Health Journal Online

Tag: guided practice

A Meditation to Settle Mind and Body for Sleep
If you’re feeling restless before bed or in the middle of the night, try this extended practice to soothe racing thoughts and ease tension in the body.
There are so many reasons why we might struggle to get to sleep and stay asleep. Work or relationship stress, health concerns, hormonal changes, the state of the world—there’s plenty to keep us awake at night.

Here, Mark Bertin offers a soothing sleep practice to help soften our restlessness, using the breath as a calming anchor to gently allow our busy minds and tense bodies to rest.

This is a great go-to practice to keep as part of your regular sleep routine, or whenever you need support to settle mind and body. The more you do it, the more it will signal to your brain and body that it’s time for rest.

A Meditation to Settle Mind and Body for Sleep

Read and practice the guided meditation script below, pausing after each paragraph. Or listen to the audio practice.
1. Find a comfortable posture, typically lying on your back. Allow your arms and legs to fall gently to the side. If this posture isn’t comfortable for you, then find another posture you’ll be able to relax into over the course of this meditation.
2. Keep your eyes open if you like, or allow them to lightly close. Begin the practice by taking a few deeper breaths and focusing as best as you’re able on that physical sensation your body makes with each breath, noting perhaps the rising and falling of your belly and chest. Perhaps a movement of the back of your body against whatever surface you’re lying on.
3. Let go of any sense that you’re trying to make anything specific happen. We can’t force ourselves to relax any more than we can force ourselves to sleep. But using that sense of physical movement that your body makes with each breath as a place to lightly anchor your awareness and attention.
4. Your mind may stay busy for now, and that’s normal. With a sense of gentleness and care, each time you notice your mind caught up in an emotional state or some pattern of thinking, simply come back with that sense of gentleness. You can say: I am aware I’m breathing in and aware I am breathing out.
5. We’ll begin a guided body scan in which we’ll be paying attention to different parts of our body, both as a way to bring our mind back from its thinking and the places it wanders and also as an opportunity to relax our body physically.
6. Start by bringing your awareness to your feet. You might notice touch or temperature. If you’re covered by a blanket, you might notice the sensation of the blanket draped over your feet and. For the next few minutes, when your mind wanders, bring your awareness back to your feet and let go a little bit of any tension or tightness you notice in your feet. No need to do anything with them, no need to move them around.
7. Notice any sense that you’re getting wound up a little bit, that you are caught up in the need for sleep or wanting things to be different than they are. So make that sense of care and letting go part of this practice, too. You can’t force that away, but noticing it’s part of the experience now and returning again to the sensation of your feet wherever they’re lying right now.
8. Next, move your awareness from your feet up into your lower legs. Relax them if you notice anything tight or uncomfortable. Stay patient with yourself as best as you’re able.
9. Next, move attention into your knees and your upper legs. Notice where your thoughts go or where your awareness wanders. Come back as many times as you need.
10. Next, move your awareness through your pelvis and your buttocks. Up into your lower back. Noticing the pressure against the bed or wherever you’re lying. Maybe there’s a sense of movement with each breath.
11. If at any point, because of discomfort or anything else, you feel like you need to make a little physical adjustment, that’s normal and that’s okay too. Maybe settling and observing for a few breaths, and then with a sense of intention, make whatever adjustment you need to make next.
12. Now, move your awareness into your upper back—a place many of us hold a lot of tension and tightness. Respect that and pay attention to it, while also letting go and relaxing whatever you find available right now. Stay patient with your mind for staying busy and come back to your body as many times as you need.
13. Next, move your awareness to your belly. Note if you like the gentle rising and falling of your belly with each breath. Note any other physical sensations that might be happening now in this part of your body. Often in the belly, we also encounter some reflection of our emotional state. Note that and let go a little bit if you can—not forcing it away, but recognizing it and releasing a little bit if you’re able to do that right now.
14. Now, shift your awareness into your chest. Keep using that same perspective of observing patience. Note the movement as your body breathes. Note any reflection of your emotional state in this moment. And then without forcing anything, see if you can sustain that awareness and let go a little bit around it. Ease up if there’s a sense of tightness or tension there.
15. What if that becomes difficult? That’s okay. Simply come back to that physical movement of your body with each breath.
16. Now, move your awareness into your hands. Relax your hands. Ease all the muscles of your palms and the back of your hands and your fingers and let go.
17. When you’re ready, transition to your forearms. Then your upper arms and your shoulders with that same sense of awareness and letting go. Then your shoulders and relaxing your shoulders. Your neck and relaxing your neck. And then noticing your facial expression and the muscles of your face. And relaxing your facial expression as much as you’re able. And then the entirety of your head.
18. Now, expand your awareness for a few moments to the entirety of your body. Use your breath as an anchor, if that open awareness is too distracting. There’s nothing special to do right now, except as best as you’re able, noticing the state of your mind and returning to your body.
19. As we continue this practice with a sense of open awareness, it might be helpful to add a short mental phrase, such as I am aware I’m breathing in and aware I am breathing out. Allow your body and mind to settle into this space, not wrestling with thoughts or emotions, but perhaps engaging with them a little more gently, noticing them and coming back again to the breath as many times as you need.
20. Continue now, as long as you need, with this sense of body awareness and letting go, allowing things to be. There will be no ending bell. Simply let yourself drift now, into a healthy night’s sleep.
Source link
March 29, 2026
Self-Compassion for Nervous System Reset
If you find yourself stuck in a stress cycle, try this gentle practice to pause, calm your nervous system, and reset.
It’s not always an instinctual go-to for us, but self-compassion is one of the most powerful forms of healing and restoration for our mental and physical well-being.

In this meditation, mindfulness teacher Shamash Alidina offers three ways to show compassion for yourself when you’re stressed and need a reset.

Shamash Alidina has been practising mindfulness since 1998 and runs his own successful training organisation. He is the author of Mindfulness For Dummies and most recently, The Mindful Way Through Stress. He frequently pops up in newspapers, magazines and on radio shows. Based in London, he runs online trainings and speaks at conferences all over the world. He’s been teaching mindfulness full-time since 2010.

Self-Compassion for Nervous System Reset

Read and practice the guided meditation script below, pausing after each paragraph. Or listen to the audio practice.
1. Let’s take these 12 minutes for a nervous system reset—to step out the doing mode and into the being mode. Start by finding a posture that feels like a hug for your body, whether you’re sitting or lying down. See if you can be one or two percent more comfortable. Maybe that means a cushion behind your back or unclenching your jaw just a fraction.
2. Now let’s take a deep slow breath in. And as you exhale, imagine you’re letting go of the days to-do list. Just let it drop to the floor for now. It’ll still be there later, if you really want it, but for now, you’re off duty.
3. What is the state of your nervous system? Is it buzzing? Is it tight? See if you can greet it with a bit of curiosity rather than judgment. Instead of saying, I shouldn’t feel stressed, try saying Oh, that’s interesting. Stress is visiting me right now. That’s okay. It’ll pass in time.
4. Now let’s bring some kindness to the physical body. Our nervous systems often get stuck in high alert because they’re trying to protect us. Let’s send a signal that it’s safe to rest.
5. Begin by bringing awareness to your lower abdomen. Invite it to soften. So as you breathe in, it gently expand. And as you breathe out, it gently contracts. If it feels okay with you, placing a hand over your heart. Or if you prefer, cradling one hand in the other. Feel the warmth and the gentle pressure. This isn’t just a gesture, it actually releases oxytocin. The body’s natural soothing chemical.
6. As you gently bring awareness to your breath, there’s no need to breathe “perfectly.” Just feel the breath moving in and out, like the tide of the ocean. Each inhale is a gift of energy. And each exhale is an opportunity to release.
7. You could say, breathing in, I know that I’m breathing in. Breathing out, I gently smile to my nervous system. When we’re overwhelmed, we tend to isolate.
8. Let’s practice the three steps of self-compassion together. Step 1: Mindfulness. Acknowledge any struggle that you’re going through right now. Silently say to yourself, This is a moment of suffering or this is really tough right now. You’re not trying to minimize it. You’re validating your own experience.
9. Step 2: Common humanity. Remind yourself that you aren’t alone. Thousands of people will feel exactly like this, right now. This buzzing feeling or heaviness feeling is part of being human. You’re part of the big, messy, beautiful club. The Club of Humanity.
10. Now Step 3: Self-kindness. Ask yourself the magic question. How can I be kind to myself right now? Maybe you need to hear the words, It’s going to be okay. You’re doing the best you can. Say these words to yourself, with the warmth you’d use for a dear friend. Or perhaps to a little puppy that’s struggling.
11. Now, just sit in this stillness for a moment for a bit. If your mind wonders, which it will, because that’s what minds do, just gently, playfully invite it back. Imagine a golden light of kindness radiating from your heart, filling up your chest, your limbs. And there’s space around you, creating a buffer zone of peace. The nervous system is gently recalibrating. Shifting from fight or flight to rest and digest and restore. You don’t have to earn this rest. You deserve it simply because you exist.
12. When you’re ready, as we gradually come to the end of this short journey, give your fingers and toes a little wiggle. Try to carry this kindness muscle with you into the rest of your day. Things get hectic later, remember you can always come back to that soft lower abdomen or that gentle hand on your heart. Thank yourself for taking this time. It’s a radical act of kindness to stop and breathe. When you’re ready, slowly open your eyes. Do a good stretch. And perhaps give yourself a little smile.
Source link
March 13, 2026
A 10-Minute Gratitude Practice to Notice, Shift, and Rewire Your Brain
When things don’t go according to plan, it’s easy to spot all the ways things have gone wrong. This gratitude practice is designed to change that.
When we find ourselves in a rut, it becomes easier to focus on what’s wrong and minimize what’s right. This gratitude practice is designed to change that; its aim is to amplify the experience of optimism. Hundreds of studies show that this simple shift leads to enhanced mood, better relationships, and even enhanced physical health.

A 10-Minute Gratitude Practice to Notice, Shift, and Rewire

Audio recorded by Priti Patel.

1. Begin by finding a comfortable seat, your eyes can either be closed or open with a soft gaze for this practice. Be sure that you’re sitting comfortably and to the best of your ability, see if you can sit with a straight spine. To find that perfect point of balance, you might sway back and forth as well as side to side until you find your ideal seat. Feel your body settle.

2. Now, take a few slow breaths. Let go of any attempt to control or shape the breath. Let it move in and out naturally. Allow yourself to relax and let go of any tension or stress. Feel a sense of relaxed alertness, grounded yet present.

3. Start by noticing. Notice your current state of mind. What’s the current tone of mood? How are you feeling right now in this moment? See if you can simply notice with no judgments of good or bad.

4. Now, let’s shift by taking an inventory of all that you have in your life to be grateful for. Feel gratitude for the people and circumstances that led you to this moment here today. Offer gratitude to your parents and your grandparents. Feel gratitude for the opportunities you’ve had in life, education, travel and work experience.

5. Consider the health of your mind and body. Offer gratitude for the health of your body. Feel grateful for your mind and intellect. Feel your appreciation for the talents and skills you have. Now, consider your gratitude for the people in your life. Offer your gratitude to your immediate family members. Feel gratitude for your extended family. Feel appreciation for your coworkers and friends. Extend gratitude toward the mentors in your life who helped you grow into the person you are today.

6. Now, consider your gratitude for the earth. For water. Food. And the air that you breathe in every single day. And now, simply choose the one thing that you feel most grateful for in this moment. Relax every muscle in your body.

7. Let’s go deeper into the experience of gratitude through a short visualization. Begin by bringing to mind someone in your life who you care for deeply. A parent. A spouse. A child. Or a close friend. Imagine them in your mind’s eye. And recall a moment when you felt a particularly strong sense of connection with this person. This moment could be recent or in the distant past. Allow your mind to go back to this sacred moment of connection. Remember where you were. Picture the scene, the location, the people, the time of day, anything else that you see.

8. See if you can go back to what you were feeling in that moment. Love presence, contentment, or true connection. Notice any sensations or emotions that arise in your mind and body. And see if you can let go of any judgments. Good or bad. Try not to analyze. Simply allowing whatever you are feeling to come and go.

9. Focus on one aspect of this moment that you feel particularly grateful for. The person. The setting. Your emotional state. And let this experience of gratitude flood your entire mind and body. Take just a few more breaths. Continue to focus on this one quality of gratitude.

10. Let’s rewire the benefits of this practice. Savor this experience of gratitude for just 15 seconds. Really let it sink in. When you’re ready, open your eyes fully. Slowly come back into the room. Move any parts of your body that might feel stiff.

11. And as you go through the rest of your day, consider expressing your appreciation for the person you chose in this practice, it could be a text, an email, a card or simply a mental wish for them. Then notice how this expression of gratitude changes your day.
How to Practice Gratitude

Practicing gratitude has incredible effects, from improving our mental health to boosting our relationships with others. Explore ways you can be more appreciative in our mindful guide to gratitude.
Read More

Mindful Staff

September 21, 2023
Source link
October 21, 2025
A Meditation for Kids: Coming Back to the Positive
What went well today? Kids and teens can explore this eight-minute guided meditation for noticing the positive.
Summary
- Children often focus on scary or unpleasant thoughts, which can effect their mental health.
- This short kids’ meditation uses conscious breathing and happy thoughts to help them notice the good and feel more positive.
Our brains are hardwired to notice the negative. It’s part of how our ancient ancestors were able to survive in constantly threatening environments.

But this negativity bias can also make it difficult for us and our kids, even in our comparatively less threatening environments, to navigate other daily stressors, like big tests, arguments, or disappointments.

In this practice specifically designed for younger meditators, Dr. Mark Bertin shows kids how to gently guide their attention back to the positive things they might have missed, in order to help soothe the nervous system.

A Meditation for Kids: Coming Back to the Positive
1. Lie down somewhere comfortable. Let your arms and legs fall to the ground. Close your eyes gently.
2. Start to notice how your body changes with each breath you take. Each time you breathe, your belly moves up, and your belly moves down. If it is easier, put a hand on your belly. Or if you want, put a stuffed animal there.
3. Each time you breathe, your belly moves. Your hand, or your toy, rises, and then falls. See if you can count ten breaths that way. Breathing in, one, breathing out, one. (Repeat for nine more inhales, and nine more exhales.)
4. When you lose count, don’t worry about it. That’s normal, and happens to everyone. Come back to whatever number you last remember.
5. Now, shift your attention to your day. Breathing in, focus on your breath as your belly goes up. Breathing out, focus on something that went well today.
6. With each breath: breathing in, noticing your belly move, and with each breath out, noticing something that went well today.
7. Now, picture something about yourself that makes you proud. Breathing in, focus on your belly moving. Breathing out, picture something that makes you proud about yourself. If nothing comes to mind, that sometimes happens. If that’s how you feel, picture what you’d wish for yourself instead.
8. Finally, bring someone to mind who makes you happy. Before we end, try one more practice. Breathing in, notice your belly move. And now, breathing out picture someone who makes you happy.
9. As you come to the end of this practice, take a few deep breaths, and start to wiggle your arms and legs. Pause and decide what you’d like to do next.
10. It’s normal to have thoughts that make us feel scared or bad. We should never ignore anything important, but it’s useful to focus on the rest of our lives too. Take a few minutes every day to notice what has gone well, and see what happens next.
Source link
October 1, 2025
A Meditation to Get Into the Flow of Sensations
This week, Toby Sola guides us through a practice to hone attention and tap into the effervescent joy of flow state.
You may have heard of “impermanence” as an important theme in meditation practice. In this guided practice, Toby Sola introduces us to the ease of flow state with two simple but profound techniques: exploring impermanence directly by noticing changes in our body sensations, and using labels to hone concentration.

Note that this meditation includes long pauses of complete silence as part of the practice. If you want more time, feel free to pause the recording as you go.

A Meditation to Get Into the Flow of Sensations

Read and practice the guided meditation script below, pausing after each paragraph. Or listen to the audio practice.
1. In this guided meditation, we’ll explore the theme of flow. Let your legs relax. Let your pelvis be heavy. Lengthen your spine and neck. Tuck in the chin a little. Relax the face. Relax the shoulders, arms, and hands. Relax the belly.
2. Next, bring your attention to any body sensations. Maybe you feel the touch of your clothes. The expansion and contraction of your chest as you breathe. Or an emotion in your belly. It’s all good, just bring your attention to whatever you’re feeling in the body.
3. If your attention is pulled to sounds, thoughts, or other experiences, that’s okay. The distractions don’t have to go away. Just let them come and go in the background of your awareness and bring the spotlight of your attention back to the body.
4. As you focus on body sensations, see if you can notice any changes. For example, a body sensation beginning or ending. A body sensation getting more intense or less intense. A body sensation changing in size. A body sensation vibrating or undulating.
5. Now, let’s add labels. A label is a word or phrase that briefly describes what you’re focusing on. There are many label systems, but here’s how we’ll use labels for this practice. As you focus on body sensations, if you’re noticing a change, say flow. And if you’re not noticing a change, say stable. You can say labels out loud or in your head. The pace should be steady and the tone should be calm and matter of fact. I’ll give an example of what it can sound like, and then give you a chance to try it for yourself.
6. If you’re spacing out a lot, speak the labels out loud. Spoken labels can help you keep concentration. Make sure to say either flow or stable about once every 15 seconds, depending on whether you’re noticing a change in your body sensations.
7. Now, just keep practicing. Notice sensations, notice changes or sameness, and label them silently or out loud. (The audio for this meditation ends here.)
8. Continue noticing and labeling for another minute or two. Eventually, you should notice a sense of ease, like you’re bobbing gently in a flowing river of attention.
9. When you’re ready, take a few breaths to conclude your practice, and gently return to your regular day.
Source link
August 28, 2025
Meditation to Be At Peace With How Things Are
How can we be at peace with how things are right now? In this week’s guided meditation, Dr. Mark Bertin offers a practice to help us be gently aware of sensations, feelings, and thoughts that come up in practice, building presence in the rest of life.
This is a practice that is both concrete and compassionate. Dr. Bertin guides us to take note of our tendency to either deny or try and “fix” what’s going on in our lives, and then find a third way—one where we aim to see things as clearly as possible, so that our decisions are filled with awareness, skill, and care for everyone involved.

A Meditation to Be At Peace With How Things Are

Read and practice the guided meditation script below, pausing after each paragraph. Or listen to the audio practice.
1. Start with finding a comfortable posture that you’ll be able to sustain for these few minutes of practice. Bring a sense of kind and patient awareness to our body first. Notice how you’re sitting. Make adjustments so that you feel awake and alert. Notice areas of tension, and see if you’re able to release them a little bit, gathering your awareness and bringing it to the sensation of breathing.
2. Let go of any need to do anything or make anything happen right now. You can reframe moments where you become distracted from the breath as a success. The mind always stays busy. Things happen that draw our attention and awareness away throughout the day, and each moment you come to the breath is a moment of awareness, a moment of intention. When you get distracted, just remember this sense of intention with clarity. You can say to yourself, Oh, my mind is busy —and then let go and simply come back to the next breath.
3. Next, expand your awareness to the entirety of your body. Most of us live with experiences of pleasure, and also moments of discomfort or pain at times. And if something definitively needs adjustment to relieve you of some physical pain right now, that’s always okay. But for anything else that’s either comfortable for you to work with or unchangeable in this moment, see if you can simply notice it, and then come back to the breath.
4. Now, continue to use your breath lightly as an anchor, shifting your awareness to notice your emotional state. Emotions are part of our experience. They’re there whether we acknowledge them or not. They tend to influence how we think and how we interact with the world, so it’s empowering to cultivate a sense of open and caring awareness. Living peacefully with our emotions as they arise and pass is core to living at peace in the world. It’s also core to staying in touch with our best intentions, as emotions tend to drive the bus if we’re not paying attention to them.
5. See if you can give yourself permission for these next few minutes to stay aware of your emotions. Offer care if they’re difficult. Offer compassion and give yourself permission to experience them at all. Let go of any need to fix or change them. Right now I’m experiencing happiness, or Right now I am experiencing sadness, or whatever emotions come to mind. Can you bring to this part of the practice a sense of compassion, too? Lean toward the intention to treat yourself as you would a young child or a close friend.
6. Remember, if your mind gets distracted, there’s always the option of coming back to following the breath again.
7. Now, let’s shift our awareness to thoughts. Thoughts can feel so all-consuming, and even through meditation, we can’t make them stop. That’s never the point. Rather, we’re asking if we can live more at peace with this part of our experience, recognizing we each have our own habits. We each make up stories, stories that try to make sense of our past or that project into the future. Problems can feel sticky and all-consuming and ruminative. So for these few minutes of practice, can we note thoughts simply as thoughts? Fears simply as fears. Fantasies simply as fantasies. Observe them like clouds passing in the sky, and also with a sense of peace and care. My mind is in an agitated state right now. This is really exhausting. Or at a different time maybe we experience a quieter mind, a simpler mind, noticing the thoughts as they arrive with more ease. But through the practice, simply noticing and naming: Oh, there is that thought, and then coming back to the breath again.
8. The intention and perspective we bring to the practice is fundamental to the practice itself. Through the practice, we can aim to live life—even during exceedingly difficult times—with more awareness and compassion and self-care. This leads to a better ability to stay in touch with our own best intentions when we need to act precisely or communicate well. So when we practice, whatever happens will happen. But can we do our best to stay aware, to stay clear of thought, and to stay kind.
9. As we bring our practice to a close, settle back into the breath for a moment. Then, perhaps set the intention to continue this sense of compassionate and kind awareness as you move on into the rest of your day.
Looking for mindfulness-based tools to live better with ADHD?

Together with ADHD Life Coach and Certified ADHD Educator Dana Crews, Dr. Bertin is leading a retreat October 10-12, 2025, to support adults navigating life with ADHD. Hosted at the Menla Retreat Center nestled in the serene Catskill Mountains, Held and Whole is a restorative and educational three-day ADHD retreat that will offer practical, mindfulness-based tools to strengthen emotional regulation, deepen self-awareness, and foster authenticity.

You can get more information and reserve your spot here. Plus, listeners to this podcast can claim a limited-time 15% early bird discount when they enter code “Mindful” at checkout. Spots are limited!
Source link
August 10, 2025
A Meditation for When You Need a Break
Mindfulness teacher and author Kimberly Brown offers a relaxing practice for whenever you need a break. Take this moment to pause and reconnect with yourself.
Sometimes, when we need a break, the best gift we can give ourselves is just a moment set aside for quiet, breath, and reminding ourselves of who we really are.

In this gentle guided practice, Kimberly Brown uses simple repeated phrases to ground attention and offer a place to rest and reset.

A Meditation for When You Need a Break

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

Turn inward. You can say to yourself, Hello, I’m here. Hello, my beautiful self, I am here for you. Whatever is arising in me is welcome.

Note that this practice includes longer pauses of complete silence for reflection and presence. If you want more time, feel free to pause the recording as you go.
1. To begin, remember that, for these few minutes, you don’t have to do anything. Make a decision and a commitment to yourself to shut off your devices, to stop talking, and to find a quiet place where you can be undisturbed. So if you need to, pause this recording and take a couple of minutes, find your spot, and then come back. Then, when you’re ready, get still.
2. Take an attitude of welcoming. Say hello to yourself and whatever you’re experiencing right now. Put one hand on your heart and one hand on your belly and really turn the attention toward you. It’s very likely you’ve been looking out. Turn inward. You can say to yourself, Hello, I’m here. Hello, my beautiful self, I am here for you. Whatever is arising in me is welcome.
3. Now gather all of your attention and bring it to your hands, feeling the tops of your hands, the palms of your hands, each finger as they are resting on your heart and on your belly. Connect through your palms with your breath. You can experience your body moving on each inhale and each exhale as you rest your attention on the tops of your hands and the palms of your hands and each finger. Just for a couple of moments, choose to keep your attention here, on your hands, feeling your breath. And when your attention moves away, gently but firmly bring it back, like a kind parent keeping a child safe.
4. Where is your attention right now? Do you need to gently come back to the feelings of your breath, to your fingers and your palms? Just for one more minute, rest here.
5. Now, with your attention gathered to your hand on your belly and your hand on your heart, imagine you’re with someone who loves you easily. This could be a dear old friend, an aunt, an uncle, a pet, a teacher. Imagine the two of you are in a place that’s meaningful to you, a place that is comfortable and safe to you. I’d like you to notice their face and their beautiful presence. And notice how you feel in their presence. Now, say to them and to you, May we stay connected to our true selves. May we be steady and brave. May we stay connected to our true selves. May we be steady and brave. For just a couple of minutes here, keep this visualization of the two of you, continuing to repeat these phrases like you’re giving a gift. May we stay connected to our true selves. May we be steady and brave.
6. Have you lost your connection with the two of you? Are you planning or remembering? It’s okay. Gently come back, imagining you and this dear being, beginning again. May we stay connected to our true selves. May we be steady and brave. Just for another minute or so, repeating these phrases like you’re giving a gift.
7. Allow yourself to give this gift of kindness to this loved one. Just check in with yourself. If your attention has wandered from this dear one, reconnect. See their lovely face. Continue repeating, May you stay connected to your true self. May you be steady and open.
8. Keeping your hands on your heart and on your belly, you can let the visualization dissolve. Just be here in this moment with your presence, with your experience, with your beautiful self, and giving yourself the same wisdom. May I stay connected to my true self. May I be steady and open.
9. I encourage you to continue practicing, even after this recording ends. Alternatively, you can conclude it now and practice it again and again when you feel that you need a break. Before you get up, open your eyes, re-engage with your life, your busy-ness—before you do that, thank yourself. Remember how valuable it is to get in touch with your compassion and your wisdom, your true nature. Thank yourself for this practice, and I thank you for your practice and your good heart.
Source link
July 9, 2025
A Meditation on Connecting Lands and Stories
Yuria Celidwen guides us to connect to the land, awakening gratitude and listening more deeply into the natural spaces around us.
Many modern Western cultures don’t have a deep understanding of how we connect to the land as a source of collective identity, story, or purpose. There is a sense that, yes, land can be lovely—but it is mainly seen as a source of recreation or extraction, not necessarily as an integral part of what shapes us and future generations.

In this guided practice, Indigenous scholar and teacher Yuria Celidwen, rooted in Nahua and Maya lineages, introduces a fresh way to consider our connection to the natural spaces around us. This is a practice that invites reverence, gratitude, and belonging, where our experience of the Earth moves from being strictly transactional to being interconnected and relational.

A Meditation on Connecting Lands and Stories

Read and practice the guided meditation script below, pausing after each paragraph. Or listen to the audio practice.
1. If you haven’t done so already, turn off your devices or leave them in a different place from where you will do this practice. Find a place within easy reach where you may feel comfortable. If this place allows you to overlook the landscape, that’s fantastic. If you can sit outside, surrounded by the natural landscape, even better. Wherever you decide to sit, make it easy for you so your practice becomes accessible whenever and wherever in your daily life.
2. Let your body rest in a way that helps you stay relaxed but attentive. While you may know that some meditation practices engage in contemplation with eyes closed, in this practice, keep your gaze soft but open, taking in your surroundings with a soft, expansive, panoramic view.
3. Pause. Notice where your attention is. Just notice where your mind is wandering. Where is your mind wandering? When is your mind wandering? How is your mind wandering? Just notice. Gather your attention gently. And bring it back to this present place and moment.
4. Request permission to enter the lands, offering your gratitude for their welcoming. Open. Breath, anchor, presence. Notice the texture of the lands where you are. What are the smells, fragrances, scents? What are the forms, colors and shades? What are the tones, resonances, timbres, rhythms? What is their touch, their temperature, their strokes? What are their subtle tastes? Even more subtle memories, imagination?
5. Breathe, acknowledge, recognize, welcome. Welcome the lands. Pause. Who are the lands? What are they? Where are they? Pause. The lands are telling stories. They have voices. They sing songs. With the utmost care, as you would to a precious elder or a newborn child, just pause to listen. What are the lands telling you right now? What are they singing about themselves? What is their story about you?
Pause to listen, as you would to a precious elder or a newborn child. What are the lands telling you right now? What are they singing about themselves? What is their story about you?
1. Take a few moments to hold this experience. Embrace our first opening into our shared sacred space, our discovering of an open welcoming of the lands. Offer them your gratitude for that opening, for welcoming you. Take a deep breath and exhale, bowing to the lands. Now let this experience flow.
2. Here are a few cues to animate your experience. Feel each of these cues as they rise in your body, heart, mind, memory, imagination, and belonging. Let these inquiries connect you to the world. What emerges? How are the lands connecting with you? What are their languages? How are they arising? And how do you relate and reciprocate?
Source link
May 6, 2025
An Interbeing Meditation for Connection and Understanding
In this guided interbeing meditation, Shalini Bahl explores our interdependence as a pathway to better understanding, compassion, and cooperation, especially when conflict feels overwhelming.
Summary
- Through the practice of interbeing meditation, we explore our inherent connection to the whole world.
- Interbeing is one word for our basic interconnectedness and interdependence as living beings.
- When we consider both our own needs and the needs of other people, we can be more understanding and kind, even during difficult interactions.
If you’ve faced challenging or polarizing conversations lately, you likely know how difficult it can be to connect and cooperate with the person on the other side of that interaction.

In today’s guided interbeing meditation, Dr. Shalini Bahl invites us to explore our innate interconnectedness by recognizing our needs and those of others, so that we can be empowered to work together in new and creative ways that benefit all involved.

An Interbeing Meditation for Connection and Understanding

Read and practice the guided meditation script below, pausing after each paragraph. Or listen to the audio practice.
1. Welcome to Interbeing, a guided practice for connection and understanding. Zen master and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh coined the word interbeing to describe a basic interconnectedness and interdependence as living beings. This practice invites us to explore this interconnectedness, especially when facing challenging conversations or polarizing situations. By recognizing our needs and those of others, we can foster greater understanding. This compassionate awareness can empower us to work together in new and creative ways that benefit all involved.
2. Let’s begin by coming to a comfortable sitting posture that allows you to be alert and relaxed. Gently close your eyes, or simply soften your gaze. Rest your awareness on the breath moving in and out of your body, naturally and effortlessly. Invite your mind to be here with your breath and body. Feel the spaciousness in your chest with each inhale and exhale.
3. Now picture a vast open sky filled with white fluffy clouds. See these clouds gathering to become larger and darker, heavy with life-giving rain. Feel the cool drops falling, sinking deep into the earth below. Sense the trees drinking deeply, their roots reaching deep down into the earth and the branches lifting towards the sky.
4. Think of these trees, well nourished by the rain water, by this earth, offering their fibers to be transformed into the very paper we use in our everyday lives. Just as this rain nourishes the earth and the earth nourishes the trees, so too are we nourished by this web of life around us. Each breath we take connects us to the trees, the rain, the earth, and all living beings.
5. Take a few moments to connect with this sense of awe and wonder in whatever way feels most authentic to you. Sense this interconnectedness with this web of life and all beings.
6. In this spirit of interbeing, bring to mind someone you are or will be interacting with—at home, work, or in your community—for whom you want to feel compassion. This could be someone you want to connect with more deeply as someone you’re having a conflict with.
7. Once you have the person and this interaction in mind, return to your present moment. Experience the breath moving in and out of your body. If your mind feels especially active today, place one hand on your chest and one hand on your belly as you feel the rising and falling of your body under the gentle touch of your hands.
8. Every time your mind wanders away, which it will, bring it back with kindness to your breath moving in and out of your body. Once your mind is stabilized, listen within to your needs in this interaction. Quietly ask yourself, What are my needs in this interaction? Stay here with kindness without forcing an answer. Listen then with patience. What would you like to get from this interaction? What are your needs? What are your intentions? What would you like to see happen?
9. Don’t go with the first response. Wait. Listen. Notice any kind of rushing judgments or fears. About what you may discover, making space for it all. Allow yourself to see, to feel whatever is your experience.
10. Feel free to pause this recording and journal or if you need a little more time. Once you feel ready, quietly ask yourself the following: What are the other person’s needs? Again, no need to search for answers. Just make room in your mind and your heart to listen within.
11. What is coming up for you as you make room for the other person’s perspectives? Their lived experiences? What might be going on for the other person, and what are their needs? If possible, see that person, the whole person beyond the situation. The ways in which they, too, care about the things that you care about. The ways that they, too, have suffered, just like you have in your life.
12. You’re not assuming you know everything. You’re just trusting yourself to know what you need to know. All we’re doing is making room, with the intention to see this other person.
13. When you find yourself overly distracted, or getting into a thinking mode, return to your breath. Your breath is an anchor to your natural place of connection with your body, yourself, and others. From this place of connection, open your mind to listen to the other person’s needs.
14. Again, if you like, you can pause this recording to do some journaling. Even the subtlest of shifts in your perspective can have a big impact on how you show up.
15. Based on your reflection today, how might you show up for yourself and the other person? Take some time to create an intention for showing up with understanding and kindness. And before you begin your interaction with that person, remember to return to your contemplation of interbeing, your intentions, and trusting your natural goodness. May this interbeing meditation help us navigate challenging interactions with grace, compassion, and wisdom. May our practice together benefit us and all beings.
Source link
April 24, 2025
A Forgiveness Meditation to Connect With Your Heart
In this guided meditation, Will Schneider walks us through a three-step meditation to offer forgiveness to ourselves and others.
Forgiveness is a cornerstone practice of mindfulness, and it’s also one of the most difficult.

Extending forgiveness to others and to ourselves requires a kind of awareness and vulnerability that can feel deeply uncomfortable, especially if we are carrying heavy stories of shame, anger, or resentment connected to that experience.

In today’s guided practice, Will Schneider from Men Talking Mindfulness walks us through a forgiveness meditation filled with kindness, grace, and surrender that’s designed to help us walk a little lighter in the world.

A Forgiveness Meditation to Connect With Your Heart

Read and practice the guided meditation script below, pausing after each paragraph. Or listen to the audio practice.
1. As you work through this meditation, please note that we’re not trying to force forgiveness in any way. Please do this within your comfort zone. You do not need to go into the deepest and darkest places that need forgiveness. On a scale of one to 10, choose something that feels about in a four to six range. This meditation is going to be very helpful to release the energy of stress and anxiety or depression, and really help to relax your body, relax your mind, and help you to be more present in this moment, instead of encumbered with the shame and the guilt that might be associated with events that have occurred in your life.
2. To begin, find a comfortable position. You can also do this lying down, but make sure you’re not going to fall asleep. If you choose to sit, then sit up in an upright, dignified position.
3. There will be three parts to this forgiveness meditation. Do the best you can to work from a heart-centric, heartfelt place deep within you. Let go of expectations and try to work from a vulnerable and authentic state of being.
4. Start by using your breath to help just naturally drop a little bit deeper into this moment. Maybe even bring a hand over top of your heart so you can begin to access your heart energy, which really helps to empower this forgiveness. Make some movements in your shoulders and your head to help to relax tension. Find several deeper breaths just to calm your nervous system down, drop into this moment. Bring your breath, your awareness down to your breath into your belly. Inhale really big. Exhale, soft and slow. Maybe you’ve got to wiggle your jaw a little side to side, or just take these first several breath moments to just create a little bit more comfort in your body and kind of get out of your head and into your body and into this moment by being aware of your breath and being aware of the sensations of your body without judgment.
5. Bring to mind a moment that you harmed someone else. Again, it doesn’t have to be so deeply personal. It could just be someone that you cut off in traffic or were a little curt with at the grocery store or something like that. Stay in that four to six range. In your mind’s eye, being specific, bring up this particular person that you would like to offer or ask for forgiveness. Clearly seeing that person in your mind’s eye, repeat to yourself from this heartfelt space to this other person, I am sorry. Please allow me to be imperfect. Please allow me to make mistakes. Please allow me to be a learner, still learning life’s lessons. Please forgive me. Please forgive me. If you could not forgive me now, please try to forgive me sometime in the future. I’m sorry. Please forgive me.
6. Sit with that for a couple of heartbeats, a couple breaths. Use the breath as a way to let go, detaching energetically. Feeling your heart once again.
7. Next, let’s shift to a way in which someone has harmed you. Again, keep this in that four to six range, something minor, but that definitely was an experience. Repeat to them through this heartfelt space, Just as I am willing to allow myself to be imperfect, I allow you to be imperfect. I allow you also to make mistakes. I allow you to be a learner, still learning life’s lessons. I forgive you. I forgive you. If I cannot forgive you now, may I forgive you sometime in the future. If I cannot forgive you now, may I forgive you sometime in the future.
8. Sit with your breath for a few moments again. Bring your hand over top of your heart and feel more of that heartfelt experience. Again, use the breath to relax and to release this energy.
9. Finally, let’s bring forgiveness to ourselves. Think of ways you have harmed yourself. Again, start with something small. Extend forgiveness to yourself by expressing these heartfelt words to yourself: I allow myself to be imperfect. I allow myself to be imperfect. I allow myself to make mistakes. I allow myself to make mistakes. I allow myself to be a learner, still learning life’s lessons. Really feel that. I allow myself to be a learner, still learning life’s lessons. I forgive myself. I forgive myself. If I cannot forgive myself now, may I forgive myself sometime in the future. I forgive myself.
10. Be with your breath for another few moments here, taking some bigger breaths. Filling with forgiveness, filling with love for yourself, filling with the opportunity to release and let go. Let it all go. It doesn’t need to be a part of you anymore. Take a couple more breaths in. Feel it and flow with it and fall with it. And let go.
11. I hope you’re feeling a little lighter after this meditation. Slowly come out on your own time. It’s a wonderful exercise to realize that you don’t need to hold on to all that stuff that gets in the way of your brilliance. All that love that you are. Thank you for meditating. Thank you for being the light that you are and bringing that light to more people in the world. Have an incredible day.
Source link
April 16, 2025