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A Meditation for Finding a Middle Way When We Are In Pain
In this guided meditation, longtime meditation teacher and pain expert Vidyamala Burch offers a tender practice to help us be with our whole selves with openness and kindness, even when we are experiencing pain.
Being in pain makes being present extra challenging.

On a physical level, being in the present moment while our body is in pain is often extremely unpleasant. There is a part of us, understandably, that wishes we could escape from it entirely.

At the same time, the experience of pain itself can be overwhelming—to our senses, our thoughts, our emotions. It can feel like drowning, when what we long for is just a moment of peace to rest in.

In today’s guided meditation, longtime meditation teacher and pain expert Vidyamala Burch offers a tender practice to find a middle way—one that doesn’t veer into denial or give in to overwhelm, but rather allows all that is happening to be gently met, as Vidyamala says, with “wholeness, integration, and kindliness.”

A Meditation for Finding a Middle Way When We Are In Pain

Read and practice the guided meditation script below, pausing after each paragraph. Or listen to the audio practice.
1. Start by establishing a meditation posture. You can do it sitting; you can do it lying down. The main thing is to choose a position where you can be as relaxed as possible and yet alert. Once you’ve chosen your position, begin to settle. Allow the weight of the body to rest down into the support beneath you. If you’re sitting, it’ll be through the bottom, into the chair, through the feet, into the floor. For lying down, it’ll be through the back of the body, into the bed or the floor, and then the head resting into the pillow or cushion.
2. See if you can cultivate a sense of rest, allowing the body to be held. Let go of gripping. Receive the support of whatever’s beneath you. To help this, you could take a few deep breaths and then on each outbreath release a little bit more, letting the next in-breath flow back in in its own time.
3. With each in-breath, breathe in freshness and vitality. With each out-breath, let go of gripping. When you’re ready, allow your breathing to find its own natural rhythm. Allow your awareness to pour out of the head, where it so often seems to be located, and feel the body resting inside the movements and sensations of breathing.
4. Allow your awareness to fill in the body a little bit more. Let it pour down through the torso, through the hips, feet, and legs. We’re not looking in from the outside or thinking about the legs and the feet as a concept or an object. Rather, we’re resting inside sensations of contact with the floor, with the chair, or the bed. Maybe there’s a sense of tingling, buzzing energy. Maybe there’s dullness or numbness. Whatever our experience is, allowing awareness to fill the feet and the legs. If there’s pain or discomfort, see if we can meet this with an attitude of kindliness and care, softening automatic habits of resistance and tension. Allow awareness to come to the buttocks, letting the buttocks be soft, resting into the chair, into the bed.
5. Allow awareness to fill the whole torso—including the belly, the chest, the front and the whole back of the body and the back, the whole spine. Have a sense of the torso opening a little bit in all directions on the in-breath and subsiding on the outbreath. Be careful not to force or strain. Receive on an in-breath, letting go on the outbreath. Again, if you’ve got pain or discomfort anywhere in the back or the front of the whole torso, see if you can allow it into awareness with an attitude of care and kindliness. Let it be part of our experience, softening the resistance and the automatic tension that can so quickly arise.
6. Now bring awareness to the shoulders, arms, and hands. Let your hands be supported, resting on the legs or in the lap if sitting. Rest them at the sides of the body, palm upwards (if lying down) or on the legs, palm downwards (if sitting). Let go of gripping in the arms with tension, just letting them rest into gravity. Let the shoulders fall away from the midline of the body into gravity. Allow shoulders, arms, and hands to be full of awareness. This might show up as discomfort, tingling, heat. It could be sensing the contact with clothes, contact with the surface the hands are resting on. Receive all this into awareness with kindliness.
7. Now come up through the arms and up to the neck and the head. If you’re sitting, let the head be poised on the top of the spine, maybe tucking the chin in just a tiny bit, so there’s a release through the base of the skull and yet openness in the throat. If you’re lying down, see if you can let the weight of the head be fully held by the pillow or the cushion. Let go of holding on, gripping in the head, letting it rest. Let the jaw be soft, the lips and tongue be soft so the wind of the breath can flow freely through the back of the throat on the way into the body and then back out again on the way out of the body. Let the cheeks be soft, eyes soft, forehead soft. We could imagine the brain resting inside the head softly.
8. See if you can feel into the physicality of the head. So often the head can feel split off from the body. The head is just a thought factory, and then the body’s just this kind of thing that we drag through life. But the head is a limb of the body, just like the arms and the legs. Sense the feelings, the sensations in the head. Temperature, tingling, buzzing, softness, maybe even contact with the air brushing against the skin.
9. See if you can have a sense of wholeness in the legs, torso, arms, neck, and face. This experience of embodiment, moment by moment by moment, the flow of sensations in the whole body arising and passing, arising and passing.
10. If you’ve got pain or discomfort right now, let’s attend to that part of the body. Take your awareness to that part of the body and notice if it’s surrounded by resistance or hardness. Let’s see if we can find this sweet spot between denial on the one hand and overwhelm on the other. Denial will be a kind of turning away, a hardening and not wanting, a pushing away. Maybe there’s a little bit of breath holding. Maybe there’s tension in the head, tension in the bottom. If you notice that, then see if you can turn a little bit more towards the experience, metaphorically speaking, adding it into awareness a little bit more, very gently and tenderly, breath by breath. Let it be part of this flow of experience in the whole body. Breathe into that area and imagine that the breath is bathed in kindliness.
11. If, on the other hand, you’re feeling overwhelmed, the only thing in experience is the pain or the difficulty. The practice here is to broaden. Feel the bottom on the chair or the bed. Feel the support beneath us. Feel breath in the whole body. Feel the whole range of sensations in the whole body. The pain is just one aspect of this multifaceted experience of being alive right now. If you notice yourself hardening up again, tensing, turning away, suppressing, denying, blocking—use awareness to interrupt that process and soften. Relax the palms. Relax the hands. Come closer. Breathe kindly.
12. This is a training in wholeness, integration, and kindliness. We’re able to be with all of our experience with presence and kindliness. If we have a wound, we broaden. If we’re blocking off, we come closer. That is the practice. Our awareness is dynamic, subtle, receptive, fluid.
13. You can keep on practicing if you’d like to, but I’ll bring this guided meditation to a close. Let’s bring the weight of the body to the foreground of awareness, feeling, resting into the support beneath us. Feel breathing in the whole body. Broaden awareness to be aware of sounds around your environment. Open the eyes if they’ve been closed. Bring a tiny bit of movement into the body, maybe the fingers and the toes or some other part of the body. Notice any tendency to immediately halt the breath and immediately start pushing and rushing. Stay inside this subtle movement with a soft brow. And when you’re ready, come into bigger movement. In your own time, reengage with the activities of the day.
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April 8, 2025
Dual Anchor: A Neurodiversity-Informed Meditation for Wandering Attention
In this guided practice, Sue Hutton offers an approach to meditation that marshalls sensory awareness as a way to sharpen focus.
Traditional meditation practices can sometimes be frustrating and alienating for those who are neurodivergent. Bodily discomfort or intense mental restlessness can make even the most mindfulness-curious person feel like classic meditation techniques might not be for them.

Sue Hutton believes that mindfulness can be for anyone, and she’s dedicated her work to making mindfulness practices like meditation accessible for neurodiverse communities. In this practice, she guides us through what she calls “Dual Anchor,” a kind of meditation that engages the senses to help gently steer attention.

Dual Anchor: A Neurodiversity-Informed Meditation for Wandering Attention
1. This is a neurodiversity informed, guided meditation called Dual Anchor. It can be really useful to help bring a mind that wanders excessively and struggles to pay attention, to concentrate on two anchors at the same time with our senses. This practice utilizes our vision and our breath together at the same time.
2. Many of us carry a lot of overwhelm inside the body, so we don’t want to exacerbate that when we do our meditation practice. We come to this path seeking to cultivate calm stillness inside. I encourage you to bring a spirit of compassion to everything that you do in your meditation path, along with a sense of gentle curiosity. Try the practice best you can, but don’t push herself if anything is overwhelming or bringing up any kind of sensory overwhelm.
3. Let’s start off with concentrating using your vision on an object in front of you. A candle can be a very useful object to focus on the tip of the flame. But any object will do, allowing your posture to be upright and observing something in front of you with all of your attention visually.
4. Feel yourself concentrating on the center of that object. Notice the body softening as you concentrate on vision. The same way a film director zooms in, focus very clearly on an object. Allow your mind to sharpen, letting everything else fall to the background, holding full command of your gaze on this object.
5. Soften the brow, soften the jaw. Allow the body to be soft as you engage in observing this object very, very closely. Can you get a sense of the color, the texture, the shape? Just observe. Your vision is very focused.
6. Now let’s include awareness of the breath. Begin with closing your eyes just for a moment while you tune into the breath. As you close the eyes, just allow them to soften as though the eyelids just rest on the eyeballs, like gentle blankets, giving you a calm, quiet space inside.
7. Now, feel the breath in the way that works for you. You can observe the breath through sound, breathing in so loud that you can hear the sound of your breath like an ocean tide flowing in and out, observing the sound of the breathing, with full awareness of the sound on the inhale and exhale. You can also try experiencing the breath by just observing the gentle flow in and out of the body in a way that works for you. You can have your hand resting on the belly and the chest and just feel the sensations wherever it’s comfortable, either on this surface, feeling the hand’s rising and falling with the breath, or from inside the body. If it’s comfortable for you, you can try to feel where inside the body you notice that mechanism of breathing in and breathing out.
8. All the while, we’re bringing a sense of deep compassion and love for ourselves as we do this. You may even feel some warmth of compassion flowing into your body through your hands. So there’s a loving touch, compassion for ourselves as we breathe in and out. Remember, every outbreath is an opportunity to give yourself permission to relax and soften. This is a space for you to cultivate and calm within.
9. Now open your eyes once again and focus on that object, and let’s combine vision and breath. Focus deeply, all your concentration visually on this object: sharp concentration, unwavering, steady focus. Soften the brow and jaw.
10. Now, combine the rhythm of the breath in the way that works for you. Allow yourself to feel yourself right at the center of this deep concentration, sharp, focused vision and unwavering connection with the experience of the breath, vision and breath. Allow there to be a soft calm inside the body.
11. As you experience this compassionate rhythm of the breath, using this focused alertness with your vision. And allow the next exhalation to be one that lets go even more. What else can you relax and release on the next breath?
12. There is a clarity as we concentrate on these two objects at the same time. See for the next few moments if you can go even a little bit more committed to being in the center, staying focused on the breath and your vision, full concentration, and allow there to be even more softening and letting go of the whole body from the top of the head all the way down to the toes, releasing and relaxing, sharpening that concentration, vision, and breath.
13. You can now allow the eyes to close as you stay connected with the breath. Again, just resting like soft blankets over the eyes. Feel that letting go and softening of the whole face. You may observe it’s not pitch black under the closed eyelids, but there may be some shape, some light, amorphous, moving, perhaps softening you even more and observing what you can witness underneath these closed eyelids in this calm, relaxed space, feeling that compassionate rhythm of the breath.
14. If it’s comfortable, allow your eyes to gently open. Let the eyes just look around the room at different objects, observing how you can engage in vision as a grounding tool. Look at another random object and focus on that, observing the texture, the quality, the color. You can name the object, too—just one word, not description.
15. This is our dual anchor meditation practice for today using vision and breath. You can use that practice any time of the day. There are more practices like this on my website at SueHuttonMindfulness.com. Please come and visit. Explore other ways of engaging in neurodiversity and mindfulness. May you continue to find incredible ways of bringing mindfulness to your life in the unique ways that you can benefit from the most. Thank you for meditating with me.
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April 2, 2025
A Meditation for Allowing the Possibility of Possible In Deep Grief
In this guided practice, Brenda K. Mitchell offers an invitation to anyone who might be struggling to see a way forward through grief.
When we are adrift in the wide sea of grief, it can be difficult to imagine any world other than the world of our intense sorrow and loss. Things like going back to our normal daily tasks, or having fun again, or being able to think of our loved one without crying—these can seem so far out of reach that they might as well be impossible.

In this guided meditation, Brenda Mitchell offers one tiny heart-opening invitation: simply allowing what she calls “the possibility of possible.” There isn’t an expectation that you have answers, or lots of hope, or a clear path forward. Rather, this is a tender way to be with the many difficult emotions that accompany losses in our lives, while opening the door just a bit to what might lie ahead.

Discovering the Possibility of Possible In Deep Grief
1. Let’s begin by closing our eyes and taking a few deep breaths. Inhale. One, two, three. And exhale. One, two, and three.
2. If you’d like, place one hand over the other on your heart. Remove everything that you may have brought in here with you—the tension and the anxieties that may be present in the moment, in the room, or in your neck. See if you can open up and loosen everything that you may have brought with you. Let’s breathe one more time.
3. Now, do a quick body scan and allow for more movement within the structures and the internal parts of our body. Let’s get comfortable—like a couch potato, like Netflix comfortable. Feel that release down into the neck as we open up to receive enlightenment and the divinity of nature and the wonderfulness that is our very own body system.
4. Let that comfort flow down through your shoulders and down through your hands. Shake your hands just a little bit to know that you’re in control and you’re operating and let that flow go through the center region of your body. Blowing up and down through your hips, your thighs, your legs. Allow your feet to feel planted on the solid ground beneath you today.
5. If you are facing deep grief in this moment, I invite you to make room for those feelings. You might notice that sometimes in our fragility, brokenness, and disappointments, we stop imagining that anything good can ever be possible again. There is a block there, a hopelessness. We can’t see a way forward at all.
6. For this moment, I invite you to embrace the possibility of possible. That’s it. You don’t have to have answers, or lots of hope, or a clear path forward. This is just about opening the door and allowing the possibility of possible.
7. See if you can gently settle onto a vision of yourself embracing possibility. What does that look like for you? Where are you? Are you indoors? Are you out? Is there anyone with you? Do you see the colors and the possibility of the dreams that we dream that can go dormant in grief? Maybe you can feel the warmth and the beauty of the sky. What does it mean for you to accept the hurt and pains of what was, while also moving toward the possibility of possible?
8. I invite you to open your eyes as you are ready, and return back to my voice. There’s a poem that I’d like to share with you that has allowed me to imagine a future version of myself who could open up to what is and embrace the possibility of possible. It is written by Gilda Radner and it states, I wanted a perfect ending. Now I’ve learned, the hard way, that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next. It’s called Delicious Ambiguity. Thank you for your practice.
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March 23, 2025
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Amber Tucker, Ava Whitney-Coulter, Kylee Ross, Oyinda Lagunju, and Stephanie Domet

July 16, 2022
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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.
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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.
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November 17, 2024