12 Minute Meditation

If you’ve ever tried to push away anxiety or depression when they show up, you probably already know: Fighting these complex, difficult emotions usually doesn’t work. In fact, our resistance often makes the experience even more challenging. 

In today’s practice, Ed Halliwell offers a guided visualization based on a foundational mindful question: What if you don’t try to push this experience away, but inste...

Our brains are hardwired to notice the negative. It’s part of how our ancient ancestors were able to survive in constantly threatening environments.  

But this negativity bias can also make it difficult for us and our kids—even in our comparatively less threatening environments—to navigate daily stressors, like big tests, arguments, or disappointments. 

In this shorter practice specifically de...

Rest isn’t a “reward” for working hard enough. It’s a human need and birthright.

This week’s episode is a little different. We’re not only sharing a guided meditation from mindfulness leader and professional coach Jenée Johnson, but also her teaching on some of the brain science behind relaxation—why it’s essential for our well-being, how it works, and how to incorporate intentional relaxation practices in...

Most of us spend most of our waking hours at some kind of job, whether that’s in an office, a classroom, or in our own homes. This week, mindful leadership expert Jancie Marturano leads a practice you can do at your desk—or anywhere—to give yourself a mindful pause during busy days.

Janice Marturano is founder and executive director of the Institute for Mindful Leadership, a nonprofit that trains and suppo...

We often think about gratitude as happening in response to “good” things—but what about moments that aren’t grand or overtly happy, but are small and emotionally neutral? This week, Kim Armstrong leads a guided visualization practice to help you notice, take in, and consciously appreciate even the basic things we do every single day.

Kimberly Armstrong is a cofounder and facilitator at Space Between. She p...

When we are experiencing a lot of stress or recovering from trauma or addiction, we can find ourselves living in a fight-flight-freeze state, where we feel either disconnected from or unsafe in our bodies. This practice is designed to gently cultivate a sense of safety and then create a kinesthetic anchor (rooted in awareness of how our body is moving) to start building a felt sense of security that your body can remem...

You may have heard of "impermanence" as an important theme in meditation. In this guided practice, Toby Sola introduces us to the ease of flow state with two simple but profound techniques: exploring impermanence directly by noticing changes in our body sensations, and using labels to hone concentration.  

Toby Sola is dedicated to helping you create a feedback loop between your meditation practice and you...

When difficult or painful emotions feel like they’re swirling all around you, it can be challenging to find a steady place to catch your breath. In this guided meditation, mindfulness teacher Scott Rogers uses the metaphor of a hurricane to help us recognize the qualities and the impermanence of even our stormiest emotions.

Scott Rogers is founder and director of the University of Miami School of Law’s Min...

If you’ve been having trouble falling asleep lately, this body scan meditation with Diana Winston offers a gentle, soothing way to be with the tension in our minds and our bodies. Take a deep breath, let go, and ease into rest.  

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 Gu...

In this week’s meditation, Dr. Mark Bertin walks us through a practice that is both concrete and compassionate. It guides us to take note of our tendency to either deny or try and “fix” what’s going on in our lives, and then find a third way—one where we aim to see things as clearly as possible, so that our decisions are filled with awareness, skill, and care for everyone involved.

Mark Bertin, MD, is a pe...

Loving-kindness meditation, also called metta,  springs from a basic understanding of human nature: On one hand, we might truly believe that  compassion makes the world better—and on the other, we might struggle to offer it to ourselves and to others for various reasons. 

Metta practices, like the one Dr. Emma Seppälä leads this week, offer a simple, structured way to help us  gently expand our capacity to...

Shame is one of the most complex and difficult human emotions to experience and process. 

This week, we’re refreshing a meditation from Dr. Patricia Rockman, who offers a practice to meet shame with courage, tenderness, and curiosity. The more we can sit with these difficult emotions, the more we build resilience, self-knowledge, and self-trust—which are the most powerful natural antidotes to shame.

In this week’s guided meditation, teacher and author Melli O’Brien offers a practice that uses gentle, steady awareness to help you find your calm center again when you’re feeling wound up with stress or anxiety.

Melli is a mindfulness educator and mental health coach with over two decades of experience. She is also cofounder of Mindfulness.com and the Mindfulness Summit—the world’s largest mindfulness con...

Sometimes the best gift we can give ourselves is just a moment set aside for quiet, breath, and reminding ourselves of who we really are. 

In this gentle guided practice, Kimberly Brown uses simple repeated phrases to ground attention and offer a place to rest and reset. 

Note that this practice includes longer pauses of complete silence for reflection and presence. If you want more time, feel...

It might seem counterintuitive, but intentionally tuning into what’s distracting you can actually help strengthen your ability to focus. 

In today’s guided practice, meditation teacher Toby Sola introduces what he calls a “concentration algorithm.” This practice will help you identify which type of sensory experience you are naturally drawn to, and then give you a structure for how to focus on it, so that ...

When we are stressed or overwhelmed, or when our mind feels like it’s spinning out of control—it’s easy to forget that simply dropping into the body can be a powerful way to interrupt thEse thought loops.  

In this week’s refresh, meditation teacher Tara Healey guides us through a practice to calm the mind, notice sensations in the body, and bring awareness to the present moment. 

If you’d lik...

We mostly think of walking as an activity that is supposed to accomplish something: getting from point A to point B, exercising, reaching our daily step goals. And of course, those are all great reasons to go for a walk. 

In today’s practice, meditation teacher and bestselling author Jon Kabat-Zinn offers up another way that you can experience a walk—simply as a way to enter more deeply into the vitality a...

Tonglen, sometimes called loving-kindness meditation, is a Tibetan practice of giving and receiving. 

In Tonglen, we open ourselves to our entire experience, including what is painful and difficult. We acknowledge our suffering, including the suffering we share with others. Then, we release intentions for peace, healing, and love out into the world.  

In today’s meditation, teacher Kimberly Br...

When we are experiencing difficult emotions or situations, our first impulse is often to look for a way out—usually through distracting, numbing, running, or denying.  

But what if the key to getting to the other side of difficulty is to simply be with it, offering the discomfort our courageous awareness and presence? 

In this week’s practice, author and meditation teacher Ed Halliwell guides ...