12 Minute Meditation

Our brains learn through a process that has three components: trigger, behavior, reward. Together these behaviors form what is known as a habit loop. In today's meditation, Dr. Brewer walks us through a practice to notice triggers—when they're happening and how they make us feel. When we pay attention to these triggers, we can respond to ourselves with more compassion and make choices with a lot more clarity. Jud 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. Previously, Dr. Jud held research and teaching positions at Yale University, and the University of Massachusetts' Center for Mindfulness and was a research affiliate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 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 mindful.org/signup or download the app for free at mindful.org/app. Show Notes Find more from Judson Brewer here. Go Deeper Being with cravings with the intention of shifting our response, is one of the most challenging parts of mindful living. For more support with understanding craving, addiction, and presence, check out these articles on Mindful.org: How to Be Mindful With Your Cravings Rethink Your Food Cravings with the Art of Savoring When Avoidance Rules Your Life: Understanding Compulsions vs. Addictions How Mindfulness Can Help Teens With Tech Addiction And to experience another meditation from Dr. Brewer that guides you through how to be with cravings to facilitate habit change, try A 12-Minute Meditation to Get Curious About Your Cravings. 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 yourwords@mindful.org.

Even if they aren't particularly into making resolutions, for many people the New Year still feels like a fresh start: a time for taking stock, for reviewing what's passed, for turning the page on one chapter and starting another. In today's meditation, teacher Frank Ostaseski asks: How do you meet endings? We can learn a lot about how we face the new by looking at how we let go of the old, and here Ostaseski offers a practice to surrender with curiosity and gratitude. Frank Ostaseski is a meditation teacher who cofounded the Zen Hospice Project. In 2004, he went on to create the Metta Institute to provide innovative educational programs and professional training to foster compassionate, mindfulness-based care. 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 Frank Ostaseski here. Go Deeper If you're facing a big change, even if it's completely unrelated to the New Year, mindfulness can help support your well-being as you consider options, make choices, and step into a new season. Check out these articles for more information: Embracing Change: What Nanalan' Teaches Us About Saying Goodbye Goodbye, Things: Find Peace of Mind By Letting Go of Your Stuff Mindfulness for Grief and Loss Finding Your Way Forward When the Path Is Not Clear And to experience another approach to intention-setting, try A 12-Minute Meditation to Find Stability Amid Change. 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 yourwords@mindful.org.

Rich Fernandez, a mindful leadership trainer and former CEO of the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute, shares insights on setting intentions for a brighter future. He emphasizes the importance of linking meaning and values to mindfulness practices. Rich guides listeners through visualization techniques, helping them vividly imagine their best lives and the emotions tied to those visions. He advocates for self-acceptance over traditional resolutions, encouraging a gentler approach to personal growth and change.

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 – Mindfulness and Self-Compassion to Help You Leave Chronic Pain Behind and the co-author of the classic training manual for mindfulness teachers, A Clinician's Guide To Teaching Mindfulness. Christiane is the lead-consultant and teacher trainer for the VA's (US Department of Veteran Affairs) National Mindfulness Facilitator Training and a senior teacher at InsightLA. She is the mom of three amazing humans and can usually be found in the Los Angeles area training for ultramarathons and triathlons. 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 Christiane Wolf here. Go Deeper If the Holidays aren't always merry and bright for you, please know you're not alone. For support, check out these articles on Mindful.org: Curb Your Inner Critic Over the Holidays with Self-Compassion When Grief Hits During the Holidays 3 Ways to Find Calm in the Holiday Rush 5 Practical Ways to Reduce Holiday Stress Self-Care Is an Act of Resistance And for more practices to help you find calm in the chaos, check out: 3 Guided Meditations to Help You Find Balance This Holiday Season 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 yourwords@mindful.org.

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 individuals and corporate clients. 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 Elaine Smookler here. Go Deeper Savoring is a quality that we can nurture in our whole lives. It makes good moments sweeter, and it helps us through seasons that feel strained or uncertain. For more on how to take time to appreciate each moment more, check out these articles on Mindful.org: Why the Key to Savoring the Moment is Doing Less Four Ways to Savor the Dance of Cooking Get Real with Everything: A Savoring Practice The Key to Overall Well-Being? Savoring And for another way to practice what it feels like to savor, try this walking meditation: A Guided Walking Meditation to Savor the Day 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 yourwords@mindful.org.

In this enlightening conversation, meditation teacher Vanessa Hutchinson-Szekely shares her journey from chronic back pain to joy. She offers a soothing meditation designed to gently release tension and invite happiness. Listeners will learn to direct their breath to areas of pain, visualize golden light for healing, and cultivate gratitude for themselves and others. With a passion for mindfulness and well-being, Vanessa emphasizes that we are more than our pain, making every moment an opportunity for joy.

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 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 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 Shamash Alidina here. Go Deeper For additional resources on how to manage the stress of the Holiday season (or anytime), check out these articles on Mindful.org: A Simple Practice for Regulating Stress in the Body A Steady Heart: A Cardiologist's Advice for Lowering Stress Break the Cycle of Stress and Social Media: Learn a 3-step process that builds healthy habits Let Go of Stress and Welcome Wisdom How to Manage Stress with Mindfulness and Meditation And for another meditation you can use when Holiday stress shows up, try this practice: A 12 Minute Meditation to Defuse Holiday Stress 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 yourwords@mindful.org.

In this enlightening conversation, Diana Winston, Director of Mindfulness Education at UCLA's Mindful Awareness Research Center, explores the crucial difference between self-compassion and self-esteem. She discusses how mindfulness can help us recognize self-judging thoughts without getting overwhelmed by them. Listeners learn to embrace their flaws with kindness, using soft labels for negative thoughts. The practice culminates in a silent meditation that fosters self-love and compassion, leaving us with heartfelt techniques to wish kindness to ourselves and others.

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 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 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 Dr. Mark Bertin here. Go Deeper Forgiveness is one of the most challenging mindful qualities to develop. Understandably, we want to feel seen and heard in our pain, and we don't want to feel like we're being walked over or making excuses for harmful behavior. From a mindfulness perspective, forgiveness holds all of these experiences in a kind of loving tension, allowing the complexities to surface. To learn more about what forgiveness is (and isn't) and how to nurture it in your daily life, check out these resources from the website: New Research on Mindfulness and Forgiveness The Work It Takes to Forgive How to Let Go of an Old Regret Let It Go: How to Practice Forgiveness If you're at the very beginning of the process and want help getting started on your forgiveness journey, try this practice: A Guided Meditation to Welcome Forgiveness. 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 yourwords@mindful.org.

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 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 – Mindfulness and Self-Compassion to Help You Leave Chronic Pain Behind and the co-author of the classic training manual for mindfulness teachers, A Clinician's Guide To Teaching Mindfulness. Christiane is the lead-consultant and teacher trainer for the VA's (US Department of Veteran Affairs) National Mindfulness Facilitator Training and a senior teacher at InsightLA. She is the mom of three amazing humans and can usually be found in the Los Angeles area training for ultramarathons and triathlons. 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 Christiane Wolf here. Go Deeper Living with chronic conditions is one of the most difficult challenges to face—the effects are never just physical. While mindfulness is never a cure-all for pain or illness, it can offer relief in sometimes-surprising ways. To learn more about how mindful practices can ease suffering in mind and body, check out these articles from the archive: Let Your Pain Be a River: Vidyamala Burch on Living and Teaching With Chronic Pain The Science of Chronic Stress, Inflammation, and Mindfulness How to Live Well with Chronic Pain and Illness How Mindfulness Provides Relief from Chronic Pain For more practice using meditation to be with your body, even when it's in pain, here is a meditation from pain expert Vidyamala Burch: Filling the Body With Light: 12 Minute Meditation. 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 yourwords@mindful.org.