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

Who do you invite into your meditation practice and why do you do it? Today’s mini meditation is an opportunity to explore what support, connections or wisdom you might connect to within your meditation practice. This is a snippet of my personal meditation practice at this time and I am excited to share it with you. Let’s practice! 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. You can learn more about my: *Shoreline: my new meditation app *Live, virtual meditation classes with me *Upcoming events All 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 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

I mentioned in last week’s class that within my personal practice, I often start by honoring the ancestors of the place I live {the Muscogee/Creek Nation} as well as my own familial ancestors. Afterwards, a student mentioned that she struggles with inviting her ancestors into her meditation practice because she doesn’t think her ancestors were particularly good people. Another friend mentioned that she struggles with inviting her ancestors into her meditations because she doesn’t know much about her family stories. These questions and struggles are so common so I thought it worthwhile to explore. I've spent the last week writing and reflecting on these questions along with my own experiences of ancestral-relating. Today’s meditation class will be devoted to the how/what/why of ancestry within meditation.⁠ We don’t need to sugarcoat, to lie, or to pretend. We don’t need to work with our ancestral lineages for some pseudo-spiritual depth. We can, however, choose to work with our ancestors in an honest, clear way for support, for wisdom and for lessons learned. ⁠ Join me for today’s discussion and a guided meditation to help you explore your ancestral connections. 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 You can learn more about my: *Shoreline: my new meditation app *Awakened Heart Meditation Teacher Training *Live, virtual meditation classes with me *Upcoming events All 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

One of the many texts we can look to for ancient meditation teachings is The Yoga Sutra by Patanjali. Written 2200 years ago, the great sage Patanjali gathered the essence of yoga philosophy and practice and distilled it into 196 concise sentences - called sutras. For many of us, one of the ultimate sutras is 3.34: “By meditating on the heart, one gains complete knowledge of one’s mind.” Today’s meditation practice is one of the guideposts that points us on our way to gaining complete knowledge of the mind. 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. You can learn more about my: *Shoreline: my new meditation app *Live, virtual meditation classes with me *Upcoming events All 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 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

The final step in our journey to the magic of meditation lies within The Way. Many of you have been practicing with me for quite awhile and know my teaching methods well. I most often offer my teachings through the lens of mindfulness meditation, but the truth is that mindfulness is really a distilled {and brilliant} version of the ancient meditation teachings. Teachings from lineages of Tantra Sri Vidya Buddhism Kashmir Shaivism So I thought, if we are going to talk about the way today, we might as well talk about The Way. One of the many texts we can look to for these more ancient teachings is The Yoga Sutra by Patanjali. Written 2200 years ago, the great sage Patanjali gathered the essence of yoga philosophy and practice and distilled it into 196 concise sentences - called sutras. For many, one of the ultimate sutras is 3.34: “By meditating on the heart, one gains complete knowledge of one’s mind.” But how do we get there? HOW do we meditate on the heart? All of the other sutras lay out the path, The Way, for us. In this episode, I want to focus particularly on sutra 1.14 in which Pantanjali outlines 3 rules for mastering the mind. Perhaps you already intuitively know The Way and have been working with it for some time; perhaps there are some pieces here that you will recommit to knowing that combined with the words {your intention}, the will {your trust in the practice} and the way, this practice is nothing short of magic. 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 You can learn more about my: *Shoreline: my new meditation app *Awakened Heart Meditation Teacher Training *Live, virtual meditation classes with me *Upcoming events All 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

This is a special, bonus episode of The Mindful Minute to introduce my 2021 Clear Mind, Awakened Heart Meditation Teacher Training. I wanted to be able to talk to you about my hopes, thoughts and plans for this training; the ideas behind it; and why I am so beyond proud of this offering. In my 10+ years of teaching meditation, the #1 piece of feedback I receive from students is that I make meditation feel accessible. Some of the comments that make my heart sing: "I FINALLY get it." "I thought I couldn't meditate before I met you..." "I'm home." And, let me be clear - this isn't some magic unique to me. No, this is simply the magic of years to study, practice and experience. This is the magic of bringing forth the tried and true practices of ancient meditation lineages and offering them through the lens of modern day experience. THIS is why I am so excited about this training. THIS is exactly what I hope to offer within Clear Mind, Awakened Heart. Ancient practices + Modern Creativity This training was created both for those that want to teach meditation to others as well as for those that want a deeper understanding of the practice for personal reasons. Meditation Teacher Trainings are few and far between. Those that exist tend to be large-scale with many assistants between you and the teacher. THIS training is specifically designed to be an intimate, in-depth experience limited to a maximum of 20 students. A small class size ensures quality connection time, an opportunity for your questions to be answered, and your specific needs to be addressed. Take 10 minutes to listen to today's bonus episode of The Mindful Minute to learn more about teacher training and why it might be a good fit for YOU. You can learn more here: https://www.merylarnett.com/awakened-heart-meditation-teacher-training You can learn more about my: *Shoreline: my new meditation app *Live, virtual meditation classes with me *Upcoming events All 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 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

This meditation series is loosely inspired by Alix E. Harrow’s beautiful novel, The Once & Future Witches. Within this magical novel, she writes of 3 things needed to perform a spell - The Words. The Will. & The Way. We will look at these same elements as tools for our meditation practice. Today’s episode is dedicated to the very peculiar kind of will needed for meditation practice. In the book, this will was a “you’ve got to want it enough” kind of feeling. An inner strength. This same strength is needed to get you to cushion, especially, in the beginning. Your will to meditate is the drive to show up day in and day out, even when it is slow, silly, or boring. We keep showing up and practicing because we trust in what is offered. AND THEN. Then, you gotta let go completely. Once you sit on that cushion, you’ve got to release all expectation of what your practice is going to feel like. It is here that our will to meditate must transform into the will to let go. Just sit down and breathe. Listen. Be curious. Be kind. Do it again tomorrow. Herein lies the magic. 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 You can learn more about my: *Shoreline: my new meditation app *Awakened Heart Meditation Teacher Training *Live, virtual meditation classes with me *Upcoming events All 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

Today’s mini meditation is a practice to help you listen and hear your own highest truth. To hear your Sankalpa. ‘Kalpa’ means vow or more literally, “the rule that follows”, and ‘San’ means truth. So, Sankalpa can be translated to be “the rule that follows truth” or a vow that supports your highest truth. This practice helps us discover the magical words we need to remind ourselves of to reach our own highest potential. 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. You can learn more about my: *Shoreline: my new meditation app *Live, virtual meditation classes with me *Upcoming events All 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 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

It is May, and with the new month comes a new meditation series! This series was loosely inspired by Alix E. Harrow’s beautiful novel, The Once & Future Witches. This book, according to the NPR.org book review: Once upon a time, Alix Harrow wrote about three sisters. Also, suffragists, witching, folklore, flawed alliances, an alternate America, and women's work. She gave this second novel many gifts: charm, grace, and gorgeousness; feral wonder, clear vision, an ardent heart. She gave it history, awareness of injustice and will to survive it. And so it went into the world to seek its fortune, inviting readers to settle in; to sigh with the pleasure of finding a not too this, not too that, just right story. Within this magical novel, she writes of 3 things needed to perform a spell - The Words. The Will. & The Way. This got me thinking… what is needed to truly feel and discover the magic of meditation? Not the baseline “I’m watching my thoughts, and there sure are a lot of them.” kind of meditation. Although that has true value, to be sure. No, I’m talking about the kind of meditation where you feel yourself drop into something wholly different than those curious thoughts in your head. A space? A universe? Something with true color, texture, feeling, maybe words, maybe visions, maybe just truths suddenly known. This is the type of meditation that has you running towards your meditation cushion each day. And we find it through the words we say, a very peculiar type of will, and a way that has been handed down for generations. In today’s talk and meditation, we explore the words. What are the words that we say to deepen a meditation practice? It turns out that they aren’t just any words, but a vow and commitment we make to support our highest truth. A Sankalpa. Ready to try your hand at magic? Let’s meditate. 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 You can learn more about my: *Shoreline: my new meditation app *Live, virtual meditation classes with me *Upcoming events All 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

How do you judge when your workday is done? When have you done enough, and where does your wiggle room lie? As more and more of us are working from home, we are discovering perhaps more than ever how important it is to have a clear transition from work to home. Some of us have lost the ding of the elevator that marks the end of a work day, for some the car ride home, and for some it is simply the loss of expectation that we won’t respond to emails or hold Zoom calls after hours… However your work life looks, one thing is clear - it is the establishing of boundaries, creating space and honoring our own sense of Enough that allows us to feel whole and balanced when it comes to work. Use this meditation as a transition in your day - the start of work, a midday break or at the end of your day - to tap into the space & grace we need in our work lives. 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. You can learn more about my: *Shoreline: my new meditation app *Live, virtual meditation classes with me *Upcoming events All 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

With this episode, the Passions & Paychecks series comes to a close; and whew, y’all… this episode…. In the live class, the comments in the chat were coming in fast and furious - it is VERY clear that we are missing the transitions between home and work, that our boundaries have vanished, and that for most of us, we have no idea what “enough” feels like when it comes to work.   All month, we’ve been talking through our work lives as a function of relating - of being in relationship with ourselves, with our co-workers, and with our organizations. As we look at these relationships through the lens of mindfulness, it becomes clear that The meeting point of passion and paychecks is the sense of enoughness within ourselves.   Without the belief that we are enough and do enough, how can we possibly allow any wiggle room to be anything less than perfect, to occasionally drop the ball, or simply be average without over-achieving?   The work of enoughness is the work of compassion. In today’s practice, we will work with some key phrases that set the intention for believing in our own inherent worth:   As a child of the universe, I am already enough. I belong to myself. I know when I have done enough. I trust myself.   As we meditate together in today’s episode, let yourself ponder - What is your relationship to space? To grace? To enoughness? How does this impact the way you show up and relate to yourself, to your work, and to others at work? If you enjoyed today’s episode, please consider leaving me a review wherever you found this podcast. Your review helps others to find this show! You can learn more about my: *Shoreline: my new meditation app *Live, virtual meditation classes with me *Upcoming events All 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