Health Journal Online

Tag: Minute

  • Visualize Thoughts as Clouds in the Sky: 12 Minute Meditation

    Visualize Thoughts as Clouds in the Sky: 12 Minute Meditation

    Gently let go of attachment to your thoughts with a technique called “cognitive defusion” from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy.

    In this practice, you’ll explore how to allow your thoughts to come and go without feeling the need to hold onto them or push them away. This technique, called “cognitive defusion,” is part of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and it uses the visualization of thoughts as clouds to guide you through this process in a soothing and mindful way.

    A Guided Meditation to Visualize Your Thoughts As Clouds In the Sky

    1. You can do this exercise with your eyes open or your eyes closed, either in a seated position or lying down. Just choose a posture that’s most comfortable for you.
    2. Take a couple of gentle, long breaths. Let your breath ground you in your body and in the present moment. 
    3. Notice yourself sitting or lying here. Notice the sensations that are on your skin. Notice what it’s like inside your body—any places of tension are holding, any emotions that might be present for you right now. 
    4. Now, imagine that you are lying in a vast, spacious field, looking up at the sky. Imagine what it would feel like to lie here, letting yourself sink into the ground below. Bring your attention and your awareness to looking up at the sky, being present in the field, watching the clouds. 
    5. As you lie here, you may begin to notice that thoughts come into your awareness. Each time you notice the thought, imagine placing it on one of the clouds, and letting it float on by in the sky. You can place your thoughts on these clouds, whether they’re positive thoughts or negative thoughts, pleasant thoughts or unpleasant thoughts. Your job is just to be aware of the sky, noticing the clouds. 
    6. If there is space between your thoughts, notice that space as you would notice the space between the clouds, like the blue sky that lies behind it all.
    7. You might have thoughts about doing this exercise. You might think something like This is boring or It’s not working or I don’t like this or When is it going to end? That’s normal, and you can place those thoughts on clouds as well, allowing them to pass on through. 
    8. If a thought gets stuck, you don’t have to force it to go away. You can allow it to be stuck there. Make space for it. Let it settle on its cloud. Let it hang around, for a little while. All you’re doing is just observing your experience. There’s no need to force the thought to go away. 
    9. If you notice some feelings like boredom or impatience, that’s okay. You can say to yourself, Here is a feeling of boredom. Here is a feeling of impatience. And you can pick it up and put it on a cloud as well.
    10. It’s normal and natural to lose track during this exercise. When that happens, just catch yourself and bring yourself back to lying in this field, looking up at the sky and placing thoughts. You are becoming an observer of your own mind. You are not your thought. Thoughts are coming and going like the clouds in the sky. Some are slow. Some are fast. And you are observing it all. 
    11. Now, allow the image to begin to dissolve. Bring your awareness back into your body, feeling your breath inside your body. Notice sensations on your skin, the temperature of the air, your body touching the ground. Feel yourself fully present back in your body.
    12. When you’re ready, open your eyes and you can bring yourself fully back into the room. Thank you for practicing with me. I hope that you can bring this practice into your day to day and that it’s helpful for you. 



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  • 7 Minute Ageless Body

    7 Minute Ageless Body

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  • Filling the Body With Light: 12 Minute Meditation

    Filling the Body With Light: 12 Minute Meditation

    Vidyamala Burch guides us through a calming body scan meditation that focuses on bringing light and ease into the body.

    This guided body scan for filling the body with light invites you to imagine a soft, soothing sensation radiating throughout your body, helping to ease any tension and cultivate a sense of relaxation. As you move through this meditation, you’ll have the opportunity to release stress and connect deeply with a feeling of inner peace, bringing lightness into your body and mind.

    A Guided Meditation for Filling the Body with Light

    1. Begin by lying down. If this is uncomfortable for any reason, then of course, adopt another posture. 
    2. Allow your awareness to settle down into the body. Take a deep breath in and then on the outbreath, give the weight up to gravity. Drop awareness into the points of contact between the body and the surface it’s resting upon. 
    3. Allow the breathing to settle and to find its own natural rhythm. Sense the swelling on the in breath and subsiding on the out breath in the whole body. 
    4. Let your awareness flow down through the body, down through the legs all the way into the toes, feeling any sensations in the toes. If you can’t feel anything for any reason, that’s fine. Just see if you can be aware of the toes of inhabiting the toes with awareness. 
    5. Imagine that the toes are filled with light, with spaciousness, with ease. Let the sense flow down into the feet, the tops, the ankles. Imagine the feet drenched in light, drenched in radiance, drenched and open in their softness.
    6. Next, allow the sense to pour up through the ankles into the lower legs. Let this quality of light of radiance overflow and pour into the knees, filling into the shape of the knees, whatever position they’re in. Visualize it pulling up and saturating the thighs, the big muscles of the thighs, the bones, the thighs full of this radiant awareness. 
    7. If you’ve got any discomfort anywhere in the legs of the feet, see if it can be soothed and softened by this quality of light and radiance. Next, envision it pouring up through the hips and the buttocks. Let the buttocks be soft, whether you’re lying down or sitting. Full of life, full of radiance. 
    8. Next, allow this quality to pour up and to fill the abdomen, the belly. Feel it deep inside the body, noticing the way the abdomen swells a little bit on the end breath and subsides on the outbreath, being careful not to force or strain, letting this be the natural breath with receptive awareness. Now allow this quality of light to pour up into the whole chest area, the ribs and the lungs filled with the rhythm of breathing. 
    9. Feel the breath expanding the face on the in breath and subsiding the face on the outbreath. Be aware of the whole front of the torso, the abdomen and the chest full of light. Allow awareness to rest in the rhythm of breathing. Expanding. Subsiding. Expanding. Subsiding. 
    10. Now allow your awareness to flow all the way down to the buttocks and the back of the body. Let this quality of light pour up into the lower back. Can you feel breathing expressing itself in the lower back in any way? Perhaps an expanding and a subsiding. Maybe the angle or the shape is changing a little bit with each in and out breath. If there’s any discomfort, see if you can let it be soothed and softened by this quality of light, radiance, and the rhythm of breathing. 
    11. Now imagine this quality pouring up through the whole back of the body, the middle back and the upper back, the length of the spine, the breadth of the back. Notice the rhythm of breathing, expressing itself in the whole back of the body. Opening, subsiding, opening, subsiding, filling the whole torso, the front, the back, the sides, the inside, the surface. Feel the soothing, gentle lights and the rhythm of breathing and the whole torso soothing any hard edges, softening any contraction. 
    12. Let this quality pour through the shoulders, all the way down to the very tips of the fingers. Envision the shoulders, the arms, the hands, the fingers all becoming drenched and saturated and light. Feel the gentle, soothing quality, letting the hands rest in gravity. Let the shoulders fall away from the midline of the body as the arms rest in gravity. 
    13. Now allow your awareness to flow up into the neck and the head. If you’re lying down, make sure you’re giving the weight of the head up to the pillow with the cushion fully. If you’re sitting, have the head poised on the top of the neck as best you can. Allow this quality of light and radiance to completely saturate the whole head, even the brain. Even the brain can rest in this quality of brightness! Feel it moving through your whole face: forehead, eyes, cheeks, nose, lips, jaw, tongue, mouth. Imagine them all full of softness, full of light. 
    14. Finally, let’s expand awareness to the whole body: the legs, the torso, the arms, neck, head, face. Rest your awareness very deeply inside this quality of the whole body being filled with light, filled with ease, or the possibility of ease, and breathing. Any hard edges, any contraction soothed and eased by breath by light, by this quality of resting here moment by moment. 
    15. As we begin to prepare to bring this meditation to a close, see how it feels to form an intention to take this quality with you into your day, if you’re doing this during the day, or into your sleep, if you’re doing it in the evening. This quality of rest is light, brightness, and softness. When it comes time to move, do it gently and carefully as you prepare to engage with whatever you’re going to do next. Thank you so much for practicing with me today. 



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  • 12 Minute Meditation for Noticing What’s Present and What Isn’t

    12 Minute Meditation for Noticing What’s Present and What Isn’t

    Explore this mediation inspired by the Japanese concept of ma, which refers to “the spaces between everything.”

    Today’s practice offers a unique approach to training our attention and invites us to explore the empty spaces that exist all around us and inside us. 

    For instance, we might think of the space between the plants in the garden, or between the notes in a song. It can also be emotional space, like the silences in a conversation. Or the little gaps between our thoughts and emotions. 

    Often, we don’t even notice these empty spaces—but bringing our awareness to them can reveal new meaning and beauty. By exploring the space in-between through this mindfulness practice, we also enhance our creativity, noticing skills, and awareness. 

    A Guided Meditation for Noticing What’s Present and What Isn’t

    1. This practice is inspired by the Japanese notion of Ma, the idea of examining that space that exists between everything that’s not actually empty, but is full of potential. 
    2. Start by finding a comfortable posture. When you’re ready, you can simply begin to lower or close your eyes, whichever is most comfortable for you.
    3. Now, bring awareness to your breath. Watch and feel the rise and fall of the inhale and exhale. Then, tune also to the spaces between. What is the moment when the exhale finishes before it turns into the inhale? Or the inhale turns into the exhale? Allow your awareness to rest in the stillness between your breaths. 
    4. Next, turn your attention to your heartbeat, your pulse. See if you can find that in your body, the sensations or sounds of your heartbeat, and the spaces between each heartbeat.
    5. Whether you’re sitting or laying down, notice now spaces where your body makes contact with the world. What’s behind or underneath you? Feel where your skin makes contact with your clothing, and tune your awareness to these sensations and the spaces between. 
    6. Scanning through your body, notice sensations as you might in a body scan, deeper in your body. See if you can pick up on the spaces between, where you notice almost no sensation, or between sensations in space or in time. 
    7. Shifting to your other senses now, just listen and notice the sounds around you. Near or far, left or right. Notice all the sounds, and the sounds even within sounds, as well as the spaces and the silences between the sounds. Tune into smells and tastes as you breathe, noticing where these land and the spaces between. 
    8. Allow your eyes to open and be aware of when they go from closed to open. Holding your eyes steady, just notice what you see around you and within your field of vision. Furniture or other objects in the space around you. The shapes of all the objects in your field of vision, as well as shapes and sizes of the spaces in between. Beyond the objects, see the walls, the corners where walls come together. Rooms and the spaces between them. Is there perhaps something new you’ve never noticed before? When does light become shadow? Colors and hues—when does one color become the next? Continue to notice these and other spaces between in the physical space around you.
    9. You can also explore your own mind, your own experience of the space between thoughts, emotions, memories in your mind. Rest there when you find it. Explore what’s happening, what could be happening, the potential in all of these spaces between. Continue here for the next few moments.
    10. As you continue with the rest of your day, keep staying attuned to spaces between. Between inside and outside. The shapes between the clouds or the stars in the night sky. The lull between the waves of the ocean. Stillness between the raindrops. Space between you and other people, physical and emotional. Between a joke and a laugh, a question and an answer. Between waking and opening your eyes. Continue to seek out, explore, and rest in all of these spaces between and see if your perspective doesn’t slowly begin to shift on the world around you, and the world inside of you. 

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  • Embracing Our Neurodiversity: 12 Minute Meditation

    Embracing Our Neurodiversity: 12 Minute Meditation

    This week, Sue Hutton guides us in a unique breathing practice designed to foster awareness of our senses, honoring our neurodiversity while strengthening our mindfulness practice.

    We live in a neurologically-diverse world. We are all wired with unique minds and bodies, and each of us has a unique sensory constitution. For instance, someone who experiences sensory overwhelm when they pay attention to direct sensations inside the body may find a body scan practice overwhelming instead of centering. Similarly, someone who is blind isn’t going to use physical vision as a meditation tool. But there are ways to practice mindfulness and embrace our neurodiversity at the same time.

    Breath practice, often considered a simple tool for calming the mind, can be a more complex and nuanced experience for many neurodivergent meditators. For some, paying close attention to the rise and fall of the breath can bring about feelings of discomfort or even anxiety, as thoughts about the breath’s role in sustaining life may become all-consuming rather than calming.

    This practice is about finding the right approach for you and honoring our neurodiversity. We will cover different ways to engage with the breath that accommodate our diverse sensory needs, offering alternatives that can help each of us find a sense of calm and ease. Whether it’s focusing on the sensation of air moving in and out of your nostrils, the sound of your breath, or even the rhythm of your breath as you feel it in different parts of your body, there are multiple pathways to mindful breathing.

    A Guided Meditation for Embracing Neurodiversity Through Breath Awareness

    1. We all benefit from learning different ways of meditating on the breath. So let’s try out three different ways of feeling the breath in the body, and you can determine which one works best for you. 
    2. Remember, you don’t need to push yourself to experience anything that’s overwhelming. If there’s any kind of sense experience you have that is particularly uncomfortable, just take a break and you can come to another way of practicing the breath. 
    3. Come into a posture that’s comfortable for you. Bring yourself to a spirit of alertness and energy to help you concentrate. At the same time, give yourself permission to relax and soften. 
    4. The first practice I’d like to try is sound breathing. Some people really find this more comforting than focusing on the feelings of the breath inside the body. 
    5. To practice sound breathing, hold a hand up in front of your mouth and just exhale on the palm of your hand. You’ll notice you have to increase the exhalation a little bit, so there’s enough volume to hear the breath and to feel it on the palm of your hand. Once again, exhale on the palm of your hand and listen. Now continue to breathe in and out, but with the mouth closed. Keep the same volume, so there’s enough sound to allow the breath itself to be an anchor through the sound. Breathing in and out, focus on the sound of your breath through your nose. Relax the body on the outbreath in a way that’s comfortable for you, focusing on the sound. 
    6. Next, we’ll try a kinesthetic way of experiencing the breath that I call “lotus breathing.” Take one hand or two hands, whatever’s available for you, and allow the fingers to come to a close, just touching each other. Then, open the hand up again, like a flower opening in the day and then closing again, with the fingers coming back together again. Breathing in, the hands open, breathing out, hands close. Try that for a few moments and see how closely you can synchronize the rhythm of your breath with that gentle movement of your hand. 
    7. Lastly, let’s try a movement-focused breath. Place a hand on the belly and a hand on the chest. Allow yourself to soften. You’ll feel that nice, compassionate warmth of the hands resting on the body.
    8. You can notice this from the outside, if that’s comfortable—feeling how the hands rise up when you breathe in. And as you exhale, the hands rest back down with the belly in the chest. 
    9. Alternatively, you can choose to pay attention to the mechanism inside the body of the belly rising and falling. So breathing in, notice the feeling wherever it’s comfortable for you, of the rising and the falling on the exhalation. Then, fully let go on the outbreath. Give yourself permission to release and soften and relax every time you breathe out. 
    10. Now try experiencing the breath with the anchor that works best for you. Experiment with which tool you prefer, or combine them if you want. Remember, you’re the boss of your meditation. As long as you’re bringing your full awareness to the experience and you keep guiding yourself back to the present moment, you have the freedom to connect with the breath in the way that it works for you.
    11. Remember, make your breath your own when you do the practices. Be gentle. Be compassionate with yourself. You are perfect as you are and finding the tools that help you to come into the present moment. The best is your own personal journey.



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