The Mindful Podcast

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 or download the app for free at .  Show Notes Find more from Vinny Ferraro . Go Deeper For more resources on wise boundaries and how to stay open when you want to shut down, check out these resources from :      (a mini-course)     To try another meditation to help lower defenses and break down armor, try .  And more from Mindful here: Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing .

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, , was recently released by Prometheus Books. You can learn more about Kimberly on her website, . 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 or download the app for free at .  Show Notes Find more from Kimberly Brown . Go Deeper For more resources on navigating the unsteady waters of change, check out these resources from :          To try another meditation about accepting life on life’s terms, try .   And more from Mindful here: Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing .

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 and founder of , 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  or download the app for free at .  Show Notes Find more from Shalini Bahl . Go Deeper For more resources on regulating your nervous system in times of crisis, check out these resources from :          To try another meditation focused on pausing for clarity, try these . And more from Mindful here: Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing .

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 or download the app for free at .  Show Notes Find more from Cheryl Vigder Brause . Go Deeper For more resources on tapping into the power of the pause, check out these articles on :        To try another version of a pause practice, join Rhonda Magee for   And more from Mindful here: Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing . The DONUT brings you free daily news without the extra noise—stay informed in under 5 mins, and feel good doing it. .

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 or download the app for free at .  Show Notes Find more from Sharon Salzberg . Go Deeper For more resources on accessing and practicing loving-kindness, check out these articles on :             We have dozens of metta or loving-kindness meditations available for free on our site. Here’s a good place to start:    And more from Mindful here: Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing . The DONUT brings you free daily news without the extra noise—stay informed in under 5 mins, and feel good doing it. . 

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 or download the app for free at .  Show Notes Find more from Jessica Morey . Go Deeper For more resources on meeting and working with anger, check out these articles on :            And to get more practice understanding powerful emotions like anger, try .  And more from Mindful here: Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing . The DONUT brings you free daily news without the extra noise—stay informed in under 5 mins, and feel good doing it. . 

Many of us are carrying the weight of the world’s suffering right now. How can we acknowledge the immense suffering around us, and our own—and still tend to our hearts, minds, and bodies in a way that keeps us grounded and able to take compassionate action?  This week, mindfulness teacher and author Wendy O’Leary shares a guided practice that offers refuge and reminds us of our real and loving connection to one another.    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. Wendy has expertise in teaching skills for emotional resilience to children and adults. Wendy’s next publication, a card deck for children titled "Let’s Grow Happiness," is scheduled for release in April 2026. 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 or download the app for free at .  Show Notes Find more from Wendy O’Leary . Go Deeper  check out these articles on :          And to get more practice being with difficult emotions and returning to connection, try . And more from Mindful here: Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing . The DONUT brings you free daily news without the extra noise—stay informed in under 5 mins, and feel good doing it. .

Our brains learn through a process that has three components: trigger, behavior, reward. Together these behaviors form what is known as a habit loop.  In today’s meditation, Dr. Brewer walks us through a practice to notice triggers—when they’re happening and how they make us feel. When we pay attention to these triggers, we can respond to ourselves with more compassion and make choices with a lot more clarity. Jud 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. Previously, Dr. Jud held research and teaching positions at Yale University, and the University of Massachusetts’ Center for Mindfulness and was a research affiliate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 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 or download the app for free at .  Show Notes Find more from Judson Brewer . Go Deeper Being with cravings with the intention of shifting our response, is one of the most challenging parts of mindful living. For more support with understanding craving, addiction, and presence,  check out these articles on :         And to experience another meditation from Dr. Brewer that guides you through how to be with cravings to facilitate habit change, try . And more from Mindful here: Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing .

Even if they aren't particularly into making resolutions, for many people the New Year still feels like a fresh start: a time for taking stock, for reviewing what's passed, for turning the page on one chapter and starting another.  In today’s meditation, teacher Frank Ostaseski asks: How do you meet endings? We can learn a lot about how we face the new by looking at how we let go of the old, and here Ostaseski offers a practice to surrender with curiosity and gratitude.  Frank Ostaseski is a meditation teacher who cofounded the Zen Hospice Project. In 2004, he went on to create the Metta Institute to provide innovative educational programs and professional training to foster compassionate, mindfulness-based care. 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:  Show Notes Find more from Frank Ostaseski . Go Deeper  If you're facing a big change, even if it's completely unrelated to the New Year, mindfulness can help support your well-being as you consider options, make choices, and step into a new season. Check out these articles for more information:         And to experience another approach to intention-setting, try . And more from Mindful here: Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing .

If you’ve grown weary of traditional resolutions, but you still carry a glimmer of hope that positive change is possible for us imperfect humans—then you’ll love mindful intention-setting.  In this practice from his , mindful leadership trainer Rich Fernandez shows us how to vividly envision the “imagine if” possibilities. When we tap into meaning, passion, and a felt sense of welcoming what we long for, it’s easier to get clear on the purpose behind our pursuits.  Rich Fernandez is the former CEO of Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute (SIYLI). He was previously the director of executive education and people development at Google, where he was also one of the first SIY teachers. Rich previously co-founded Wisdom Labs and has also served in senior roles at eBay, J.P. Morgan Chase and Bank of America. 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:  Show Notes Find more from Rich Fernandez . Go Deeper There are subtle but crucial differences between making traditional New Year’s resolutions and setting intentions for the future—because in mindfulness, everything is anchored in self-acceptance and self-love, rather than a quest for endless self-improvement. To learn more and start practicing a gentler, more sustainable way to change and growth, check out these articles on Mindful.org:           You can access all modules of Rich's mini-course on Mindful.org . And to experience another approach to intention-setting, try   And more from Mindful here: Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing .  

The holiday season can be a time full of commitments, planning, and (pleasant or unpleasant) anticipation.  This extended guided practice with Dr. Christiane Wolf offers a quiet respite that can help you identify what you need, move to care for yourself, and navigate stress that may arise.   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:  Show Notes Find more from Christiane Wolf . Go Deeper If the Holidays aren’t always merry and bright for you, please know you’re not alone. For support, check out these articles on Mindful.org:           And for more practices to help you find calm in the chaos, check out:   And more from Mindful here: Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing .

Savoring is a practice of intentionally slowing way down and paying attention to what’s right in front of us—whether that’s a conversation, an unexpected moment of connection, or a favorite dessert.    Savoring is also a natural way to balance the frenetic pace of the Holiday season. In this meditation, Elaine Smookler shows us how to pause and tune into our senses as a way to notice and appreciate what’s happening in and around us.  Elaine Smookler has been a mindful practitioner for over 20 years and is a mindfulness teacher and registered psychotherapist to individuals and corporate clients.  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:  Show Notes Find more from Elaine Smookler . Go Deeper Savoring is a quality that we can nurture in our whole lives. It makes good moments sweeter, and it helps us through seasons that feel strained or uncertain. For more on how to take time to appreciate each moment more, check out these articles on :          And for another way to practice what it feels like to savor, try this walking meditation:   And more from Mindful here: Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing .

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:  Show Notes Find more from Vanessa Hutchinson-Szekely . Go Deeper For additional resources on finding moments of calm in the midst of suffering, check out these articles on Mindful.org:       And for another meditation you can use when pain flares, try this practice:   And more from Mindful here: Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing .

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:  Show Notes Find more from Shamash Alidina . Go Deeper For additional resources on how to manage the stress of the Holiday season (or anytime), check out these articles on Mindful.org:           And for another meditation you can use when Holiday stress shows up, try this practice:   And more from Mindful here: Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing .  

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:  Show Notes Find more from Diana Winston . 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:         And for more ways to work with that pesky internal voice, try this practice: . And more from Mindful here: Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing .

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 (Sounds True, 2018). Dr. Bertin resides in Pleasantville, New York. For more, visit . 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:  Show Notes Find more from Dr. Mark Bertin . 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:         If you’re at the very beginning of the process and want help getting started on your forgiveness journey, try this practice: .  And more from Mindful here: Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing .

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:  Show Notes Find more from Christiane Wolf . 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:         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: .  And more from Mindful here: Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing .

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:  About the Teacher Find more from Judson Brewer . 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:         For more practice on working with thoughts, here’s another meditation you can try: .  And more from Mindful here: Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing .

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:  Show Notes Find more from Vinny Ferraro . 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:         For more practice on working with thoughts, here’s another meditation you can try: .  And more from Mindful here: Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing .

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 . 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:  Show Notes Find more from Nate Klemp . 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:         For more practice, here’s you can try.  And more from Mindful here: Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing .