Caverly Morgan: A Meditation for Unconditional Love When You're Struggling

Our guest this week is teacher Caverly Morgan.  She offers a sturdy, grounded place to come home to when we're struggling with feelings of failure, inadequacy, or insecurity. This meditation: Offers a steadier alternative to bypassing difficult emotions with positive mantras Gives us a more expansive perspective on our value Allows us to be with what's painful, and still return to a place of unconditional love Caverly Morgan is a meditation teacher, author, and visionary who founded Peace in Schools, a nonprofit that created the nation's first for-credit mindfulness class in public high schools. She is also the founder of Presence Collective, a community of cross-cultural contemplatives committed to personal and collective transformation. The transcription of this guided meditation will be online and in our app at Mindful.org next week.  Stay curious, stay inspired. Sign up for our free newsletter mindful.org/signup or download the app for free at mindful.org/app.  Show Notes Find more from Caverly Morgan here. Go Deeper When we're wrestling with experiences that challenge our identities or our confidence, it can be tempting to reach for positive self-talk that pushes back against the difficult feelings we might be having. Unconditional self-love is different. To learn more about how to build this skill, check out these resources from Mindful.org:  Building Self-Compassion for Failure in the Creative Process  Radical Love for Troubled Times  Field Notes on Radical Self Compassion  It's Selfish, It's Hokey, and I'll Lose My Edge: 3 Half-Truths About Self-Compassion  This Is What Fierce Self-Compassion Looks Like  For more practice working with unconditional self-acceptance, try: Self-Compassion for Nervous System Reset  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 [email protected].

Our guest this week is teacher Shamash Alidina.  He shares a simple technique for opening and strengthening your awareness and curiosity about everyday things. This walking meditation is designed to help you:  Practice seeing the world with a "beginner's mind"  Get outside, move, breathe, and give your churning mind a break Notice things in a new way through your senses Shamash Alidina has been practising mindfulness since 1998 and runs his own successful training organisation. He is the author of Mindfulness For Dummies and the forthcoming Breathing Exercises for Dummies. 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 and in our app at Mindful.org next week.  Stay curious, stay inspired. Sign up for our free newsletter mindful.org/signup or download the app for free at mindful.org/app.  Show Notes Find more from Shamash Alidina here. Go Deeper Nurturing a beginner's mind doesn't mean we pretend we don't know stuff. It just means we get more intentional about pausing to ask if our assumptions about people and the world are always correct. To learn more about building this mindful skill, check out these resources from Mindful.org:  Beginner's Mind Q&A With Anu Gupta  Navigating the Path to Fulfillment: Embrace Psychological Flexibility with ACT for Beginners  Don't Be So Sure  Want in-person practice with cultivating a more open mind? Here's a retreat you can attend in Garrison, NY, this October 28-31. Skymind: Resting in Our Natural State For a different approach to meditating with beginner's mind, try:  A 12-Minute Meditation to Approach the World With a "Don't-Know Mind" 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 [email protected].

Our guest this week is teacher Vinny Ferraro.    He shares a beginner's metta or loving-kindness meditation that offers practice for the most common first step of metta: giving compassion to ourselves. This meditation is designed to help you:  Meet yourself with care, whatever you're experiencing  Practice being with your own imperfection without slipping into shame or harsh self-criticism Notice where there is room to learn and develop wisdom 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. The transcription of this guided meditation will be online and in our app at Mindful.org next week.  Stay curious, stay inspired. Sign up for our free newsletter mindful.org/signup or download the app for free at mindful.org/app.  Show Notes Find more from Vinny Ferraro here. Go Deeper We are often our own worst critics, treating ourselves and speaking to ourselves with a level of cruelty that we'd never bring to others. Self-compassion isn't indulgence. It's learning to treat yourself the way you would anyone you love. To learn more about how to build this skill and the benefits it holds, check out these resources from Mindful.org:  How Practicing Loving-Kindness Helped Me Find My Place in the World  The Gift of Loving-Kindness  Loving-Kindness Meditation May Protect Your Genes and Slow Aging  Why Loving-Kindness Takes Time: Sharon Salzberg  18 Science-Based Reasons to Try Loving-Kindness Meditation  For more practice working with loving-kindness meditation, try: Loving-Kindness Meditation with Sharon Salzberg  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 [email protected].

Our guest this week is also September's Teacher of the Month, Dr. Mark Bertin.  He offers a unique practice that uses sensory awareness and gentle movement to help meet moments of uncertainty. This meditation is designed to help you:  Practice meeting yourself with patience and attentive care Connect with your body as both a way to calm yourself and as a way to get clarifying information about the situation you're facing Engage skillfully with the discomfort of uncertainty, rather than defaulting to reactivity, anger, or fear  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 and in our app at Mindful.org next week.  Stay curious, stay inspired. Sign up for our free newsletter mindful.org/signup or download the app for free at mindful.org/app.  Show Notes Find more from Mark Bertin here. Go Deeper Life is inherently changeable and uncertain, and our resilience relies on how we relate to that fact. The good news is that these are skills we can build. To learn more, check out these resources from Mindful.org:  Why Uncertainty Is Good for Us How Embracing Uncertainty Leads To Fulfillment  New Life, Who's This? Rediscovering Who You Are When Everything Has Changed  Navigating Change is Hard. Here's How it Makes Us Better Leaders  Finding Peace in Challenging Times with Sharon Salzberg For more practice working with uncertainty, try: A Meditation to Create Inner Balance in the Face of Change  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 [email protected].

Our guest this week is Janice Martellucci, Executive Director of Peace in Schools. As millions of students get ready to head back to school in the Northern Hemisphere, she brings us a meditation to meet transitions and new places with courage and curiosity.  Regardless of the type of transition you might be facing, this meditation is designed to help you:  Notice the emotions that arise as you approach this change Stay present to what you're experiencing with care, especially if you're feeling fear or resistance Offer support to yourself and others  Janice Martellucci is the Executive Director of Peace in Schools and an educator focused on uplifting the agency and wellbeing of young people. Since 2015, she's been an influencer and change-maker in mindfulness education, playing an integral role in designing and implementing the nation's first, for-credit, semester-long mindfulness course in public high schools. Her work brings transformative mindfulness education to thousands of teens and educators every year. The transcription of this guided meditation will be online and in our app at Mindful.org next week.  Stay curious, stay inspired. Sign up for our free newsletter mindful.org/signup or download the app for free at mindful.org/app.  Show Notes Find more from Janice Martellucci here. Go Deeper Change is inevitable, but being with change, without trying to grasp or control the outcome, can be a huge challenge. Mindfulness can help. To learn more, check out these resources from Mindful.org:  Back-to-School Mindfulness Toolkit for Parents, Kids, and Educators  Finding Your Way Forward When the Path Is Not Clear  New Life, Who's This? Rediscovering Who You Are When Everything Has Changed  Embracing Change: What Nanalan' Teaches Us About Saying Goodbye  Navigating Menopause: A Mindful Approach to Managing Symptoms and Embracing Change  The Only Constant Is Change  For another approach to working with transition, try: A Meditation to Help You Let Go and Accept Change  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 [email protected].

Our guest this week is Jeneé Johnson. She brings us a meditation based on what she calls "staying on the spot." This meditation is designed to help you:  Notice when your thoughts wander Come back to the moment without judgment or anxiety Practice training your attention in meditation so you can carry that skill over into 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 (SIYLI) 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 and in our app at Mindful.org next week.  Stay curious, stay inspired. Sign up for our free newsletter mindful.org/signup or download the app for free at mindful.org/app.  Show Notes Find more from Jeneé Johnson here. Go Deeper For more information on how mindfulness practice can help you train your focus and attention, check out these resources from Mindful.org: Attention! How Mindfulness Training Is Helping People Reclaim Their Ability to Focus  Paying Attention to the Space In Between  Finding a Way to Measure and Study Our Internal Attention  The Brain Science of Attention with Amishi Jha  Find Your Focus: Own Your Attention in 12 Minutes a Day  For another approach to attention-strengthening meditation, try: A Breathing Meditation to Gently Bring Your Attention Back with Awareness  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 [email protected].

It is natural as finite human beings to want to feel certain. To our brains, certainty equals safety. It's normal to wish we could control the future, because uncertainty can be unsettling and scary.  But as today's teacher observes, as difficult as it is, the only real leverage we have to positively influence the future is to learn to inhabit the present moment fully, without trying to fix it or manage it. This is the most challenging aspect of mindfulness, and its core principle.  This 20-minute guided meditation with Jon Kabat-Zinn is practice for simply being awake and aware in the moment without agenda.  Jon Kabat-Zinn is the founder of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) as well as the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He is author of Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness; Wherever You Go, There You Are; Coming to Our Senses; and Mindfulness for Beginners. He trains, teaches, and lectures throughout the world on applications of mindfulness and is Professor of Medicine Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. The transcription of this guided meditation will be online and in our app at Mindful.org next week.  Stay curious, stay inspired. Sign up for our free newsletter mindful.org/signup or download the app for free at mindful.org/app.  Show Notes Find more from Jon Kabat Zinn here. Go Deeper Like any mindful skill, learning how to tune into and stay rooted in the present moment takes time and practice. Learn more with these resources on Mindful: How Present-Moment Awareness Can Make Life More Meaningful  The Science and Practice of Staying Present Through Difficult Times  Why It's Hard to Live in the Present Moment  Before Fidget Toys, There Were Beads: The Latest Craze is Part of a Long Tradition of Keeping Your Hands Busy  Being Present with Cancer  For another approach to practicing present moment awareness, try: A 10-Minute Practice to Fully Experience the Present  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 [email protected].

Stress and tension can easily build up in our bodies during busy days or weeks, and often we don't even realize how much that is affecting our ability to let go and fall asleep at night.  In this guided practice, teacher Kelly Boys offers a simple body scan meditation that uses sensory awareness and intentional breathing to invite a sense of lovely heaviness and relaxation. Kelly Boys is a mindfulness trainer, coach, author, and speaker, specializing in teaching the NSDR (non sleep deep rest) practice of yoga nidra. She is the author of The Blind Spot Effect and as a trainer has created mindfulness programs for UN humanitarians and veterans with PTSD.  Just a quick note: Since this is a sleep meditation, you won't be hearing a closing bell or the usual outro, so that you can drift off in silence.  The transcription of this guided meditation will be online and in our app at Mindful.org next week.  Stay curious, stay inspired. Sign up for our free newsletter mindful.org/signup or download the app for free at mindful.org/app.  Show Notes Find more from Kelly Boys here. Go Deeper It's not really possible to "get rid" of stress. In fact, the more we try to fight it, the worse it gets. What does work to ease stress is to meet it with compassion, and that can take on various forms: sensory awareness, body scans, deep breathing, mindful movement, journaling, and many other types of mindfulness practice. Here are just a few ways that you can learn to meet, process, and release stress:  Make It Personal: How Mindfulness Can Support Highly Stressed People  A Steady Heart: A Cardiologist's Advice for Lowering Stress  A Simple Inquiry Practice to Unwind from Stress  Mindfulness May be a Useful Tool for Dealing with Stress Associated with Autism The Power of Meeting Stress with Softness For another guided meditation to help you get to sleep, try: Healthy Sleep Can't Be Forced. Try this Sleep Meditation Instead  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 [email protected].

When we're facing disappointment or challenge, it's easy to default to negative narratives about who we are inherently: I'm a failure. What's wrong with me? I never do anything right.  This week, teacher Rich Fernandez invites a different perspective: When we shift from naming an existential trait (like, I must be a loser) to naming a temporary experiential state (like, I'm experiencing a setback that's discouraging), then we can actually return awareness and agency to ourselves and navigate a way through the challenge.  Rich Fernandez has dedicated his career to building more purposeful, mindful, and high-performing workplaces. He is the former CEO of Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute (SIYLI), co-founded Wisdom Labs, and has also served in senior roles at eBay, J.P. Morgan Chase, and Bank of America. Currently, he is the Head of Executive Development at Gap, Inc. The transcription of this guided meditation will be online and in our app at Mindful.org next week.  Stay curious, stay inspired. Sign up for our free newsletter mindful.org/signup or download the app for free at mindful.org/app.  Show Notes Find more from Rich Fernandez here.   Go Deeper Learning how to navigate difficulty is a core human skill, and naturally one of the most challenging. For more resources on how mindfulness can help build resilience, compassion, and wisdom for the tougher seasons of life, check out these articles from Mindful:  Why Imagination—Not Resilience—Might Help You Heal From Heartbreak  Elaine Smookler on How Setbacks Can Breed Resilience  Deep Resilience: The Wisdom of Making Friends with Your Mind  Swimming, Walking, Running—Why Mindful Movement Can Boost Resilience   Learning to Meditate Through Difficulty  For another guided practice on staying steady when things feel like they're falling apart, try: Staying Grounded through Difficulty  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 [email protected].

By definition, to feel vulnerable is to feel exposed and undefended. It's natural, in moments of emotional risk or tenderness, to feel the urge to pull back from vulnerability, to deny it or dismiss it as weak or needy. But decades of research have also revealed that we can't really form strong bonds with others if we're unwilling to take the risk of being our true selves.  This week, Dr. Stacee Reicherzer guides us through a practice that can help us soften to this oh-so-human experience so that we can truly know healing, connection, and vitality.  Dr. Stacee L. Reicherzer, PhD, LPC-S is the Chicago-based transgender author of The Healing Otherness Handbook: Overcome the Trauma of Identity-Based Bullying and Find Power in Your Difference. The San Antonio, TX native serves as clinical faculty of counseling at Southern New Hampshire University, where she received the distinguished faculty award in 2018. The transcription of this guided meditation will be online and in our app at Mindful.org next week.  Stay curious, stay inspired. Sign up for our free newsletter mindful.org/signup or download the app for free at mindful.org/app.  Show Notes Find more from Stacee Reicherzer here. As with any difficult emotion, learning to be with vulnerability is a skill that we can nurture. Here are more resources on this essential skill and how mindfulness can help you build and expand your capacity to be yourself in the world.  Go Deeper Gentle Men: The Healing Power of Vulnerability  The Power of Vulnerability  Why Vulnerability is Your Superpower  Feeling Like a Fraud in Your Own Mindfulness Practice  4 Questions to Foster Your Authentic Self  For more practice leaning into genuine connection, try A 12-Minute Meditation for Cultivating Connection to Yourself and Beyond. 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 [email protected].