A Meditation to Allow Genuine Happiness, Even In Hard Times

When we are going through a difficult season personally, or we are bearing witness to the pain of others, our relationship to genuine joy or happiness can get complicated and confusing. Happiness can feel out of reach, or it can feel like a betrayal, like it's something we don't "deserve" in hard times.  But strengthening our ability to notice and soak in moments of beauty, tenderness, connection, and gratitude can actually have a fortifying effect on us. It can help us build resilience and fill our empty emotional tanks—which can foster our own healing and make it possible for us to show up in healing ways for others.  This week, teacher Wendy O'Leary shares a guided practice to tune our attention to the reality that shimmers right alongside our genuine seasons of struggle.  Wendy O'Leary, M.Ed., author and health educator, has three children's books and an adult book on self-compassion in families. She is a certified mindfulness teacher, parent educator, and self-compassion advocate with expertise in teaching emotional resilience to children and adults. Her next publication is a card deck for children titled "Let's Grow Happiness," created in collaboration with her colleague Helen Maffini. It is scheduled for release on April 21, 2026 and can be preordered at www.wendyoleary.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 Wendy O'Leary here. If you are looking for an in-depth resource to help build these essential skills of resilience, join Melli O'Brien and a host of other teachers for The Seven Strengths, a FREE 7-day online course happening this May 13-19. Learn more and register at www.mindfulness.com/the-seven-strengths.  Go Deeper To explore more about how happiness is not just something we get when things are going well, but an essential human experience, check out these resources from Mindful.org:  What We Know (Or Think We Know) About Happiness  Three Emerging Pathways to Happiness  Find Happiness by Embracing All of Your Emotions  Searching for Happiness and Finding Yard Work  Why Happiness Isn't Always Comfortable To get more practice noticing and connecting with happiness, try 3 Guided Meditations to Open Up to Happiness. 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 [email protected].

There are so many reasons why we might be struggling to get to sleep and stay asleep. Work or relationship stress, health concerns, hormonal changes, the state of the world—there's plenty to keep us awake at night.  This week, Mark Bertin offers a soothing sleep practice to help settle our restlessness, using the breath as a calming anchor to gently coax our busy minds and tense bodies into rest.  Because this is a sleep meditation, there won't be the usual recorded outro, so you can just drift off in silence.  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 Dr. Mark Bertin here. Go Deeper For help understanding how mindfulness can make sleep better and more restorative, check out these resources from Mindful.org:  The Ultimate Guide to Mindfulness for Sleep  Why We Wake Up At Night and How Mindfulness Helps Us Sleep Again  The Science of Deep Sleep  8 Tips for Better Sleep at Night  Mindful has a wonderful collection of sleep meditations. If you want to try another version of a body scan, A 12-Minute Body Scan Meditation for Letting Go of Stress and Falling Asleep is a great place to start.   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].  

Daily life is full of irritations: moments of inconvenience, situations where we don't get what we were hoping for, delays, disappointments, prickly interactions that can leave us confused and exasperated.  If we're honest, we can probably admit that sometimes our reactions in those moments tend to be reflexive rather than intentional. We feel our anger or annoyance rise, and we react almost as though we're reading a script. Can we explore these habitual reactions in a way that gives us enough space to respond differently? In today's practice, teacher Patricia Rockman guides us through a meditation to help us meet whatever is arising, so that we have more agency when the next moment arises.  Patricia Rockman, MD, CCFP, FCFP is a family physician with a focused practice in mental health. She is the senior director of Education and Clinical Services at the Centre for Mindfulness Studies, Toronto. Rockman is also an associate professor at the University of Toronto, Department of Family Medicine, cross appointed to Psychiatry. She has extensive experience practicing individual psychotherapy, leading therapy groups, and training healthcare providers in mindfulness-based interventions, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and change management for stress reduction. She is a freelance writer, yoga teacher, and meditation practitioner. 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 Patricia Rockman here. Go Deeper For more resources to explore reactivity and choice, check out these resources from Mindful.org:  The "About To" Moment: Teaching and Modeling Response vs. Reaction   Emotional Rescue: Using Mindfulness to Reset Your Reactions  You Can Investigate Your Emotions Without Suppressing Them  Tame Reactive Emotions by Naming Them  For more practice with compassionately looking at and interrupting unconscious reactivity, try The S.T.O.P. Practice: Creating Space Around Automatic Reactions.   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 [email protected].

It's not always an instinctual go-to for us, but self-compassion is one of the most powerful forms of healing and restoration for our mental and physical well-being.  In this meditation, mindfulness teacher Shamash Alidina offers three ways to show compassion for yourself when you're stressed and need a reset.  Shamash Alidina has been practising mindfulness since 1998 and runs his own successful training organisation. He is the author of Mindfulness For Dummies and most recently, 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 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 For more resources to help meet stress, balance your nervous system, and tap into resilience, check out these resources from Mindful.org:  Deep Resilience: The Wisdom of Making Friends with Your Mind  Swimming, Walking, Running—Why Mindful Movement Can Boost Resilience   Why Your Outbreath is Connected to Your Well-Being  You Don't Have to Shut Down or Burn Out When You Care This Much. Do This Instead.    For more practice tending to your nervous system with self-compassion, try A 12-Minute Body Scan Meditation for Self-Compassion and Presence.  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].  

There's a paradox inside mindfulness practice: When we want to heal something, we move toward what hurts, not away from it. It's not easy to keep our hearts soft or open, and a mindful practice doesn't change the inherent risks in being a human in a world of other humans.  This week, as part of his mini-course Opening Ourselves Up to Compassion, Vinny Ferraro shares a practice to meet our pain and uncertainty, to recognize our inherent connection, and to summon the courage to lower our defenses.  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 For more resources on wise boundaries and how to stay open when you want to shut down, check out these resources from Mindful.org:  How Writing Three Lines of Poetry Can Open Your Heart  Why We're Hardwired to Armor Our Hearts  Fearless Open-Hearted Awareness with Frank Ostaseski (a mini-course) How to Show Up With Your Whole Heart  Compassionate Boundaries: How to Say No with Heart  To try another meditation to help lower defenses and break down armor, try A 12-Minute Meditation to Cultivate an Open Heart.  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].

Everything is impermanent. It's always changing, coming together and falling apart. This, of course, includes small daily things and massive, disruptive, and life-shattering things.  It's frustrating to not be able to control these movements and outcomes. But paradoxically, when we can accept that everything is not up to us, and we stop trying to control what we can't change or trying to predict what we can't predict, then we can feel a lot more at ease and more open to the moment-to-moment unfolding of our lives.  This week, Kimberly Brown shares a practice to loosen our grip and be at peace, even when the change isn't one we'd choose.  Kimberly Brown is a meditation teacher and author. She leads classes and retreats that emphasize the power of compassion and kindness meditation to reconnect us to ourselves and others. She studies in both the Tibetan and Insight schools of Buddhism and is a certified mindfulness instructor. Her latest book, Happy Relationships: 25 Buddhist Practices to Transform Your Connection with Your Partner, Family, and Friends, was recently released by Prometheus Books. You can learn more about Kimberly on her website, www.meditationwithheart.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 Kimberly Brown here. Go Deeper For more resources on navigating the unsteady waters of change, check out these resources from Mindful.org:  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  To try another meditation about accepting life on life's terms, try A 12-Minute 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].

Many of us are bearing witness daily to suffering all over the planet. We care about others, and we want desperately to be of use—and seeing the horrors in images and videos and stories every day can be deeply dysregulating to our nervous systems.  When we get overwhelmed by this vicarious trauma, we tend to shut down. We disconnect from ourselves and each other. We're so spun out in our anxiety, anger, or overwhelm that it can feel impossible to engage in any kind of mindfulness or meditation practice.  This week, Shalini Bahl offers tender and practical guidance for how to pause, reconnect, and return to ourselves—and our essential practice—in times of intense internal and external upheaval. Shalini Bahl, PhD, is the award-winning author of Return to Mindfulness and founder of Sama Life, where she offers daily live micro-practices for real-world engagement. A certified MBSR and Search Inside Yourself teacher with pioneering research in mindfulness and consumer well-being recognized by the American Marketing Association, she brings contemplative practice into complex real-world contexts—from Town Council chambers to corporate boardrooms. Through her teaching, writing, and TEDx talks, she focuses on building practical mindfulness skills that disrupt default patterns and restore clarity, integrity, and care. Her guided meditations have reached over 80,000 listeners worldwide. 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 Shalini Bahl here. Go Deeper For more resources on regulating your nervous system in times of crisis, check out these resources from Mindful.org:  Why Your Outbreath is Connected to Your Well-Being  How Tuning Into Your Body Can Make You More Resilient  Addiction, Trauma, and the Problem of Being Present  The Science and Practice of Staying Present Through Difficult Times  To try another meditation focused on pausing for clarity, try these 3 Guided Meditations to Find Balance During Moments of Panic. 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].

We often treat experiences like restlessness, uncertainty, or the overwhelm of difficult emotions as a problem to be solved. And of course, it's normal to want relief.  Today, teacher Cherl Vigder Brause leads a guided practice that's centered around meeting ourselves exactly where we are. In that pause, where we encounter ourselves without trying to fix anything, even if just for a moment, we actually create a space where we can get clarity on how to respond to ourselves, others, and the world.  Cheryl Vigder Brause is a nationally recognized mindfulness and meditation teacher, writer and speaker, specializing in leading corporate clients, schools, and individuals across the country in programs and meditations on stress management, boosting happiness, and living their best lives. She is the Co-Founder of Pause to be Present, a mindfulness and meditation studio.  To learn more about Pause to be Present's programs, visit www.pausetobepresent.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 Cheryl Vigder Brause here. Go Deeper For more resources on tapping into the power of the pause, check out these articles on Mindful.org:  How to Get Good Pause  The Three-Second Pause In the Classroom Waking Up to Your World: Using the Pause Practice to Break Habitual Patterns  How to Feel Present, and Stay Present  To try another version of a pause practice, join Rhonda Magee for The S.T.O.P. Practice: Creating Space Around Automatic Reactions  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]. The DONUT brings you free daily news without the extra noise—stay informed in under 5 mins, and feel good doing it. Subscribe here.

Loving-kindness seems like a practice that would feel good—but in times of tension, uncertainty, pain, or anger, it can be one of the most challenging mindfulness tools to apply. How do we love when it is most difficult to love?   This week, renowned teacher Sharon Salzberg offers a guided practice to connect us to the deep heart and transformative courage of metta or loving-kindness meditation.   Sharon Salzberg is a meditation teacher and New York Times best-selling author. She is the co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, and has played a crucial role in bringing Asian meditation practices to the West. Sharon has been a student of meditation since 1971, guiding retreats worldwide since 1974. She is a weekly columnist for On Being, a regular contributor to The Huffington Post and the author of many books including Real Happiness, Lovingkindness, and Real Change.  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 Sharon Salzberg here. Go Deeper For more resources on accessing and practicing loving-kindness, check out these articles on Mindful.org:   How Practicing Loving-Kindness Helped Me Find My Place in the World  12 Minute Meditation: A Loving-Kindness Practice to Anchor in Compassion  The Gift of Loving-Kindness  Why Loving-Kindness Takes Time: Sharon Salzberg  Wise Engagement with the World: What to Do When You Wish Things Were Different  We have dozens of metta or loving-kindness meditations available for free on our site. Here's a good place to start: 3 Guided Meditations to Deepen Into 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 [email protected]. The DONUT brings you free daily news without the extra noise—stay informed in under 5 mins, and feel good doing it. Subscribe here. 

As today's teacher Jessica Morey says, "Anger's fundamental role is to protect us and protect what we care about in the world. It lets us know when a limit of ours, or a boundary, has been crossed." But because of its power and volatility, anger can be a troubling emotion to be with and a difficult one to work with. Today's practice is aimed at gaining insight into our anger so that we can respond skillfully in any given situation. Jessica Morey is a meditation teacher and coach. She has been practicing meditation for almost three decades. She is also the co-founder and former executive director of Inward Bound Mindfulness Education, a nonprofit organization bringing in-depth mindfulness and compassion training to youth. 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 Jessica Morey here. Go Deeper For more resources on meeting and working with anger, check out these articles on Mindful.org:  The Real Danger of Suppressing Your Emotions  Why Women Should Embrace Their Anger  Finding Radical Kindness in the Face of Chaos and Danger  Cooling the Raging Fires of Anger  Using the Energy of Anger  And to get more practice understanding powerful emotions like anger, try Guided Meditation: Notice How Sadness, Loneliness, and Anger Show Up in Your Body.  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]. The DONUT brings you free daily news without the extra noise—stay informed in under 5 mins, and feel good doing it. Subscribe here.