12 Minute Meditation
The latest scientific research reveals that 12 minutes of meditation a day yields benefits like increased attention, focus, creativity, calm, resilience and compassion. Start your 12-minute sit with guided meditations from today’s leading mindfulness experts, brought to you by Mindful. With a new mindfulness meditation each week, 12 Minute Meditation invites you to bring the benefits of mindfulness to daily life.
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Mark Bertin: A Guided Walking Meditation to Meet Uncertainty with Compassion
09/11/2026
Mark Bertin: A Guided Walking Meditation to Meet Uncertainty with Compassion
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 .
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Janice Martellucci: Meditation for Transitions
09/04/2026
Janice Martellucci: Meditation for Transitions
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 .
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Jeneé Johnson: Build Resilience by Staying in the Moment
08/28/2026
Jeneé Johnson: Build Resilience by Staying in the Moment
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 .
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Jon Kabat-Zinn: A Breathscape Practice for Cultivating Mindfulness
08/21/2026
Jon Kabat-Zinn: A Breathscape Practice for Cultivating Mindfulness
It is natural as finite human beings to want to feel certain. To our brains, certainty equals safety. It’s normal to wish we could control the future, because uncertainty can be unsettling and scary. But as today’s teacher observes, as difficult as it is, the only real leverage we have to positively influence the future is to learn to inhabit the present moment fully, without trying to fix it or manage it. This is the most challenging aspect of mindfulness, and its core principle. This 20-minute guided meditation with Jon Kabat-Zinn is practice for simply being awake and aware in the moment without agenda. Jon Kabat-Zinn is the founder of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) as well as the at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He is author of ; ; ; and . He trains, teaches, and lectures throughout the world on applications of mindfulness and is Professor of Medicine Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. 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 Jon Kabat Zinn . Go Deeper Like any mindful skill, learning how to tune into and stay rooted in the present moment takes time and practice. Learn more with these resources on Mindful: For another approach to practicing present moment awareness, 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 .
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Kelly Boys: A 12-Minute Body Scan Meditation for Letting Go of Stress and Falling Asleep
08/14/2026
Kelly Boys: A 12-Minute Body Scan Meditation for Letting Go of Stress and Falling Asleep
Stress and tension can easily build up in our bodies during busy days or weeks, and often we don’t even realize how much that is affecting our ability to let go and fall asleep at night. In this guided practice, teacher Kelly Boys offers a simple body scan meditation that uses sensory awareness and intentional breathing to invite a sense of lovely heaviness and relaxation. Kelly Boys is a mindfulness trainer, coach, author, and speaker, specializing in teaching the NSDR (non sleep deep rest) practice of yoga nidra. She is the author of The Blind Spot Effect and as a trainer has created mindfulness programs for UN humanitarians and veterans with PTSD. Just a quick note: Since this is a sleep meditation, you won’t be hearing a closing bell or the usual outro, so that you can drift off in silence. 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 Kelly Boys . Go Deeper It’s not really possible to “get rid” of stress. In fact, the more we try to fight it, the worse it gets. What does work to ease stress is to meet it with compassion, and that can take on various forms: sensory awareness, body scans, deep breathing, mindful movement, journaling, and many other types of mindfulness practice. Here are just a few ways that you can learn to meet, process, and release stress: For another guided meditation to help you get to sleep, 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 .
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Rich Fernandez: A Meditation to Help Build Your Capacity to Navigate Difficulty
08/07/2026
Rich Fernandez: A Meditation to Help Build Your Capacity to Navigate Difficulty
When we’re facing disappointment or challenge, it’s easy to default to negative narratives about who we are inherently: I’m a failure. What’s wrong with me? I never do anything right. This week, teacher Rich Fernandez invites a different perspective: When we shift from naming an existential trait (like, I must be a loser) to naming a temporary experiential state (like, I’m experiencing a setback that’s discouraging), then we can actually return awareness and agency to ourselves and navigate a way through the challenge. Rich Fernandez has dedicated his career to building more purposeful, mindful, and high-performing workplaces. He is the former CEO of Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute (SIYLI), co-founded Wisdom Labs, and has also served in senior roles at eBay, J.P. Morgan Chase, and Bank of America. Currently, he is the Head of Executive Development at Gap, Inc. 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 Rich Fernandez . Go Deeper Learning how to navigate difficulty is a core human skill, and naturally one of the most challenging. For more resources on how mindfulness can help build resilience, compassion, and wisdom for the tougher seasons of life, check out these articles from Mindful: For another guided practice on staying steady when things feel like they’re falling apart, 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 .
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Stacee Reicherzer: A Meditation to Befriend Vulnerability
07/31/2026
Stacee Reicherzer: A Meditation to Befriend Vulnerability
By definition, to feel vulnerable is to feel exposed and undefended. It’s natural, in moments of emotional risk or tenderness, to feel the urge to pull back from vulnerability, to deny it or dismiss it as weak or needy. But decades of research have also revealed that we can’t really form strong bonds with others if we’re unwilling to take the risk of being our true selves. This week, Dr. Stacee Reicherzer guides us through a practice that can help us soften to this oh-so-human experience so that we can truly know healing, connection, and vitality. Dr. Stacee L. Reicherzer, PhD, LPC-S is the Chicago-based transgender author of The Healing Otherness Handbook: Overcome the Trauma of Identity-Based Bullying and Find Power in Your Difference. The San Antonio, TX native serves as clinical faculty of counseling at Southern New Hampshire University, where she received the distinguished faculty award in 2018. 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 Stacee Reicherzer . As with any difficult emotion, learning to be with vulnerability is a skill that we can nurture. Here are more resources on this essential skill and how mindfulness can help you build and expand your capacity to be yourself in the world. Go Deeper For more practice leaning into genuine connection, 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 .
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Ed Halliwell: A Meditation for Resting in the Flow of Experience
07/24/2026
Ed Halliwell: A Meditation for Resting in the Flow of Experience
This week, Ed Halliwell guides us through a practice to be with the inevitable moment-to-moment uncertainty of life. We can’t control what’s happening around us, but we can practice letting go of the stories we create about uncertainty that add unnecessary stress and pain. Ed Halliwell is a mindfulness teacher and writer, based in Sussex and London, UK. He is author of three books: , and (as co-author) 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 , 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 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 Ed Halliwell . Go Deeper Learning that our thoughts and feelings are not “us”—meaning, they aren’t our whole identity, but rather are part of a fluid experience that comes and goes—is a core element of mindfulness practice. This does not mean that our thoughts or feelings don’t matter, or that we need to fix or control them; it only means that we can have more freedom when we don’t get too attached or mistake a moment or a season for who we are. For more support learning how to work with uncertainty, thoughts, and feelings, start with these resources from : For more practice noticing the temporary nature of thoughts and emotions, 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 .
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Mark Coleman: A Grounding Practice to Focus Your Busy Mind
07/17/2026
Mark Coleman: A Grounding Practice to Focus Your Busy Mind
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. Mark is passionate about integrating meditation and nature and leads wilderness retreats through his organization Awake in the Wild and runs annual Nature Meditation teacher trainings. Cofounder of the Mindfulness Training Institute, Mark coeads year-long mindfulness teacher trainings in Europe and the US. He is author of Awake in the Wild: Mindfulness in Nature as a Path of Self-Discovery and Make Peace With Your Mind and his recent book From Suffering to Peace. He lives in Sausalito, Marin and likes nothing more than hiking, biking, and kayaking in the outdoors. Find out more at markcoleman.org 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 Coleman . Go Deeper For a variety of reasons, not every brain is well-suited to “traditional” meditation techniques. Here are ways to explore other alternative practices: If you’ve even had the feeling that traditional meditation isn’t for you because of how you’re wired, try this neurodivergent-friendly approach: 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 .
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Elaine Smookler Laughter Yoga: A Gentle Movement Practice to Get the Giggles Going
07/10/2026
Elaine Smookler Laughter Yoga: A Gentle Movement Practice to Get the Giggles Going
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 over 20 years and is on the faculty at The Centre for Mindfulness Studies in Toronto. She is a Registered Psychotherapist and teaches mindfulness to corporate clients through eMindful. She’s also a comedic writer and performer and is the singing host of Mindful Martinis, a cabaret/mindfulness class mash up. 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 Elaine Smookler . Go Deeper We tend to see play, joy, and levity as nice-to-haves, something we experience when things are going well. In reality they are all an essential part of building resilience and well-being, even when things aren’t going well. To explore more ways to intentionally incorporate the lighter side, even in darker seasons, check out these resources from : For more practice noticing the good (even when things don’t go according to plan), 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 .
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Jessica Morey: A 12 Minute Meditation to Unhook from Negativity and Savor Joy
07/03/2026
Jessica Morey: A 12 Minute Meditation to Unhook from Negativity and Savor Joy
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 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 Jessica Morey . Go Deeper Understanding our built-in negativity bias is the first step to balancing it with practices that hone our attention and strengthen our genuine appreciation for the good things in life. You can learn more from these resources on : For another approach to unhooking from negativity, 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 .
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Sharon Salzberg: A Meditation to Rest Your Attention
06/26/2026
Sharon Salzberg: A Meditation to Rest Your Attention
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 played a crucial role in bringing Asian to the West. Sharon has been a student of meditation since 1971, guiding retreats worldwide since 1974. She is a columnist for , a regular contributor to The Huffington Post and the author of many books including , , and Real Change. 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 Sharon Salzberg . Go Deeper Our attention—where we give it and why—is one of our most powerful assets. Learning how to train our awareness to rest in the present moment is one of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves and others. To learn more about how mindfulness can help you build your attentional strength, check out these resources from : At the very heart of mindfulness is the practice of training your attention, moment by moment, with compassion and care. For more practice, 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 .
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Emily Jane: Embodied Compassion for Difficult Emotions
06/19/2026
Emily Jane: Embodied Compassion for Difficult Emotions
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 Processing (EP) practitioner, and recovery coach with a background in social work. She’s been in recovery for over eight years, following two decades of active addiction, and her lived experience now fuels her passion for helping others heal. Emily is also the author of Beyond Addiction: A Mindful Guide to Recovery, where she shares her trauma-informed, compassionate approach to healing. Her work integrates mindfulness, coaching, trauma therapy, and somatic tools to help people reconnect with their bodies and find safety, peace, and empowerment on their recovery journey. Connect with Emily Jane online at Holistic Recovery. 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 Emily Jane . Go Deeper Being able to notice and be in our bodies is one of the core skills of mindfulness. In a world that is designed for distraction and disembodiment, this can be a challenging skill to cultivate. If you want to learn more, start with these resources from : For another take on a meditation for body awareness, 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 .
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Cara Bradley: A 12 Minute Meditation to Make Movement Mindful
06/12/2026
Cara Bradley: A 12 Minute Meditation to Make Movement Mindful
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 evidence-based mind-body approaches to global wellness brands, Fortune 100 companies and top-ranked sports teams, is the author of On The Verge: Wake Up, Show Up, and Shine and the Founder of Verge Yoga and Meditation Center. Cara was voted a "Top 12 Most Powerful Women in the Mindfulness Movement" by Mindful.org. 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 Cara Bradley . Go Deeper Mindful movement comes in all varieties and can be a wonderful way to calm both body and mind. If you want to learn more, start with these resources from : For a creative and whimsical way to combine movement and 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 .
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Barry Boyce: A Mindfulness Meditation for Beginners
06/05/2026
Barry Boyce: A Mindfulness Meditation for Beginners
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 professional writer and editor. Barry serves on the board of directors of the Foundation for a Mindful Society and the Centre for Mindfulness Studies in Toronto, as well as on the advisory board of Peace in Schools, in Portland, Oregon. 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 Barry Boyce . Go Deeper has a wealth of articles, research, and guided practices that can help you start or grow your meditation practice. You can start here: For another approach to a beginner’s 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 .
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Juliana Sloane: A Meditation to Bring Comfort and Kindness to Pain and Illness
05/29/2026
Juliana Sloane: A Meditation to Bring Comfort and Kindness to Pain and Illness
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, and client-centered neuroplasticity. She blends ancient wisdom traditions, hypnosis, and evidence-based approaches to help individuals create lasting transformation beyond the conscious mind. She helps clients transcend the limitations of talk therapy and achieve lasting transformation. Based in Santa Fe, NM, she teaches nationally and works one-on-one with clients worldwide. 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 Juliana Sloane . You can and learn more about her work combining mindfulness, meditation, and hypnosis for deeper healing and transformation with her clients. Go Deeper For more resources on how mindfulness can help you live more fully with illness or pain, check out these resources on Mindful.org: For more practice creating a sense of safety inside your own body, 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 .
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Shalini Bahl: A Meditation on the Art of Stopping (Extended Version)
05/22/2026
Shalini Bahl: A Meditation on the Art of Stopping (Extended Version)
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 The Art of Stopping that you can take into busy days. And don’t miss Shalini’s new article on that’s all about the power of micro-practices to affect our daily choices. Shalini Bahl, PhD, is the award-winning author of and founder of , where she offers daily live micro-practices for real-world engagement. Through her teaching, writing, and TEDx talks, she focuses on building practical mindfulness skills that disrupt default patterns and restore clarity, integrity, and care. 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 Shalini Bahl . Go Deeper For more resources on the power of the pause, check out these resources on Mindful.org: For more practice pausing before making choices by compassionately interrupting patterns, 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 .
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Shalini Bahl: The Art of Stopping (Micro-Practice Version)
05/22/2026
Shalini Bahl: The Art of Stopping (Micro-Practice Version)
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, .
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Wendy O’Leary: A Meditation on Working With Our Fear And Parenting From Love
05/15/2026
Wendy O’Leary: A Meditation on Working With Our Fear And Parenting From Love
In our concern for our children, sometimes we respond from a place of fear and worry. From time to time, we can even lose touch with the love that lies beneath that concern. Reconnecting with the ground of our love and the wish for our children to be happy and well, especially in moments of difficulty, can be incredibly beneficial. This practice from Wendy O’Leary offers a pause of support and encouragement that can help you come back to that core of compassionate wisdom. Wendy O’Leary, M.Ed., author and health educator, has three children’s books and an adult book on self-compassion in families. She is a certified mindfulness teacher, parent educator, and self-compassion advocate with expertise in teaching emotional resilience to children and adults. Her card deck for children titled "Let’s Grow Happiness," created in collaboration with her colleague Helen Maffini, is available for purchase at wendyoleary.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 Wendy O’Leary . Go Deeper For more resources to support mindful parenting, check out these resources on Mindful.org: For more practice with meditations to meet your worry, anxiety, fear, or other difficult emotions, try: And more from Mindful here: If you’d like to pre-order lifetime access to The Seven Strengths event recording, go to to take advantage of our early bird pricing plus get a free bonus course from Melli O’Brien. Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing .
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Rashid Hughes: A 12-Minute Meditation to Rest Your Body in Gratitude
05/08/2026
Rashid Hughes: A 12-Minute Meditation to Rest Your Body in Gratitude
Our bodies are so overworked and often ignored. This guided awareness practice offers space to feel a sense of gratitude for our body, in all of its beauty and mystery. Rashid Hughes (he/him) is a writer, meditation teacher, instructor and a restorative justice facilitator. He is the co-founder of the , a mindfulness community in Washington, DC that is dedicated to inspiring Black, Indigenous, and People of Color to live with love and courage. Rashid is an Affiliate Teacher for the Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC and is also a teacher of the Presence Collective. He holds a Master of Divinity Degree from the Howard University School of Divinity. 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 Rashid Hughes . If you are looking for an in-depth resource to help build essential skills to meet a changing and uncertain world with a core of inner strength, join Melli O’Brien and a host of other teachers for The Seven Strengths, a FREE 7-day online course happening this May 13-19. Learn more and register at . Go Deeper For more resources to grow compassion and appreciation for the body, check out these articles on Mindful: For more practice with meditations to help you befriend and feel at home in your body, 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 .
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Shamash Alidina: A Light, Slow, Deep (LSD) Breathing Meditation
05/01/2026
Shamash Alidina: A Light, Slow, Deep (LSD) Breathing Meditation
Thanks to our autonomic nervous system, life-sustaining processes like our heartbeat, digestion, and breathing all happen without us even having to pay attention. But our environments, stress levels, and other factors can definitely affect the health and efficiency of these processes. For example, sitting hunched at our desks and staring at screens often means that our breathing gets shallow and irregular—which of course affects things like focus, energy, cognition, and attention. This week, Shamash Alidina leads a guided breathing exercise called Light, Slow, and Deep (or LSD), designed to re-set the breath in a way that opens the chest, relaxes tension, and calms the nervous system. Shamash Alidina has been practising mindfulness since 1998 and runs his own successful training organisation. He is the author of Mindfulness For Dummies, The Mindful Way Through Stress, and most recently, . 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 . If you are looking for an in-depth resource to help build essential skills to meet a changing and uncertain world with a core of inner strength, join Melli O’Brien and a host of other teachers for The Seven Strengths, a FREE 7-day online course happening this May 13-19. Learn more and register at . Go Deeper Breathing mediations have many mental and physical benefits, and you can find dozens of resources on our site. Start here: For more practice with breathing meditation, try or . 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 .
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Kazumi Igus: A Guided Walking Meditation to Notice the Beauty Around Us—Even in the City
04/24/2026
Kazumi Igus: A Guided Walking Meditation to Notice the Beauty Around Us—Even in the City
City life can often feel frantic, loud, and cut off from natural beauty. It’s not often we slow down and take in all there is to experience. But even in urban areas, if you pay attention, you can hear the call of a bird, notice your favorite color in shop windows, and look up at the vast sky above. In this guided meditation, we slow our roll and take in the beauty of our surroundings, no matter where we find ourselves. Kazumi Igus is a Los Angeles native, science teacher, and trained meditation facilitator through UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Center. She currently serves as a WholeSchool Mindfulness Director at one of the few predominantly Black high schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Her mission is to transform education into a system that is inherently responsive to students’ social and emotional needs, explicitly fosters focus, and empowers students to develop emotional resilience in an increasingly challenging world. 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 Kazumi Igus . If you are looking for an in-depth resource to help build essential skills to meet a changing and uncertain world with a core of inner strength, join Melli O’Brien and a host of other teachers for The Seven Strengths, a FREE 7-day online course happening this May 13-19. Learn more and register at . Go Deeper Looking for more reasons to head outside? Here are some additional resources to help you build a stronger relationship with Mama Nature: For more practice being intentionally mindful outside, 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 .
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Cheryl Jones: A Meditation to Meet Yourself Where You Are—No Matter What
04/17/2026
Cheryl Jones: A Meditation to Meet Yourself Where You Are—No Matter What
Mindfulness meditation involves a willingness to be with ourselves as we are. It offers a way of learning to work with ourselves, and not on ourselves, especially if we are healing from perfectionism. Mindfulness reminds us that not everything has to be "fixed"—and very often, our movement back to wellness starts when we stop trying to change ourselves and simply accept where we are with care and attention. Cheryl Jones is a mindfulness teacher, health and wellness coach, and author of two books, Thriving When Your Cosmic Egg Is Cracked: A Mindful Journey and Mindful Exercise: A Bridge Between Yoga and Exercise. She was the recipient of the Chairman’s Leadership Award and the Norman Vincent Peale Award for Positive Thinking for integrating mindfulness into corporate culture at Aetna. You can find her at . 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 Cheryl Jones . If you are looking for an in-depth resource to help build essential skills to meet a changing and uncertain world with a core of inner strength, join Melli O’Brien and a host of other teachers for The Seven Strengths, a FREE 7-day online course happening this May 13-19. Learn more and register at . Go Deeper Healing from perfectionism isn’t easy. It takes time and practice. Here are some additional resources to help you build a stronger sense of self-acceptance: Want to try more practices that foster self-compassion? Start here: 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 .
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Susan Bauer-Wu: A Meditation to Create Inner Balance in the Face of Change
04/10/2026
Susan Bauer-Wu: A Meditation to Create Inner Balance in the Face of Change
Change of any kind—whether it’s small, momentous, expected or unexpected—can make us feel so vulnerable and unsteady. This week, Susan Bauer-Wu offers a guided meditation to invite and nourish inner strength in the face of change. Susan Bauer-Wu, PhD, is a registered nurse and nursing educator, as well as a mindfulness teacher and researcher. She is president of the Mind & Life Institute and author of . 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 Susan Bauer-Wu . FREE course! If you are looking for an in-depth resource to help build essential skills to meet a changing and uncertain world with a core of inner strength, join Melli O’Brien and a host of other teachers for The Seven Strengths, a FREE 7-day online course happening this May 13-19. Learn more and register at . Go Deeper Want to learn more about how you can train to stay steady, even when everything around you feels uncertain and evolving? Check out these resources from : To get more practice dealing with the reality of change, 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 .
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Sará King: A Meditation to Approach the World With a “Don’t-Know Mind”
04/03/2026
Sará King: A Meditation to Approach the World With a “Don’t-Know Mind”
Our culture prizes certainty and tends to regard not-knowing as weakness or failure. But research has shown that uncertainty is a quality that we’re meant to engage, not reject. Not only does it spark curiosity and help us learn, but it also strengthens confidence and resilience. This week, Dr. Sará King offers a practice to help us build comfort with our “don’t-know mind” so that we can stay courageous and open to the world around us. Dr. Sará King is a mother, a neuroscientist, political and learning scientist, medical anthropologist, social entrepreneur, public speaker, and certified yoga and meditation instructor. Dr. King specializes in researching and teaching about the relationship between mindfulness, community alternative medicine, and social justice with an emphasis on examining the relationship between individual and collective awareness as it relates to well-being. 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 Sará King . If you are looking for an in-depth resource to help build these essential skills of resilience, join Melli O’Brien and a host of other teachers for The Seven Strengths, a FREE 7-day online course happening this May 13-19. Learn more and register at . Go Deeper Looking for ways to engage your beginner’s mind? Check out these resources from : To get more practice meeting 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 .Why do women love reading The Pipeline? It's data with perspective. Get free, thoughtful takes on navigating our messy world. .
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A Meditation to Allow Genuine Happiness, Even In Hard Times
03/27/2026
A Meditation to Allow Genuine Happiness, Even In Hard Times
When we are going through a difficult season personally, or we are bearing witness to the pain of others, our relationship to genuine joy or happiness can get complicated and confusing. Happiness can feel out of reach, or it can feel like a betrayal, like it’s something we don’t “deserve” in hard times. But strengthening our ability to notice and soak in moments of beauty, tenderness, connection, and gratitude can actually have a fortifying effect on us. It can help us build resilience and fill our empty emotional tanks—which can foster our own healing and make it possible for us to show up in healing ways for others. This week, teacher Wendy O’Leary shares a guided practice to tune our attention to the reality that shimmers right alongside our genuine seasons of struggle. Wendy O’Leary, M.Ed., author and health educator, has three children’s books and an adult book on self-compassion in families. She is a certified mindfulness teacher, parent educator, and self-compassion advocate with expertise in teaching emotional resilience to children and adults. Her next publication is a card deck for children titled "Let’s Grow Happiness," created in collaboration with her colleague Helen Maffini. It is scheduled for release on April 21, 2026 and can be preordered at . 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 Wendy O’Leary . If you are looking for an in-depth resource to help build these essential skills of resilience, join Melli O’Brien and a host of other teachers for The Seven Strengths, a FREE 7-day online course happening this May 13-19. Learn more and register at . Go Deeper To explore more about how happiness is not just something we get when things are going well, but an essential human experience, check out these resources from : To get more practice noticing and connecting with happiness, 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 .
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A Meditation to Settle Mind & Body for Sleep
03/20/2026
A Meditation to Settle Mind & Body for Sleep
There are so many reasons why we might be struggling to get to sleep and stay asleep. Work or relationship stress, health concerns, hormonal changes, the state of the world—there’s plenty to keep us awake at night. This week, Mark Bertin offers a soothing sleep practice to help settle our restlessness, using the breath as a calming anchor to gently coax our busy minds and tense bodies into rest. Because this is a sleep meditation, there won’t be the usual recorded outro, so you can just drift off in silence. 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 (Sounds True, 2018). Dr. Bertin resides in Pleasantville, New York. For more, visit . 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 Dr. Mark Bertin . Go Deeper For help understanding how mindfulness can make sleep better and more restorative, check out these resources from : Mindful has a wonderful collection of sleep meditations. If you want to try another version of a body scan, is a great place to start. 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 .
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A Meditation to (Gently) Interrupt Habitual Reactions
03/13/2026
A Meditation to (Gently) Interrupt Habitual Reactions
Daily life is full of irritations: moments of inconvenience, situations where we don’t get what we were hoping for, delays, disappointments, prickly interactions that can leave us confused and exasperated. If we’re honest, we can probably admit that sometimes our reactions in those moments tend to be reflexive rather than intentional. We feel our anger or annoyance rise, and we react almost as though we’re reading a script. Can we explore these habitual reactions in a way that gives us enough space to respond differently? In today’s practice, teacher Patricia Rockman guides us through a meditation to help us meet whatever is arising, so that we have more agency when the next moment arises. Patricia Rockman, MD, CCFP, FCFP is a family physician with a focused practice in mental health. She is the senior director of Education and Clinical Services at the Centre for Mindfulness Studies, Toronto. Rockman is also an associate professor at the University of Toronto, Department of Family Medicine, cross appointed to Psychiatry. She has extensive experience practicing individual psychotherapy, leading therapy groups, and training healthcare providers in mindfulness-based interventions, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and change management for stress reduction. She is a freelance writer, yoga teacher, and meditation practitioner. 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 Patricia Rockman . Go Deeper For more resources to explore reactivity and choice, check out these resources from : For more practice with compassionately looking at and interrupting unconscious reactivity, 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 .
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Self Compassion for Nervous System Reset
03/06/2026
Self Compassion for Nervous System Reset
It’s not always an instinctual go-to for us, but self-compassion is one of the most powerful forms of healing and restoration for our mental and physical well-being. In this meditation, mindfulness teacher Shamash Alidina offers three ways to show compassion for yourself when you’re stressed and need a reset. Shamash Alidina has been practising mindfulness since 1998 and runs his own successful training organisation. He is the author of Mindfulness For Dummies and most recently, The Mindful Way Through Stress. 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 For more resources to help meet stress, balance your nervous system, and tap into resilience, check out these resources from : For more practice tending to your nervous system with self-compassion, 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 .
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A Meditation to Nourish an Undefended Heart
02/27/2026
A Meditation to Nourish an Undefended Heart
There’s a paradox inside mindfulness practice: When we want to heal something, we move toward what hurts, not away from it. It’s not easy to keep our hearts soft or open, and a mindful practice doesn’t change the inherent risks in being a human in a world of other humans. This week, as part of his mini-course Opening Ourselves Up to Compassion, Vinny Ferraro shares a practice to meet our pain and uncertainty, to recognize our inherent connection, and to summon the courage to lower our defenses. 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 For more resources on wise boundaries and how to stay open when you want to shut down, check out these resources from : (a mini-course) To try another meditation to help lower defenses and break down armor, 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 .
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