The Mindful Podcast

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 or download the app for free at .  Show Notes Find more from Shamash Alidina . 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 :        Want in-person practice with cultivating a more open mind? Here’s a retreat you can attend in Garrison, NY, this October 28-31. For a different approach to meditating with beginner’s mind, 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 .

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 or download the app for free at .  Show Notes Find more from Vinny Ferraro . 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 :            For more practice working with loving-kindness meditation, 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 .

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 or download the app for free at .  Show Notes Find more from Mark Bertin . 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 :        For more practice working with uncertainty, 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 .

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  or download the app for free at .  Show Notes Find more from Janice Martellucci . 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 :              For another approach to working with transition, 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 .

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 or download the app for free at .  Show Notes Find more from Jeneé Johnson . Go Deeper For more information on how mindfulness practice can help you train your focus and attention, check out these resources from :           For another approach to attention-strengthening meditation, 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 .