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You might not think of mindfulness as being a resource to help with decision-making, but moments of intentional silence can sharpen our mental clarity and help us discern which choices feel most aligned.  In this guided practice, meditation teacher Toby Sola offers a simple technique you can use, whether you’re facing a life-changing choice or are just feeling overwhelmed by all the small decisions that often crowd our busy lives.   Note that this practice includes pauses of complete silence that might be longer than our listeners are accustomed to. This is to give you time to spend in contemplation. If you want more time, feel free to pause the recording as you go.      If you’d like the transcription of this guided meditation, it will be online on Mindful.org next week.  Stay curious, stay inspired. Join our community by signing up for our free newsletter, where we share compelling insights and actionable ideas to enrich your everyday life. Connect with us at mindful.org/signup. Show Notes Find more from To

If you’ve ever been awake at three a.m., tossing and turning and wishing you could snap your fingers and get back to sleep, then you know: the more you try to fall asleep, the less likely you are to drift off. In this week’s guided practice, we’re revisiting a meditation with Mark Bertin that can release the striving, let go of tension, and make it easier for body and mind to settle into rest.  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.  If you’d like the transcription of this guided meditation, it will be online on Mindful.org next week.  Stay curious, stay inspired. Join our community by signing up for our free newsletter, where we share compelling insights and actionable ideas to enrich your everyday life. Connect with us at mindful.org/signup. Show Notes Find more from Dr. Mark Bertin here. And more from Mindful here: More episodes of 12 Minute Meditation Let us know what you thought of this ep

Have you ever wondered why there are so many varieties of meditation practices, and why some of them seem to contradict each other in approach, style, or even objective?  In today’s guided practice, meditation teacher Toby Sola walks us through three common types of meditation. Plus, he explains why the word “meditation” is very much like the word “sport”—and how all these different practices actually share the same overarching purpose.  If you’re new to meditation or curious about trying new approaches, you’ll love this week’s practice.  Note that there are intentional pauses included in today's recording. If you'd like more time to practice the techniques outlined here, please feel free to pause the recording as you go along.   If you’d like the transcription of this guided meditation, it will be online on Mindful.org next week.  There’s still time to get in on some of our best Mother’s Day deals! Claim up to 50% off—ends May 12th.  Stay curious, stay inspired. Join our community by signing up for our free

Many modern Western cultures don’t have a deep understanding of land as a source of collective identity, story, or purpose. There is a sense that, yes, land can be lovely—but it is mainly seen as a source of recreation or extraction, not necessarily as an integral part of what shapes us and future generations.   In this guided practice, Indigenous scholar and teacher Yuria Celidwen introduces a fresh way to consider our connection to the natural spaces around us. This is a practice that invites reverence, gratitude, and belonging, where our experience of the earth moves from being strictly transactional to being interconnected and relational.  This meditation is part of our Powerful Women of the Mindfulness Movement series, where we're sharing guided practices from the women featured in our 2025 special edition of Mindful magazine.   If you’d like the transcription of this guided meditation, it will be online on Mindful.org next week.  Curious about the many benefits of being a member? Learn about our subscri

Recent studies have confirmed that the constant presence and use of tech in our lives have become a hazard to our well-being on multiple levels.  Meditation teacher, mindful tech designer, and self-identified tech lover Jay Vidyarthi observes, “It’s okay to enjoy technology. Tech becomes a problem when we get so attached to it that our lives fall out of balance—and this happens because a certain device or app or game or even your work email might satisfy a specific, lacking, healthy emotional need.” So how do we mindfully hold that tension and seek balance in our relationship to technology?  In today’s meditation, Jay leads us through a contemplative practice that can help us dig down and understand our motivations for using tech, while also identifying ways to be more intentional about the why, how, and when of our digital consumption.  If you’d like the transcription of this guided meditation, it will be online on Mindful.org next week.  Curious about the many benefits of being a member? Learn about our  su

If you’ve faced challenging or polarizing conversations lately, you likely know how difficult it can be to connect and cooperate with the person on the other side of that interaction.  In today’s guided practice, Dr. Shalini Bahl invites us to explore our innate interconnectedness by recognizing our needs and those of others, so that we can be empowered to work together in new and creative ways that benefit all involved.  This meditation is part of our Powerful Women of the Mindfulness Movement series, where we're sharing guided practices from the women featured in our 2025 special edition of Mindful magazine.   If you’d like the transcription of this guided meditation, it will be online on Mindful.org next week.  Curious about the many benefits of being a member? Learn about our  subscription tiers and join Mindful here. Stay curious, stay inspired. Join our community by signing up for our free newsletter, where we share compelling insights and actionable ideas to enrich your everyday life. Connect with us

Forgiveness is a cornerstone practice of mindfulness, and it’s also one of the most difficult.  Extending forgiveness to others and to ourselves requires a kind of awareness and vulnerability that can feel deeply uncomfortable, especially if we are carrying heavy stories of shame, anger, or resentment connected to that experience.  In today’s guided practice, Will Schneider from Men Talking Mindfulness walks us through a forgiveness meditation filled with kindness, grace, and surrender that’s designed to help us walk a little lighter in the world.  If you’d like the transcription of this guided meditation, it will be online on Mindful.org next week.  Curious about the many benefits of being a member? Learn about our  subscription tiers and join Mindful here. Stay curious, stay inspired. Join our community by signing up for our free newsletter, where we share compelling insights and actionable ideas to enrich your everyday life. Connect with us at mindful.org/signup. Show Notes Find more from Will Schneider h

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 lean 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.”    This meditation is part of our Powerful Women of the Mindfulness Movement series, where we're sharing guided practices from the women featured in our 2025 special edition of Mindful magazine.  If you’d like the transcription of this guided meditation, it wi

What does it feel like to experience ourselves—in our own minds and bodies—as a reliable place we can come home to in order to feel grateful, calm, and resilient?  In this week’s guided meditation, Melli O’Brien walks us through a practice we can return to in times of uncertainty or challenge to remind us of our own inner strength.    This meditation is part of our Powerful Women of the Mindfulness Movement series, where we're sharing guided practices from the women featured in our 2025 special edition of Mindful magazine.  If you’d like the transcription of this guided meditation, it will be online on Mindful.org next week.  Curious about the many benefits of being a member? Learn about our  subscription tiers and join Mindful here. Stay curious, stay inspired. Join our community by signing up for our free newsletter, where we share compelling insights and actionable ideas to enrich your everyday life. Connect with us at mindful.org/signup. Show Notes Find more from Melli O’Brien here. You can learn more ab

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.  This meditation is part of our Powerful Women of the Mindfulness Movement series, where we're sharing guided practices from the women featured in our 2025 special edition of Mindful magazine.  If you’d like the transcription of this guided meditation, it will be online on Mindful.org next week.  Curious about the many benefits of being a member? Learn about our  subscription tiers and join Mindful here. Stay curious, stay in

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.  This meditation is part of our Powerful Women of the Mindfulness Movement series, where we're sharing guided practices from the women featured in our 2025 special edition of Mindful magazine.  If you’d like the transcription of this guided meditation, it will be online on Mindful.org next week.  C

In recent years, mental health professionals have raised the alarm about the growing epidemic of loneliness. Millions of people feel separated and isolated, even when they are surrounded by colleagues or thousands of social media acquaintances.  In today’s guided practice, Shelly Harrell offers one mindful approach that can counteract this sense of lonely atomization. It is the South African greeting of Sawubona, which carries an intentional willingness to see and to be seen, in our fullness, vulnerability, mutual belonging, and radiance.   This meditation is part of our Powerful Women of the Mindfulness Movement series, where we will be sharing guided practices from the women featured in our 2025 special edition of Mindful magazine.  If you’d like the transcription of this guided meditation, it will be online on Mindful.org next week.  Curious about the many benefits of being a member? Learn about our new subscription tiers and join Mindful here. Stay curious, stay inspired. Join our community by signing up

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. In this guided meditation, Brenda K. 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.   Brenda K. Mitchell is a pastor, mindfulness teacher, and advocate for survivors of gun violence. She lost her son Kenneth to gun violence in 2005, when he was just 31 years old. After discovering how mindfulness could help her be with and heal her own grief, she started bringing mindful practices to other people who have experienced trauma and loss as a result of gun violence.  This meditation marks the beginning of our Women of Mindfulness series, where we will be sharing

In a world filled with challenges and distractions, we often find ourselves repeating automatic reactions that once helped us survive but now hold us back. Mindful journaling offers a lifeline—allowing us to slow down, listen inwardly, and meet ourselves with compassion. Today, we’re refreshing a powerful journaling practice guided by Caverly Morgan, focused on letting go of limiting habits. With gentle prompts, Caverly invites us to explore inherited survival strategies, understand deeper needs beneath them, and nurture true belonging within ourselves. If you’d like more from Caverly, join us for an experiential practice collective based on Caverly Morgan’s transformational, practical and timely book, The Heart of Who We Are: Realizing Freedom Together. This interactive and experiential course will support you to connect your personal meditation practice to community practice, and to true and meaningful change. True change occurs when we not only understand who we truly are but also act in the world from thi

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 why we’re bringing back 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. We’re also excited to share that Georgina has a new course with us: Reset and Let Go: The Freedom to Live Fully. This transformative journey will help you release what no longer serves you, reset your mindset, and step into a life of greater clari

The invitation with this practice is to put aside ideas and concepts about differences, shame, fear, survival, and to simply see if you can begin to develop a felt sense of common humanity—that all of us wish for happiness and freedom from suffering. Steven Hickman is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist. He is executive director of the Center for Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) and the Founding Director of the UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness, a program of community building, clinical care, professional training, and research. Also author of Self-Compassion for Dummies. We’re also celebrating the revival of Mindful Magazine with a special giveaway for our podcast listeners. Mindful Premium gives you a full year of access to the print magazine, plus our complete digital library of articles, meditations, courses, and more. Want a chance to WIN a free year of Mindful Premium? Simply visit: https://signups.mindful.org/win-premium/ and enter your email today. This giveaway is our way of saying thank you for being pa

In today’s interconnected yet paradoxically divided world, the path to understanding each other requires more than just good intentions. To truly connect and heal, we need something more: the cultivation of a deeper understanding. The path forward isn’t about eliminating differences—it’s about building bridges of understanding across them. In this gentle yet powerful meditation with Shalini Bahl, we experience how we are all shaped by our experiences, fears, and hopes. Deep understanding is like diving below the illuminated surface to deeper waters.  By understanding both what floats on the surface and what lies in the depths, we can begin to shift our habitual patterns and make choices that arise from genuine wisdom rather than reactive impulses. We’re also celebrating the revival of Mindful Magazine with a special giveaway for our podcast listeners. Mindful Premium gives you a full year of access to the print magazine, plus our complete digital library of articles, meditations, courses, and more. Want a cha

In a world where change is the only constant, it’s easy to feel untethered. This week, mindfulness teacher and Mobius founder Aden Van Noppen invites us to pause, breathe, and explore the grounding power of impermanence. Through this practice, Aden guides us to reconnect with the breath, an anchor amidst life’s ebbs and flows. Each inhale and exhale becomes a gentle reminder of the moment-to-moment shifts in our inner and outer worlds, offering an opportunity to find calm and stability no matter what surrounds us. Whether you’re navigating a season of uncertainty or simply seeking a moment of stillness, this meditation encourages us to come back to what roots us, even when everything else feels in motion. We’re also celebrating the revival of Mindful Magazine with a special giveaway for our podcast listeners. Mindful Premium gives you a full year of access to the print magazine, plus our complete digital library of articles, meditations, courses, and more. Want a chance to WIN a free year of Mindful Premium?

As we begin a new year, pediatrician, mindfulness teacher, and author Mark Bertin offers us a thoughtful practice to reconnect with our intentions. Mark’s meditation gently reminds us that intention-setting isn’t just a ritual for January—it’s a practice we can revisit anytime, as part of our everyday mindfulness. We’re also celebrating the revival of Mindful Magazine with a special giveaway for our podcast listeners. Mindful Premium gives you a full year of access to the print magazine, plus our complete digital library of articles, meditations, courses, and more. Want a chance to WIN a free year of Mindful Premium? Simply visit: https://signups.mindful.org/win-premium/ and enter your email today.   This giveaway is our way of saying thank you for being part of our amazing community. We can’t wait for you to explore everything Mindful Premium has to offer! Stay curious, stay inspired. Join our community by signing up for our free newsletter, where we share compelling insights and actionable ideas to enrich y

Start your year with clarity and peace. In this episode, mindfulness expert Georgina Miranda guides us through a Meditation to Reset and Let Go. Discover how to release what no longer serves you and connect with your inner wisdom, peace, and freedom. Looking to deepen your practice? Join Georgina live on January 25 for Connecting with Hope and Peace in the New Year, a free Premium-exclusive workshop. Visit shop.mindful.org to reserve your spot today. We’re also celebrating the revival of Mindful Magazine with a special giveaway for our podcast listeners. Mindful Premium gives you a full year of access to the print magazine, plus our complete digital library of articles, meditations, courses, and more. Want a chance to WIN a free year of Mindful Premium? Simply visit: https://signups.mindful.org/win-premium/ and enter your email today. This giveaway is our way of saying thank you for being part of our amazing community. We can’t wait for you to explore everything Mindful Premium has to offer! Stay curious, s