The Mindful Podcast

A Meditation to Release & Ease Holiday Stress with Christiane Wolf

The holiday season can be a time full of commitments, planning, and (pleasant or unpleasant) anticipation.  This extended guided practice with Dr. Christiane Wolf offers a quiet respite that can help you identify what you need, move to care for yourself, and navigate stress that may arise.   Christiane Wolf, MD, PhD is a former physician, internationally known mindfulness and Insight (Vipassana) meditation teacher. She is passionate about translating ancient wisdom teachings into accessible and applicable modern-day language. She is the author of Outsmart Your Pain – Mindfulness and Self-Compassion to Help You Leave Chronic Pain Behind and the co-author of the classic training manual for mindfulness teachers, A Clinician's Guide To Teaching Mindfulness. Christiane is the lead-consultant and teacher trainer for the VA’s (US Department of Veteran Affairs) National Mindfulness Facilitator Training and a senior teacher at InsightLA. She is the mom of three amazing humans and can usually be found in the Los Angeles area training for ultramarathons and triathlons. The transcription of this guided meditation will be online at Mindful.org next week.  Stay curious, stay inspired. Join our community by signing up for our free newsletter:  Show Notes Find more from Christiane Wolf . Go Deeper If the Holidays aren’t always merry and bright for you, please know you’re not alone. For support, check out these articles on Mindful.org:           And for more practices to help you find calm in the chaos, check out:   And more from Mindful here: Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing .

Gratitude Practice: Savor the Moment by Tapping into Your Senses with Elaine Smookler

Savoring is a practice of intentionally slowing way down and paying attention to what’s right in front of us—whether that’s a conversation, an unexpected moment of connection, or a favorite dessert.    Savoring is also a natural way to balance the frenetic pace of the Holiday season. In this meditation, Elaine Smookler shows us how to pause and tune into our senses as a way to notice and appreciate what’s happening in and around us.  Elaine Smookler has been a mindful practitioner for over 20 years and is a mindfulness teacher and registered psychotherapist to individuals and corporate clients.  The transcription of this guided meditation will be online at Mindful.org next week.  Stay curious, stay inspired. Join our community by signing up for our free newsletter:  Show Notes Find more from Elaine Smookler . Go Deeper Savoring is a quality that we can nurture in our whole lives. It makes good moments sweeter, and it helps us through seasons that feel strained or uncertain. For more on how to take time to appreciate each moment more, check out these articles on :          And for another way to practice what it feels like to savor, try this walking meditation:   And more from Mindful here: Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing .

A Meditation for Easing Pain and Inviting Joy with Vanessa Hutchinson-Szekely

Sometimes seasons of intense suffering show up in our lives—no warning, no easy answers.  This week, mindfulness teacher Vanessa Hutchinson-Szekely shares a tender meditation for those in the middle of pain. Based on her own experience with an extended episode of chronic back pain, she offers a moment of reprieve and caring attention to release tension and open to the possibility of joy.  Vanessa Hutchinson-Szekely is a California-French educator, writer and mindfulness advocate. As the founder of “Big Belly Breathing,” including a podcast and YouTube channel, she offers mindfulness joy resources in English and French for kids and adults alike. Vanessa writes regularly, recently authored the Joy Burst journal, and teaches yoga throughout The City, bringing her passion for well-being to diverse communities. Feel free to connect with her for inquiries or discussions; she’s eager to engage with fellow health enthusiasts and life lovers. Find her at www.bigbellybreathing.com. The transcription of this guided meditation will be online at Mindful.org next week.  Stay curious, stay inspired. Join our community by signing up for our free newsletter:  Show Notes Find more from Vanessa Hutchinson-Szekely . Go Deeper For additional resources on finding moments of calm in the midst of suffering, check out these articles on Mindful.org:       And for another meditation you can use when pain flares, try this practice:   And more from Mindful here: Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing .

Stress SOS: A Quick Practice When You Need It Most with Shamash Alidina

The start of the holiday season can be amazing: festive energy, time with loved ones, and delicious food. But it can also be super stressful.  This week, we’re offering a quick practice from Shamash Alidina that you can turn to when you’re in the thick of it. It’s not the usual 12 minutes, but it’s perfect for when you’re running errands, preparing for visitors, or just need a moment to gather yourself. Shamash Alidina is best known as the internationally bestselling author of 10 books including Mindfulness For Dummies and The Mindful Way through Stress. He frequently pops up in newspapers, magazines, and on radio shows. Based in London, he runs online trainings and speaks at conferences all over the world. He’s been teaching mindfulness full-time since 2010. The transcription of this guided meditation will be online at Mindful.org next week.  Stay curious, stay inspired. Join our community by signing up for our free newsletter:  Show Notes Find more from Shamash Alidina . Go Deeper For additional resources on how to manage the stress of the Holiday season (or anytime), check out these articles on Mindful.org:           And for another meditation you can use when Holiday stress shows up, try this practice:   And more from Mindful here: Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing .  

A Meditation for Working With Our Self-Judging Voice with Diana Winston

As today’s teacher notes, self-compassion is different from self-esteem. Relying on building up our self-esteem tends to lead us to need a lot of external validation in order to feel ok. Instead, self-compassion is the idea that even with all of our flaws, we can still care about ourselves and see ourselves as infinitely worthy of love and belonging.  In this extended 30-minute practice, mindfulness teacher Diana Winston guides us through a process to get familiar with our self-judging voice and how we relate to our flaws, so that we can nurture compassion and recognize our own worthiness. Diana Winston is the Director of Mindfulness Education at UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center and author of several books including The Little Book of Being: Practices and Guidance for Uncovering your Natural Awareness. Note that there is an extended silent pause in the middle of this recording to give extra time to practice.  The transcription of this guided meditation will be online at Mindful.org next week.  Stay curious, stay inspired. Join our community by signing up for our free newsletter:  Show Notes Find more from Diana Winston . Go Deeper We all have an interior voice that keeps a running commentary on everything we do. Occasionally that voice is encouraging or kind, but often it isn’t. The thing is, most of us aren’t even consciously aware of this constant internal chatter. We just think it’s reality. Mindfulness gives us the tools to notice, recognize, and work with this mental monologue in ways that improve our ability to learn from mistakes, be accountable, make amends, and grow as people. To learn more about the Inner Critic and how to tame it, check out these resources from the website:         And for more ways to work with that pesky internal voice, try this practice: . And more from Mindful here: Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing .