Our Mindful Nature: Meditation Inspired by Nature to Soothe the Overwhelmed Mind and Ease Anxiety

Here in Georgia, we are stepping into the summer season. The kids will be out of school shortly, and I’m struck with the oh-so-familiar feeling (for me at least) of partial excitement -Yay! It’s summer. No schedule. Going to the pool! Going camping! FunAnd - Ohhhhhh it’s summer. No schedule. No routine or rhythm to anchor our days. Yikes.I thrive on routine and while I appreciate short breaks,  I am also well aware that all too quickly that freedom turns into a source of stress for me. And so, I thought it would be valuable and fun to share a bit of a creative project I’ve been playing with this year.As you know, I almost exclusively meditate outside. My connection to nature deepens my connection to self and stimulates my creativity. It provides a larger rhythm to my days based on when the hyacinth blooms, the hummingbirds return, and the bees swarm that one particular bush that I can never remember the name of… In the next few podcast episodes, I am going to share a few recipes with you - recipes for connecting with nature, with time, and with self. I encourage you to go sit outside if at all possible - on a stoop, porch, park, backyard or even a parking lot staring up at the sky. Have one headphone in and one headphone out so you can hear the sounds of the world around you. Close your eyes and together let’s tap into the rhythms of the natural world as a way to anchor, especially when our daily rhythms aren’t as steady as we would like it to be.Sign up for my newsletter at http://eepurl.com/dBYEUL to receive free mini meditations each month, creative musings, and more.Make a donation or learn more about my free offerings and live classes by visiting merylarnett.com.IG: @merylarnett #meditatewithmeryl

“We are all continually asked to learn how to ask for what we need, only to practice accepting what we’re given.” - Mark NepoOh, surrender, what a complex equation you are.So many of us understand surrender to be a passive state or an act of giving up. After all, the very definition of surrender is “to stop resisting”.Yet, with each of these teachings that we have explored in the Mindful Living series comes a deep paradox that we are asked to embrace. Surrender is both strength and softness. Surrender is fully letting go of the fight we constantly wage with our lives, and it is taking full responsibility for the vision we have for ourselves. Within today’s class, we willTease apart the difference between letting go and giving upLook at examples of the action of surrenderEngage with the “trustful” aspect of surrenderDiscuss how the weaving together of discipline, self-study and surrender elevate the practice of meditation from a simple concentration exercise to an opportunity for spiritual awakening.I hope you’ll join me for today’s discussion and 20-minute guided meditation.Sign up for my newsletter at http://eepurl.com/dBYEUL to receive free mini meditations each month, creative musings, and more.Make a donation or learn more about my free offerings and live classes by visiting merylarnett.com.IG: @merylarnett #meditatewithmeryl

Recently, my four-year-old daughter asked me, “who were you before you were a mom?”After a little conversation, I realized she was asking me - ‘what was your job before you were a mom’...At four, she already identifies a job as who you are. This week’s mindful living tenet is Self-Study, and this teaching also asks us “who are you?”Who are you without a job?Without a plan?Without a diagnosis? Without a gender? Without any of your conditioning?In this week’s episode of The Mindful Minute podcast, we talk through the practice of self-study and engaging our curiosity muscle. We explore both how this tenet was taught originally and several ways we can incorporate it into our daily lives. And, most importantly, we talk about why this is not ‘fixing’ yourself. Join me for today’s talk and guided meditation practice. Sign up for my newsletter at http://eepurl.com/dBYEUL to receive free mini meditations each month, creative musings, and more.Make a donation or learn more about my free offerings and live classes by visiting merylarnett.com.IG: @merylarnett #meditatewithmeryl

Today’s Mindful Living tenet is self-discipline, or more literally, the fire of transformation. This teaching reminds us that meditation and mindful living is not meant to be synonymous with sunshine and rainbows or with joy 100% of the time. Mindfulness grows from burning away non-supportive habits in order to actualize who we really are. Self-discipline is the teaching that focuses attention so that attention becomes intention.We can see a direct example of self-discipline in cultivating a daily meditation practice. I’m sure you can think of a thousand other things that you could do with this time, but as meditation practitioners, we forsake some momentary pleasurable distraction because we’ve named what we are practicing for -  some insight, comfort, transformation or knowing… We show up and we do the work because we know why we are practicing. How we show up for the work also matters.We can be half-hearted - calling it meditation but really we are taking a bath with a glass of wine.We can be ego driven - focused on the fruits of our labor, the outcome, or the goal. We can be balanced by bringing a sense of faith to the practice.Faith is actually a primary ingredient in self-discipline. Faith that the work is enough. That the choices you make, the sacrifices you willingly agree to, the flames that might burn a bit as you walk through them, all of it is the path you are meant to be on. The work is enough. It is in this way that we practice. So that our stories and the weight of discarded emotions, thoughts and beliefs that have fallen to our forest floors don’t burn uncontrolled. Fire at first glance can seem like a fearsome, raging inferno, when in actuality, it is lighting our path and nurturing our rejuvenation. So let’s burn; let’s do the work.Special thanks to today’s sponsor: Baronfig. Baronfig’s line of “Tools for Thinkers” includes guided journals, notebooks, writing instruments, bags, accessories, and so much more. As an avid journaler, I use and love their guided meditation journal, dream journal and their basic Confidant notebooks! Use code MindfulMinute through 4/27/23 to save 10% on your own order at baronfig.com. Sign up for my newsletter at http://eepurl.com/dBYEUL to receive free mini meditations each month, creative musings, and more.Make a donation or learn more about my free offerings and live classes by visiting merylarnett.com.IG: @merylarnett #meditatewithmeryl

“Of course we can always imagine more perfect conditions, how it should be ideally, how everyone else should behave. But it’s not our task to create an ideal. It’s our task to see how it is, and to learn from the world as it is. For the awakening of the heart, conditions are always good enough.” ~Ajahn Sumedo“One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming about some magical rose garden over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses blooming under our window.” - Dale CarnegieThe Moment is CompleteThere is no where to go and nothing getThe way isn’t difficult for those who are unattached to their preferencesEach of these quotes point towards a fundamental teaching - maybe the most taught about tenet in mindfulness and yet the hardest to grasp -  Contentment. I think of contentment as developing a profound ok-ness with my life, and yet in order to find and experience this sense of well-being, we must be willing to embrace profound paradoxes.Contentment is not about ignoring or avoiding pain, it isn’t about glossing over or using the dread phrase, “it is what it is”... I would venture to say that contentment isn’t even about happiness. Recently, I learned that you can almost always find the antidote to a troublesome plant growing near said troublesome plant. For example, you can almost always find jewelweed growing near poison ivy. Poison ivy will make you itch, and jewelweed sap is anti-inflammatory and anti-itch.Contentment doesn’t mean you will never be uncomfortable; contentment is knowing the antidote is right here, in this very moment. The moment is complete. Join me for today’s episode of The Mindful Minute as we tease apart the paradoxes within contentment and share in a 20-minute guided meditation.Special thanks to today’s sponsor: Baronfig. Baronfig’s line of “Tools for Thinkers” includes guided journals, notebooks, writing instruments, bags, accessories, and so much more. As an avid journaler, I use and love their guided meditation journal, dream journal and their basic Confidant notebooks! Use code MindfulMinute through 4/27/23 to save 10% on your own order at baronfig.com. Sign up for my newsletter at http://eepurl.com/dBYEUL to receive free mini meditations each month, creative musings, and more.Make a donation or learn more about my free offerings and live classes by visiting merylarnett.com.IG: @merylarnett #meditatewithmeryl

In the last five episodes, I’ve shared the ethical teachings of meditation. Traditionally, after learning these ethical teachings, often taught as ‘restraints’, we would then learn five more teachings known as ‘observances’. These next five teachings, known in Sanskrit as Niyamas, are principles that we observe within ourselves to develop a mindful way of moving through the world. These are in essence the guidance to Mindful Living.We start with one that feels very tricky to me… it is most often translated as purity. Personally, I have a very strong aversion to the word purity. I feel like all manner of dangerous judgments, othering, and oppression happens under the guise of purity. I also believe that it is far too easy to become extreme in our quest to become ‘pure’ (especially in the spiritual world) which hinders rather than helps us. However, when we dive into the teachings of this tenet, what we learn is that this teaching is about connecting to and enlivening our energy levels, and we do this by decluttering our minds, bodies, and physical spaces. So, let’s tap into our inner Marie Kondo and explore joy, energy and the mindfulness of decluttering. Ready? Special thanks to today’s sponsor: Baronfig. Baronfig’s line of “Tools for Thinkers” includes guided journals, notebooks, writing instruments, bags, accessories, and so much more. As an avid journaler, I use and love their guided meditation journal, dream journal and their basic Confidant notebooks! Use code MindfulMinute through 4/27/23 to save 10% on your own order at baronfig.com. Sign up for my newsletter at http://eepurl.com/dBYEUL to receive free mini meditations each month, creative musings, and more.Make a donation or learn more about my free offerings and live classes by visiting merylarnett.com.IG: @merylarnett #meditatewithmeryl

When someone says to me, “would you like to have a conversation about nature, culture and the sacred?” - the answer is always YES, which is how this interview came to be. Today, I get to share a conversation with the dynamic author, leader and organizer, Nina Simons.Nina is the Co-founder and Chief Relationship Officer at Bioneers. Throughout her career spanning the nonprofit, social entrepreneurship, corporate, and philanthropic sectors, Nina has worked with nearly a thousand diverse women leaders across disciplines, race, class, age and orientation to create conditions for mutual learning, trust and leadership development. ​She authored Nature, Culture, and the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership—which was released as a second edition in June 2022 with an accompanying discussion guide and embodied practices. The first edition won Gold Nautilus awards in the categories of women, intersectionality and social justice. Both books are being used to inspire and ignite learning in individuals, circles and classrooms. In this conversation, we talk aboutMeditation as the subtlest form of self-loveArchetypal feminine vs gendered feminine and why this is what is missing from our worldThe intertwining of the sacred and activismGenerational traumaThe overlapping crisis of our time - indigenous issues, racial equity, gender balance and the environmental crisisNina also references a documentary, The Burning Times, that changed the trajectory of her life. You can watch The Burning Times here: https://youtu.be/34ow_kNnoroLearn more about Nina and her work here: https://www.ninasimons.com/Learn more about Bioneers here: https://bioneers.org/Special thanks to today’s sponsor: Baronfig - Baronfig’s line of “Tools for Thinkers” includes guided journals, notebooks, writing instruments, bags, accessories, and so much more. As an avid journaler, I am obsessed with their guided meditation journal, dream journal and their basic Confidant notebooks! Get one for yourself at baronfig.com and use code MindfulMinute to save 10% on your order by April 27. Trust me, it’s worth it!Sign up for my newsletter at http://eepurl.com/dBYEUL to receive free mini meditations each month, creative musings, and more.Make a donation or learn more about my free offerings and live classes by visiting merylarnett.com.IG: @merylarnett #meditatewithmeryl

“Behind violence, dishonesty, stealing & indulgence lies one clear objective: gaining greater control over the objects of our desire and eliminating those with the potential to stand in our way. This phenomenon can be described in one word: possessiveness. We want to have enough to fulfill our desires and our desire knows no limit.” - Pandit Rajmani TigunaitThe final teaching in our ethics series is the tenet of non-possessiveness - also referred to as non-attachment or non-clinging in many teachings. This tenet is all about uncovering our desires so that our desires don’t become obsessions and our obsessions don’t possess us. Desires usually fall into one of 3 categories:FamilyMaterial wealthPower & fame Left unchecked, our desires keep us stuck. We can’t see other options, we can’t try something new, and we can’t enjoy life because we are too busy obsessing over what we can’t have or didn’t get. And these obsessions lead us to violate the previous ethical teachings of violence, truthfulness, non-stealing and non-excess.  Within our meditation practice, we can see our obsessive thoughts and desires, and we learn to cultivate the opposite thoughts. We name what we already have, what we love or enjoy. We say thank you. In short, the antidote to possessiveness is gratitude. Join me for today’s final installment of the Ethics of Meditation - we will discuss non-possessiveness and share in a 20-minute guided meditation. Sign up for my newsletter at http://eepurl.com/dBYEUL to receive free mini meditations each month, creative musings, and more.Make a donation or learn more about my free offerings and live classes by visiting merylarnett.com.IG: @merylarnett #meditatewithmeryl

This is a big one, y’all. Non-excess is likely the ethical tenet that I teach most often {even if I don’t specifically say ‘non-excess’}... Often this teaching gets translated as abstinence or celibacy, and in certain monastic orders, it is indeed practiced in this way. Yet, when we look at the original teachings of this tenet, we discover non-excess is about establishing vitality and balancing the mind, body and energy. Author Deborah Adele translates the teachings of non-excess as meaning ‘to walk with god’ - to experience the sacred in the everyday. And, we quickly see that we cannot experience sanctity or vitality if we are overwhelmed in excess.Excess can show up in our food, our work, our entertainment, our possessions, even our spirituality.We are a people of excess. For many of us, we can get almost anything, usually delivered to our door the next day. And in many countries, we can throw it in a trash can and pay to have it picked up and dumped somewhere we are likely never to see or acknowledge because if we did, we would be horrified. The teaching of non-excess asks us to move slowly and employ restraint. Admire the sunrise, the sunset, the stars, the moon, the clouds and the birds. Take the time to eat food that is beautiful and nourishing, and to stop when you are just full enough. Put your phone down. Step away from technology. Go to bed early and get up early too. The deeper we go, the more we begin to understand non-excess as the ultimate pleasure principle. Being alive is not a mistake. We are alive, and we are meant to be awake for it, to enjoy it, and celebrate it. The key is that it isn't a bacchanalian free for all. Vitality and sanctity are brought forth through restraint, through limiting our excessive ways. Join me for today’s episode of The Mindful Minute as we tease out the nuances of non-excess and share in a 20-minute guided meditation.Thank you to our sponsor, Bioneers. Be sure to check them out at conference.bioneers.org and use code NCS20 to save 20% on tickets to their upcoming 34th annual conference.Sign up for my newsletter at http://eepurl.com/dBYEUL to receive free mini meditations each month, creative musings, and more.Make a donation or learn more about my free offerings and live classes by visiting merylarnett.com.IG: @merylarnett #meditatewithmeryl

The ethical tenet of non-stealing goes so much further than simply avoiding the physical act of theft. It prompts us to move fully into living a life of integrity and reciprocity. In this episode of The Mindful Minute, we delve into the myriad of ways we have absorbed the habit of stealing. We will reflect on how we steal from OthersThe EarthThe FutureOurselvesThe primary invitation of non-stealing is to shift our focus from others to ourselves. What an odd sentence to write... no, I didn't make a mistake. I really mean this - the invitation is to turn our attention towards ourselves and our actions. I love this focus because it is so counterintuitive to what we are taught to believe at a young age.  We are taught to put others first {but be the best}; stop focusing on yourself {but make sure you fit in}; don’t be selfish {but you can and should have it all}…As we explore the teachings of non-stealing, we see how these early implicit teachings trap us in a cycle of never enough; always chasing after what others have, and living in fear of what we don’t have and can’t get. Fear begets violence, and spoiler alert, we find ourselves lost in a world being destroyed by violence - to ourselves, to each other and to the earth.When we remember to honor ourselves within these ethical teachings, we live full, rich lives with integrity and reciprocity.Join me for today’s class as we explore the tenet of non-stealing and share in a 20-minute guided meditation. Sign up for my newsletter at http://eepurl.com/dBYEUL to receive free mini meditations each month, creative musings, and more.Make a donation or learn more about my free offerings and live classes by visiting merylarnett.com.IG: @merylarnett #meditatewithmeryl