When you’re short on time and have a busy mind, this one will help you feel calmer and better able to respond to what is happening. Like some of the others here, you’ll turn to your trusty friend—your breath—to ground you in the present moment.
You don’t need to stay put in order to be mindful. In this meditation, you’ll bring awareness, curiosity, and acceptance to the experience of being on the go.
You can adapt the guidance here to different walking speeds. Walk in slow motion and savor the the finer movements of your body, or go for a run and see which sensations are most prominent as your body moves rapidly through space.
If you’re feeling down and beaten up, by yourself or others, join me for a couple of minutes to inject some positivity and substance into your day. Repeat the sentiments to yourself silently after me, or just relax and listen.
In this meditation, you'll be paying attention mostly to your breath. Breath awareness meditation is good for mindfulness meditation beginners and advanced practitioners alike.
Closely observing the many characteristics of the breath that reveal themselves helps you cultivate mindfulness. Because it involves returning to the same object of meditation again and again, mindfulness of the breath is thought to be useful in building concentration, too.
In this meditation, I guide you through a brief but systematic observation of your internal and external bodily sensations. The body scan is often featured in stress reduction programs, although all mindfulness meditation techniques have the potential to help you feel less stressed and more relaxed.
Give this one a try if you feel ready to try a longer meditation session. Similar to the shorter version, you'll focus mainly on bringing mindfulness to your breath.
Although mindfulness can be brought to any aspect of your life, it can be helpful to develop a breath meditation practice. Your breath is always with you, so it can serve as a readily-accessible anchor to the present moment as you go about daily activities.
If you've been practicing for shorter periods for a while, it's very helpful to push yourself a little further, into longer meditation sessions when you can. Longer periods of meditation allow more time for your mind to settle and often reveal new aspects of your experience to explore.
In this meditation, I guide you through a survey of a number of elements of your present-moment experience. You'll direct your awareness to your breath, physical sensations, sounds, visual phenomenon, and thoughts. Then, you'll pull back, to an expansive awareness of your entire experience at once.
Kindness and compassion naturally emerge with mindfulness practice, so this meditation is a perfect complement to the others. You'll call various people—including yourself—to mind, and practice offering some heartfelt wishes for well-being to them.
You'll be paying attention to your internal experience as you do these things, so you'll get a little mindfulness workout in, too.