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

Show Notes: Astronomical Mindfulness with Sarah Scoles“Back when humans lived in communal caves and tribal encampments, we told stories about the stars. When we started sailing, we used these same pinpricks of light to estimate our own location. When we began planting, we relied on the constellations and the Sun to plant and sustain crops. Yet today, most modern humans have lost this deep connection to the cosmos that was once central to our daily lives.”The new book, ASTRONOMICAL MINDFULNESS, is a unique guidebook written by astronomy professor, Chris De Pree, and science journalist, Sarah Scoles, and in today’s episode of The Mindful Minute I chat with Sarah about all things astronomical. We talk about the power of the sun, moon, stars, and planets to offer engaging exercises that deepen your knowledge of the solar system, help you take necessary pauses every day, and foster a renewed sense of presence in the universe.Sarah Scoles is a freelance journalist and contributing editor at WIRED. She is the author of Making Contact: Jill Tarter and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence and They Are Already Here: UFO Culture and Why We See Saucers.This conversation is such a fun listen after January’s Meditation & The Moon series and my upcoming Elemental Awakening offering. Join me for this exploration of the cosmos, mindfulness, and some new practices you can try tonight. Learn more about Sarah Scoles at: https://www.sarahscoles.com/ You can purchase Astronomical Mindfulness at your local bookstore.Learn more about Elemental Awakening at: https://www.merylarnett.com/elemental-awakening-2022Special 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! Get one for yourself here: https://baronfig.com/If you enjoyed today’s episode, please consider making a one-time or monthly donation to support the growth of this labor of love. Your monthly donation will aid in keeping this show sponsor-free, employing additional small businesses AND funding the ongoing creative growth I invest in.Donate here: https://www.merylarnett.com/support-the-mindful-minuteJoin my FREE meditation community here: https://meditate-with-meryl.mn.co/Learn more about my:*Elemental Awakening: Begins March 20, 2022*Roots: nature-based meditation app*Live, virtual meditation classes with me*Upcoming eventsAll by visiting merylarnett.com.#meditatewithmeryl

Mini Meditation: Delight, Sorrow and What Lies BetweenWhen we reflect on opposing forces such as good & evil or joy & sorrow, it is easy to see them as existing on a scale with one force on each side - thesis and antithesis. But, what happens when we introduce a third force? Thesis. Antithesis. Synthesis. Fire. Water. Air. Rabbi Jill Hammer writes, “ when we come to presence, we are able to hold multiple truths without straining.”Join me for today’s mini meditation as we practice holding multiple truths and bringing synthesis to the moment.  Today’s meditation is inspired by the guided visualization Higher than Delight, Deeper than Sorrow written by Rabbi Jill Hammer.You can learn more about Elemental Awakening here: merylarnett.com/elemental-awakening-2022Special 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! Get one for yourself here: https://baronfig.com/ These mini meditations are meant to support a daily home practice. Tune in every Monday to find your practice for the week! Full episodes are released every Thursday for a longer, deeper practice.Join my FREE meditation community here: https://meditate-with-meryl.mn.co/Learn more about my:*Elemental Awakening: Begins March 20, 2022*Roots: nature-based meditation app*Live, virtual meditation classes with me*Upcoming eventsAll by visiting merylarnett.com.If you enjoyed today’s episode, please consider making a one-time or monthly donation to support the growth of this labor of love. Your monthly donation will aid in keeping this show sponsor-free, employing additional small businesses AND funding the ongoing creative growth I invest in.Donate here: https://www.merylarnett.com/support-the-mindful-minute#meditatewithmeryl

You’ll remember that this month’s meditation series is a series about the ever-changing wind and the play of opposite forces in our daily lives. Good & evil, praise & blame, joy & sorrow, etc.Last week {part 2} we looked through the lens of Buddhist teachings on the 8 Worldly Winds, and that we never know when the wind will change directions. We were offered a solution of learning how to live in the ‘middle’ or with equanimity. Now, I love learning how these same ideas permeate time, location and culture. Lately, I’ve been reading an ancient Jewish mystical text known as the Sefer Yetzirah. The interpretation I’m reading is written by Rabbi Jill Hammer - it is a story about creation, the elements, the cosmos and God.  As the text explores opposing forces such as delight and suffering, merit and guilt, even fire and water, Rabbi Hammer writes, “even things so diverse as pleasure and pain are still made up of the same building blocks, the same human consciousness and experience, the same divine creative force. The wheel of letters contains all phenomena. All happenings are ultimately one, even when they appear radically different. When we understand this, we can come to a state of equanimity within the cosmos.”It is all the same wind, just blowing differently.And, the suggested solution, over and over again, is Equanimity. Rather than fight with the present moment, can we learn to be with it exactly as it is?Philosopher and poet Mark Nepo describes it so beautifully when he offers -“We are all continually asked to learn how to ask for what we need, only to practice accepting what we’re given.”Join me for today’s discussion and 20-minute guided meditation on The Mindful Minute. Today’s meditation is inspired by the guided visualization Higher than Delight, Deeper than Sorrow written by Rabbi Jill Hammer.You can learn more about Elemental Awakening here: merylarnett.com/elemental-awakening-2022Special 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! Get one for yourself here: https://baronfig.com/If you enjoyed today’s episode, please consider making a one-time or monthly donation to support the growth of this labor of love. Your monthly donation will aid in keeping this show sponsor-free, employing additional small businesses AND funding the ongoing creative growth I invest in.Donate here: https://www.merylarnett.com/support-the-mindful-minuteJoin my FREE meditation community here: https://meditate-with-meryl.mn.co/Learn more about my:*Elemental Awakening: Begins March 20, 2022*Roots: nature-based meditation app*Live, virtual meditation classes with me*Upcoming eventsAll by visiting merylarnett.com.#meditatewithmeryl

Mini Meditation: Elemental Awakening to WindMy newest program, Elemental Awakening, is an exploration of the elements and their corresponding sacred practices. It runs from the Spring Equinox to the Fall Equinox, and it is a chance for 12 of you to study in-depth with me over the course of the next 7 months. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be releasing a few mini meditations that correspond with each element as a way to explore Elemental Awakening for yourself.Today’s mini meditation invites you to meditate with the idea and experience of wind.This experience invites us into equanimity as sometimes we resonate with the sensation of being blown around. Chaotic, uncontrolled. Other times, we resonate with the sensation of our feet solidly on the ground, a steady anchor as the wind whips around us. You can learn more about Elemental Awakening here: merylarnett.com/elemental-awakening-2022Special 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! Get one for yourself here: https://baronfig.com/These mini meditations are meant to support a daily home practice. Tune in every Monday to find your practice for the week! Full episodes are released every Thursday for a longer, deeper practice.Join my FREE meditation community here: https://meditate-with-meryl.mn.co/Learn more about my:*Elemental Awakening: Begins March 20, 2022*Roots: nature-based meditation app*Live, virtual meditation classes with me*Upcoming eventsAll by visiting merylarnett.com.If you enjoyed today’s episode, please consider making a one-time or monthly donation to support the growth of this labor of love. Your monthly donation will aid in keeping this show sponsor-free, employing additional small businesses AND funding the ongoing creative growth I invest in.Donate here: https://www.merylarnett.com/support-the-mindful-minute#meditatewithmeryl

This is a series about wind, about good and bad, about our struggles with the state of the world; but mostly, this is a series about wind. I love wind. Sometimes, I resonate with the sensation of being blown around. Chaotic, uncontrolled.Other times, I resonate with the sensation of my feet on the ground. My body, a steady anchor as the wind whips around me. It is a both/and situation, and it asks us to acknowledge paradox. It teaches us equanimity. In Buddhist teachings, there is a teaching known as the 8 Worldly Winds. These winds are:-Praise/Blame-Gain/Loss-Success/Failure-Joy/SorrowThe gist of the teaching is that we never know when the wind will change directions.We are also reminded that one doesn’t exist without the other. We can’t only have praise. Or success. Or Joy. And in fact, we know through psychological research that if you refuse to experience sorrow, you inadvertently are unable to experience joy. The teaching isn’t telling us to fix it, or to get better. Rather the teaching is offering us a way to learn how to exist in the middle. We learn to embrace tension, paradox, change.  Instead of seeking resolution, waiting for the chord at the end of a song, we let ourselves open and relax in the middle.Ajahn Sumedo teaches us to be open to the way things are.  “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.”Join me for today’s episode of The Mindful Minute as we explore the ever-changing wind both in concept and within 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! Get one for yourself here: https://baronfig.com/If you enjoyed today’s episode, please consider making a one-time or monthly donation to support the growth of this labor of love. Your monthly donation will aid in keeping this show sponsor-free, employing additional small businesses AND funding the ongoing creative growth I invest in.Donate here: https://www.merylarnett.com/support-the-mindful-minuteJoin my FREE meditation community here: https://meditate-with-meryl.mn.co/Learn more about my:*Elemental Awakening: Begins March 20, 2022*Roots: nature-based meditation app*Live, virtual meditation classes with me*Upcoming eventsAll by visiting merylarnett.com.#meditatewithmeryl

You guys. I have something BIG to share with you today!I have just released my newest offering into the world. This is something that has been incubating in my meditations, my dreams and my daily walks for a full year, and I am so delighted to finally share this with you! ⁠Elemental Awakening is an exploration of the elements and 6 corresponding sacred practices. This program will run from the Spring Equinox to the Fall Equinox, and it is a chance for 12 of you to study in-depth with me over the course of the next 7 months. This is not a workshop, a training or an intensive. This is an invitation. An invitation to go deeper with me; to gather in an engaged, curious community; to explore together; and to weave a tapestry of our own magic.I’m so excited to share a bit about this opportunity with you guys, AND I’m releasing one of my newest meditations from my newly redesigned nature-based meditation app - Roots. This practice is one I’ve been using daily for weeks, and I think you might enjoy it too -A while ago, I had the opportunity to hike to the top of Haleakala - a dormant volcano on Maui, Hawaii. The summit lies at 10,023 feet above sea level. We were above the clouds, and although it was summer time, it was bitterly cold as the wind whipped around us. The landscape felt desert-like, but what was most noticeable was the way it seemed like you were closer to the sky than the earth. It felt like we were quite literally ‘hanging in the void’ or the liminal space between the solid ground we call home and the expansive universe that wraps around us. It was a moment of both/and - of being connected to the life we live on a daily basis and equally connected to the greater expanse that reminds us not to take ourselves too seriously or to worry too much. In this practice, we hear the wind whipping from the top of a volcano as recorded by Gordon Hempton. We imagine ourselves at the edge, the void between earth and the universe, between the mundane and universal consciousness.Let’s practice balancing on this edge.Native Hawaiians, also known as Kanaka Maoli, are the first people to have heard the sounds of this particular landscape. You can learn more about Elemental Awakening here: merylarnett.com/elemental-awakening-2022Special 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! Get one for yourself here: https://baronfig.com/These mini meditations are meant to support a daily home practice. Tune in every Monday to find your practice for the week! Full episodes are released every Thursday for a longer, deeper practice.Join my FREE meditation community here: https://meditate-with-meryl.mn.co/Learn more about my:***Elemental Awakening: Begins March 20**Roots: my nature-based meditation app*Live, virtual meditation classes with me*Upcoming eventsAll by visiting merylarnett.com.If you enjoyed today’s episode, please consider making a one-time or monthly donation to support the growth of this labor of love. Your monthly donation will aid in keeping this show sponsor-free, employing additional small businesses AND funding the ongoing creative growth I invest in.Donate here: https://www.merylarnett.com/support-the-mindful-minuteYou can also grab my FREE Meditation Starter Kit on my website merylarnett.com. It is full of my favorite tips, stories and ideas for starting and maintaining a daily meditation practice. Grab your copy today! --> http://bit.ly/meditationstarterkit ***Connect with me on Instagram {@merylarnett} to get bonus meditation tips, mini-meditations, and the occasional baby spam: https://www.instagram.com/merylarnett/#meditatewithmeryl

I spend a lot of time reflecting on the teachings of meditation and their intersection with the specific moment we are living in. For most of us, I believe this feels like a scary time, as if there are two sides battling out for domination with no chance of reason or clarity being heard. As I dance with the anxiety of mid-term elections this year, and continued reports of rising extremism, I remind myself that we have been here before. Some of the details might be new to this moment, but the vast majority of this experience is a cycle we have experienced over and over again throughout history. Battles of right and wrong, left and right, good and evil are not new. They are not unique to us living in 2022. There are teachings in ancient Buddhist texts of the 10,000 joys and 10,000 sorrows. The ever changing winds that blow.There are teachings in ancient jewish texts that talk about delight and sorrow, merit and guilt simply being a rearrangement of the same two letter combinations.Over and over again, this lesson is presented to us -  It isn’t good/correct on one side, and evil/incorrect on the other. Rather, one side exists because of the other. They exist simultaneously and of the same elements, just expressed differently. And so, over the course of this next 3-part series, The Ways of Wind, we will look at the different teachings around the ever changing winds of experience. We start tonight by learning to balance on the edge of the universe. Join me here, now for a discussion and 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! Get one for yourself here: https://baronfig.com/If you enjoyed today’s episode, please consider making a one-time or monthly donation to support the growth of this labor of love. Your monthly donation will aid in keeping this show sponsor-free, employing additional small businesses AND funding the ongoing creative growth I invest in.Donate here: https://www.merylarnett.com/support-the-mindful-minuteJoin my FREE meditation community here: https://meditate-with-meryl.mn.co/Learn more about my:*Roots: my nature-based meditation app*Elemental Awakening: Begins March 20!*Live, virtual meditation classes with me*Upcoming eventsAll by visiting merylarnett.com.You can also grab my FREE Meditation Starter Kit on my website merylarnett.com. It is full of my favorite tips, stories and ideas for starting and maintaining a daily meditation practice. Grab your copy today! --> http://bit.ly/meditationstarterkit ***Connect with me on Instagram {@merylarnett} to get bonus meditation tips, mini-meditations, and the occasional baby spam: https://www.instagram.com/merylarnett/#meditatewithmeryl

Why do we love Encanto so much? Why has “We don’t talk about Bruno” taken over the charts in such an unexpected way? Perhaps it is that the music and the lyrics remind us we are not alone in what we feel, what we struggle with… and I think it is so important to make this connection alongside our meditation practice.It is far too easy to mistakenly believe that meditation is an isolating practice. We often practice alone. We close the door; we tell others to be quiet and not interrupt us. We finish and we likely don’t speak about our experience within meditation to anyone. Yet, the truth is our practice is a deep reminder of our connection to everyone, to all beings.Let’s meditate together today in connection with Bruno and all beings everywhere <3Special 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! Get one for yourself here: https://baronfig.com/These mini meditations are meant to support a daily home practice. Tune in every Monday to find your practice for the week! Full episodes are released every Thursday for a longer, deeper practice.Join my FREE meditation community here: https://meditate-with-meryl.mn.co/Learn more about my:**Roots: my nature-based  meditation app*Live, virtual meditation classes with me*Upcoming eventsAll by visiting merylarnett.com.If you enjoyed today’s episode, please consider making a one-time or monthly donation to support the growth of this labor of love. Your monthly donation will aid in keeping this show sponsor-free, employing additional small businesses AND funding the ongoing creative growth I invest in.Donate here: https://www.merylarnett.com/support-the-mindful-minuteYou can also grab my FREE Meditation Starter Kit on my website merylarnett.com. It is full of my favorite tips, stories and ideas for starting and maintaining a daily meditation practice. Grab your copy today! --> http://bit.ly/meditationstarterkit ***Connect with me on Instagram {@merylarnett} to get bonus meditation tips, mini-meditations, and the occasional baby spam: https://www.instagram.com/merylarnett/#meditatewithmeryl

I am obsessed with Encanto. Are you? We have watched the movie several times, and basically listen to the soundtrack on repeat these days…The song “We don’t talk about Bruno” has taken over the charts beating out the previously unbeatable “Let it Go”...The spin class I recently took that was themed to the Encanto soundtrack had three times more people in it than any other class at that moment in time.Why do we love this story and this music so much? This is a story among so many things of magic, of intergenerational trauma, of perfectionism, of expectations, of not wanting to look at the cracks in the foundation.Lin-Manuel Miranda has given us a story that encompasses so much of what we are experiencing on literal and metaphorical levels right now. This is a myth that allows us to process, to digest our own experiences without thinking too hard about it.The music and the lyrics remind us we are not alone in what we feel, what we struggle with, and I think it is so important to make this connection alongside our meditation practice.It is far too easy to mistakenly believe that meditation is an isolating practice. We often practice alone. We close the door; we tell others to be quiet and not interrupt us. We finish and we likely don’t speak about our experience within meditation to anyone. Yet, the truth is our practice is a deep reminder of our connection to everyone, to all beings.This is the exact same reason why we practiced with the phases of the moon this month. It connects us. In space. In time. Across generations, geographic locations and ideological gulfs. It is the same moon. It gives context to the chaos of our lives.There is a reminder in the sky, in the music, in our practice: From chaos comes creation.From formlessness comes formation. We are here to create, and when we face tough times with wide-open eyes and hearts, when we talk about Bruno, we can create something truly spectacular. So, tear-streaked faces, exhausted eyes, furrowed brows and all, show up. Sit on your cushion. Place yourself in space and time underneath the moon, within the lyrics, and let’s see what we create. 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! Get one for yourself here: https://baronfig.com/If you enjoyed today’s episode, please consider making a one-time or monthly donation to support the growth of this labor of love. Your monthly donation will aid in keeping this show sponsor-free, employing additional small businesses AND funding the ongoing creative growth I invest in.Donate here: https://www.merylarnett.com/support-the-mindful-minuteJoin my FREE meditation community here: https://meditate-with-meryl.mn.co/Learn more about my:*Roots: my nature-based  meditation app*Awakened Heart Meditation Teacher Training*Live, virtual meditation classes with me*Upcoming eventsAll by visiting merylarnett.com.You can also grab my FREE Meditation Starter Kit on my website merylarnett.com. It is full of my favorite tips, stories and ideas for starting and maintaining a daily meditation practice. Grab your copy today! --> http://bit.ly/meditationstarterkit ***Connect with me on Instagram {@merylarnett} to get bonus meditation tips, mini-meditations, and the occasional baby spam: https://www.instagram.com/merylarnett/#meditatewithmeryl

My friends, if you read only one book this year, let it bePause, Rest, Be: Stillness Practices for Courage in Time of ChangeMy dear friend, Octavia Raheem has released her second book into the world and it is the balm we have all been waiting for. In her introduction, Octavia writes,“I created Pause, Rest, Be to meet you in the places that shape, redefine, and sometimes undo us: endings, liminal space, and beginnings. The places of falling aparts and mergings. Of letting go and coming together. Union. This book contains my personal reflections on endings, the place in between, and beginnings. It is also a book of inquiry and practice. Each section ends with a prayer that crosses faiths to reach all hearts.”And also - “You are not lost. You are here to reorient your way to the path that is truly yours to walk.” I am so delighted to share this conversation amongst friends. We talk through closing our shared business, through the liminal space in between and imaginal cells {my favorite!}, as well as stepping boldly into new beginnings.This is the book that speaks to what you are feeling right now, and perhaps offers you some new tools for when even meditating might be ‘too much’...After listening, be sure to purchase Octavia’s new book from your local bookstore, or here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/691234/pause-rest-be-by-octavia-f-raheemYou can learn more about Octavia and her books here:https://www.pauserestbe.com/https://octaviaraheem.com/If you enjoyed today’s episode, please consider making a one-time or monthly donation to support the growth of this labor of love. Your monthly donation will aid in keeping this show sponsor-free, employing additional small businesses AND funding the ongoing creative growth I invest in.Donate here: https://www.merylarnett.com/support-the-mindful-minuteJoin my FREE meditation community here: https://meditate-with-meryl.mn.co/Learn more about my:*Shoreline: my new meditation app*Awakened Heart Meditation Teacher Training*Live, virtual meditation classes with me*Upcoming eventsAll by visiting merylarnett.com.You can also grab my FREE Meditation Starter Kit on my website merylarnett.com. It is full of my favorite tips, stories and ideas for starting and maintaining a daily meditation practice. Grab your copy today! --> http://bit.ly/meditationstarterkit ***Connect with me on Instagram {@merylarnett} to get bonus meditation tips, mini-meditations, and the occasional baby spam: https://www.instagram.com/merylarnett/#meditatewithmeryl