To allow an emotion to be simply means to let the feelings come and go without needing to DO anything about them. Simple to understand; much much more difficult to put into practice. In today’s episode of The Mindful Minute, we use myth as a pathway to understanding the practice of allowance. Rather than trapping an emotion - giving it a label, a meaning, and box to live in - what if we track the experience? What happens if we stay open to sensation and story? To image and insight? In the last installment of our Big Emotions series, we put together the practice of Soften, Soothe, Allow so that we are able to rest into the experience of attending & befriending our emotions.Join me for a short talk 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

Oh friends, I am sure, like mine, your heart is broken over the horrors we are witnessing between Israel and Palestine, as well as the hate crimes we are seeing in response to this crisis.In a moment of pure serendipity, I had an interview that was scheduled months ago with poet James Crews to chat about his new book, The Wonder of Small Things; Poems of Peace & Renewal. I originally planned to air this conversation as a Winter Solstice offering, but his book feels like the perfect balm for the pain of this moment. So, I am releasing this episode as quickly as possible in hopes that it offers you a tiny salve for your heart, a spark of okay-ness, as you continue to engage and bear witness to what is happening in the world. James Crews is the editor of several bestselling anthologies, including The Path to Kindness: Poems of Connection and Joy and How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope, which has over 100,000 copies in print. He is the author of four prize-winning books of poetry—The Book of What Stays, Telling My Father, Bluebird, and Every Waking Moment—and a book of short essays, Kindness Will Save the World: Stories of Compassion and Connection. James also speaks and leads workshops on kindness, mindfulness, and writing for self-compassion. He lives with his husband on forty rocky acres in the woods of Southern Vermont.You can hear more about James and the connection between poetry and meditation in our first interview which aired in 2022. Listen Here: https://www.merylarnett.com/podcast/path-to-kindness?rq=CrewsYou can learn more about James, buy his new book {highly recommend!}, and subscribe to his Weekly Pause newsletter here: https://www.jamescrews.net/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

*While this series was recorded several months ago, it continues to feel incredibly timely as we bear witness to the horrors unfolding in Israel and Palestine, as well as the hate crimes happening in response to this crisis.May we stay steady, may we stay awake, may we soothe our hearts so that we can continue to engage. A Lifeboat in Turbulent Times:When emotion overwhelms our system, it is called 'flooding', and in today’s episode, we are going to learn to build our lifeboat. We will explore soothing techniques to support the overwhelming emotions of the moment.Last week, we talked about softening the body - this is a form of physical compassion. ⁠⁠Today, we explore soothing, an emotional compassion, which allows us to tolerate big emotions and perhaps move towards allowance.Join me for today’s talk and 20-minute guided meditation practice - an experience of soothing.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

I recently had the pleasure of chatting with emotion and empathy expert, Karla McLaren, about her new book, The Language of Emotions. In it, she shares a powerful definition of emotion from sociologist Dr. Arlie Hochschild“Emotion, I suggest, is a biologically given sense, and our most important one. Like other senses - hearing, touch, and smell - it is a means by which we know our relation to the world, and is therefore crucial to the survival of human beings in group life. Emotion is unique among the senses, however, because it is related not only to an orientation toward action, but also to an orientation toward cognition.”What changes when you think of your emotions as a ‘sense’ rather than as a problem to be fixed? In the same way that we use our eyes, ears and fingers to take in information, we use our emotions to do the same. In order to fully access this sense, this tool of cognition, we must learn to soften in the presence of big emotion. For most of us, our innate response is to contract; to pull away from any emotion that feels too big, too loud, painful, messy or ugly - but the wisdom lies in softening. In this episode of The Mindful Minute, we talk about Big emotions and the feeling of trying to contain it rather than let it flowEmotions and the element of waterSoftening the edges of the bodyOtter dreams and walking through the gift shop with kids ;-) At the end, we practice softening the edges with a 20-minute guided meditation. Join me! 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

I have noticed the prevalence of two difficult emotions both in my own life as well as in my conversations with others - grief & anxiety. Difficult emotions to be sure. Over the next four episodes, I want to explore working with difficult emotions in our meditation practice. It can appear, at least on the surface, that there is no place for big emotion within our meditation practice - as if, somehow, meditation precludes us from experiencing heartbreak, fear or anger. This couldn’t be further from the truth. What meditation offers us isn’t exemption from emotion but rather comfort and trust in the wisdom of our emotions. Almost always amidst big emotion we are having a dual experience. We are Experiencing our feelings in the moment. Experiencing the thoughts, stories and beliefs we are having about our feelings.One is real; the other is very often untrue. Can you guess which? Join me for today’s episode of The Mindful Minute as we talk aboutWhat is real and what is untrueThe forethought of griefWhy there is always a place for your emotions, no matter how big, in meditationAt the end, as always, we will 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

"What if your discomfort was a portal to a rebirth, a remembering, an attunement to your true Self?"   - Tracee StanleyTracee Stanley is the founder of Empowered Life Circle, a sacred community and portal of practices, rituals, and Tantric teachings inspired by more than 20 years of study in Sri Vidya Tantra and the teachings of the Himalayan Masters. As a post-lineage teacher, Tracee is devoted to sharing the wisdom of yoga nidra, rest, meditation, self-inquiry, nature as a teacher, and ancestor reverence. Tracee is gifted in illuminating the magic and power found in liminal space and weaving devotion and practice into daily life. Today, Tracee joins The Mindful Minute to talk about her new book, The Luminous Self, and share some of the profound practices included within.The Luminous Self  is a book that answers the questions on how to inquire into our suffering and past conditioning, empowering ourselves to turn towards truth and power. It begins with the essential question : Who am I? This new book offers practices, rituals, yoga nidra, and self-inquiry to reveal inner wisdom, and inspire us to rest in a place of remembered wholeness and wellness. Tracee shares the practices that have been most potent and transformative in her life, and gives suggestions for how to offer these practices in community.In this conversation, we talk about so many incredible practices, ideas and insights. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. You can save 30% on all pre-orders of The Luminous Self when you preorder at Shambhala.com with the code LUM30Learn more about Tracee by visiting traceestanley.comSign 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 this series, I named three things that regularly inspire awe for me -BirdsBooksMeditationAll 3 regularly stop me in my tracks, and they make my jaw drop. They make me smile, wonder, and listen. They weave their way into my conversations and my dreams. In short, they inspire awe within me. “Awe experiences are what psychologists call self-transcendent: they shift our attention away from ourselves, make us feel like we are part of something greater than ourselves, change our perception of time, and even make us more generous toward others.” - templeton.orgDacher Keltner - one of the foremost awe researchers - has written about taking ‘awe-walks’. Nature is an easy place to find awe, and he encourages us to go out with the intention of seeking awe. I’ve found that the more I do this, the more easily I experience it. We can also do this in our meditation practice. We can go on an awe-walk through our minds and our hearts. We sit with the intention of being awed by our own minds, or our own internal knowing. We sit with the intention of meandering through the caverns of our mind and the lake of our heart. We don’t rush, we don’t brush things off, or ignore them. We taste. We savor. We experience. There is a reason that all the Sages spoke of our inner being as a universe - one with mountains and lakes, rivers and valleys - it is because they could see that the awe we experience out in the world is the SAME experience we can have within ourselves.Now it is our turn. 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

I adore a good book, and I’ve noticed that often I feel a sense of energy or connection between what I’m reading and my meditation practice. Sometimes it inspires a question, a curiosity or even just a feeling.It isn’t something that can easily be named or explained, which is exactly what this series is about… The unknown, the mystery, the awe of an experience. In meditation, often we want to discuss what happens. We try to explain. But so often it feels incomplete, doesn’t it? You can’t capture the depth, the richness, the aliveness through a word that is in itself limiting.Our practice, like ourselves, is boundless. Limits are useless here. And often so is language.Books have their place. They point us to something.But experience is the only path forward… The only knowing. In this class, we explore books, language, signs and symbols as a way to relate to our practice and to accept its ambiguity. Join me for a brief 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

This year, I have fallen in love with birds. I know, I know - it's an odd entry to a meditation class, but stay with me - We added a few bird feeders and a bird bath to our backyard garden at the start of the year, and the bird population has absolutely exploded. And, since I sit outside to meditate everyday, I have a front row seat to the show.At first, I found the constant birdsong a distraction to my practice, but I QUICKLY found that it became a soundtrack of upliftment and positive feelings. It is only natural then that I began to ask.. Why? Here is where it gets interesting - much like with any aspect of nature, while science can show that it DOES have a positive impact on physical and emotional health, it struggles to show WHY…And so I started to ask myself, could the feeling alone be enough?Could my own internal experience be enough?This appreciation of birds - would it change if I could identify every bird I see? Do I need to know in order to appreciate it? We are so cultured by technology to pull out a phone and identify, to Google, to search, to name the thing. When in fact, I believe our meditation practice is inviting us to step away from that pressing need to know and master everything we encounter.We aren’t here to know nature.We are nature. We are here to experience it.Join me for today’s short talk and guided meditation practice dedicated to the unknown, the ambiguous, and the uncertain.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

What if emotions weren't a problem? What if you didn’t need to fix or change your emotions? What if they were actually not only helpful but vital to our survival? Today, I am delighted to share a conversation with author and researcher Karla McLaren. M.Ed. Karla is an emotions and empathy expert, and she's recently revised and updated one of her books, The Language of Emotions. In this conversation, Karla and I talk aboutEmotions as a sense rather than a problemAnxiety, panic and how to work with themBoundariesThe danger of spiritual bypassing in yoga & meditation communitiesWhy judgment isn’t a bad thingChildren and big emotions4 keys to emotional geniusThis conversation is rich with helpful tools for embodying and embracing our emotional life. Be sure to listen all the way to the end - Karla shares a practice that is simple and powerfully effective for identifying and establishing boundaries and space. You can learn more about Karla at https://karlamclaren.com/ and https://empathyacademy.org/ And here is the free emotion chart for kids that Karla mentions: https://karlamclaren.com/free-emotions-charts-for-kids/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