Health Journal Online

Tag: Podcast

A Meditation for Unconditional Love When You’re Struggling
In this guided meditation, Caverly Morgan invites us to move beyond “positive thinking” in difficult moments and instead tap into a deep well of unconditional love for ourselves
When we’re wrestling with experiences that challenge our identities or our confidence—like failures at work, relationship struggles, or letting go of old belief systems—it can be tempting to reach for positive self-talk that pushes back against the difficult feelings we might be having.

In today’s guided practice, Caverly Morgan offers something much sturdier, what she calls unconditional reassurances.

In this practice, we’re not just saying the opposite of what we’re feeling, hoping that it will be true. Rather, it’s about anchoring into a deep-down sense of worthiness and compassion that’s always present, regardless of how well things are going for us or how great we feel about ourselves in any given moment. It’s the difference between saying, Don’t feel bad! You’re the best! and saying, Whether you succeed or you don’t, I love you no matter what.

A Meditation for Unconditional Love When You’re Struggling

Read and practice the guided meditation script below, pausing after each paragraph. Or listen to the audio practice.
1. I invite you to begin this meditation with three of the longest and deepest inhalations and exhalations you’ve taken yet today. So often we take the breath for granted. Give yourself permission right now to simply enjoy breathing.
2. Picture a moment in your life in which you are struggling. If the scale is one to ten, ten being the greatest struggle you’ve ever known, pick something in the middle. Think of some time, perhaps in your recent past, when you were resisting what is, or seeking a different experience.
3. Notice what you were saying to yourself as you were struggling. Or to be even more accurate, what “the judge” was asserting, maybe commanding. Maybe for you there wasn’t any negative self-talk present, or perhaps the voice of the inner critic wasn’t alive in that moment. But for most of us, in moments of struggle the judge is somewhere on the scene. For this contemplation, see if you can get a sense of what’s being said.
4. Now see yourself as the one who’s listening to the judge. Really play with this in your imagination. Maybe you even see a young part of you that’s taking this message in. You might even let yourself feel, consciously identifying with this young part of you feeling what they feel.
5. From this space, ask, What do I need to hear? What do I need to know? If it’s not this, what is it?
6. Now in this struggle, take on the feeling as though you’re drowning, flailing your limbs around. See someone sitting on a dock nearby. Someone that really loves you, knows you, sees you. It might not be a real person in your life. It might be a kind stranger that is walking by the lake and doesn’t want to see you drown. See this person? With a bright, shiny, brand new life preserver in their hand, see them tossing it to you as your arms flail. Let yourself grab on to it.
7. If there were messages inscribed on this life preserver, what would the messages be? Perhaps it’s really simple. Like, I’m here. You don’t need to flail around any longer. You can hang on to me. I’ve got you. What phrases light up for you? What sentiments? Touch that unmet need. There’s no right or wrong here.
8. What is important is that the sentiments are unconditional. If they were to come in the form of phrases, they’re phrases that have no opposite. For example, they wouldn’t be something like, You’re a winner! Rather, they would be things like, I love you no matter what.
9. Take a moment now to say these phrases to yourself. Offer this part of you who’s been struggling unconditional Love. It’s not transactional or based on performance. Offer that now. Really see the part of you that needs to hear these things, needs to know these things.
10. If it feels difficult to access unconditional Love in this moment, that is absolutely fine. It’s just not the right moment to touch it. A part of you might be blocking the love. That’s always in the backdrop of our experience, but they can often feel out of reach. See if you can touch this love, this recognition that you are worthy.
11. Next, play with the image of releasing the life preserver. Just breathing and floating in the sea of presence. You don’t need to strive. Floating isn’t the byproduct of your hard work and your effort to do this “right.” It is your nature to float, just as it is your nature to love. If you meditate to be a better person, you’ll always be busy trying to be a better person. If you meditate because you’re in love, resting in your own luminous, infinite being in this sea of love, you’ll always be in love.
12. For one more full minute, let yourself rest in love. I’ll stop talking now. And if you wish to rest in this way for longer than a minute, I invite you to do so. If you need to move into your day, just give yourself one more minute before doing so. Resting in love. Letting yourself float. Thank you.
Source link
March 21, 2025
A Guided Meditation for Coming Home to Yourself
In this guided practice, Georgina Miranda invites you to pause, reflect, and reconnect with your inner strength.
This article is independently researched and written by the Mindful editors. However, we may earn revenue or commission if you purchase via links included.

In a world that constantly pulls us in different directions—from productivity and external validation to endless distractions—coming home to ourselves is one of the most powerful things we can do. True resilience isn’t about pushing through; it’s about creating an inner refuge, a place of strength and safety that stays steady no matter what’s happening around us.

That’s what we’re exploring in Coming Home to Yourself, a meditation guided by Georgina Miranda. This meditation invites you to pause, reflect, and reconnect with your inner strength. Georgina reminds us that while mindfulness can be a refuge in difficult times, its real power comes from regular practice. This meditation is an opportunity to reset, find stability, and ground yourself in the present moment.

A Meditation for Coming Home to Yourself with Georgina Miranda
1. Find a quiet space where you will not be distracted. Take a seat on the floor or on a chair. Keep your spine straight. Place your palms on your lap facing up. Close your eyes or simply lower your gaze. Ease into your seat.
2. Start connecting with your breath. If your mind is busy, you can count your breaths as above to refocus and slow down.
3. Connect with the rhythm of your breath. With each inhale ground yourself a little more into your seat. With each exhale let go of any tension, worries, doubts, or fears that arise.
4. As you inhale next, feel the beauty of the breath moving through your body. Connect with a sense of renewal and ease.
5. As you exhale, release any remaining tension a little bit more, embracing a feeling of lightness come over you.
6. As you inhale, softly mentally affirm, “I am safe, I am home.”
7. As you exhale, softly mentally affirm, “I am well, and at ease.”
8. Continue with these affirmations and cycles of breath until you feel a shift within you. Feel your sense of safety, joy, ease, and peace and with each breath come home more to yourself.
More From Georgina Miranda

Take back your power, ease your suffering, and create space for growth, renewal, and intentional living with Reset and Let Go: The Freedom to Live Fully, a transformative course by Georgina Miranda. Rooted in mindfulness, self-awareness, and practical tools for transformation, this journey will help you release what no longer serves you, reset your mindset, and embrace the life you truly want to live.
Source link
February 23, 2025
A “Just Like Me” Practice to Expand Your Circle of Compassion: 12 Minute Meditation
The invitation with this practice is to put aside ideas and concepts about differences, shame, fear, survival, and the rest, and to simply see if you can begin to develop a felt sense of common humanity. What you are tapping into here is the awareness that all of us wish for happiness and freedom from suffering, that this too is a part of our common humanity.

A “Just Like Me” Practice to Expand Your Circle of Compassion

This meditation is inspired by the writing and teaching of Thupten Jinpa in his book A Fearless Heart: How the courage to be compassionate can transform our lives.
1. Take some time to settle into your body for a few minutes, allowing your attention to drop inside. Take note of whatever is present in the way of sensation inside your body. You may notice the touch of clothing, the pressure of the supporting surface on certain parts of your body, or just sensations of coolness or warmth, relaxation or tension, ease or discomfort. Take note of where and how you are in this moment. You may notice the movement of breath into and out of the body as well, recognizing that the breath has continued to move on its own since you last attended to it.
2. Imagine someone whom you hold dear, someone who brings a smile to your face when you think of them, someone with whom you have a relatively easy and uncomplicated relationship. This may be a family member like a child, a grandparent, or even a pet. Try to go beyond the idea of this being and see if you can actually feel what it feels like to be in their presence.
3. Notice any pleasant feelings that may arise as you hold this beloved being in your awareness and see how easy it is to acknowledge that they, too, have the same aspiration for genuine happiness that you have.
4. Now call to mind someone else, someone that you recognize but don’t have much meaningful interaction with and don’t feel any particular closeness to. This may be a person whom you see quite often, on the street, behind the counter at your favorite coffee shop, or driving the bus you take regularly. Notice what feelings arise for you as you picture this person and how these feelings may be different from what you felt in regard to the loved one you imagined first.
5. See if you can imagine what it might be like to be this person. Usually, we don’t give much thought to the happiness of people in neutral roles in our lives like this. Imagine their life, their hopes and fears, which are every bit as real, complex, and challenging as yours. You may even recognize a certain similarity between yourself and this other person at the level of your common humanity. “Just like me, she wishes to be happy and to avoid even the slightest suffering.”
6. Next, take some time to see if you can call to mind someone you don’t know at all, and who seems very much unlike you at first glance. Perhaps an image comes to mind from the news or in your imagination or from your previous travels. Maybe consider someone facing hardships far different from your own right now. Perhaps you might call to mind someone who doesn’t look like you . . . or someone who has an entirely different cultural background or life circumstances. You may find yourself thinking just now of people suffering through war or resisting tyranny anywhere on the globe.
7. Take the time to see if you can look past the differences to what you have in common with this person or these people. Imagine looking into their eyes, sitting with them in meditation, feeling just a little of the joy and pain and sorrow and fear that they may experience . . . simply because they are human, just like you.
8. See if you can put yourself in this person’s shoes for a moment, recognizing that they are an object of deep concern to someone, a parent or a spouse, a child or a dear friend of someone. Begin to acknowledge that even this person who seems so different has the same fundamental aspiration for happiness that you have. Allow your attention to stay with this awareness for some period of time (say 20 to 30 seconds). Allow thoughts and feelings to come and go as they will, as you remain present to whatever arises, with no other agenda but to observe and be kind to yourself in that presence.
9. Finally, see if you can bring together these three people in one mental picture in front of you. Take some time to reflect on the fact that they all share a basic yearning to be happy and free from suffering. At this dimension, there is no difference between these three people. In this fundamental aspect, they are exactly the same. Just take the time to relate to these three beings from that perspective, from the point of view that they share the aspiration for happiness and a kind of perfect imperfection.
10. Now include yourself in this circle of awareness, reminding yourself that:
  These people have feelings, thoughts, and emotions, just like me.
  These people, during their lives, have experienced physical and emotional pain and suffering, just like me. These people have been sad, disappointed, angry or worried, just like me.
  These people have felt unworthy or inadequate at times, just like me. These people have longed for connection, purpose, and belonging, just like me.
  These people want to be happy and free from pain and suffering, just like me. These people want to be loved, just like me.
11. With this deep recognition that the desires to be happy and to overcome suffering are common to all, silently repeat this phrase: “Just like me, all others aspire to happiness and want to overcome suffering.”
12. Take some time to sit with whatever wishes or feelings arise from this practice, allowing them to arise and fall away. Your only agenda is to notice and take note of their arising.
Adapted from Self-Compassion for Dummies by Steven Hickman.
Source link
February 7, 2025
A 12-Minute Meditation to Meet Difficult Emotions With Compassion
This guided meditation is a simple practice to help us navigate the ups and downs of everyday life challenges with a kind and open heart.
Often when we’re struggling with challenging situations or emotions, the things that feel the most supportive aren’t complex techniques, but just simple, down-to-earth practices.

In this podcast episode, teacher and leadership trainer Carley Hauck introduces a practice for working with difficult emotions that’s all about noticing the body and visualizing the support, care, and wisdom to stay present to the right-now experience. In a world that feels increasingly complex and uncertain, Carley’s guidance is like a gentle hand on the back, encouraging us to slow down and find calm amidst the chaos. She shows us how to face life’s challenges with a kind and open heart, reminding us that it’s okay to feel overwhelmed sometimes.

A Guided Meditation for Working With Difficult Emotions
1. For this meditation, allow yourself to come into a comfortable sitting position. Feel your feet firmly planted on the floor. Notice your posture as you’re sitting. Allow your shoulders and your upper back to relax.
2. Begin to notice the rhythm of your breath as you breathe in and out. It may even be helpful to place one hand on your lower abdomen. And as you breathe in, you feel the stomach rise. And as you breathe out, you feel the stomach fall.
3. Start to notice the slowing down of your heart rate, of your blood pressure, allowing you to fully be here in this present moment.
4. Bring to mind a situation that occurred recently where you felt sadness or disappointment. It doesn’t need to be the most difficult experience, but just something moderately difficult so that you can practice. It may even be something that hasn’t happened yet, but that you are feeling sad, disappointed, or anxious about.
5. Turn your attention to the physical body. As you’re reflecting on this situation of sadness, what do you feel in the body right now? Is there tightness or tension behind the eyes? Is there a heaviness in the shoulders or your head? What are you aware of right now?
6. With a compassionate curiosity, turn towards your experience. Everything is welcome right now.
7. If you find it difficult to be with what’s arising, that’s okay. Use the breath as a stabilizer, helping you to fully be here to whatever is arising and passing in the mind and the body and the heart. It might also help to name the feelings that are here for you, like sadness, loss, or disappointment.
8. If this feels comfortable for you, allow yourself to imagine a wise and loving figure who is cradling you. They have enveloped you with strong and loving arms. And they’re stroking your head and repeating, “It’s okay. I am here for you.” Let yourself take that in. Receive the support.
9. If there’s anything else that you need to hear to really feel supported right now, allow that to come into your awareness. What words or gestures would feel most comforting and helpful?
10. Notice what’s happening in your physical body as you receive this support. Is there heaviness? Is there peace? Acceptance?
11. When you’re feeling ready, you can thank this loving figure for its support and presence. You are centered, strong, resilient. And you are ready to meet the day.
12. When you feel ready, allow yourself to slowly transition back into your day—slowly open your eyes, feel your feet on the floor, notice your surroundings. Thank you for your practice today.
Never Miss a Meditation

Enter your email below to get new podcast episodes delivered straight to your inbox! You’ll also get insights from expert mindfulness teachers and exclusive deals on Mindful Shop products, events, and more.
Source link
January 28, 2025
Find Stability Amid Change With A 12-Minute Meditation
In this meditation on impermanence, Aden Van Noppen reminds us that when the outside world feels overwhelming, we can often find inner calm by coming back to the breath.
We live in a world of constant change and this week, Aden Van Noppen invites us to find what roots us. Aden is the founder and executive director of Mobius, a collaboration between leading neuroscientists, meditation teachers, and technologists to work toward the creation of digital technology that enhances our individual and collective well-being. Aden is also one of the 10 powerful women of the mindfulness movement 2022, and here she guides a meditation on impermanence.

A 12-Minute Meditation to Find Stability Amid Change
1. Let’s begin with a little grounding. Gently move your attention to the place where you are most rooted to the Earth. Whether that’s the bottom of your feet or where your body rests on a chair or a cushion, take a moment to just rest your attention there. Feeling the rootedness. Feeling the ground, the floor, the chair, the cushion holding you, holding your weight, grounding you.
2. Gently move your attention toward your breath. Take a relaxed breath, feeling the in- and out-breath like a wave. A wave of breath in and the wave as it moves out with your breath out. And just like the quality of a wave, it’s washing over you and through you. You don’t have to control it. In and out, without controlling it.
3. And just like a wave, no two breaths are the same. And just like every moment, no two moments are the same. Let this breath be a reminder of impermanence. As you breathe in, you can gently say to yourself, “This breath.” Each moment, each breath is a chance to begin again. “This breath.” Just like a wave.
4. As you take in your next breath, imagine the feeling of soaking up the nutrients of that breath, the life force of that breath, and with your out-breath, letting go. In—”Soaking up.” Out—”Letting go.” “Soaking up. Letting go.” Just as we do over and over in our lives. “Soaking up. Letting go. “ And combining them: “This breath. Letting go.”
5. As we transition to close this meditation, gently move your attention away from the wave of your breath and back to the rootedness of your seat, of your feet, wherever your weight is held most by the ground.
6. Even with the constant change, the moving in, the moving out, we always have this rootedness. It is always available to us, to remind us that we are held amid the change in our lives moment to moment.
7. When you’re ready, you can bring your attention back into the room and gently open your eyes. Thank you for sitting with me.
Never Miss a Meditation

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

Shelly Tygielski explores how consistently showing up for yourself first lays the foundation for our life’s purpose—showing up for others—and how to create your own self-care practice.
Read More

Shelly Tygielski

June 17, 2022
10 Powerful Women of the Mindfulness Movement: 2022

In our fourth annual focus on women leaders of the mindfulness movement, ten women share what they’ve learned about living a life of meaning and purpose and how cultivating happiness fits into the equation.
Read More

Amber Tucker, Ava Whitney-Coulter, Kylee Ross, Oyinda Lagunju, and Stephanie Domet

July 16, 2022
Source link
January 24, 2025
A Guided Meditation to Reset and Let Go
In this guided mindfulness practice, we release what no longer serves us and anchor in our inner wisdom, peace, and freedom.
While the new year often inspires reflection, January isn’t the only time we can release what no longer serves us. Resetting can happen in any moment—simply by connecting to the rhythm of our breath. In this meditation, journey inward to release, reset, and anchor into our inner wisdom, peace, and freedom. “Every inhale is a new moment, a sense of total renewal. And every exhale is an opportunity to arrive in the space, free. Totally free.”

A Meditation to Reset and Let Go
1. Prepare for this practice by finding a quiet place and a comfortable seat. If you wish, you can also lay down. Whichever you choose, find connection and grounding with the space that you’re in. If you’re seated in a stool or a chair, plant both feet on the ground. If you’re seated on the floor directly or on a meditation cushion, sit with a straight spine. If you’re lying down, lie flat in a way that you feel grounded and connected to the space you’re lying on.
2. Close your eyes and start to bring awareness to your breath. Start to notice and be a witness to life flowing through your body, which is your breath. Notice the pace of your breath and tune in to its rhythm. Use each breath as an opportunity to arrive here, to shift your focus away from what might have happened earlier and towards the space you’re in, to this recording, this meditation, this practice that we’re all sharing together.
3. Breathe in and out through your nose to start. Notice if anything is still arising from what might have happened before you came into this practice. If so, just acknowledge it and then consciously shift your awareness back to your breath.
4. Now breathe in through your nose and exhale out through your mouth. Notice if you feel any release throughout your body with that long, deep exhale. Let’s do that again, breathing in through our nose and out through our mouth. Deep exhale. Again, just notice what arises or what releases in your body. One last time, let’s breathe in through our nose and out through our mouth.
5. We can carry weight energetically, physically, mentally. With total awareness and non-judgment, let’s be a witness to what might be coming up. With every exhale, ask, Can we let this go?
6. Notice if you feel tension somewhere in your body. Bring awareness to that space and take a deep inhale into that space that feels tense. Then, exhale to try to release that tension that you might feel. Remember, the tension might be a reoccurring thought or situation that’s presenting itself. Keep going through this process of being a witness if something’s coming up for you—physically, mentally, energetically—and then use the power of your breath to slowly bring some relief, some release, with your breath, with your exhale.
7. We might not be able to control everything happening on the outside, but we always have the power to be aware and shift what’s happening on the inside. You can use this practice of connecting to your breath to release as a means to create a subtle shift, lessening that tension of everything that’s not serving you in this present moment. You can invite a sense of freedom and liberation, even for one breath cycle. Notice the shift it creates throughout your entire being. At any time, you can use your breath to reclaim your inner power, your inner peace, and your inner wisdom. You don’t need to carry the past with you.
8. If you’re having any trouble with really being present, I encourage you to place one hand over your heart, one over your stomach. Use this physical reminder to connect with the rhythm of your breath and the beauty that your breath holds in helping you release and lighten your daily load. Every inhale is a new moment, a sense of total renewal. And every exhale is just an opportunity to arrive in the space free, totally free, of everything that ever was.
9. Start to bring awareness again to the space you’re in. Offer gratitude for yourself for showing up today, for embarking on this inward adventure. Honor yourself, your journey, and your willingness to release and let go of what no longer serves you.
10. Take a deep inhale in, a big exhale out, and ever so slowly, open your eyes. Stay connected to the space you’re in. How are you feeling? Has anything shifted from the moment we started this practice? Remember that this practice to reset and let go is available to you every day, throughout the day if you need. Your breath is a powerful ally to help you in your journey to release and let go. Thank you so much for joining me, and I look forward to next time practicing with you.
Source link
January 10, 2025
A 12-Minute Meditation for Awareness and Release of Self-Sabotage
This week, Angela Stubbs gently guides us inward, helping us explore self-sabotaging patterns with compassion and kindness.
Most of us know what it feels like to be our own toughest critic—caught in patterns of self-doubt or self-sabotage that keep us from fully embracing who we are. When these moments arise, we may feel tension or even resistance within ourselves.

In this meditation, Angela Stubbs gently guides us inward, helping us explore these patterns with compassion and kindness. Through six stages, she invites us to bring awareness to these feelings, accepting ourselves without judgment and affirming our worth.

Notice that the patterns and the thoughts and behaviors around self-sabotage are just ways that we’ve learned to cope with things in our lives, ways that we’ve learned to respond to stimuli in our lives.

With each stage, we cultivate a sense of warmth and resilience, creating space to move beyond self-doubt and reconnect with our inner strength. This practice offers us a chance to release the hold of self-criticism, embracing a more gentle, patient approach toward ourselves.

A Guided Meditation for Awareness and Release of Self-Sabotage
1. Today, we’re going to see if we might meet ourselves with some tenderness around the ways in which self-sabotaging patterns and moments show up in our lives. We’re going to see how we might work with them. That’s going to look different for everybody.
2. First, find a comfortable posture or position, either seated or lying down. Gently close your eyes. Or if it feels better for you, lower your gaze and take a nice deep breath in. Feel your chest expand and the belly expand with the breath. Pause for a moment at the top of that breath and slowly release it, allowing your body to settle. Continue to breathe in through the nose, out through the mouth, and allow yourself to notice the sensations of the breath. Give yourself this moment to relax and be here without thinking you should be anywhere else or be doing anything else.
3. Now, bring your attention inward, noticing any sensations in your body. Feel the weight of your body, supported by the ground or chair, releasing any tension you may notice. That tension lives in different places for all of us, so notice where that is for you. See if you can find that center of gravity by rocking side to side gently, just to remind yourself that you’re sitting. And as you notice the sensations in the body and where you might be feeling tightness or tension, allow yourself to be here and fully connected to the experience of sitting and being.
4. Next, bring some gentle awareness to any patterns you might be aware of that you would consider to be self sabotage in your life. You don’t need to deeply dive into what that is for you. We’re not looking at ways to judge ourselves for the ways that we notice self-sabotage or patterns of behavior that don’t serve us to be a part of an ongoing narrative that we’re helping to make bigger and worse for ourselves. Rather, we’re taking inventory and just noticing: How might that show up for you?
5. Remember, it’s going to look different for everyone. We’re just trying to recognize. Does that look like people pleasing for you? Maybe it looks like putting people’s needs ahead of your own, or it might show up as not speaking up when you have something to say. Maybe you have a habit of holding back. Or just maybe it’s that harsh inner critic that never shuts up. We all have one. We’re just noticing those spaces in your life where those narratives might be more prevalent.
6. Now, let’s shift the way that we think about those stories. Notice that the patterns and the thoughts and behaviors around self-sabotage are just ways that we’ve learned to cope with things in our lives, ways that we’ve learned to respond to stimuli in our lives. All we’re doing is seeing if we can observe those patterns and those behaviors with some kindness. The goal here is not to beat ourselves up about the fact that these things exist, but rather embrace them with some kindness and a little tenderness.
7. Pay attention to how difficult it may or may not be for you to offer some compassion to those parts of yourself. One way that this gets a little easier is when we envision extending the warmth and the tenderness and the care that we would give to a friend or to someone that we care about.
8. Envision drawing in that compassion for yourself, placing a hand on your heart. Place your right hand on your heart and then put your left hand on top of it, and hold that space there in the heart for yourself. As you breathe in and out, let go of any self-criticism you might have around these patterns.
9. As you do this, just observe your thoughts: What are your thoughts around this topic? We like to attach a lot of meanings to the thoughts as they arise. The goal here today is just allowing them to be here, noticing that they’re here and not needing to do anything about it. You’re not justifying to yourself or to anyone else why it’s here or how you feel about it. So whether you’re thinking of something and you feel self-doubt, or frustration, or that fun inner critic decides to pay a visit—see if you can observe it without engaging it or pushing it away.
10. If it helps, give yourself an inner mantra, something that reminds you that you are worthy of kindness. You’re good enough as you are. Think of something that feels right for you to repeat in your own mind for the next minute. If self-sabotaging thoughts arise, greet them with compassion and remind yourselves of your wholeness, your capacity for change.
11. Take a final deep breath and fill yourself with compassion. Exhale slowly, releasing any remaining tension. When you feel ready, gently open your eyes and bring the sense of mindful self-compassion with you as you reenter your day.
Source link
November 17, 2024
A 12-Minute Meditation to Relax Into Your Skin
This week, Anu Gupta leads us through a detailed body scan, guiding us to relax, release, and shift our energy back to the present moment, coming back from any distracting thoughts and worries.
Here and now, we can return to our breath. Take this time to feel wonder and gratitude for every part of your physical body, from head to toe, just the way you are today. Relax and release. With this practice, you’ll cultivate a sense of grounding and openness as you let this energy of relaxation soothe your whole body.
1. Come to a comfortable seated position. As much as you can without creating tension, keep your spine long, feet planted on the ground, hands resting on your knees. Relax your shoulders, neck, and jaw, opening up your chest. Bring your eyes to a gentle close or place your gaze at a stationary point in front of you.
2. Bring your attention to your forehead. Do you notice any sensations in the forehead? Perhaps some holding, some tightness. See if you can relax and release. Consciously repeat those phrases: Relax. Release.
3. Now bring your attention to your jaw and your tongue. This is often a place we collect a lot of tension, a lot of tightness. So see if you can relax and release.
4. If the mind has begun to drift again, notice what it’s doing. Perhaps it’s thinking, or planning. Whatever it is, it’s just a habit. See if you can bring your awareness back to your jaw. This is the practice that we’re developing, the practice of returning to the present moment and bringing mindfulness to our body. Relax, release.
5. Now move your attention to your chest, releasing any holding. Feel a sense of expansion and openness. Relax. Release. Come down to your belly, noticing the expansion of the belly out on your inhales and the way it comes back in on your exhales. See if you can relax and release, refocusing your attention on your body in the now.
6. Now bring your attention to your arms. Your left arm. Your right arm. Your left hand. Your right hand. Notice if there’s any holding there. Notice the sensations of holding. Perhaps a tightness, some tingling. Be with your mind, and see if you can loosen, relax, release. We have the most nerve endings here, so often we feel a “doing” energy in our hands. But in this moment, we have nowhere to be, nowhere to go. Nothing to do, but just being aware, being mindful of what’s always here: our bodies. Relax. Release.
7. Bring your attention to your legs. Your thighs. Your knees. Notice any holding, any tension. Move down to your feet. Your left foot. Your right foot. Notice any contraction, any tension there. Gently focus on surrendering, releasing all that energy. Relax. Release.
8. Now take that energy of relaxation to all other parts of your body. See if there’s any other body part that’s holding some tension, some tightness. Right now, there is nowhere to go, no place to be but here. Savor the ease and openness of being here in your body.
9. Now bring your attention to your skin, the largest organ in our body. Notice what the skin feels like, this covering that really keeps the entirety of our body together. It regulates our body temperature, maintains homeostasis. In this moment, you’re just feeling the skin across your face, your scalp, your torso, your chest, your arms, your legs. Notice any sensations. What do they feel like? There’s no need to change them, just observe them.
10. You can bring this energy of release of relaxation to your body any time you notice holding or tension. This is the practice we’re cultivating, the practice of mindfulness. Notice if the mind has drifted. What is it doing? And see if you can bring it back to your body. Just for these last few moments, take these last few seconds to savor the openness you may feel in your body. This is available to you at any time, anywhere. By bringing awareness to your inner experience and to your body, you’ll be better able to make decisions that align with your purpose and values.
11. After your next exhale, bring your chin to your chest. If your eyes were closed, gently open them. Thank you for practicing today. Have a wonderful day ahead.
Source link
October 24, 2024
12 Minute Meditation: A Guided Practice to Focus the Mind
Meditation practice often feels like something to get through, something good for us, like medicine. But as we become more familiar with practicing mindfulness, we can begin to enjoy it as an opportunity to simply be—to inhabit our body and focus the mind on being wherever we are, without having to do anything in particular.

Obviously there’s nothing wrong with “doing” things—we have to do things. Doing things is great, but doing things is also challenging. Having some time when we can just be is refreshing.

No question that simply being is equally as challenging because some scary thoughts might crop up. But as we become more familiar with the process, we realize we can focus the mind and we don’t have to fully engage those thoughts or get caught up in them.

If it’s a particularly painful time, the meditation practice will be about being with that pain. We can allow it to be a bit “discontinuous,” that is, we see little gaps in the pain where bits of relaxation, and joy even, can poke through.

So, in this longer meditation practice, let’s take the time to enjoy being here.

A Guided Meditation to Focus the Mind

12 Minute Meditation: A Meditation to Focus the Mind with Barry Boyce
1. The first place to start is with spending a short period of time, in a relaxed way, on the posture. We begin with our seat. The point about our seat and our legs is just to have a base, to be supported. Nothing special about it.
- If you’re on a chair: bottoms of the feet are touching the ground.
- If you’re on a cushion: Legs can be simply crossed in front of you or they could be in a lotus posture or half-lotus posture.
- The upper body is upright but not stiff.
- Our hands can rest on our thighs in front of us with our upper arms parallel to our upper body.
- Our eyes can be open or closed, and our gaze is slightly down. Just a slight feeling of humbleness about that. And with the gaze down we’re slightly focussed inward. Our mouth can be just slightly open or closed.
That’s a practice in itself: just taking the time, taking the luxury, to establish our posture. If you have various bodily issues you just need to make adjustments for those.

That’s a practice in itself: just taking the time, taking the luxury, to establish our posture

2. Now, simply pay attention to your breathing. Now we pay attention to the breath as it comes in and goes out. The nice thing about the breath is that it’s reliable. It’s always going to be there if we’re alive. Sharon Salzberg talks about the importance of faith, and many people talk about trust. It’s a very simple type of faith or trust that something is going to continue to be there. As you find yourself lost in thought and you notice that because you have trust in the breath, you know that it will be there when you bounce off that thought and come back to the breath.

3. Pay attention to body and breath together. As we come back to and notice our breath, we’re also noticing our body, so it’s a kind of a whole body experience, resting our attention on the breath. We can also feel the temperature in the room and appreciate our ability to sense the world—that we are a sensory mechanism. The world touches us. We have an interplay going on with the world. That’s something we can appreciate. Pleasure and pain come from that sensing of the world.

4. For a little while, practice returning to the breath when the mind wanders. We’re taking time to simply be present and to develop presence. Presence meaning: able to be present for whatever comes up—up or down, could be very intense thoughts. How did the world begin. Why are we still driving so many cars? Who invented the car anyway? How do cars work? Can be cognitive, random thoughts like that. Or, could be intense emotional thoughts. Emotional thoughts carry with them a lot of “color,” and a lot of energy, and a lot of feeling of movement in the body: “I hate that,” ” love that,”—lots feeling tone to those thoughts. They can be persistent. They keep coming up, no matter how many times we go back to the breath. Or, thoughts could be just about simple sensation it’s an itch in your toe.

5. Mindfulness is an equal opportunity process: whatever comes up, we just notice it and come back. If it comes up again in another shape or form, you know to sit and come back. There’s a certain amount of simplicity and dullness about that, but over time that dullness becomes natural relaxation. There’s a feeling of strength that comes from being able to be present with whatever arises and not being so inclined to run from it.

6. Some people like to use the slogan “The present is pleasant,” but that’s not really true, necessarily. The present can contain whatever is present in that moment. If a family member has just died, it’s not going to be particularly pleasant. Taking a moment to meditate and focus the mind will be about being with that, not trying to create a pleasant experience for yourself. Usually, we’re trying to get something out of an experience. In this case, paradoxically, we are just trying to be with, rather than trying to get something out of it.

7. As we notice thoughts again and again in meditation practice, the thoughts begin to have less solid substance to them. They can feel less like something we have to fight with. We can have an appreciation that they are not facts, they’re just formulations that emerge in the mind and that beneath them is some kind of presence and awareness that continues, whatever thoughts may arise and dwell for a while and then go.
Source link
October 22, 2024
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.
Source link
October 14, 2024