PICK UP ONE SMALL STONE

This 15-minute meditation uses a noting practice to shift us into the mode of observing our thoughts, rather than reactively following after them. Go to 2:29 to skip the intro and get right into the meditation. "Don't believe everything you think." - Joseph Nguyen "Thought is not reality, yet it is through thought that our reality is created." - Joseph Nguyen "Are you sure?" - Adreanna Limbach

Jon Kabat-Zinn offers a definition of mindfulness with 4 parts: paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, without judgement. These meditations move through the 7 senses (5 + proprioception and interoception ) to practice this paying attention with as little judgement as possible. Practicing an openness to "what is" helps us develop equanimity -- a greater spaciousness, rather than tightly holding an idea of what we want. And, ending with the sense of interocpetion

This practice combines the (usually) calming practice of belly breathing with John O'Donohue's poem " Beannacht: a Blessing for the New Year." You can go to 2:30 to skip the intro.

Meditation instruction is so simple to say: notice when your mind wanders and come back. Meditation is can also be tricky to practice. Sometimes the place our mind wanders is very alluring. Maybe something big (positive or negative) is happening in our lives. Or, maybe, the place our mind wanders is just very familiar - and in its familiarity, it may be a very comfortable place to hang out. In fact, they might even seem part of our identity, so that to let them go would be to

Thank you to Mamaroneck Living magazine for publishing this article in their February issue. Download a PDF of the article here: Find two self-compassion meditations to practice here .

Robert Emmons' definition of gratitude places us in the world. It allows us to be connected to goodness beyond ourselves.

The "Yes and..." practice can help us accept the reality of wahtever we are feeling in the moment while also making space for gratitude. ...and speaking of gratitude, I'm very grateful to Liza Kindred for teaching this meditation and allowing me to share it. 23-minute practice. Go to 3:40 to skip the intro. 16-minute practice. Go to 2:35 to skip the intro.

Thank you. Really: thank YOU for meditating! It's not always easy or convenient. There are 100 other things you could do -- and probably feel like you should do. I personally appreciate you being here (really, really!) and also I do believe that self-care is community care. The more rooted we are in our own basic goodness, the more we can move through the world in alignment with our own values. The more we are able to see clearly -- and release our habitual reactions -- the m

A Shamatha (or peaceful abiding) meditation. Go to 2:11 to skip the intro and get right into the practice.

MEDITATION 1 FROM FRIDAY, 1/16/26 “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly." - Martin Luther King, Jr, from a Letter from Birmingham, Alabama jail, April 16, 1963 The idea of mutuality is inline with the Buddhist concept of interdependence -- that we are not as separate as we think we are. In fact, we are all deeply connected. Because we are "tied in a single garment of de

When our minds are especially busy - or our thoughts are especially "sticky" - a somatic meditation can be helpful. A somatic meditation simply means being mindful of the body and using the body as a stronger anchor for the mind. Here's a 24-minute somatic meditation:

"In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few." - Zen master Shunryu Suzuki Psychologists who study the climate change movement – and social justice broadly – think that one reason we don’t do more to make things better is that we, as humans, are incredibly uncomfortable with uncertainty. We’d rather “know” that things are going to be bad, than be unsure that they could be good.  A little crazy, right? And, I can also see it.  Uncert

A meditation for taking our seat, standing our ground, and being compassionate, wise warriors. Bodhisattvas are open-hearted warriors who transform the world through compassionate wisdom. For many Buddhists, the ultimate goal is to become a fully enlightened Bodhisattva -- a Buddha. Fortunately, we don't need to be fully enlightened to be Bodhisattvas. All of us can practice becoming open-hearted warriors in our own lives. I love the image of being a baby Bodhisattva! In this

Meditation builds the habit of being present -- literally builds new neural pathways. When we practice with gentleness, we can also build the habit of kindness. Two-for-one! And who doesn't love a bargain? 22-minute practice recorded 1/6/26: Go to 3:05 to skip the intro. 16-minute practice recorded 1/7/26: Stringed instruments need to be adjusted so that the strings are at the "goldilocks" of tightness -- not so tight that they snap and not so loose that they can't be played.

Over the holidays, I got to chat with family and friends that I don't see very much and often in the catch-up, my work as a meditation teacher came up. When it did, I often heard something like, "oh, I'd love to start meditating so I can be calmer." Amazing! Meditation does help us be calmer. But, it doesn't take away the external stressors and it also doesn't turn us into unfeeling zombies. So, how does it make us calmer? In my experience, it helps us find space. As Viktor

Meditation is a practice of coming home to ourselves. It's not about fixing ourselves -- because we aren't broken. In meditation we shed the layers of habitual reactions and stories so that we can live more fully, as ourselves, in the present. This meditation starts with a poem by May Aygun: This New Year,  don't make resolutions. Instead,  take something apart. A habit, a belief,  let it crumble. Live without it for a while.  Feel the quiet it'll bring, how raw, how open. Th

A meditation for the period of transition between 2025 and 2026.

Today is the new moon. Sunday is the winter solstice. Do you, like me, find it comforting, and also a little awe-inspiring, to note nature's cycles? I find that tuning in to the rhythm of nature helps me feel held and connected -- to feel my place in the world. There is a similar sort of awe and comfort that comes from sonder. Sonder, to quote the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, is: "the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own—po

"The way out is in." - Zen proverb

For some writing on karma, please visit yesterday's blog post . To practice shifting our karma, please check out: This 17-minute meditation And, this 26-minute meditation And, this 16.5-minute meditation that uses both of these great quotes: "Of course our families press our buttons; they are the ones that installed them." (In fairness to Adreanna, this might be a paraphrase and she might have said it more eleqountly.) And, Viktor Frankl's quote: "Between stimulus and respo