it is that they most need. It may be the same thing you need, or it could be something different. And again, if a word doesn’t come to you, you could think, one for you.
9. Continue to take in for yourself what you need on the inhale, and offer them what they need on the exhale. Taking in one for me on the in-breath and one for you on the out-breath. One for me. And one for you.
10. As you feel ready, open your eyes or look up as we close this practice. As we practice this more formally, it becomes accessible to us in our daily life, more available for us to use these practices when we come in contact with suffering in our lives.
Thank you for practicing with me and may our practice benefit all beings.
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January 21, 2026
A Meditation for Easing Pain and Inviting Joy
This week, mindfulness teacher Vanessa Hutchinson-Szekely shares a tender meditation for those in the middle of pain.
Sometimes seasons of intense suffering show up in our lives—no warning, no easy answers.

This week, mindfulness teacher Vanessa Hutchinson-Szekely shares a tender meditation for those experiencing pain. Based on her own experience with an extended episode of chronic back pain, she offers a moment of reprieve and caring attention to release tension and open to the possibility of joy.

A Meditation for Easing Pain and Inviting Joy

Read and practice the guided meditation script below, pausing after each paragraph. Or listen to the audio practice.
1. Take a moment to settle in wherever you are. You might be lying down, sitting comfortably, or even supported by pillows or blankets. Allow your body to find stillness. Allow your mind to arrive.
2. Take a deep breath in through your nose. And a long exhale through your mouth. Inhale slowly, feeling your body expand. Exhale, letting go of anything you’ve been holding on to today. A space to soften, to breathe, to be with yourself in kindness. Continue at your own pace to take a couple more deep breaths in through your nose, and then to exhale slowly through your mouth.
3. Notice how your body feels right now without judgment, without needing to fix anything. Maybe there’s a place that feels tight, inflamed or achy. Maybe you feel tired or heavy. Whatever it is, let it be here. We’re not fighting the pain, we’re meeting it with awareness.
4. Now with each inhale, imagine you’re breathing in a soft golden light. And with each exhale, you’re releasing tension like a mist gently leaving your body. Continue to breathe, picturing that golden light coming in and washing all over you, and with each breath out more and more tension is released. Now feel that golden light travel through your body. From the top of your head across your face, softening your eyes, your jaw, your neck. Let your shoulders drop away from your ears. Unclench the muscles across your back.
5. Now let the light move down your arms through your elbows, wrists, hands, and fingertips. Breathe into your chest. Feel your ribs expand, your heart open. Let your belly rise and fall gently, your breath like waves at the shore. Let that golden light move through your hips and down your legs through your knees, your calves, your ankles, and all the way to your toes. Your whole body is bathed in light, breathing, releasing, softening.
6. Now bring your attention to the area that’s been calling for care where the pain lives most strongly. Breathe gently into that space. Imagine the air reaching every cell that needs relief. You’re not trying to push the pain away, you’re surrounding it with love, with breath, with presence. Visualize a soft light, perhaps golden, perhaps warm rose or calming blue, cradling that part of your body. You might even whisper quietly to yourself, I’m here with you. You are safe. You are healing.
7. Now let’s shift our focus to sensations that bring joy. Think of something that makes your heart feel light. Maybe it’s a favorite place—the ocean, a mountain trail, a cafe, your cozy bed. Maybe it’s a sound—laughter, birds, a song that always lifts you up. Or perhaps it’s a taste, like warm bread, ripe berries, tea with honey.
8. Let one joyful image take center stage. See it clearly, feel it in your body, notice any warmth in your chest, a softening in your shoulders, a hint of a smile forming. That is joy. That’s your body remembering wellness. Now send that joy throughout your body to the places that feel good and the places that need healing. Let joy move through you like sunlight melting through ice. Repeat softly in your mind, I send love and light throughout my body. I am more than my pain. I am whole.
9. Take a deep breath in exhale fully. Now bring to mind one thing you feel grateful for today, big or small. Maybe your breath, maybe a friend, maybe the courage to press play on this meditation. As you breathe, let that gratitude expand, filling your body from the inside out. Feel that gratitude travel beyond your body, radiating out like ripples in a pond to your loved ones, your community, the world, and quietly repeat, May I be well. May others who are suffering find ease. May peace grow in me.
10. Now imagine your whole body surrounded by shimmering light, a cocoon of healing energy that holds you in safety. This light is gentle yet powerful. It’s recalibrating every part of your mind, body and heart. You are safe. You are loved, you are whole. Let your body soften into this knowing. Let yourself rest here for a few breaths.
11. As we close, take one final deep breath in through your nose and out through your mouth. Inhale love. Exhale gratitude. Inhale peace. Exhale tension. Inhale light. Exhale release. As you slowly bring your awareness back to the room, remember you are not your pain. You are the light that shines beneath it, and that light is always there, ready to guide you back to joy. Thank you for showing up for yourself today. May your body rest, may your heart be light. And may you walk forward in peace.
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December 14, 2025
A Meditation for Working With Our Self-Judging Voice
A guided meditation to get familiar with our self-judging voice and how we relate to our flaws, so that we can cultivate compassion and recognize our own worthiness.
Mindfulness is about paying attention to our present moment experiences with openness, curiosity, and a willingness to be with what is. Mindfulness is about paying attention to the present moment with openness to things as they really are, as opposed to how we want them to be or how they could be, or wishing that they were different, which we do quite a bit. This includes our uncomfortable experiences—like being with our fear, grief, regret, and that self-judging voice that sometimes makes us feel so small.

Self-compassion is the idea that even with all of our flaws, we can still care about ourselves.

Self-Compassion vs. Self-Esteem

I want to talk about the concept of self-compassion. Self-compassion is different from self-esteem. There seems to be this epidemic of self-judgment in the world, where people are often self-critical and have a lot of self-hating voices in their heads. Self-compassion is not the build up of self-esteem, because the build up of self-esteem tends to lead people to needing a lot of external validation to feel ok. Instead, self-compassion is the idea that even with all of our flaws, we can still care about ourselves, that we can make mistakes, that we can screw up, that we can have problems, but we’re still fundamentally a good human being. We can connect with that understanding and have compassion for ourselves, even with the flaws that we have.

What’s so amazing about mindfulness practice is we can use mindfulness to be aware when we have those self-critical voices, and we can label that voice as “judging”. We can notice when we have those judging voices because we have a mindfulness practice that allows us to have quite a bit more self-awareness, more ability to regulate emotions, and all of the positive things that come with the mindfulness practice. When these thoughts come we can be on top of them and not get so caught up.

I sometimes talk about getting on the train – when you have a really powerful thought and you start thinking about it, and suddenly twenty minutes later you realize you’ve been on this train and were not in the present moment at all. However, the moment you recognize this, you can get off the train. Or, you can recognize this initially and not get on the train in the first place. You can stay at the platform and just let the thoughts go.

A Meditation for Working With Our Self-Judging Voice
1. Find your seat. Let’s begin by settling back into our comfortable posture, with your body upright but not too rigid or tight. Put your feet on the floor, hands resting on your lap, and your eyes can be closed. Most of us do this practice with our eyes closed but you don’t have to. You can keep them open but not looking all around, just looking downward.
2. Begin to notice your breathing. Begin with a few deep breaths letting you relax a little bit more. Invite in the possibility of relaxation with each deep breath. For this next period of time, you don’t have all of the worries and concerns. You’ve left them at the door, I hope. They may pop up into your mind but you can remind yourself that you don’t have to get on that train, and just come in to the present moment, feeling, or breath, while being present.
3. Focus on where you feel the breath most. Bring your attention to your stomach and notice if it’s tight or contracted. Take a deep breath if it is and just let it go. Notice your hands softening, and relax them. Notice your shoulders, jaw, throat, and face, and sense everything that’s obvious to you, maybe on the surface of the skin and maybe more internal. Do this with curiosity and with an eye out to relaxing a little bit.
4. Let yourself be here right now, in this moment, and see if you can bring your attention to your breathing and to your breath in your body, wherever you feel your breath the clearest within your body. You might notice your abdomen rising and falling, or your chest rising and falling, expanding, and contracting with the breath. You might notice the tingling at your nostrils as air enters and exits. Some people notice the whole torso breathing with the air moving through their body, and that’s fine too.
5. Shift attention to sounds. Now turn your attention to the sounds around you, just listen to sounds one after the next. Both the sound of silence, and the sounds that come and go. Don’t be lost in a story about the sounds, but just simply listen to them.
6. Find an object to anchor your attention. Find a focus for your meditation today. It could be your breath in your abdomen, or chest, or nose, or the full body breathing, or it could be listening to the sounds—any of those things work fine. Go to whichever one seems the most interesting to you, there’s no right way to do. If you can’t decide then just pick one, it doesn’t matter too much.
7. Notice the body breathing. Notice your abdomen moving up and down, chest expanding and contracting, air moving through your nose with each breath, full body breathing, or the sounds around you.
8. Stay with the sensations of breathing. We begin this mindfulness practice by attending to breath after breath, or sound after sound, staying with it to the best of our abilities, feeling the breath.
9. When the mind wanders, label your thoughts. At a certain point your attention will wander, and thoughts will come into your consciousness. When you notice that you’re lost in a thought, you can say a soft word like “thinking” or “wondering”, and come back to your main focus. Keep doing that again and again. This is emphasized for today’s practice because we are talking about how mindfulness can help us with self-judgment, and recognizing that you can notice the type of thought you’re having and give it a label.
10. You can keep an eye out for judging thoughts, and every time you judge you can say in your mind a soft word like “judging”, or “self-judgment”, or “criticism”, or you can find the word that makes sense to you. It will help you to see the way in which the judgments arise. It’s not personal by the way; you didn’t set out to make yourself feel bad. It just happens. “That person is a better meditator than I am”, or “I’ll never get this right”, or “Why did I do that thing yesterday, it was so foolish”. These are the kind of voices that come into our mind for some of us frequently. For others they may be rare; that’s fine too.
11. Notice self-critical thoughts as they arise. Use mindfulness practice to not judge yourself, to not judge yourself for being judgmental, and just notice judging. If you want to count the occurrences you can; for example “judging 1, judging 2… judging 20.” While you’re noticing these thoughts, you might get drawn to other types of thoughts. If so, you can use other labels like “planning”, “remembering”, “imagining”, and so forth.
12. Invite self-compassion. As you do this practice, please keep a quality of kindness towards yourself. Be curious. Notice how interesting your mind is without judging yourself. Maintain the spirit of kindness and investigation.
13. Reflect on the quality of your meditation. For the last few minutes of this meditation, just notice how you are doing with this awareness practice, with the mindfulness of breath, and with mindfulness of the way your thoughts operate. You can ask yourself, “Did I get on the train?”, “Did I get off the train?”, or “Did I stay at the platform maybe once or twice?”
14. Did you notice many judging thoughts? I’m hoping you brought a kind attitude to yourself for the judging thoughts, if they were present.
15. Close with kindness. We will do a little bit of kindness meditation to conclude. Notice how you’re feeling, and see if you can also bring to mind someone you love, someone who makes you happy. It could be a dear friend, a child, a pet cat or dog. If you can’t think of anyone, it can be someone you’ve read about who you admire.
16. Repeat kind phrases. Say these phrases, and repeat them in your mind (or you can come up with your own). May you be safe and protected. May you be happy and peaceful. May you be healthy and strong. May you be at ease.
17. Send kind phrases to loved ones. Send these words and heartfelt feeling out to this loved one. Notice how it feels inside to make those wishes for them. Imagine that they send it back to you. May you be safe and protected. May you be happy and peaceful. May you be healthy and strong. May you accept yourself, just as you are.
18. See if you can “take” the kindness. Imagine the kindness moving through your body, wherever you are. Can you bring compassion to yourself exactly where you are, for whatever is happening right now? May I hold this with kindness. May I hold myself with compassion. Take a breath and notice if this is possible, to bring kindness to the best of your abilities wherever you are, however it makes sense to you. May I be with myself exactly as I am.
19. Open your eyes. When you’re ready you can open your eyes, but take your time.
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November 30, 2025
A 12-Minute Meditation to Meet the Body In Pain
This week, Christiane Wolf offers a guided practice to meet your own body in pain and relieve that sense of isolation by internally connecting with others who understand your experience.
Having chronic pain often feels incredibly lonely. You might not know anybody else who has the same condition. In addition, most people you’re close to, even though they might be well-intentioned, might not understand what you’re going through.

But the fact is that probably thousands and thousands of people all over the world know exactly what you’re feeling. In this meditation, Christiane Wolf offers a guided practice to meet your own body in pain and relieve that sense of isolation by internally connecting with others who could relate to, have empathy for, and care deeply about your experience.

A Meditation to Meet the Body In Pain

Read and practice the guided meditation script below, pausing after each paragraph. Or listen to the audio practice.
1. Start by finding a comfortable position, or as comfortable as possible. You can lie down for this meditation or sit in a chair. You can close your eyes or just soften your gaze, whatever feels best to you in this moment. If you’re sitting, place your feet on the ground. Feel the solid ground under your feet, or maybe have a sense of the floor or the carpet through your shoes or bare feet. Let your back be straight and upright, if that is possible. Lean against the back of the chair and feel the support of that.
2. Allow the body to relax, if that is possible. Maybe the jaw, the shoulder, the belly. Take a few deep slow breaths and feel the sensations of the breath in the body, like the chest or maybe the belly. See if you can release a little more tension with each exhalation.
3. Now, notice any amount of pain that you’re in right now, either physically or emotionally. No need to be specific here, just getting a broad sense of what you’re carrying with this pain, with this condition. As a first step, see if it might be possible to acknowledge how hard and difficult it is to experience this pain, to have this pain and to take care of the pain. If it feels right to you, you could say something to yourself like, This is hard. It is so rough to feel this way. Use words that you would find helpful to hear from a dear friend who really gets what you’re going through.
4. If you like, repeat this a few times. See if you can really listen to yourself saying this and meaning these words. It might feel good to hear these words, or maybe you notice yourself moving a little away and having a hard time accepting this. Whatever your experience is, it’s okay. There is no right or wrong way to do this.
5. Having chronic pain often feels lonely. You might not know anybody else who has the same condition. Most people you’re close to, even though they might be well-intentioned, might not understand what you’re going through. But the fact is that probably thousands and thousands of people all over the world know exactly what you’re feeling. Because they do, too. And they might even suffer from the same condition as you do.
6. Now, in your mind’s eye, invite all these people into your awareness. Maybe as a few people, maybe as a big group, all standing with you or being with you in solidarity with this pain. I personally like to imagine them at my shoulders, reaching back and back. They get me. They know exactly how I feel. They’re feeling the same thing or have felt it before. I don’t have to explain or defend anything, because they already understand.
7. Keep practicing this in a way here that makes the most sense to you. Consider what makes it easy or maybe just possible to connect with this idea that there are truly so many people out there who get you, who get this pain. You’re not alone with this. If you notice the mind wandering off, just gently keep bringing it back. Allow this sense of your inner support group.
8. When you’re ready, allow the image to dissolve. Take another few deeper and longer breaths, longer on the exhale than the inhale. Bring the meditation to an end by starting to move and stretch the body in any way that feels good. Open your eyes if you had them closed.
Thank you for your practice today.
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November 12, 2025