A 12-Minute Meditation on Our Relationship to Thoughts
Release Date: 10/24/2025
A Meditation to Set an Intention for Your Future with Rich Fernandez
12 Minute Meditation
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...
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A Meditation to Release & Ease Holiday Stress with Christiane Wolf
12 Minute Meditation
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 –...
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Gratitude Practice: Savor the Moment by Tapping into Your Senses with Elaine Smookler
12 Minute Meditation
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...
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A Meditation for Easing Pain and Inviting Joy with Vanessa Hutchinson-Szekely
12 Minute Meditation
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...
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Stress SOS: A Quick Practice When You Need It Most with Shamash Alidina
12 Minute Meditation
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...
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A Meditation for Working With Our Self-Judging Voice with Diana Winston
12 Minute Meditation
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...
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A Forgiveness Meditation to Let Go of Added Suffering with Mark Bertin
12 Minute Meditation
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...
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A Meditation to Meet the Body In Pain
12 Minute Meditation
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...
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A 12-Minute Meditation to Get Curious About Your Cravings
12 Minute Meditation
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”)...
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A 12-Minute Meditation on Our Relationship to Thoughts
12 Minute Meditation
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...
info_outlineThe 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.
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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:
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A Basic Mindfulness Meditation for Labeling Thoughts and Emotions
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A Mindfulness Practice for Changing Your Relationship to Thoughts
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:
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