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

**This episode is a replay of the 2020 Summer Solstice. Enjoy!** {From 2020} June 20th was the Summer Solstice, and it is the first solstice in many years that I didn’t teach a special meditation event. I usually host something extra special to harness the power of these reflective times, and yet, this year, even though I had already mapped up what I wanted to share and reflect on, I just kept delaying until the day was upon us and it was too late… The Summer Solstice is the longest day of the year; the most light we see in a 24 hour period. When we meditate, we are in essence harnessing the light of awareness and shining it inside. This light allows us to look deeper inside, to see more, to clear out the cobwebs. Turning on the lights is brave. It is powerful. It is enlivening. And yet, if we haven’t done the work to shore up the foundation, to clear the path leading deeper in, turning on the light can serve as a shock. If you’ve been in the dark a long time and you step out into the brightness of daylight, it can be blinding, can’t it? We shield our eyes; perhaps we run back inside for sunglasses, something to protect ourselves from the glare…. If we haven’t done the work to be with little discomforts, how might it feel to face bigger discomforts? It can send us running for the hills, abandoning our meditation practice with the seemingly innocent excuse of “I just don’t feel like it” right now. I’ve caught this at play in myself lately {hence the lack of a Solstice event this year}. My invitation today is to let go of the need to “think” through this natural play of events. Instead of analyzing, how can you choose to move with each moment as a moment of transformation? How to do this? Well, step one is ‘don’t skip your meditation practice even when you want to…’ Step two is ‘anchor more deeply into your heart.’ The practices of meditation, while they start out working with the mind and the thoughts, are always gently guiding us into the heart. Not in a sappy way; not in a hippy-dippy way. In a clean, clear trajectory towards deeper understanding of ourselves and our place in the world. Every meditation text, every meditation guru from millenia before, guides us here. It is from here that we can gain steady traction, firm footing, and gather courage to bring what is needed from the darkness into the light. We start to trust the images, the thoughts, the threads of connection that are revealed to us. We start to be more curious about the responses we have to the daily moments in our lives. We start to explore the freedom of choice. Today’s meditation is a practice of shining the light. Let’s get to it. 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

**Don’t forget THIS Sunday {June 20} is the Summer Solstice and it is my last live, virtual mini retreat for 2021. I’d love for you to join me! You can learn more at https://www.merylarnett.com/events** Today’s episode is a special interview with Thomas Moore, author of one of my favorite books - Care of the Soul. He is here today to talk about his new book, Soul Therapy. I found myself reflecting that meditation is indeed one form of Soul Therapy for ourselves. This conversation invites us to reflect on the art and craft of caring conversations - with our friends, our families, our colleagues and the world at large. You’ll hear us talk about myth, archetype, dreams and so much more as we discuss his latest book. He makes some really powerful and poignant comments about the importance of our meditative practices being IN the world rather than removed from it; about our contemplative practices having much greater demand on our engagement in the world rather than hiding in self-indulgence… And, at the end, he tasks us with stepping up to the plate when it comes to having the therapeutic conversations that this world needs right now. Let’s listen together. THOMAS MOORE is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Care of the Soul. In his youth he was a monk and studied music composition. He has a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Syracuse University and has been practicing depth psychotherapy for 35 years— influenced mainly by C. G. Jung and James Hillman. In his work Thomas often brings together spirituality, mythology, depth psychology and the arts, emphasizing the importance of images and imagination. In his new book: SOUL THERAPY: The Art & Craft of Caring Conversations, Moore addresses the often-unspoken needs of those providing “soul care” to others while sharing his insights for implementing a spiritual dimension into their work and practices. In his previous acclaimed books, such as the bestselling CARE OF THE SOUL, Moore explored the soul in important areas of our lives—work, marriage, family, religion, and aging. In SOUL THERAPY [HarperOne; May 25, 2021], Moore returns to his core vocation: teaching how to offer soul care to those they assist. This wise guide becomes a training manual infused with a lifetime’s worth of wisdom. 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: *My Summer Solstice Virtual Retreat *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

Led by Dr. Ashanté M. Reese, this beautiful meditation is a playful exploration of what it means to belong to one’s self. Our practice can not and should not be exclusively about our individual selves. Our inner realizations are only worth how we reflect them out into the world. How we belong to ourselves reflects how deeply we belong to each other.   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

This has been a tough 18 months, hasn’t it? Somedays, even with the light of vaccines and seeing friends, I still feel unsure I can handle all that feels broken in the world. The amount of divisiveness feels unsurmountable. Political parties, masks, vaccines, racial injustice, voter rights. It feels like everyday we hear of decisions being made, and I assume, like me, you make a snap judgment of good or completely wrong and unacceptable. With this level of judgment and division comes a sense of deep worry and even hopelessness. It feels unimaginably huge to ask how we will repair this divide. How will we come together? Because we belong together. We belong to each other. As I’ve struggled with this, I’ve also noticed when I’ve seen glimmers of hope: Bruce and Obama’s podcast Tarana Burke and Brene Brown’s book You are your best thing Subway Book Review These things aren’t related. They aren’t specifically cheerful, uplifting or even meant to be uniting… it is storytelling. When listening or reading these real life stories, it seems our bonds of connection are strengthened. We remember not just that we belong together, but HOW we belong together and WHY. And, I realized that this podcast could be another beacon of hope in a similar vein. Because our practice can not and should not be exclusively about our individual selves. Our inner realizations are only worth how we reflect them out into the world. So today, I introduce a new series to the podcast called Meditation IRL, and it is simply stories. Stories about how one meditates. What their practice is like. What they love and what they struggle with. How they learned and the tools they use. It is simply stories; an inner glimpse of private meditation lives. My hope is that we find threads of connection and ways to lean into even those that challenge us the most so that we can remember that we belong to each other. And with that, I want to introduce the FIRST Meditation IRL guest: long-time student and friend, Dr. Ashanté M. Reese Ashanté is a writer, a teacher and an anthropologist. She is currently an assistant professor in the African and African Diaspora Studies department at the University of Texas at Austin. She holds a PhD in Anthropology, specializing in race, gender, and social justice. She also completed her 200-hour yoga teacher certification with Octavia Raheem and myself at Sacred Chill a few years ago. Join us for our discussion about meditation, daydreams, and belonging to one’s self. Ashanté’s meditation at the end is not to be missed!   You can learn more about Ashanté at http://www.amreese.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 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

This week’s mini meditation is a special offering from my meditation app, Shoreline. ⁠ In this meditation, The Call of the Lizard, you'll hear the sounds of Kalahari desert in South Africa in the evening. You can hear the winds blowing and the quiet call of the barking gecko. Within this meditation, we reflect on the energy of both the desert and the lizard. The lizard is known for its sensitivity to the subtle; its keen sensory awareness, and its ability to be perfectly still as it takes it all in. ⁠ This is one to repeat several times and journal afterwards each time. Notice how lizard energy shows up for you. ⁠ Shoreline: Meditate to Nature is available in the US, Canada & Australia on iOS. Additional locations and an android version are coming soon. This custom soundscape was recorded by Gordon Hempton. This and many more unique meditations and soundscapes can be found on the app. You can also explore these meditations on Sunday, June 20 during my Summer Solstice Meditation Celebration. Learn more by visiting merylarnett.com/events 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.

Now, I know y’all know that I am a deep lover of oracle cards, and the first episode I did on working with oracle cards is still one of my most popular episodes! So, today, I am THRILLED to share an interview with Tarot & Oracle card creator MJ Cullinane. MJ has created numerous magical and beautiful decks. The two I currently own are the Urban Crow Oracle and the ROAR Oracle. Both are stunning, wise and a delight to use. In this episode, MJ and I talk about the difference between oracle and tarot decks, her creative process, and her favorite way to work with her decks. This was such a fun interview and I know you are going to enjoy it as much as I did! Here is a little more about MJ: Margaux Jones (AKA MJ) is an award-winning Seattle-based artist, writer, mother, and lover of all things magical - especially crows. She attended Parsons School of Design, yet her unique technique for telling stories through digital collage is self-taught and has been her passion for over 10 years. Nature and its creatures are a familiar theme in MJ's work, however having grown up south of Boston her collages are heavily influenced by the energy of the city. Her work often merges the two worlds. Her path into the world of Tarot was a beautiful accident that came out of a difficult time in her life. The process of creating the Crow Tarot helped her discover her own wings, though at the time she didn't realize how life-changing the project would become. She simply fell in love with the process, the messages and the feeling each card evoked. ​ The Crow Tarot, MJ's first published deck, has achieved a significant following and recognition with crow lovers and the tarot community including winning the 2019 CARTA award for Best Tarot Deck and Best Illustrator of a Tarot Deck. ​When MJ is not making art or writing she is spending time with her daughter, playing in nature, practicing magic, and finding new sources of inspiration. Learn more about MJ and her decks here: https://www.mjcullinane.com/ And be sure to follow her on Instagram for sneak peeks of her upcoming Forhaxa Tarot Deck: https://www.instagram.com/crowtarotmjcullinane/ 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

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