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A Meditation to Help Build Your Capacity to Navigate Difficulty
Hello, I’m Rich, and this is our fourth module on the theme of living with meaning, purpose and resilience.

Resilience, simply defined, is being able to bounce back from adversity (though it should be noted that “bouncing back” doesn’t necessarily mean going back to exactly who we were before the challenge arose, since adversity can significantly change us as people). It’s our ability to meet the challenges that arise, return to our center, find our footing, and navigate effectively. It’s not about stopping all challenges in life because that would be impossible. Stress and difficulties arise in our lives all the time. It’s a question of how we meet those challenges, how we navigate through them and work with them.

So I’d like to offer some tools and a meditation around this. And again, this is part of a larger series on defining meaning, purpose, and, now, resilience. I like to offer resilience as the last piece because in the course of this journey to being our best, to living with purpose and meaning, we will encounter difficulties. We all do. We’re human. So I’m certain that, without a doubt, every single one of you will experience failure. I have.

In fact, I can say I’ve experienced failure quite continuously throughout my life. Now, what’s really important here are the words we use and the way we think about failure. I said just now that you will experience failure. I didn’t say you are a failure. I didn’t define it that way. And that’s really the critical pivot point of resilience: doing what’s called moving from an existential trait to an experiential state around the experience of difficulties.

So if that seems abstract, let me explain a bit further. Often when we meet challenges it’s very easy to fall into a narrative about guess who? About yourself. And very often, when we experience failure or adversity, that narrative can be negative. Those stories we tell ourselves can be as simple as, “I’m a failure,” “I’m unworthy,” “I’m inadequate,” “I’m incompetent—what’s wrong with me?” It’s a lot of self-criticism, and it’s the easiest thing in the world to do.

Outsmarting Our Negativity Bias

In fact, our brains are actually wired for something called the negativity bias. It’s an evolutionary phenomenon whereby we attune to danger and threats and negative stimuli in our environment much more than positive ones. Some research says it’s roughly a rate of 3 to 1 that we pay more attention to the negative than the positive. And that is then magnified when we experience challenges and difficulties. It’s really important, then, to be aware and to work counter to that negativity bias.

That’s where this shift from existential trait to experiential state helps. It’s something I do a lot, so let me give you an example from my own experience. As you know, I run a non-profit, and there have been periods where we’re not meeting our key performance indicators, our core metrics, for example. In those instances, as the leader of this organization, I’ve found myself at times asking, “What’s wrong with you, Rich? This quarter was terrible.” And I feel inadequate and begin doubting my abilities. It’s almost as though I’m categorizing myself in this trait-like fashion as if I’m not competent. When in reality, our organization simply experienced a difficult quarter: there were difficult conditions in the market and the ecosystem in which we work. And as a leader I faced challenges around how to right the ship, how to pivot and consider different solutions with my team.

I remember there was a moment where I thought, “I’m just a failure. I’m failing at this quarter.” Then I actually paused and thought about it: We experienced the failure. I experienced a setback and a shortcoming. I experienced a failure. I had the experience of failure. That’s it. And that’s very different from framing things as, “I am a failure.”

Tap into the Liberating Shift

So that’s the critical shift. It’s what we at Search Inside Yourself like to call the liberating shift—from existential to experiential. And I want to invite you to join in a meditation on that liberating shift today because for me, that’s the key factor in resilience: the shifting from existential to experiential.

Before we get started, though, I want to encourage you to really inhabit the perspective of experiencing something. Nothing more—it’s just an experience. Take emotions or feelings, for example: they are actually physiological processes in the body. They come; they arise; we feel them; and then they go. So it’s actually a process that plays out in our bodies. When we’re triggered and have difficult experiences and feel difficult emotions, those are also just physiological processes. They’re not facts. They’re not sentences or indictments. And they’re certainly not traits. Again, we know from physiological science that emotion is a process. So the encouragement for this practice, if difficult emotion arises—whether it’s stress, anxiety, fear, sadness, whatever it might be—is to see it arise and to see it as a process, not as a trait.

Let’s now try a meditation that allows us to experience this firsthand.

A Meditation to Help Build Your Capacity to Navigate Difficulty

Watch the video:

Listen to the audio

Read and practice the guided meditation script below, pausing after each paragraph. Or listen to the audio practice.
1. I invite you to sit in a way that is alert but relaxed at the same time—whatever that means for you. Close your eyes, if you’d like. Or just soften the visual field by gazing downward. Take a moment as we begin to collect our attention.
2. Now, bring awareness to your body—the felt experience of your body wherever you find yourself. Bring firm but gentle attention to your breath; the in breaths and the out breaths. Just collect your attention for a moment here, taking a minute to arrive, with your mind and your heart and your body all in this moment, whatever this means to you.
3. Now I’d like to invite you, just as you are, to this meditation on resilience. I invite you to consider a difficult situation or person—nothing traumatic—just something that was difficult for you, or a person who was difficult for you, perhaps over the past week or another period of time. Calling this situation or person to mind, and noting what feeling or emotion arises when you reflect on this. What sensations are you feeling in your body as you consider this situation or person? It could be something like: I am experiencing stress. Or, with regard to a person: I am experiencing anger or frustration. Whatever it is you’re experiencing, just noting it: “I am experiencing ….”
4. Now just as you are, note how different that is from saying “I am stressed” or “I am frustrated.” Instead, “I am experiencing” emphasizes the process. And emotion is a process. It is a state you are aware of. Name it to know it. And note how it may change as you name it and take note. With this we’re taking that small step back to gain perspective on the experience of difficulty. I encourage you to take the “I” out of it. Instead: “There is the experience of frustration. Because who is the “I”? Just bringing a kind, loving awareness to “There is the experience of stress; there is the experience of frustration in the body.”
5. Notice how that feels to adopt that broader perspective. This is the liberating shift between I am stressed or frustrated to there is the experience of stress or frustration currently in my body. Whatever that emotion is for you, bring this quality of awareness—the experience of—and fill in the blank. Just see how that feels in the body. And then whatever arises next for you: experiences and emotions are rising and moving and changing in the body frequently.
6. As we wrap up this meditation on resilience, take a few last breaths at your own pace, reconnecting with your breathing. And when you’re ready, open your eyes and rejoin.
It’s really important to bring this capacity to shift into our lives. We all have the capability to expand our perspective, and even subtract ourselves from the equation. Stress is real; difficult emotions are real. I don’t suggest we suppress or deny or push any of that away, but I am suggesting that we be in wise relationship with them, as one of my teachers Jon Kabat-Zinn likes to say. So, wise relationship with our difficulties is that liberating shift that will affect resilience.

I hope this has been useful for you. This concludes the four-module series of meditations for living with meaning, purpose and resilience. I’d like to end with a poem that brings all of this together. It really brings the idea of attuning to what’s alive within you and standing in that place with strength and resilience. I’ve written this poem myself. It’s called

“The Quiet Invitation”
In the vividness of the journey from
Being to becoming,
Amidst the flickering dance between action and reflection,
Alignment emerges,
A close knowing, a path glowing faintly in the mists of imagination.
Not so much chosen as revealed
Even as you stand blinking in fear or wonder.
There comes the still, quiet voice at the center of things—that sweet, gentle calling that whispers This is true.
This is good.
This is alive now.
You are called an invitation to wholeness
In this everyday arc of your life.

So, with that my friends. Thank you so much. I wish you all well. Take good care.

About The Author

Rich Fernandez

Rich Fernandez is the former CEO of Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute (SIYLI). He was previously the director of executive education and people development at Google, where he was also one of the first SIY teachers. Rich previously co-founded Wisdom Labs and has also served in senior roles at eBay, J.P. Morgan Chase and Bank of America.

About The Author

Rich Fernandez

Rich Fernandez is the former CEO of Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute (SIYLI). He was previously the director of executive education and people development at Google, where he was also one of the first SIY teachers. Rich previously co-founded Wisdom Labs and has also served in senior roles at eBay, J.P. Morgan Chase and Bank of America.
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August 12, 2026
Befriend Vulnerability With A 12-Minute Meditation
Learning to tune in to our own vulnerability is an act of courage that allows us to form deeper, more genuine relationships.
If you’re someone who grew up being told that tears are a sign of weakness, or that you should never show fear lest you be exploited, you understand how very difficult it is to communicate complex emotions like jealousy, resentment, or sorrow. You protect these experiences, holding them close to your chest like a dislocated arm in a sling. Just as extending the injured arm would create a risk of further injury, keeping parts of yourself out of intimate relationships prevents emotional hurt and exploitation.

You know how this looks for you.

Maybe you become stoic and isolate yourself. Perhaps you bury yourself in work or your hobbies. If you’re in a fragile state, you might displace your anger and rage against someone innocent, or who’s an easy target. None of these things feel good, and it’s easy to feel ashamed if your actions have pushed people away.

This limiting mindset doesn’t have to be a defining feature, however. Vulnerability can be learned. In fact, anyone can learn how to be vulnerable with themselves.

A Practice to Begin Healing
1. To begin, find a quiet place to reflect on these questions in silence. If you prefer, there’s also the option to write down your answers.
2. What has been your relationship with vulnerability?
3. Reflect on a time that turned out favorably when you made a decision to be vulnerable with someone you trust. It can be anything, even something small. Reflecting on that now, how did it feel to allow this person to witness you in your need? What did it perhaps do for your relationship?
4. Keeping that positive experience of vulnerability in mind, is there a part of you that’s been hidden, and that you’re now needing to acknowledge? Consider a difficult emotion, like loneliness, that’s been hard to name, and the impact of just letting it be present without registering it.
5. What would it be like to bring your experience to someone you trust? Consider the positive outcome you had in step three, in which you overcame your reluctance around vulnerability and brought your issue forward. If this were once again possible, is there something you would now need to address with someone trustworthy?
6. Finally, reflect on what might be gained from this exercise in vulnerability: the ability to let someone else recognize and possibly help you carry a struggle, the opportunity to strengthen the bond of your relationship, the deepening of trust in addressing other vulnerable parts of your life that may show up in the future.
A Guided Meditation to Befriend Vulnerability
1. To begin, find a comfortable place in your home where you can sit or lie down and just listen to this meditation free of distractions, where you can just be for a few moments. Positioning yourself comfortably, allow yourself to take an in-breath through the nose. Exhaling through the mouth. Another breath in through the nose, and out through the mouth. Just continuing to breathe in this manner.
2. In your mind’s eye, allow yourself to really observe that part of you that yearns to be seen, yearns to be noticed, that yearns to be forgiven, that yearns to be loved. And as you encounter this part of you, allow it to really be enhanced. Really notice the qualities of what it would mean to be seen, to be loved, to be healed.
3. This is your gift. A gift to give to someone you trust. Reflecting now on this gift: Who in your life deserves to see, to know, to forgive, to love this part of you? Bring their face into your mind’s eye. Noticing the qualities that tell you this person is trustworthy, is deserving of your vulnerability.
4. Allow yourself to see, as well, the potential for your own life and sharing this gift with this person. What would it mean to you to bring this part of you into this relationship now? Really notice them loving you. Forgiving you, healing you by witnessing you and your vulnerability.
5. As you do so, make a commitment to yourself of what it is that needs to be said and shared with this person who has shown you that they are trustworthy.
A 12-Minute Meditation to Cultivate an Open Heart

During times of crisis and uncertainty, touching into your groundedness while remaining open can help you find calm—and inspire others to do the same. Meena Srinivasan offers a guided practice for staying both rooted and open. Read More

Meena Srinivasan

July 19, 2022
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August 8, 2026
Resting in the Flow With A Guided Meditation
Stress reduction, helping with depression, coping with illness and adversity, improved relational skills, and an ability to make better, less bias-prone decisions—all of these benefits can flow from mindfulness training. But they might all be seen like by-products of travelling along a path to deeper awakening, which flows from the recognition that nothing in life, including ourselves, is stuck in the way we habitually think.

In mindfulness practice, we train in letting go of our stories about stress and pain, learn that thoughts are not facts, and watch sensations change from moment to moment. We notice that experience is ﬂuid, and can be perceived without taking it so personally. We learn that pain, stress, thoughts and everything else that occurs in the mind and body are not “me.”

Why “Me” Always Changes

So what kind of “me” is there? When we ask ourselves this question, most of us will come up with a list of identities—perhaps a name, a profession, a family role, a nationality. Already there are problems with this—as Jon Kabat-Zinn puts it, your name is “just a sound that your parents gave to you when you were born.” It may be applied consistently, for convenience, throughout a lifetime, but what it refers to certainly shifts over the years. I am not the same “me” who had my name as a baby.

The composition of our bodies is in continual flux. Over the last few weeks, your epidermis (the layer of skin that covers your body) has completely regenerated. Cells in the stomach are replaced after about five days, while our livers regenerate every year. Our entire skeleton is replaced every ten years. The brain changes all the time, too. Over the last fifteen years, researchers have learned that neural shifts occur as a consequence of events in the mind, body, and life. An experienced taxi driver will develop an unusually large hippocampus (a part of the brain associated with learning, memory, and spatial processing), while a skilled musician’s fine motor cortex will reﬂect their years of practice. Even learning to juggle over the course of a week produces observable neural changes in the brain. Many people believe that the core of their “self” resides in the brain, but if we never have the same brain from one moment to the next, how could there be such a core?

What Makes Up “Me”?

The evidence from neuroscience research suggests that what feels like “me” is in fact an infinite number of changing aspects of mind, brain and body, working in harmony to produce a sense of coherence and agency from the events of life. The experience of being “me” is a projection—a bit like when a film appears on a screen from the projection of different colours. This projected “me” assumes responsibility for actions that actually occur as a ﬂuid interchange of indefinable aspects of mind,
body, brain, and environment.

There are heavy costs to this assumption. You don’t have to get depressed to witness how close identification with thoughts, emotions, and sensations creates suffering. Every time we turn a thought into a fact in our minds by calling it “mine,” we become blinded to the reality that it is influenced (and often biased) by myriad causes and conditions in our past and present. When we identify with a thought, it becomes difficult to see its biases, and we become trapped in a virtual version of life, doomed to self-righteousness, paranoia, negativity, or other patterns of distorted thinking. Similarly, when we identify with an emotion, we become prisoners of our moods. And when we get caught up with our bodies, we feel at their mercy, struggling with a journey through life that inevitably proceeds towards infirmity and breakdown.

Why Losing Control Can Make You Happier

Relief is attainable by shifting perception and letting go of the falsehood that we are in complete control. By recognizing the conditioning that deeply affects our lives, we can start to give ourselves—and others—a break. At the same time, realizing we are multi-faceted beings that change from moment to moment, in ﬂow with an ever-shifting biological, psychological, social, and environmental context, we can start to practice riding with the changes. We can hold our beliefs and opinions lightly, rather than construct blindingly fixed identities from them.

As soon as we are aware of thoughts and sensations arising in experience, rather than getting caught in attempts to grasp or reject them, a glimmer of space emerges between the events of our lives and our reactions to them.

As soon as we are aware of thoughts and sensations arising in experience, rather than getting caught in attempts to grasp or reject them, a glimmer of space emerges between the events of our lives and our reactions to them. In this space, reactions can become responses, and tension and resistance can fall away, along with the stress they generate. Life becomes a dance with the world, rather than a war against it; a ﬂow, rather than a struggle. By dropping our tight identification with what comes up in our minds, bodies and lives, we can start to feel better. As a famous meditation teacher once put it: “If you let go a little, you will get a little happiness. If you let go a lot, you will get a lot of happiness. And if you let go completely, you will be completely happy.”

You can watch a video of me speaking for Action For Happiness about this and other mindfulness-related themes here. And below is a practice you can try to train in resting in the changing flow of moment-to-moment experience.

Resting in the Flow of Experience

Being human is like flowing as a river—many moving droplets make up the stream. The river changes all the time, yet there is continuity as it follows well-worn grooves through the landscape. A river cannot suddenly shift its direction, just as we humans tend to follow a course set by past events and patterns. Yet, the more we become aware of how the ﬂow occurs and the grooves are followed, the more we can relax into the ride. As we see more clearly, we also become more able to steer our way skilfully through the current. A good way to begin is to practice resting in the ﬂow, as in this meditation.

Read and practice the guided meditation script below, pausing after each paragraph. Or listen to the audio practice.
1. Settle into a posture for sitting meditation, feeling the connection of your body to the ﬂoor, cushion, or seat. At any time during this practice, especially if you feel disconnected or disembodied, come back to this sense of groundedness, anchoring your experience.
2. Begin paying attention to breathing, noticing how each breath—indeed, each moment of each breath—is a unique experience, not the same as the previous one or the next. Notice how the breath happens without you controlling it—your breath is happening within you; “you” are not choosing to breathe. Know, too, that all of the automatic processes of the body—oxygenation of the cells, blood ﬂow, heartbeat, and so on—are happening in the same way. As best you can, relax into this experience.
3. Open awareness now to the whole body. As sensations rise into consciousness and pass through, recognize that they are all impermanent, continually transforming in intensity, location, and quality. Let them be experienced, moment by moment, and allow them to pass through, as best you can, without attachment or rejection. Recognize too that the physical constituents of your body are in ﬂux—skin is being shed, cells are growing and dying, some neural connections are strengthening, others are weakening.
4. Now bring awareness to thoughts. With a friendly interest, observe the patterns of thinking that are running through the mind, like clouds passing across the sky of the mind, making up its weather. Like the weather, these patterns are always changing, depending on atmospheric conditions. Realize that the thoughts you had a year ago, five years ago, a decade ago—each of which may have seemed extremely important back then—are now merely memories, and that thoughts appearing in the mind right now will share that fate.
5. Finally, open up your mindfulness to every aspect of conscious experience—sensations, sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and thoughts. Let go into the space within and around you, remaining alert and present to whatever comes. Allow the play of experience to happen by itself, resting in the ﬂow, moment by moment. When you notice attention wandering to a particular place, acknowledge the wandering and open out to the whole panorama of experience once more.
This post was adapted from Into The Heart of Mindfulness, by Ed Halliwell, published by Piatkus. Download a set of 14 guided audio meditation practices from Ed’s books here.
An Election Day Meditation

Follow along as Rhonda Magee guides us through a S.T.O.P. practice for focused awareness. The invitation is to be kind to yourself, take a conscious breath, and gently relate to thoughts, emotions, and sensations that arise. Read More

Rhonda Magee

November 5, 2024
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July 29, 2026
A 12 Minute Meditation to Unhook from Negativity and Savor Joy

Perhaps it seems strange to be investigating what we consider to be a positive emotion, but I think we often miss joy. We don’t actually pay a lot of attention to it; we can often let it slip by without much notice. The good news is, there are practices to cultivate it. And these practices can help us attend to and support joy in our felt experience. It’s actually a pretty important emotion.

Joy aids us in waking up to our lives. And it’s a factor in supporting concentration. So if you’re someone who feels distracted much of the time, have difficulty focusing or paying attention, cultivating and attending to joy is a great way to deepen your concentration.

First, let’s explore what joy is. For me, it can be pleasurable to experience, but it’s essentially different from pleasure. I experience joy as a really internal occurrence. It can be sparked by something external, but it’s also something I can very much cultivate internally. One of the great ways to do that is to consider the things in my life that I’m grateful for. Another way is to savor—really stop and savor—what’s beautiful and good and working in my life.

This is a profoundly important ability because as humans we operate with a negativity bias. In and of itself, that bias makes a lot of sense: we tend to focus our minds on what is wrong or threatening or what could harm us so that we might be better protected through the vagaries of life. But if we allow that negativity bias to run rampant, we risk missing out on what’s beautiful and joyful and nourishing in our lives. Not to mention, we grow less and less equipped to actually cultivate such beauty and joy and nourishment ourselves. So training ourselves to receive and enjoy what’s good is no frivolous pursuit. Learning to savor joyful moments helps us unhook from negativity and open to new possibility.

So let’s practice. And again, as we’ve done with all of our practices with emotions, we’ll mostly attend to the physical sensations of joy. And maybe we’ll see it grow as we pay attention to it. While we’re at it, we’ll also try to notice how focusing on joy can help strengthen our concentration. The great thing is, if you give the mind something pleasant and joyful to pay attention to, it will want to go there. Maybe you’ll decide to begin each mindfulness practice with joy cultivation. (Talk about a great motivator for sitting down for a few minutes). You may also want to employ this approach in your everyday life.

A 12 Minute Meditation to Unhook from Negativity and Savor Joy

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. Let’s take our seat wherever we happen to be. As always, you’re welcome to lie down if you’re in a place where you can do that. Let’s take a few deeper breaths. Just settle in here: lengthen your inhale and your exhale. During these opening breaths, simply scan your mind and body and notice how you’re feeling. Let’s use the breath to bring some balance in this moment. If you’re feeling tired or drowsy, just take in a little bit more air, emphasize the inhale. If you’re feeling agitated or restless, emphasize the exhale—really extend it. And then allow your breath to come to its natural rhythm. Feel your contact with the chair, your feet on the ground. Find that support and contact with the earth.

2. Now let’s bring to mind some recent joyful moments from our lives. Alternatively, you could reflect on some of the things you’re grateful for in your life. What’s working these days? You’re alive, so something must be working … Maybe it’s simply that you found this 30-day challenge and you’ve done some practices—you’ve found the time to take care of yourself in this way. Or maybe you’ve been seeing some benefits in your life. Perhaps there’s a relationship you’re enjoying; you’re feeling loved and connected. This could be with a person, or it could be that you have a puppy or a cat in your life. Or maybe you’ve been to a place that’s stirred joy in you: some place in nature, perhaps near a lake, surrounded by trees, a spot where you could gaze upon a vista you love. Choose one or a few moments to focus on and really get the joy going. What brings you joy? Maybe it’s recalling movement such as dancing or swimming or another physical activity that stirs joy for you. Perhaps it’s travel, a recent trip. Or maybe it’s learning something new.

3. Really reflect on receiving the joy of these experiences. Bring your attention into your body. Notice how you experience joy in this moment. Where do you feel it in your body? The chest, the belly, the throat, the face? What do you notice? Is there a temperature to the joy? Is there a flow or movement to the energy of joy in your body? How big is it? As you pay attention to it, can you kind of relax your attention into the joy? Breathe into it. And if there’s a sense that this energy of joy wants to grow, let it. Maybe it expands to other parts of your body—all the way out to your fingertips and your toes. Just notice: is it tingling, vibrating, flowing?

4. If at any point you lose that felt sense of connection, just recall again the images, people, situations that bring you joy. Then return to feeling into and savouring and maybe even expanding that felt sense and felt energy of joy in your body. Breathe into it.

5. As we close out this short practice, let’s take a moment to reflect on and notice the people, places, situations that bring us joy. What were the things that really inspired a felt, energetic sense of joy for you? Maybe they surprised you. Maybe they’re things that you don’t do that often. But you could. You could bring more of that into your life. So, how could you do that?

6. Before we finish, let’s make a simple commitment to do one of those things that brings us joy. Let’s commit to bringing in more of that joy-inducing activity or more of that connection or more time with the people in our lives that bring us joy.

7. When you’re ready, open your eyes if they were closed. Take a deep breath. Are you orienting yourself to the space around you? Notice how you feel right now.

As you go back into your day, I invite you to pay more attention to what’s joyful in your life. Then, commit to drawing more of that in, and to cultivating it further.

About The Author

Jessica Morey

Jessica Morey is a meditation teacher and coach. She has been practicing meditation for almost 3 decades. She is also the co-founder and former executive director of Inward Bound Mindfulness Education, a nonprofit organization bringing in-depth mindfulness and compassion training to youth.

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July 9, 2026
Meditation and Mental Health: The Surprising Benefits for Your Wellbeing
Introduction to Meditation and Mental Health

Meditation has been practiced for thousands of years, originating from ancient Eastern cultures as a means to cultivate mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being. In recent decades, the Western world has increasingly adopted meditation as a tool for improving mental health and overall wellbeing. The practice involves training your mind to focus, relax, and become more aware of your thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations. As the world grapples with rising rates of anxiety, depression, and other mental health challenges, meditation has emerged as a powerful adjunctive therapy, offering a variety of benefits that can enhance mental health and promote a sense of wellbeing.

Understanding Meditation

Meditation is a broad term that encompasses a range of practices, including mindfulness meditation, loving-kindness meditation, transcendental meditation, and movement meditation, among others. At its core, meditation involves setting aside time to sit comfortably, close your eyes, and focus your mind on a particular object, thought, or activity. For beginners, this often starts with focusing on the breath, noticing when the mind wanders, and gently bringing it back without judgment. Regular practice can lead to a deeper understanding of oneself, reduced stress levels, and an improved ability to handle life’s challenges with grace and resilience.

The Surprising Benefits for Mental Health

The benefits of meditation on mental health are multifaceted and well-documented. Regular meditation practice has been shown to reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression, improve sleep quality, enhance cognitive functioning such as attention and memory, and boost the immune system. Meditation also promotes emotional regulation, allowing individuals to better manage their emotions and respond to stressful situations in a more thoughtful and less reactive manner. Furthermore, meditation cultivates self-awareness, enabling individuals to understand their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors more clearly, which is crucial for personal growth and development.

Impact on Anxiety and Depression

One of the most significant benefits of meditation is its impact on anxiety and depression. These are two of the most prevalent mental health disorders worldwide, characterized by persistent feelings of worry, fear, sadness, and loss of interest in activities. Meditation has been found to decrease the production of stress hormones like cortisol, leading to a reduction in the symptoms of anxiety and depression. By teaching the mind to stay present and focused on the current moment, rather than dwelling on the past or worrying about the future, meditation helps to break the cycle of negative thinking that often accompanies these conditions.

Enhancing Cognitive Function

Beyond its emotional benefits, meditation has a profound impact on cognitive function. Regular practice has been linked to improvements in attention, memory, and problem-solving abilities. Meditation helps to strengthen the neural networks within the brain, enhancing communication between different brain regions. This can lead to better performance in work and academic settings, as well as improved overall cognitive health. Furthermore, meditation has been shown to have neuroprotective effects, potentially reducing the risk of age-related cognitive decline and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.

Promoting Better Sleep

Sleep is a critical component of mental health, with sleep disturbances often being a symptom or cause of various psychiatric conditions. Meditation can help improve sleep quality by reducing stress and anxiety, making it easier to fall asleep and stay asleep throughout the night. Regular meditation practice before bedtime can signal to the body that it is time to sleep, creating a healthy sleep routine. Improved sleep quality, in turn, can enhance mental health, lead to better mood regulation, and reduce the risk of developing mental health disorders.

Cultivating Emotional Regulation

Emotional regulation is the ability to manage and modulate emotional responses to various situations. Meditation cultivates this skill by increasing self-awareness and teaching the mind to observe emotions without judgment, rather than becoming overwhelmed by them. This can lead to more harmonious relationships, improved decision-making, and a reduced tendency to react impulsively to stressors. By learning to navigate emotions in a healthier way, individuals can develop resilience and better cope with life’s challenges.

How to Incorporate Meditation into Your Life

Incorporating meditation into daily life can be simple and accessible. Starting with short sessions, even just a few minutes a day, can be beneficial. Using guided meditation apps, joining a meditation group, or following meditation videos can provide structure and motivation for beginners. Finding a quiet, comfortable space to meditate and making it a consistent part of your daily routine, such as right after waking up or before bedtime, can help turn meditation into a sustainable habit.

Conclusion

Meditation offers a wide range of benefits for mental health and wellbeing, from reducing symptoms of anxiety and depression to enhancing cognitive function and promoting better sleep. By incorporating meditation into daily life, individuals can cultivate greater self-awareness, improve their emotional regulation, and develop resilience in the face of stress and adversity. As the world continues to navigate the complexities of mental health, the ancient practice of meditation stands as a powerful tool, available to anyone, anywhere, offering a pathway to improved mental health and a deeper sense of wellbeing.

FAQs
- Q: What is meditation, and how does it work?
  A: Meditation is a practice that involves training your mind to focus, relax, and become more aware of your thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations. It works by reducing stress, improving emotional regulation, and enhancing cognitive function, among other benefits.
- Q: Do I have to be religious or spiritual to meditate?
  A: No, meditation is a practice that can be adapted to anyone’s beliefs and values. It is about cultivating mental and emotional wellbeing, and can be practiced by people of all religious and spiritual backgrounds.
- Q: How often should I meditate to see benefits?
  A: The frequency of meditation can vary, but starting with daily practice, even if it’s just a few minutes, can be beneficial. Consistency is key, and as you continue, you can adjust the duration and frequency based on your needs and schedule.
- Q: Can meditation help with specific mental health conditions?
  A: Yes, meditation has been shown to help with a variety of mental health conditions, including anxiety, depression, PTSD, and substance abuse. It is often used as an adjunct to traditional therapies and treatments.
- Q: How do I get started with meditation if I’m a beginner?
  A: You can start by using guided meditation apps, following meditation videos, or joining a meditation group. Finding a quiet, comfortable space and making meditation a part of your daily routine can help you get started and maintain your practice.
July 3, 2026
A Meditation to Rest Your Attention
We live in a noisy world that’s constantly vying for our attention. But as teacher Sharon Salzberg reminds us, our attention is at its most potent when we’re able to rest and restore it.
When we talk about attention, we often use active and extractive verbs: pay, give, court, leverage. In mindfulness, attention isn’t a commodity to be used; it’s a gift to be nurtured. What might it feel like to rest our attention?

This week, teacher Sharon Salzberg offers a guided meditation that’s down-to-earth and deeply restorative as we practice holding our awareness with the lightest touch possible

A Meditation to Rest Your Attention

Read and practice the guided meditation script below, pausing after each paragraph. Or listen to the audio practice.
1. In this meditation, you can sit comfortably or lie down. Close your eyes, or if you’re keeping them open, just find a spot in front of you to rest your gaze.
2. Center your attention on the feeling of the in and out breath, at the nostrils, at the chest, or at the abdomen. Just the normal, natural breath.
3. When I become silent, that’s the signal for you to put into practice what I’ve just suggested.
4. As you feel the sensations of the breath, you can make a very quiet mental notation of breath. With the in breath, and then again with the out breath. Maybe it’s once or maybe it’s twice that you silently repeat the word breath as you breathe in, breath as you breathe out.
5. Think breath when a thought or a feeling arises that’s strong enough to take your attention away from the breath. Simply note it silently as not breath: It’s not the breath and you can recognize it in just that way. So we have breath and we have not breath.
6. It’s important to understand that it doesn’t matter if it’s the most beautiful thought in the world or the most terrible thought in the world. It’s simply not the breath. You don’t have to judge yourself. You don’t have to get lost in a thought or elaborate it. You recognize it’s simply not the breath Very gently let go and bring your attention back to the feeling of the breath.
7. Some of your thoughts or feelings may be tender, caring. Some might seem cruel or hurtful, but they’re not the breath. You can see them, recognize them, let them go, and bring our attention back to the feeling of the breath. These thoughts and feelings are like clouds moving through the sky. Some are very light and fluffy looking, very inviting. Some are quite ominous and threatening, but they’re all not the breath. We just let them go.
8. Our habitual tendency is to grab onto a thought or a feeling, to build an entire world around it or push it away, struggle against it. Here we stay even, balanced, calm. We simply recognize it’s not the breath. Very gently we let it go. We bring our attention back one breath at a time
9. When you feel ready, you can open your eyes or lift your gaze, and we’ll end the meditation.
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July 3, 2026
A 12 Minute Meditation to Make Movement Mindful with Cara Bradley
Our bodies come in all varieties, and we all have different interests, skill, and abilities. But as today’s teacher Cara Bradley observes, movement of any kind—from the slightest glance to the most intense exercise—can be mindful.

This simple meditation helps you celebrate your physicality with practices to connect with your breath and your body, expand your awareness, and appreciate the gift of being alive.

A Meditation to Make Movement Mindful

Read and practice the guided meditation script below, pausing after each paragraph. Or listen to the audio practice.
1. The intention behind this practice today is to stabilize our bodies and minds, to synchronize our breath and movement, and to energize all over physical, emotional, and mental well-being. What’s important to remember from this all is that when our bodies are calm, our minds get calm. And when our bodies feel stable and steady, our minds feel stable and steady. What’s happening physically also reflects mentally. In fact, in many ways, our nervous system is a reflection of what’s happened in our mind. So if you’re feeling really crazy-busy, I’m going to encourage you to look at your nervous system first with some of the tools that I’m going to teach you here in this meditation.
2. We are going to be moving and breathing in rhythm. This helps us to facilitate what’s called coherence. Coherence is a way of harmonizing our nervous system, our heart rate, our brain waves. Research shows that when we’re in coherence or in a coherent state, we feel better. We feel calmer, more clear. We feel more energized. And our minds are more quiet. The best way to find coherence is by finding your breath and breathing in rhythm.
3. Don’t worry about perfect, it doesn’t exist. Don’t worry about big or small or advanced or beginner, it’s not about that at all. This is a mindful movement practice, so this is your practice to cultivate awareness of both mind and body. We’ll be moving for maybe six to seven minutes, real simple movements that everybody can do, and then we’ll be taking rest. Now I encourage you to give yourself the time to take a minute or two rest. It’s when we start to integrate. It’s where we integrate and really allow ourselves the opportunity to experience ourselves in that coherence. In a more settled and stable state of being. You’re worth it and your life is worth it.
4. Place your feet hip-width distance, get a comfortable stance, and here we go. Let’s just find that rhythm. Inhale, reach your arms forward and up. Spin your palms open, exhale arms out and down. Inhale, reach forward and up. Spin palms open, exhale out and down. One more time. Inhale, reach forward and up. Spin palms, exhale out and down.
5. Next is what I call Sinking Body and Mind. Exhale, reach over to your left. Inhale, rise back up to center. Exhale, sway to your right. Inhale, reach up. So we’re moving slowly on purpose, everyone. Exhale, reach left. Inhale, reach up. Exhale, reach to the right. One more time, inhale up. Exhale, laugh. Inhale up. Exhale right. Inhale, reach back up. Exhale to your left, we’re going to hold, bring your hand to your hip. Breathe in, reach, exhale. So just following breath, inhale nice and deep. Reach, exhale, press your hips to the right, breathe in. Breathe out. Just one more, inhale.
6. If you can, reach a little further. Inhale, reach both arms up. Exhale, sway to your right. Inhale. Exhale, reach. Just stay on breath. Inhale. Exhale, reach. Great side stretch here, inhale. Exhale, last one, inhale, exhale, reach, hold, inhale, reach both arms up.
7. Now, place your hands on your knees like you’re a baseball player. With straight arms, pull your bum back, now reach your arms back. On your inhale, reach arms forward, up, look up, exhale arms back and down, inhale reach up, give them a swing, exhale back. Inhale, reach up, exhale back. One more time. Inhale, reached up. Exhale back. Reach your arms all the way up, this time interlock your fingers behind your head. Send your hips forward and just lay your head back for a moment here.
8. Now, root through your feet and send your hips forward. Can you really let your head go on your hands? What does that feel like? Open your elbows up just a little wider, one more breath, inhale, big stretch your lungs. Exhale, reach both arms up overhead. One more time, hands to your knees like a baseball player. This time drop your elbows to your knees if you can. If you have some low back stuff, stay right here. Otherwise you can drop elbows right here and look down, nice forward flexion.
9. Let’s take three breaths here. Inhale, pull your hips back, exhale. Again, finding breath. Inhale, hips back. Exhale. One more time, breathe in, sink your hips a little lower. Little dynamic movement, inhale, straighten legs. Exhale, bend your knees. So they don’t have to straighten completely. Inhale, straighten, matching movement and breath. Exhale, bent. Three more, inhale. Go find that breath, that’s the coherent breath. Exhale, nice and deep and rhythmic. Inhale. Exhale. This is it. Last one. Inhale. Exhale, bend deep and hold.
10. While we’re here, let’s take it to the floor. Come all the way down onto your belly. Dynamic backbend, so reach your arms out to the side legs together. On your inhale, lift up. Exhale, lower halfway. Inhale, lift, up. Exhale, low. So this is so healthy for our spines, everyone. Inhale, and lift up, Exhale, lower. Last one. Inhale, lift up, hold. Hold, reach. Reach through your fingers. Lift your chest, lift your legs, and release down.
11. We’ll take it onto our backs to finish up. So roll onto your back, straighten both legs out, and again, working dynamically. Pull your right knee in, give yourself a good hug here, good squeeze. Really helpful for your hips. Now breathe in, breathe out, switch your legs, left knee in, inhale. Exhale, switch your legs, inhale. Exhale. One more time, switch, inhale, squeeze, exhale. Bring both knees in, just give yourself a squeeze, and I’ll bring your knees to 90 degrees. Take your arms out to the side.
12. Take our final spinal twist here, our final movement. On your inhale, lower knees to your right. Look to your left. Exhale, lift to center. So they don’t need to touch. Inhale to your lift, good twist for your spine. Exhale, center. Following breath and movement, inhale, right. Exhale, center, inhale, left. Exhale, center. One more time. Inhale, right. Exhale center, inhale left. Exhale center. Now place your feet to the floor, straighten your legs, separate your feet everybody, spin your palms up so you’re like a snow angel, big and wide, and just close your eyes here and allow yourself these next few minutes to really connect into your body.
13. As you lay here in stillness, notice any sensations, any sense of coolness or heat. Maybe something’s tingling. Our body speaks to us through the language of sensation. And by connecting body and mind through breath and movement, our awareness is heightened.
14. We start to become more fluent in that language of sensations. So what are you feeling in your body? And finally, notice your breath. Just notice how your body is breathing, what it feels like to be inhaling, what changes in your ribs, around your back, and what happens when you exhale. Just noting, using your body, your breath, your pulsing, your sensations as anchors for your awareness in this mindfulness practice.
15. Now just open your eyes and notice what it feels like to be you right now in this moment. Do you feel more clear and calm? Or stable, or at ease. Maybe you feel more energized and ready for your day. Pull your knees to your chest and just roll over to one side. And roll on up, have a seat for one more moment. With your chin up and your gaze up. Thank yourself for making it through this practice. Thank yourself for giving yourself this gift of movement, of deep, coherent breathing, and of some stillness and silence.
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June 21, 2026
Free Meditation Apps Worthy of Your Attention
There’s no shortage of mindfulness and meditation apps these days, promising to help you combat anxiety, sleep better, hone your focus, and more. In fact, the Wall Street Journal reports that more than 2,000 new meditation apps launched between 2015 and 2018, and offerings have only increased as a result of higher demand during the pandemic—according to the New York Times, mindfulness apps surged in 2020. We took the overwhelm out of finding the most valuable and easy-to-use meditation apps that are available free and narrowed it down to these five apps.

Summary

Mindfulness.com
- Platforms: iOS, Android, web
- Highlights: Over 2,000 guided meditations with a customizable “For You” experience, quick mini exercises,sleep aids, and calming soundscapes.
- Paid Upgrade: Offers Mindfulness Plus+ for enhanced features like daily coaching.
Insight Timer
- Platforms: iOS, Android, web
- Highlights: Massive library of 80,000+ free meditations from 10,000+ teachers, live events, and a global community showing real-time meditation stats.
- Paid Upgrade: Annual subscription unlocks courses, offline downloads, and advanced player controls.
Smiling Mind
- Platforms: iOS, Android, web
- Highlights: Not-for-profit with structured programs for different age groups and needs, including quick sessions and family-friendly content.
- Cost: Entirely free with no premium options.
UCLA Mindful
- Platforms: iOS, Android
- Highlights: Developed by UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center, featuring bilingual guided meditations and research-based practices, plus longer “podcast” sessions.
- Cost: Free.
Healthy Minds Program
- Platforms: iOS, Android
- Highlights: Merges neuroscience with meditation training using a four-pillar approach (Awareness, Connection, Insight, Purpose) and offers micro practices for on-the-go mindfulness.
- Cost: Free.
5 Free Meditation Apps We’re Happy We Downloaded

1) Mindfulness.com

Available for iOS, Android, and web

Entry price: Free

With over 2,000 guided meditations from world-leading teachers, this app caters to both beginners and seasoned practitioners.

The interface includes five tabs: Mini, where you can find quick and easy mindfulness exercises you can do anytime throughout the day; Meditate, where you’ll find all of the app’s 2,000+ guided meditations; Sleep, which houses restful and relaxing meditations for deep sleep; Radio, where you can find mindfulness music and sound scapes for focus and calm; and finally the For You tab, which is really what makes this app stand out.

Throughout your use of this app, you’ll be prompted to provide information about your preferences, goals, and the type of support you’re looking for. The app will then offer personalized daily coaching videos paired with guided meditations on the For You tab. You can choose what length you’d like your daily meditations to be—from five to 30 minutes—depending on your schedule and level of practice. Opportunities to dive deeper include meditation courses, expert Q&As, breath work, journaling prompts, and more.

Whether you’re looking to reduce stress and anxiety or seeking support for overall mental health, the Mindfulness.com app is a solid resource. The multitude of functionalities offered by this app puts your mindfulness journey in your hands and enables you to grow in the direction of your choosing at your own pace.

Paid option: For $84.99 per year (with a 14-day free trial) or $169 for a lifetime membership, both with a 30-Day money-back guarantee, Mindfulness Plus+ includes: daily mindfulness video coaching and meditations; courses and tools to help manage anxiety, sleep, and stress; over 2,000 meditations, calm music, nature soundscapes, and more.

Available for iOS, Android, and web

Entry price: Free

Insight Timer has a huge library of content: over 80,000 free guided meditations from over 10,000 teachers on topics like stress, relationships, healing, sleep, creativity, and more.

Right from the beginning, the app feels like a global community—the world map on the home screen shows a collective of 18 million meditators, and announces, “741k today, 7k now.” After you finish a meditation, you’ll learn exactly how many people were meditating “with you” during that time—and by setting your location, you can even see meditators nearby and what tracks they’re listening to.

Once you find a teacher you enjoy—like Jack Kornfield, Tara Brach, Sharon Salzberg, or Rhonda Magee—you can follow them to make sure you don’t miss any new content. You can also tune in to free talks for life advice and inspiration. For those craving real-time interactions, Insight Timer offers live events every hour of the day to join on a whim or plan into your schedule.

You can even sign up to Circle for Teams, one of their newer offerings, which allows you to create circles (read: groups) to meditate in real-time with friends or colleagues.

If you prefer a quieter meditation, however, you can simply set a timer and meditate to intermittent bells, calming ambient noise, or soothing music.

Depending on your preferences, Insight Timer’s extensive collection can be either a blessing or a curse—an endless list of choices that leave you overwhelmed or a buffet of tempting options to sink your teeth into.

Paid option: For $60 per year (with a 30-day free trial), you get access to courses with well-known teachers, the ability to download meditations and listen offline, and advanced player functions like repeat mode and fast forward and rewind.

3) Smiling Mind

Available for iOS, Android, and web

Entry price: Free

Smiling Mind hits the sweet spot for a free mindfulness app in so many ways.

The not-for-profit app features hundreds of meditations, enough to keep you engaged without overwhelming you with choice. They are organized into structured programs like Mindful Foundations (35 sessions), Sleep (6 sessions), Digital Detox (8 sessions), and Stress Management (10 sessions), but you have the flexibility to choose where to start and to easily jump between programs. Most meditations are in the five- to fifteen-minute range, with a few practices up to 45 minutes for advanced meditators. Smiling Mind also offers bite-sized meditations between 2 to 5 minutes for moments when you’re in need of a quick, mindful pause in the day.

Downloaded by over 5.5 million people, the app also has a variety of specialized programs for families, children and teens of various ages, healthcare workers, and educators (including curricula they can use in the classroom); all developed with the help of psychologists and health professionals.

While you could use a meditation app as a temporary break from your hectic life, Smiling Mind wants you to take your mindfulness practice off the cushion and into the rest of your day. Interspersed with some of the meditation programs are instructions for “activities” like Journaling Exercise, Go Offline, Where Did My Food Come From, and Count Your Senses. In the Count Your Senses activity, for example, the audio prompts you to bring your attention to your senses by counting things that can be seen, felt, heard, smelled and tasted.

Smiling Mind was originally created for kids, so they offer a robust selection of kid- and youth-appropriate mindfulness sessions.

Created by a nonprofit by the same name, Smiling Mind is entirely free—so you don’t have the distraction of paid content that’s inaccessible to you as a free user. The app wants to put a “smile on your mind”—and it might just succeed.

Paid option: None

4) UCLA Mindful

Available for iOS and Android

Entry price: Free

If all the research on mindfulness has persuaded you that you need to meditate, the UCLA Mindful app could be a good place to start.

Developed by the Mindful Awareness Research Center at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), the app features about a dozen meditations of different types in English and Spanish. You can learn to focus on your breath, your body, or sounds; work with difficult emotions; and cultivate loving-kindness in sessions ranging from 3 to 19 minutes long.

If you’re new to mindfulness, you might choose to take advantage of their Getting Started section, which offers information on what mindfulness is, how to choose a meditation, which posture is best for your practice, and what research-backed benefits you might expect from it.

As a bonus, the app also offers longer meditations that it calls “podcasts.” These are half-hour audio recordings of meditations that include talks, typically by UCLA Director of Mindfulness Education Diana Winston, before and after the meditation, as well as plenty of silent practice time.

If you’re looking for an app that is heavily grounded in the science of mindfulness, you can put your trust in UCLA Mindful.

Paid option: None

5) Healthy Minds Program

Available for iOS and Android

Entry price: Free

The Healthy Minds Program app wants to help you develop the skills for a healthy mind—by strengthening mental focus, decreasing stress, and growing resilience, compassion, and better immune health.

Founded by neuroscientist Dr. Richard Davidson (who also founded the research institute Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison), the app integrates neuroscience and research-based techniques with meditation training to increase overall well-being.

The framework of the app’s mindfulness and well-being training is organized into four pillars: Awareness, Connection, Insight, and Purpose. Each pillar consists of three to five parts, and each part contains three series and multiple sessions within. For the Connection pillar, for example, the Innate Self-Worth series includes five sessions packaged to foster self-worth (think sessions like Practice Seeing the Good In Ourselves, and Learn Negativity Bias). You have a choice of either a Sitting or Active type of practice—“active” practices include guidance for being mindful while you exercise, or during your commute—and you can customize the length of time (five minutes to 30 minutes).

The app offers a collection of 27 meditations outside their four-pillar wellness framework, including one-minute Micro Practices for when you’re in need of a brief respite.

At times the podcast-style app may encourage more thinking compared to typical guided meditations, but for the listener who is seeking guided meditations with the greater goal to increase awareness, cognition, and well-being, Healthy Minds Program app may be just the ticket.

Paid option: None
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June 17, 2026
A Meditation on the Art of Stopping (Extended)
In this practice, teacher Shalini Bahl reminds us that in its simplest form, mindfulness is just about stopping—stopping to notice, to breathe, to gently interrupt our engrained habits of thought with our quiet presence.
We often think of mindfulness and meditation as a drawn-out, sustained exercise—when in reality, they’re just a collection of micro-moments of stopping, breathing, really noticing our own bodies and our own lives, getting distracted, and then coming back again. Over and over.

As this week’s teacher Shalini Bahl puts it, today’s guided practice is about the art of stopping: letting go of our regular habits of the mind—the pushing, pulling, running in circles— and instead just being for a moment.

This is an extended practice, but as a bonus, we’re also sharing a micro-practice version below that you can take into busy days.

And don’t miss Shalini’s article on Mindful.org that’s all about the power of micro-practices to affect our daily choices.

A Meditation on the Art of Stopping

Read and practice the guided meditation script below, pausing after each paragraph. Or listen to the audio practice.
1. Start by coming to a comfortable posture where you feel supported. If you need more cushions or something to support your back so you feel the elongation along the back of your spine and rolling your shoulders up, back, and down. Rest your hands facing palms up or palms down. When you feel ready, lower or close your eyes.
2. Receive the sound of the bells as an invitation to the mind to be fully present. To this body, to this breath. Notice the fact that you’re breathing. There’s no need to change your breath in any way. If it’s shallow, let it be shallow, if it’s deep, let it be deep. Just rest your awareness in this breath, entering your body, following it as far as it wants to go. Notice the slight pause when the in-breath changes to out-breath. Then rest in the awareness of that exhale until the out-breath fully leaves your body. And then the pause, resting in that pause before the breath enters the body.
3. Follow this cycle of breathing at your own pace, resting in awareness. You’re not thinking about your breath, you’re really starting to sense the breath, the coolness, the touch of the breath as soon as it enters your nostrils. Feel it move in your body, the expansion, as you breathe in, in your lungs, in your chest, in the belly, wherever you feel it. As you inhale, breathe in and then exhale, really sensing that contraction, the letting go.
4. Every time your mind wanders, which it will, just notice that with kindness. Let go of that thought for now, knowing you can always return to the plans, to your thoughts, after the practice. For now, just let go of those thoughts and return back to this awareness of the breath.
5. Just for these few moments, let go of any rushing, of any judging, of expectations. Allow yourself to breathe just the way you are, as you are. Give your full care and attention to every inhale. To every exhale. And the spaces in between.
6. When you’re ready, find one place in your body where you can really feel the direct sensations of breathing. It could be the touch of the breath in the nostrils or the upper lip region where you feel the coolness of the new breath entering the nose, the tingling in your nostrils, or the warmth as you exhale, touching your upper lip.
7. If it feels more natural for you, you can turn your attention to feel your breath in the region of your chest or your belly. Find that one place where you can feel the direct experience of breathing. For the next few minutes, stay there with the direct sensations of breathing. Again, keep it effortless, just a very gentle resting in that awareness of the breath.
8. If it feels dull, you can open your eyes a little bit. Make your inhale more conscious. If your mind is really active, give more attention to the exhale, the slowing down of your exhale.
9. What we are practicing here is the art of stopping and letting go—letting go of our distractions, of our regular habits of the mind, of pushing, pulling, running in circles. We’re just being here, fully present to your breath, allowing yourself to feel your breath directly.
10. Notice your expectations of what’s next, of how things should be, even how this practice should be. Notice how your attachments can get in the way of your experience of inner calm in this moment. Soften the grip of those attachments and just return to your direct experience of the breath. Just this one breath.
11. Now, expand your awareness of this breath, of the feeling of this breathing in your whole body. You can stay either focused on that one place or you can expand the awareness of this breath moving through your body. Feel your whole body breathing in, breathing out. Notice those micro-moments of letting go of distractions and staying present.
12. Before we end this practice, take a few moments to listen within to what’s present. Just listen, taking a few moments to listen as your mind and body are a little calmer. Maybe there’s clarity of way you can bring in more of this practice of inner calm in your life, whether it’s in your relationships, with yourself, in your work. Just listen within to where this practice of inner calm can be most skillful, most beneficial to you and your loved ones. May we carry forward these qualities of inner and outer calm in all our actions and interactions.
Micro-practice here:
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June 5, 2026
A Meditation to Bring Comfort and Kindness to Pain and Illness
Chronic, complex medical conditions rarely have easy answers—but as meditation teacher Juliana Sloane reminds us in this soothing practice, we can always meet our suffering with creativity, gentleness, and compassion.
Learning to live with pain and illness is challenging, arduous work. Often, people can go for months or even years without sufficient answers. Life gets turned completely upside down. The body you thought you had suddenly becomes something you don’t recognize or know how to work with.

This week, meditation teacher and hypnotherapist Juliana Sloane offers an imaginative meditation that invites softness and self-compassion in the midst of discomfort.

A Meditation to Bring Comfort and Kindness to Pain and Illness

Read and practice the guided meditation script below, pausing after each paragraph. Or listen to the audio practice.
1. In this meditation, we’ll be using some imaginative and mindfulness-based practices to work with discomfort or illness or pain in the body. These practices have been shown to be very supportive for symptom management, as well as finding ways to meet challenging health situations with more patience, more kindness, and more space.
2. Begin by getting comfortable, allowing yourself to find a place seated or lying down where you can really relax. Close your eyes if that feels comfortable, or soften your gaze.
3. Imagine that right now, any place in your body where you rest your attention could begin to soften and relax and get more comfortable. Begin by resting your attention on the muscles around your mouth. Invite those muscles around your mouth to move into relaxation, ease, comfort, letting those muscles just let go.
4. Now notice the space inside your mouth. The surface area of the roof of your mouth, the sides of your cheek. Rest your attention on the back of your tongue. And allowing the back of your tongue to begin to relax. Let that tongue come down maybe from the roof of the mouth or allow it to just soften or loosen or come into resting.
5. Bring your awareness to the cheeks and jaw and just let that jaw, those cheeks loosen and soften. You might feel the mouth open slightly as you do, or you might feel those cheeks just get heavier and looser.
6. Bring your attention now to the muscles around and behind the eyes. Let those muscles around the eyes relax.
7. Move your attention up to the forehead, letting those muscles in the forehead soften and relax. Notice the top of your head and imagine that as you rest your attention there on the top of the head, you could even allow the scalp to relax.
8. Now slide your attention down the back of your head, almost like that relaxation could just flow down the back of your head. Down your neck and shoulders, letting those shoulders loosen and soften and relax.
9. Notice the space between your shoulder blades, and breathe that sense of softening and relaxation into that space. Let your attention flow down to your arms and hands, inviting every muscle in those arms and hands to begin to relax and soften, as if those arms and hands could just get heavy, as if they’re saturated with that comfort, that ease, that relaxation.
10. Let that same softness flow down into your chest and belly. Down into your legs and your feet.
11. Now, choose a sensation that doesn’t feel too overwhelming. It might be a specific symptom or a place where there’s pain in the body. Rest your attention there on that place where the symptom has been, or the place where you’re experiencing discomfort. Get a little closer to it with a sense of curiosity and creativity and even resourcefulness.
12. Now imagine: if this sensation had a color, what color would it be? You might notice the specific color, whether it’s dark or light. Notice how big that color is, how much space it takes up. Imagine what qualities, what resources this color might need—for example, maybe it needs kindness. Maybe it needs patience. Maybe it needs more understanding.
13. Sense into what might support this color here in the body. When you land on that, allow yourself to imagine if that resource, if that supportive quality had a color, what color would that be? Once you have that supportive, beautiful quality in its colo, imagine that you could take this resource, this support, this other helpful color, and you could wrap it around that first color. And as you do, you can imagine that now this supportive color is moving into that space and changing the color of the entire area, filling it with that supportive, resourcing energy of that color. You might imagine this almost like you were wrapping that area with color and that color had a healing balm or a medicinal quality to it as you infuse the space with that color, bringing that kindness or that patience or that understanding.
14. Imagine that that supportive, beautiful color could begin to move outward. It could fill the body so that you could rest in this color.
15. Spend some quiet time with this image. Notice what’s different. Know that right now, you can send that color that’s so supportive, so soothing into any place it’s needed. Let’s rest in that color for one more moment. Then, gently come back into the room, stretching and opening your eyes.
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June 3, 2026