12 Minute Meditation

Sometimes seasons of intense suffering show up in our lives—no warning, no easy answers. This week, mindfulness teacher Vanessa Hutchinson-Szekely shares a tender meditation for those in the middle of pain. Based on her own experience with an extended episode of chronic back pain, she offers a moment of reprieve and caring attention to release tension and open to the possibility of joy. Vanessa Hutchinson-Szekely is a California-French educator, writer and mindfulness advocate. As the founder of "Big Belly Breathing," including a podcast and YouTube channel, she offers mindfulness joy resources in English and French for kids and adults alike. Vanessa writes regularly, recently authored the Joy Burst journal, and teaches yoga throughout The City, bringing her passion for well-being to diverse communities. Feel free to connect with her for inquiries or discussions; she's eager to engage with fellow health enthusiasts and life lovers. Find her at www.bigbellybreathing.com. The transcription of this guided meditation will be online at Mindful.org next week. Stay curious, stay inspired. Join our community by signing up for our free newsletter: mindful.org/signup Show Notes Find more from Vanessa Hutchinson-Szekely here. Go Deeper For additional resources on finding moments of calm in the midst of suffering, check out these articles on Mindful.org: Let Your Pain Be a River: Vidyamala Burch on Living and Teaching With Chronic Pain Where To Start When There Is So Much Suffering Breaking Generational Patterns of Suffering Study: Mindfulness reduces suffering associated with pain How Mindfulness Provides Relief from Chronic Pain And for another meditation you can use when pain flares, try this practice: Filling the Body With Light: 12 Minute Meditation And more from Mindful here: More episodes of 12 Minute Meditation Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing yourwords@mindful.org.

The start of the holiday season can be amazing: festive energy, time with loved ones, and delicious food. But it can also be super stressful. This week, we're offering a quick practice from Shamash Alidina that you can turn to when you're in the thick of it. It's not the usual 12 minutes, but it's perfect for when you're running errands, preparing for visitors, or just need a moment to gather yourself. Shamash Alidina is best known as the internationally bestselling author of 10 books including Mindfulness For Dummies and The Mindful Way through Stress. He frequently pops up in newspapers, magazines, and on radio shows. Based in London, he runs online trainings and speaks at conferences all over the world. He's been teaching mindfulness full-time since 2010. The transcription of this guided meditation will be online at Mindful.org next week. Stay curious, stay inspired. Join our community by signing up for our free newsletter: mindful.org/signup Show Notes Find more from Shamash Alidina here. Go Deeper For additional resources on how to manage the stress of the Holiday season (or anytime), check out these articles on Mindful.org: A Simple Practice for Regulating Stress in the Body A Steady Heart: A Cardiologist's Advice for Lowering Stress Break the Cycle of Stress and Social Media: Learn a 3-step process that builds healthy habits Let Go of Stress and Welcome Wisdom How to Manage Stress with Mindfulness and Meditation And for another meditation you can use when Holiday stress shows up, try this practice: A 12 Minute Meditation to Defuse Holiday Stress And more from Mindful here: More episodes of 12 Minute Meditation Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing yourwords@mindful.org.

As today's teacher notes, self-compassion is different from self-esteem. Relying on building up our self-esteem tends to lead us to need a lot of external validation in order to feel ok. Instead, self-compassion is the idea that even with all of our flaws, we can still care about ourselves and see ourselves as infinitely worthy of love and belonging. In this extended 30-minute practice, mindfulness teacher Diana Winston guides us through a process to get familiar with our self-judging voice and how we relate to our flaws, so that we can nurture compassion and recognize our own worthiness. Diana Winston is the Director of Mindfulness Education at UCLA's Mindful Awareness Research Center and author of several books including The Little Book of Being: Practices and Guidance for Uncovering your Natural Awareness. Note that there is an extended silent pause in the middle of this recording to give extra time to practice. The transcription of this guided meditation will be online at Mindful.org next week. Stay curious, stay inspired. Join our community by signing up for our free newsletter: mindful.org/signup Show Notes Find more from Diana Winston here. Go Deeper We all have an interior voice that keeps a running commentary on everything we do. Occasionally that voice is encouraging or kind, but often it isn't. The thing is, most of us aren't even consciously aware of this constant internal chatter. We just think it's reality. Mindfulness gives us the tools to notice, recognize, and work with this mental monologue in ways that improve our ability to learn from mistakes, be accountable, make amends, and grow as people. To learn more about the Inner Critic and how to tame it, check out these resources from the website: Mindful Parenting: Meet Your Inner Critic with Self-Compassion How to Teach Your Kids About Their Inner Critic How to Recognize Your Inner Critic How to Be Kind to Your Inner Critic And for more ways to work with that pesky internal voice, try this practice: A Basic Meditation to Tame Your Inner Critic. And more from Mindful here: More episodes of 12 Minute Meditation Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing yourwords@mindful.org.

Forgiveness is almost never a one-and-done action. Whether what we're forgiving is big or small, our own error or someone else's—most often, there are residual feelings of anger, hurt, or resentment to contend with. In this guided practice, Mark Bertin addresses this tendency to compound our suffering when we hang onto these difficult emotions. He offers a way to gently surrender this extra emotional baggage so that we can fully experience the healing that forgiveness offers. Mark Bertin, MD, is a pediatrician, author, professor, and mindfulness teacher specializing in neurodevelopmental behavioral pediatrics. He's a regular contributor to Mindful.org and Psychology Today. He is the author of How Children Thrive: The Practical Science of Raising Independent, Resilient, and Happy Kids (Sounds True, 2018). Dr. Bertin resides in Pleasantville, New York. For more, visit developmentaldoctor.com. The transcription of this guided meditation will be online at Mindful.org next week. Stay curious, stay inspired. Join our community by signing up for our free newsletter: mindful.org/signup Show Notes Find more from Dr. Mark Bertin here. Go Deeper Forgiveness is one of the most challenging mindful qualities to develop. Understandably, we want to feel seen and heard in our pain, and we don't want to feel like we're being walked over or making excuses for harmful behavior. From a mindfulness perspective, forgiveness holds all of these experiences in a kind of loving tension, allowing the complexities to surface. To learn more about what forgiveness is (and isn't) and how to nurture it in your daily life, check out these resources from the website: New Research on Mindfulness and Forgiveness The Work It Takes to Forgive How to Let Go of an Old Regret Let It Go: How to Practice Forgiveness If you're at the very beginning of the process and want help getting started on your forgiveness journey, try this practice: A Guided Meditation to Welcome Forgiveness. And more from Mindful here: More episodes of 12 Minute MeditationLet us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing yourwords@mindful.org.

Having chronic pain often feels incredibly lonely. You might not know anybody else who has the same condition. In addition, most people you're close to, even though they might be well-intentioned, might not understand what you're going through. But the fact is that probably thousands and thousands of people all over the world know exactly what you're feeling. In this meditation, Christiane Wolf offers a guided practice to meet your own body in pain and relieve that sense of isolation by internally connecting with others who understand your experience. Christiane Wolf, MD, PhD is a former physician, internationally known mindfulness and Insight (Vipassana) meditation teacher. She is passionate about translating ancient wisdom teachings into accessible and applicable modern-day language. She is the author of Outsmart Your Pain – Mindfulness and Self-Compassion to Help You Leave Chronic Pain Behind and the co-author of the classic training manual for mindfulness teachers, A Clinician's Guide To Teaching Mindfulness. Christiane is the lead-consultant and teacher trainer for the VA's (US Department of Veteran Affairs) National Mindfulness Facilitator Training and a senior teacher at InsightLA. She is the mom of three amazing humans and can usually be found in the Los Angeles area training for ultramarathons and triathlons. The transcription of this guided meditation will be online at Mindful.org next week. Stay curious, stay inspired. Join our community by signing up for our free newsletter: mindful.org/signup Show Notes Find more from Christiane Wolf here. Go Deeper Living with chronic conditions is one of the most difficult challenges to face—the effects are never just physical. While mindfulness is never a cure-all for pain or illness, it can offer relief in sometimes-surprising ways. To learn more about how mindful practices can ease suffering in mind and body, check out these articles from the archive: Let Your Pain Be a River: Vidyamala Burch on Living and Teaching With Chronic Pain The Science of Chronic Stress, Inflammation, and Mindfulness How to Live Well with Chronic Pain and Illness How Mindfulness Provides Relief from Chronic Pain For more practice using meditation to be with your body, even when it's in pain, here is a meditation from pain expert Vidyamala Burch: Filling the Body With Light: 12 Minute Meditation. And more from Mindful here: More episodes of 12 Minute MeditationLet us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing yourwords@mindful.org.

We often imagine that our actions are the result of choice and awareness, which means that we can be extra critical of ourselves when we're struggling with habits that aren't serving us. But researchers in the science of habit and craving have found that much of our decision-making process is the result of unconscious neuro-chemical loops that reinforce themselves over time.  In this meditation, author and researcher Judson Brewer introduces a thoughtful way to bring genuine awareness and choice back into the equation when cravings arise.  Judson Brewer, MD, Ph.D. ("Dr. Jud") is a New York Times best-selling author and thought leader in the field of habit change and the "science of self-mastery," who blends over 20 years of experience with mindfulness training and a career in scientific research. He is passionate about understanding how our brains work, and how to use that knowledge to help people make deep, permanent change in their lives — with the goal of reducing suffering in the world at large. Dr. Jud is the director of research and innovation at Brown University's Mindfulness Center, where he also serves as a professor in Behavioral and Social Sciences at the School of Public Health and Psychiatry at the School of Medicine at Brown University.  The transcription of this guided meditation will be online at Mindful.org next week.  Stay curious, stay inspired. Join our community by signing up for our free newsletter:  mindful.org/signup About the Teacher Find more from Judson Brewer here. Go Deeper Learning how to witness our mind without over-identifying with everything it comes up with is one of the most challenging parts of mindful practice. But it also yields some of the biggest benefits for our overall well-being. If you want to learn more about this foundational mindful skill, check out these resources from Mindful.org: A Basic Mindfulness Meditation for Labeling Thoughts and Emotions  I'm More Than My Anxious Thoughts—And So Are You  A Mindfulness Practice for Changing Your Relationship to Thoughts  What to Do When Thoughts Arise While Meditating  For more practice on working with thoughts, here's another meditation you can try: Slow Your Breath and Your Thoughts.  And more from Mindful here: More episodes of 12 Minute Meditation Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing yourwords@mindful.org.

The nature of the mind is to make thoughts. All day long, mostly without our even noticing, the mind is generating thousands of thoughts. People often misunderstand mindfulness and meditation as ways to control or even stop our mind’s churning—but that isn’t even really possible.  With mindful attention, we can learn to notice and be aware of what our minds are up to, and that awareness is what gives us agency and opens new doorways to interior peace. In this meditation, teacher Vinny Ferraro guides us through a practice to see thoughts clearly as they arise, gently note them, and then return to the breath and body. Vinny Ferraro has been a practitioner of insight meditation (vipassanā) since the early 1990s. He is a co-Founder of the Dharma Punx and co-Guiding Teacher of Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society. He is also a nationally recognized leader in designing and implementing interventions for at-risk adolescents and is currently Senior Trainer for Mindful Schools. In 1987, he began leading groups in drug rehabilitation centers, juvenile halls, and halfway houses. In 2001, he began teaching for Challenge Day, a nationally recognized, social & emotional learning program, eventually becoming their Director of Training and leading workshops for over 110,000 youth on four continents. The transcription of this guided meditation will be online at Mindful.org next week.  Stay curious, stay inspired. Join our community by signing up for our free newsletter:  mindful.org/signup Show Notes Find more from Vinny Ferraro here. Go Deeper Learning how to witness our mind without over-identifying with everything it comes up with is one of the most challenging parts of mindful practice. But it also yields some of the biggest benefits for our overall well-being. If you want to learn more about this foundational mindful skill, check out these resources from Mindful.org: A Basic Mindfulness Meditation for Labeling Thoughts and Emotions  I’m More Than My Anxious Thoughts—And So Are You  A Mindfulness Practice for Changing Your Relationship to Thoughts  What to Do When Thoughts Arise While Meditating  For more practice on working with thoughts, here’s another meditation you can try: Slow Your Breath and Your Thoughts.  And more from Mindful here: More episodes of 12 Minute Meditation Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing yourwords@mindful.org.

What do you do when you’ve made a plan, you’ve done everything you can to make it work…and things still don’t turn out the way you hoped? In frustration and disappointment, it’s easy to focus on what’s wrong.  This exercise—adapted from Start Here: Master the Lifelong Habit of Wellbeing by Eric Langshur and Nate Klemp, and led by mindfulness coach Priti Patel—offers a quick way to realign toward what is working, which can help us settle and give us clarity.   Nate Klemp, PhD, is coauthor of Open: Living with an Expansive Mind in a Distracted World. He is a former philosophy professor and a founding partner at Mindful. He is also coauthor of The 80/80 Marriage: A New Model for a Happier, Stronger Relationship and Start Here, a New York Times bestselling guide to mindfulness in the real world. Nate received his BA and MA from Stanford University, and his PhD from Princeton University.   The transcription of this guided meditation will be online at Mindful.org next week.  Stay curious, stay inspired. Join our community by signing up for our free newsletter:  mindful.org/signup Show Notes Find more from Nate Klemp here. Go Deeper Gratitude is a game-changer. It’s so much more than just trying to scare up happy feelings—it’s actually a practice that can rewire our brains, shift our neurochemistry, and improve our relationships over time. For more info on this small-but-mighty skill, check out these resources from Mindful.org: How to Practice Gratitude  Gratitude for the Lousy Ingrate  The Power of Gratitude (with a Healthy Dose of Cynicism)  The Science of Gratitude  For more practice, here’s A 12-Minute Meditation for Cultivating Daily Gratitude you can try.  And more from Mindful here: More episodes of 12 Minute MeditationLet us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing yourwords@mindful.org.

When painful emotions are circling all around, our instinct is often to reach for external reassurance.  In this practice, law professor and author Rhona Magee offers a gentle reminder that the key to calm starts with a simple pause—and we get to choose that.   Rhonda V. Magee is a professor of law at the University of San Francisco. Also trained in sociology and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), she is a highly practiced facilitator of trauma-sensitive, restorative MBSR interventions for lawyers and law students, and for minimizing the effects of social-identity-based bias. Magee has been a visiting scholar at the Center for the Study of Law and Society and a visiting professor of law at the University of California, Berkeley. The transcription of this guided meditation will be online at Mindful.org next week.  Stay curious, stay inspired. Join our community by signing up for our free newsletter:  mindful.org/signup Show Notes Find more from Rhonda Magee here. Go Deeper Working with challenging, painful emotions is at the heart of mindfulness practices. It’s counter-intuitive, but the key to alleviating the suffering that often accompanies feelings like fear, rage, grief, or jealousy is not to fix or overcome them, but to move toward them with compassion and curiosity. To learn more about building this mindful skill, check out these articles: A Mindful Guide to Navigating Difficult Emotions  Befriend Painful Emotions with the Handshake Practice  Three Ways Acceptance Helps You Work with Difficult Emotions  You Can Investigate Your Emotions Without Suppressing Them  For another meditation, here’s A 15-Minute Practice to Soften, Soothe, and Allow Difficult Emotions you can try.  And more from Mindful here: More episodes of 12 Minute Meditation Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing yourwords@mindful.org.

If you’ve ever tried to push away anxiety or depression when they show up, you probably already know: Fighting these complex, difficult emotions usually doesn’t work. In fact, our resistance often makes the experience even more challenging.  In today’s practice, Ed Halliwell offers a guided visualization based on a foundational mindful question: What if you don’t try to push this experience away, but instead watch it as it plays out?  Ed Halliwell is a mindfulness teacher and writer, based in Sussex and London, UK. He is author of three books: Into The Heart of Mindfulness, How To Live Well By Paying Attention and (as co-author) The Mindful Manifesto and teaches courses and retreats to public groups, in organizations and to individuals, face-to-face and online via Skype. He is also an advisor to The Mindfulness Initiative, which is supporting the Mindfulness All-Party Parliamentary Group to develop mindfulness-based policies for the UK. The transcription of this guided meditation will be online at Mindful.org next week.  Stay curious, stay inspired. Join our community by signing up for our free newsletter:  mindful.org/signup Show Notes Find more from Ed Halliwell here. Go Deeper Anxiety, panic, and depression can sometimes feel like a vortex we’re sucked into that’s impossible to get out of. It’s important to understand that mindfulness and meditation aren’t cure-alls or instant fixes, and that they’re most effective when used in concert with other healing modalities. There are practices that can help us be with thoughts and feelings in a compassionate, non-judgmental way—and this open-hearted approach can often loosen the grip of difficult moments. If you’d like to explore more about how mindful practices can help improve mental well-being, check out these resources on Mindful.org: Practicing Self-Compassion Can Boost Your Mental Health  Using Mindfulness for Mental Health  Is Mindfulness a Treatment for Depression?  4 Ways to Curb a Panic Attack with Mindfulness  How Mindfulness Protects Against Postpartum Depression  ​​Unwinding Your Anxiety Habit Loop  For more practice, here are 5 Guided Meditations for Panic and Anxiety that you can try.  And more from Mindful here: More episodes of 12 Minute Meditation Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing yourwords@mindful.org.

Our brains are hardwired to notice the negative. It’s part of how our ancient ancestors were able to survive in constantly threatening environments.   But this negativity bias can also make it difficult for us and our kids—even in our comparatively less threatening environments—to navigate daily stressors, like big tests, arguments, or disappointments.  In this shorter practice specifically designed for younger meditators, Dr. Mark Bertin shows kids how to gently guide their attention back to the positive things they might have missed, in order to help soothe the nervous system and bring calm.  Mark Bertin, MD., is a pediatrician, author, professor, and mindfulness teacher specializing in neurodevelopmental behavioral pediatrics. He’s a regular contributor to Mindful.org and Psychology Today. He is the author of How Children Thrive: The Practical Science of Raising Independent, Resilient, and Happy Kids (Sounds True, 2018). Dr. Bertin resides in Pleasantville, New York. For more, visit developmentaldoctor.com. The transcription of this guided meditation will be online at Mindful.org next week.  Stay curious, stay inspired. Join our community by signing up for our free newsletter:  mindful.org/signup Show Notes Find more from Mark Bertin here. Go Deeper Kids of all ages can benefit from learning and practicing mindful skills. For more resources to help kids and teens build resilience, navigate tough emotions, calm anxiety, and improve emotional regulation, check out these resources on the Mindful site: How to Model Mindfulness When Talking to Kids  The Nature Remedy: Find Freedom from Tech Overload  5 Ways to Help Teens Engage in Mindfulness Sessions  Mindfulness Can Empower Kids and Teens  For more practice, we’ve got an entire collection of meditations to support growing minds. Take-What-You-Need Meditations to Support Kids, Teens, and Young Adults  And more from Mindful here: More episodes of 12 Minute Meditation

Rest isn’t a “reward” for working hard enough. It’s a human need and birthright. This week’s episode is a little different. We’re not only sharing a guided meditation from mindfulness leader and professional coach Jenée Johnson, but also her teaching on some of the brain science behind relaxation—why it’s essential for our well-being, how it works, and how to incorporate intentional relaxation practices into your daily life.  Jenée Johnson, is a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach, Racial Healing, Emotional Intelligence Educator, and HeartMath facilitator. Jenée initiated and led the unique effort to bring mindfulness into San Francisco’s public health programs and practices through the Trauma Informed Systems Initiative. She is on the advisory board of Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute  and is certified to teach mindfulness and emotional intelligence based on the latest neuroscience. She is also the founder and curator of The Right Within Experience, a day-long program for people of African ancestry that teaches practical mindfulness to overcome the diminishing impact of racism and open a portal to a liberatory lifestyle. The transcription of this guided meditation will be online at Mindful.org next week.  Stay curious, stay inspired. Join our community by signing up for our free newsletter:  mindful.org/signup Show Notes Find more from Jenée Johnson and her work with The Right Within Experience here. Go Deeper Mindfulness is a resource that can be used not only for finding more calm, but also as a support for mental, physical, emotional, and communal healing. If you want to learn more about these restorative practices and how they contribute to wider individual and collective healing, check out these articles: How Mindful Leaders Can Heal Trauma  Encouraging Meaningful Conversations about Race and Trauma  The Science of How Mindfulness Relieves Post Traumatic Stress  Mindfulness for Racial Healing  For more practice, here’s another deep rest practice you can try: R.E.S.T.—A Guided Practice for the Tired and Weary. And more from Mindful here: More episodes of 12 Minute Meditation Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing yourwords@mindful.org.

Most of us spend most of our waking hours at some kind of job, whether that’s in an office, a classroom, or in our own homes. This week, mindful leadership expert Jancie Marturano leads a practice you can do at your desk—or anywhere—to give yourself a mindful pause during busy days. Janice Marturano is founder and executive director of the Institute for Mindful Leadership, a nonprofit that trains and supports leaders in exploring mindfulness and leadership excellence. She founded the institute after ending her tenure as Vice President of Public Responsibility and Deputy General Counsel for General Mills. She is the author of Finding the Space to Lead: A Practical Guide to Mindful Leadership. The transcription of this guided meditation will be online at Mindful.org next week.  Stay curious, stay inspired. Join our community by signing up for our free newsletter:  mindful.org/signup Show Notes Find more from Janice Marturano and her commitment to raising mindful leaders here. Go Deeper Mindfulness and meditation don’t just have to happen on a cushion. Learn more about creative ways to incorporate mindfulness into your everyday, real life here: The Power of Running and Meditation: A Guide to Mindful Movement  Nature-Based Mindfulness Practices for Families  Everyday Mindfulness Techniques: Mindful Photography  Practice Mindfulness With Everyday Sounds  For more practice, here’s another meditation to try: A Guided Walking Meditation to Notice the Beauty Around Us—Even in the City  And more from Mindful here: More episodes of 12 Minute Meditation Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing yourwords@mindful.org.

We often think about gratitude as happening in response to “good” things—but what about moments that aren’t grand or overtly happy, but are small and emotionally neutral? This week, Kim Armstrong leads a guided visualization practice to help you notice, take in, and consciously appreciate even the basic things we do every single day. Kimberly Armstrong is a cofounder and facilitator at Space Between. She practices mindfulness in order to know, see, and feel what is really important in life. Kim has a masters in Child and Adolescent Psychology from the University of Washington and is a certified meditation teacher and 500 hour yoga teacher. Kim’s superpower is deep listening with full presence. When she isn’t managing operational details, she can be found strumming chords on her guitar. The transcription of this guided meditation will be online at Mindful.org next week.  Stay curious, stay inspired. Join our community by signing up for our free newsletter:  mindful.org/signup Show Notes Find more from Kin Armstrong here. Go Deeper If you want to learn more about how starting or growing a robust, regular gratitude practice can improve markers of physical and emotional well-being, check out these articles: How to Practice Gratitude  Gratitude for the Lousy Ingrate  The Power of Gratitude (with a Healthy Dose of Cynicism)  The Science of Gratitude  For support in establishing a daily practice, we also have a beautiful Gratitude Journal, and a deck of flexible, versatile Gratitude Affirmation cards.  For more practice, here’s another meditation to try: A Guided Meditation to Awaken the Flow of Gratitude in Nature  And more from Mindful here: More episodes of 12 Minute Meditation Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing yourwords@mindful.org.

When we are experiencing a lot of stress or recovering from trauma or addiction, we can find ourselves living in a fight-flight-freeze state, where we feel either disconnected from or unsafe in our bodies. This practice is designed to gently cultivate a sense of safety and then create a kinesthetic anchor (rooted in awareness of how our body is moving) to start building a felt sense of security that your body can remember. Emily Jane is a mindfulness teacher, certified Embodied Processing (EP) practitioner, and recovery coach with a background in social work. She’s been in recovery for over eight years, following two decades of active addiction, and her lived experience now fuels her passion for helping others heal. Emily is also the author of Beyond Addiction: A Mindful Guide to Recovery, where she shares her trauma-informed, compassionate approach to healing. Her work integrates mindfulness, coaching, trauma therapy, and somatic tools to help people reconnect with their bodies and find safety, peace, and empowerment on their recovery journey. The transcription of this guided meditation will be online at Mindful.org next week.  Stay curious, stay inspired. Join our community by signing up for our free newsletter:  mindful.org/signup Show Notes Find more from Emily Jane here. You can order your copy of Beyond Addiction here.  Go Deeper If you want to learn more about embodied practice and how mindfulness can aid in addiction recovery, check out these articles: Make It Personal: How Mindfulness Can Support Highly Stressed People A Simple Inquiry Practice to Unwind from Stress Could Mindfulness Decrease the Severity of Opioid Cravings?  Constant Craving  For more practice, here’s another meditation to try: HALT Practice to Tune In to What Your Body Needs  And more from Mindful here: More episodes of 12 Minute Meditation Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing yourwords@mindful.org.

You may have heard of "impermanence" as an important theme in meditation. In this guided practice, Toby Sola introduces us to the ease of flow state with two simple but profound techniques: exploring impermanence directly by noticing changes in our body sensations, and using labels to hone concentration.   Toby Sola is dedicated to helping you create a feedback loop between your meditation practice and your ability to make the world a better place. Toby has been teaching meditation for two decades and has refined his craft through years of monastic training and close collaboration with the world-renowned teacher Shinzen Young. He is an award-winning designer and founder of the Brightmind Meditation app. Note that this meditation includes longer pauses of complete silence to give you time to spend in contemplation and practice the techniques introduced. If you want more time, feel free to pause the recording as you go.    The transcription of this guided meditation will be online at Mindful.org next week.  Stay curious, stay inspired. Join our community by signing up for our free newsletter:  mindful.org/signup Show Notes Find more from Toby Sola here. Go Deeper If you want to learn more about flow state, focus, and facing impermanence, here are more articles to explore:    Flow State: How to Get in the Zone  Find Your Focus: Own Your Attention in 12 Minutes a Day  Not Just Marking Time: How Rituals Help Us Face Impermanence with Mindfulness and Gratitude  For more practice, here’s another meditation to try: A Guided Meditation to Rest in the Flow of Effortlessness. And more from Mindful here: More episodes of 12 Minute Meditation Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing yourwords@mindful.org.

When difficult or painful emotions feel like they’re swirling all around you, it can be challenging to find a steady place to catch your breath. In this guided meditation, mindfulness teacher Scott Rogers uses the metaphor of a hurricane to help us recognize the qualities and the impermanence of even our stormiest emotions. Scott Rogers is founder and director of the University of Miami School of Law’s Mindfulness in Law Program where he integrates mindfulness into the law school curriculum, and he is co-founder of the UMindfulness, the University’s Mindfulness Research and Practice Initiative. Scott collaborates on neuroscience research into the efficacy of mindfulness training programs in high stress professions and has written numerous articles and authored five books on mindfulness, including The Elements of Mindfulness. He has appeared on television and radio and been interviewed in newspapers and magazines across the world for his creative and accessible methods of sharing mindfulness with people of all ages and walks of life. Scott is principal advisor to Innergy Meditation in Miami, and lives with his family in Miami Beach, Florida. The transcription of this guided meditation will be online at Mindful.org next week.  Stay curious, stay inspired. Join our community by signing up for our free newsletter:  mindful.org/signup About Our Contributor Find more from Scott Rogers here. Go Deeper If you want to learn about how mindfulness can help you make room for and move through all kinds of challenging emotions, check out these articles:    A Mindful Guide to Navigating Difficult Emotions The Upside of Sadness  Making Friends with Difficult Emotions For more practice, here’s another meditation to try: A Guided Meditation for Navigating Difficult Emotions. And more from Mindful here: More episodes of 12 Minute Meditation Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing yourwords@mindful.org.

If you’ve been having trouble falling asleep lately, this body scan meditation with Diana Winston offers a gentle, soothing way to be with the tension in our minds and our bodies. Take a deep breath, let go, and ease into rest.   Diana Winston is the Director of Mindfulness Education at UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center and author of several books including The Little Book of Being: Practices and Guidance for Uncovering your Natural Awareness. A quick note: Since this is a sleep meditation, you won’t be hearing a closing bell or statement like usual, but instead just a drifting off into silence. The transcription of this guided meditation will be online at Mindful.org next week.  Stay curious, stay inspired. Join our community by signing up for our free newsletter:  mindful.org/signup Show Notes Find more from Diana Winston here. Go Deeper Reconnecting with our body and its signals is a key part of being able to drop into full relaxation and rest. Here are two more articles that can help you increase body awareness:   How to Befriend Your Body The Science of Embodiment: Connect to Your Body’s Wisdom For more practice, here’s another meditation to try: A 12-Minute Body Scan Meditation for Letting Go of Stress and Falling Asleep And more from Mindful here: More episodes of 12 Minute Meditation   Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing yourwords@mindful.org.

In this week’s meditation, Dr. Mark Bertin walks us through a practice that is both concrete and compassionate. It guides us to take note of our tendency to either deny or try and “fix” what’s going on in our lives, and then find a third way—one where we aim to see things as clearly as possible, so that our decisions are filled with awareness, skill, and care for everyone involved. Mark Bertin, MD, is a pediatrician, author, professor, and mindfulness teacher specializing in neurodevelopmental behavioral pediatrics. He’s a regular contributor to Mindful.org and Psychology Today. He is the author of How Children Thrive: The Practical Science of Raising Independent, Resilient, and Happy Kids (Sounds True, 2018). Dr. Bertin resides in Pleasantville, New York. For more, visit developmentaldoctor.com. Together with ADHD Life Coach and Certified ADHD Educator Dana Crews, Dr. Bertin is leading a retreat October 10-12, 2025, to support adults navigating life with ADHD. Hosted at the Menla Retreat Center in the serene Catskill Mountains, Held and Whole is a restorative and educational three-day ADHD retreat that will offer practical, mindfulness-based tools to strengthen emotional regulation, deepen self-awareness, and foster authenticity.  You can get more information and reserve your spot here. Plus, listeners to this podcast can claim a 15% early bird discount when they enter code “Mindful” at checkout, good through August 15th.    The transcription of this guided meditation will be online at Mindful.org next week.  Stay curious, stay inspired. Join our community by signing up for our free newsletter:  mindful.org/signup More About Our Contributor Find more from Dr. Mark Bertin and his work here. Go Deeper Being with reality exactly as it is, without judgment or denial, is one of the core principles of mindful practice. It is also one of the most challenging. If you want to learn more about what this principle looks like in practice, including fostering mindful awareness with neurodivergence, check out these additional articles: Wise Engagement with the World: What to Do When You Wish Things Were Different   Three Ways Acceptance Helps You Work with Difficult Emotions  Mindful Parenting for ADHD  And for more practice building calm awareness in meditation, here are other meditations to try:  A Guided Breathing Meditation to Cultivate Awareness  A Mindfulness Practice for Nonjudgmental Awareness  More from Mindful here: More episodes of 12 Minute Meditation Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing yourwords@mindful.org.

Loving-kindness meditation, also called metta,  springs from a basic understanding of human nature: On one hand, we might truly believe that  compassion makes the world better—and on the other, we might struggle to offer it to ourselves and to others for various reasons.  Metta practices, like the one Dr. Emma Seppälä leads this week, offer a simple, structured way to help us  gently expand our capacity to both give and receive love.  As a bestselling author, Yale lecturer, and international keynote speaker, Emma Seppälä teaches executives at the Yale School of Management and is faculty director of the Yale School of Management’s Women’s Leadership Program. A psychologist and research scientist by training, her expertise is the science of happiness, emotional intelligence, and social connection. Her bestselling book The Happiness Track (HarperOne, 2016) has been translated into dozens of languages. Her new book is Sovereign (Hay House, 2024). Seppälä is also the Science Director of Stanford University’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education. The transcription of this guided meditation will be online at Mindful.org next week.  Stay curious, stay inspired. Join our community by signing up for our free newsletter:  mindful.org/signup Show Notes Find more from Dr. Emma Seppälä here. Go Deeper If you want to understand more about the practice of loving-kindness, why it matters, and how to build it—even with difficult people or in times when you aren’t feeling very compassionate—here are some articles to get you started:  Wise Engagement with the World: What to Do When You Wish Things Were Different Loving-Kindness Meditation with Sharon Salzberg For more practice, here’s another meditation to try: A 12-Minute Meditation for Self-Compassion and Loving-Kindness. And more from Mindful here: More episodes of 12 Minute Meditation Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing yourwords@mindful.org.