A Meditation to Set an Intention for Your Future with Rich Fernandez
Release Date: 12/26/2025
A Grounding Practice to Focus Your Busy Mind
12 Minute Meditation
There are times when we’re so busy thinking, planning, worrying, stressing that it’s really hard to focus on the breath or the body, or whatever particular meditation object we’re using. This practice with Mark Coleman offers an alternative that’s helpful when we feel like we’re going a million miles an hour. It uses soft, focused attention: relaxed eyes, soft gaze, and just being aware of the visual stimuli—like color, light, form, shape—to settle our focus. Mark Coleman is a Dharma teacher at Spirit Rock and has taught Insight Meditation retreats since 1997 worldwide....
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Laughter Yoga: A Gentle Movement Practice to Get the Giggles Going
12 Minute Meditation
Beyond just feeling good, laughter releases , and also works on our heart, our lungs, our muscles, our thoughts, our behaviors. In short: laughter actually is good medicine. And here’s a funny thing: whether we laugh in response to something, or we create a situation that gets laughter going, the body will still release the same endorphins. Try this quick, goofy yoga exercise to discover a foolproof way to induce laughter. It is based on the Hawaiian word “Aloha,” a nice vowel-y word that opens the mouth and throat just by saying it. Elaine Smookler has been a mindful practitioner for...
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A 12 Minute Meditation to Unhook from Negativity and Savor Joy
12 Minute Meditation
Joy aids us in waking up to our lives, and savoring is a practice that allows us to slow down, immerse ourselves in experience, and deeply appreciate the moment we’re inhabiting. These two together are a powerful antidote to the gravitational pull of negativity, doomscrolling, and despair. Jessica Morey is a meditation teacher and coach. She has been practicing meditation for almost 3 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...
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A Meditation to Rest Your Attention
12 Minute Meditation
When we talk about attention, we often use active and extractive verbs: pay, give, court, leverage. In mindfulness, attention isn’t a commodity to be used; it’s a gift to be nurtured. What might it feel like to rest our attention? This week, teacher Sharon Salzberg offers a guided meditation that’s down-to-earth and deeply restorative as we practice holding our awareness with the lightest touch possible. 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...
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Embodied Compassion for Difficult Emotions
12 Minute Meditation
One of the core principles of mindfulness practice that can be a challenge for people is the notion that it actually makes more sense to accept our emotions rather than resist them. Especially when it comes to painful, confusing, or frightening emotions, this move towards ourselves in compassion can feel incredibly counterintuitive. This week, author and recovery coach Emily Jane guides us through a practice you can use anytime you need support bringing curiosity, courage, and compassion to difficult experiences. Emily Jane is a mindfulness teacher, certified Embodied...
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A 12 Minute Meditation to Make Movement Mindful
12 Minute Meditation
Our bodies come in all varieties, and we all have different interests, skills, and abilities. As today's teacher Cara Bradley observes, movement of any kind—from the slightest stretch to the most intense exercise—can be mindful. This simple meditation helps you celebrate your physicality with practices to connect with your breath and your body, expand your awareness, and appreciate the gift of being alive. Cara Bradley is a seasoned mind-body expert dedicated to advancing mind-body education through movement, mindfulness and the science of human performance. She provides...
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A Mindfulness Meditation for Beginners
12 Minute Meditation
This week, Mindful founding editor Barry Boyce reminds us of the basic why behind mindfulness meditation: We get off-kilter at various times throughout the day, and we need a way to pause and reconnect—with reality, with our senses, with our steady center. That’s what meditation helps us do. This practice is called “Taking Your Seat,” and it’s perfect if you’re getting started with meditation, or if you just need a touchpoint during your day. Barry Boyce is Founding Editor of Mindful and Mindful.org. He is a longtime meditation practitioner and teacher, as well as a...
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A Meditation to Bring Comfort and Kindness to Pain and Illness
12 Minute Meditation
Learning to live with pain and illness is challenging, arduous work. Often, people can go for months or even years without sufficient answers. Life gets turned completely upside down. The body you thought you had suddenly becomes something you don’t recognize or know how to work with. This week, meditation teacher and hypnotherapist Juliana Sloane offers an imaginative meditation that invites softness and self-compassion in the midst of discomfort. Juliana Sloane is a Buddhist teacher, hypnotherapist, and coach specializing in Depth Hypnosis, applied shamanic counseling,...
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A Meditation on the Art of Stopping (Extended Version)
12 Minute Meditation
We often think of mindfulness and meditation as sustained states—when in reality, it’s just a collection of micro-moments of stopping, breathing, really noticing our own bodies and our own lives, getting distracted, and then coming back again. Over and over. As this week’s teacher Shalini Bahl puts it, today’s guided practice is about the art of stopping: letting go of our regular habits of the mind—the pushing, pulling, running in circles— and instead just being for a moment. This is an extended practice, but as a bonus, we’re also sharing a micro-practice version of...
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The Art of Stopping (Micro-Practice Version)
12 Minute Meditation
You can find the extended 20-minute version of this meditation . Want to explore how micro-practices can help shift your patterns in your real everyday life when you're off the meditation mat? Check out Shalini's article, .
info_outlineIf 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 mini-course, 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.
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Show Notes
Find more from Rich Fernandez here.
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:
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Why Do Resolutions Fail? 5 Ways to Invite Positive and Lasting Change
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3 Science-Backed Strategies to Build Healthy Habits in the New Year
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The Power and Pleasure of Intention: How to Turn Your Dreams into Daily Reality
You can access all modules of Rich's mini-course on Mindful.org here.
And to experience another approach to intention-setting, try A Guided Meditation to Set Your Intentions for the New Year
And more from Mindful here:
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