12 Minute Meditation

• A 12-Minute Meditation to Get Curious About Your Cravings

  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:  mindful.org/signup About the Teacher Find more from Judson Brewer here. 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: A Basic Mindfulness Meditation for Labeling Thoughts and Emotions  I'm More Than My Anxious Thoughts—And So Are You  A Mindfulness Practice for Changing Your Relationship to Thoughts  What to Do When Thoughts Arise While Meditating  For more practice on working with thoughts, here's another meditation you can try: Slow Your Breath and Your Thoughts.  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].

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• A 12-Minute Meditation on Our Relationship to Thoughts

  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:  mindful.org/signup Show Notes Find more from Vinny Ferraro here. 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: A Basic Mindfulness Meditation for Labeling Thoughts and Emotions  I'm More Than My Anxious Thoughts—And So Are You  A Mindfulness Practice for Changing Your Relationship to Thoughts  What to Do When Thoughts Arise While Meditating  For more practice on working with thoughts, here's another meditation you can try: Slow Your Breath and Your Thoughts.  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].

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• A 12-Minute Meditation to Rewire Your Brain for Optimism

  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 Open: Living with an Expansive Mind in a Distracted World. 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:  mindful.org/signup Show Notes Find more from Nate Klemp here. 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: How to Practice Gratitude  Gratitude for the Lousy Ingrate  The Power of Gratitude (with a Healthy Dose of Cynicism)  The Science of Gratitude  For more practice, here's A 12-Minute Meditation for Cultivating Daily Gratitude you can try.  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].

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• Peace Begins With Me: A 12-Minute Meditation

  When painful emotions are circling all around, our instinct is often to reach for external reassurance.  In this practice, law professor and author Rhona Magee offers a gentle reminder that the key to calm starts with a simple pause—and we get to choose that.   Rhonda V. Magee is a professor of law at the University of San Francisco. Also trained in sociology and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), she is a highly practiced facilitator of trauma-sensitive, restorative MBSR interventions for lawyers and law students, and for minimizing the effects of social-identity-based bias. Magee has been a visiting scholar at the Center for the Study of Law and Society and a visiting professor of law at the University of California, Berkeley. 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:  mindful.org/signup Show Notes Find more from Rhonda Magee here. Go Deeper Working with challenging, painful emotions is at the heart of mindfulness practices. It's counter-intuitive, but the key to alleviating the suffering that often accompanies feelings like fear, rage, grief, or jealousy is not to fix or overcome them, but to move toward them with compassion and curiosity. To learn more about building this mindful skill, check out these articles: A Mindful Guide to Navigating Difficult Emotions  Befriend Painful Emotions with the Handshake Practice  Three Ways Acceptance Helps You Work with Difficult Emotions  You Can Investigate Your Emotions Without Suppressing Them  For another meditation, here's A 15-Minute Practice to Soften, Soothe, and Allow Difficult Emotions you can try.  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].

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• A Mountain Meditation to Help You Shift Out of Panic Mode

  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 instead watch it as it plays out?  Ed Halliwell is a mindfulness teacher and writer, based in Sussex and London, UK. He is author of three books: Into The Heart of Mindfulness, How To Live Well By Paying Attention and (as co-author) The Mindful Manifesto and teaches courses and retreats to public groups, in organizations and to individuals, face-to-face and online via Skype. He is also an advisor to The Mindfulness Initiative, which is supporting the Mindfulness All-Party Parliamentary Group to develop mindfulness-based policies for the UK. 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:  mindful.org/signup Show Notes Find more from Ed Halliwell here. Go Deeper Anxiety, panic, and depression can sometimes feel like a vortex we're sucked into that's impossible to get out of. It's important to understand that mindfulness and meditation aren't cure-alls or instant fixes, and that they're most effective when used in concert with other healing modalities. There are practices that can help us be with thoughts and feelings in a compassionate, non-judgmental way—and this open-hearted approach can often loosen the grip of difficult moments. If you'd like to explore more about how mindful practices can help improve mental well-being, check out these resources on Mindful.org: Practicing Self-Compassion Can Boost Your Mental Health  Using Mindfulness for Mental Health  Is Mindfulness a Treatment for Depression?  4 Ways to Curb a Panic Attack with Mindfulness  How Mindfulness Protects Against Postpartum Depression  ​​Unwinding Your Anxiety Habit Loop  For more practice, here are 5 Guided Meditations for Panic and Anxiety that you can try.  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].

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