More often than I can count, I have conversations with students asking me what’s next in their meditation practice, how to go deeper, or how to feel better in the toughest of times… and today, I am delighted to share a powerful conversation offering a few answers to these tough questions. Andrew Holecek is a returning guest to the podcast, as well as a renowned author and humanitarian who teaches internationally on spirituality, meditation, lucid dreaming, and the art of dying. His many books in...
Sep 26, 2024•57 min
Today’s episode is an invitation to settle into the deepest listening and to celebrate what we find when we move beyond the noise of humans. Today, we embark on a meditative listening experience crafted by nature field recordist Nick McMahan. Earlier this year, Nick spent several days seeking out the quietest spot in Oregon. Exploring nature’s whispers and finding serenity in the sagebrush are what inspired today’s guided audio experience - a recording of Nick’s exploration. Together, we will li...
Sep 19, 2024•14 min
Soundscape Alchemy. Friends, what an episode I have for you today! Months ago, I took an impromptu trip to Canaveral National Seashore to visit acoustic artists Perri Lynch Howard and Gordon Hempton. Frequent collaborators on the podcast, I was ecstatic to spend a weekend practicing the art of listening with them both. We walked mangroves, explored shorelines, and discussed the interplay of human voice, aerospace traffic, and birdsong. The creative collaboration of Gordon and Perri resulted in a...
Sep 12, 2024•51 min
In this Monday night meditation class, we delve into the concept of listening and silence amidst the constant noise of modern life, especially during the election season. Today’s discussion touches on the various sources of human-made noise and their impact on inner peace, the varied definitions of silence, and the key to mindful listening. David G. Haskell wrote, “listening opens us to what is hidden or unappreciated,” and together we will explore this hidden, unappreciated terrain. Today’s gui...
Sep 05, 2024•36 min
U.S. Poet Laureate and fellow meditator Ada Limón joins me today on Our Mindful Nature to chat about her Signature Project, 'You Are Here, Poetry in Parks.' Y’all this was a dream conversation for me - full of presence, hope and truth. Full of poetry and beauty even as we discuss climate crisis and environmental activism. Together, we delve into the origins of ‘You Are Here: Poetry in Parks’, its deep connections between nature and poetry, and its aim to foster mindfulness and presence. Ada shar...
Aug 29, 2024•32 min
In this guided meditation, we explore an elemental balancing practice for anxiety management and nervous system regulation. Reflecting on personal experiences with balancing extreme temperatures and anxiety, I share a visualization and sound meditation that has been deeply supportive in my own practice. I hope it will be useful in your own practice as well! No discussion, no distraction - just the meditation for your daily practice. Enjoy! Sign up for my newsletter at https://merylarnett.substac...
Aug 22, 2024•24 min
In this guided meditation, we explore an elemental balancing practice for anxiety management and nervous system regulation. Reflecting on personal experiences with balancing extreme temperatures and anxiety, I share a visualization and sound meditation that has been deeply supportive in my own practice. I hope it will be useful in your own practice as well! Together, we will guide our energy to move from the root chakra to the third eye, integrated with breath work and visualizations to promote ...
Aug 15, 2024•32 min
7 a.m. It’s a cool, blue morning, and we are seated alongside the Coosa River in Alabama. Our guided meditation practice begins with mindful breathing and sensory awareness. This is an opportunity for cosmic connection and deep relaxation. It is silent except for the birds’ morning chorus and a whisper of wind through the river grasses. Gradually, a family of geese make themselves known, and we are instantly reminded of Mary Oliver’s poem Wild Geese, which ends with the line - {...} the world of...
Aug 08, 2024•8 min
Today’s episode is the meditation offered at this year's Summer Solstice inspired by the poem An Inn for the Coven by Gabrielle Calvocoressi. No discussion, no distraction - just the meditation for your daily practice. Enjoy! Sign up for my newsletter at https://merylarnett.substack.com/ to receive free mini meditations each week, creative musings, and more. Thank you to Nick McMahan for today’s nature field recordings, sound design, and editing; and thank you to Brianna Nielsen for production a...
Jul 25, 2024•29 min
Today’s meditation is a live recording from this year’s Summer Solstice Meditation Retreat. Midsummer and the temps are hot… literally and figuratively. As a way to explore the feelings that come with rising temperatures, in today’s class I share two powerful poems: An Inn for the Coven by Gabrielle Calvocoressi The Guest House by Rumi These poems speak of a place where we are safe. The Inn feels lush, abundant, filled with love and the possibility of beauty. The Guest House feels sturdy, spacio...
Jul 18, 2024•40 min
Today, as the final installment in our Edges series, I am joined by writer, poet, memoirist, teacher, yogi, activist, and mother - Nadia Colburn. Nadia has recently released her newest book of poetry, I Say the Sky - and y’all know how much I love exploring the intersection of poetry and mindfulness. As a start, I want to share one of the review blurbs about Nadia’s newest book because I feel that it so perfectly sums up her work: "From the opening poem and on through this glorious book, Nadia C...
Jun 27, 2024•50 min
As you have likely noticed in this month’s episodes, we have moved from the stars to the soil. We will spend the next several episodes exploring edges and ecotones - spaces rife with the very best type of tension. The tension that inspires growth, expansion and action. Today, I am talking with artist, edge-walker, and dear friend Perri Lynch Howard about her experiences in a variety of ecotonal landscapes. Perri is an artist dedicated to forging new narratives from the front lines of climate cha...
Jun 20, 2024•1 hr 15 min
Last week, we began a new meditation series devoted to exploring the edges - both in the natural world as well as our internal landscape - and today’s interview and meditation practice do exactly that. Marisela B. Gomez is a community activist, public health professional, and physician-scientist. She is a co-founder of Village of Love and Resistance in Baltimore Maryland, organizing for power, healing and the reclamation of land. And,she is a meditation and Buddhist teacher, and a student of the...
Jun 13, 2024•53 min
Have you heard of an ecotone before? An ecotone is a transition area between two adjacent and different patches of landscape, such as forest and grassland. Ecotones do not simply represent a boundary or an edge; the concept of an ecotone assumes the existence of active interaction between two or more ecosystems with properties that do not exist in either of the adjacent ecosystems. An ecotone is a meeting place that creates something entirely distinct from either side of the boundary. In essence...
Jun 06, 2024•29 min
*Today's episode is a replay of a fan-favorite episode, The Stagnation Layer part 3, from September 2022* We started this meditation series, Are You Stuck, with the connective idea that the human body is a microcosm of the universe; that we can view the universe as a mirror image of what goes on inside. And, we looked to the Voyager space expedition, in particular the experience of Voyager 1 in the Stagnation Layer of the cosmos, as a metaphor for how we might engage with moments of ‘stuckness’ ...
May 23, 2024•31 min
*Today's episode is a replay of a fan-favorite episode, The Stagnation Layer {part 2}, from September 2022* Part 1 of this meditation series introduced The Stagnation Layer of the cosmos and the periods of stagnation we experience both as individuals and as naturally occurring phenomena. Part of the description NASA shares for the Stagnation Layer says - There is a doubling in the intensity of the magnetic field in the stagnation region. Like cars piling up at a clogged freeway off-ramp, the inc...
May 16, 2024•38 min
*Today's episode is a replay of a fan-favorite episode, The Stagnation Layer part 1, from September 2022* When you read poetry of the mystics, when you study ancient tantric & buddhist texts, not to mention so many indigenous cultures across the world, we learn of the universe as a metaphor for the internal experiences of consciousness. The macrocosm and the microcosm… As goes the outside, so goes the inside… And the more time I spend connecting my meditation practice with the natural world,...
May 09, 2024•36 min
Last week’s episode (We Are Made of Star Stuff; An Interview with Dr. Kimberly Arcand) is a personal favorite of mine, and this week, I’m highlighting the meditation from that episode to make sure you have a chance to listen. The sonification of stars, black holes, galaxies and more invite a new way of knowing the cosmos. It is one thing to see a static image of the night sky and an entirely different experience when we hear that same data in an embodied way. Meditation is exactly the same - we ...
May 02, 2024•28 min
In 2020, experts at NASA’s Chandra X-ray Center began the first ongoing, sustained program to “sonify” astronomical data. The sonification project is led by my guest today, Dr. Kimberly Arcand (Chandra Visualization Scientist) along with her colleagues Dr. Matt Russo (astrophysicist/musician) and Andrew Santaguida (musician/sound engineer) at System Sounds. The sonification of stars, black holes, galaxies and more invite a new way of knowing the cosmos. It is one thing to see a static image of t...
Apr 25, 2024•55 min
Sometimes the simplest practices are the most helpful. When lost, overwhelmed, sad or scared, I often find myself simply walking outside, lying down, and staring up at the sky. There's nothing specific to do, nothing specific to feel. It's simply a moment to watch the movement of the clouds or stars, and to remember that the earth is nothing more than a pale blue dot rotating in a vast galaxy of stars, planets, moons, and more. This practice connects us to something larger than ourselves and thi...
Apr 18, 2024•12 min
The Mindful Minute has a NEW NAME and NEW LOOK! After 8 years, I have updated the name to more accurately reflect the content offered here. Welcome to Our Mindful Nature! “Back when humans lived in communal caves and tribal encampments, we told stories about the stars. When we started sailing, we used these same pinpricks of light to estimate our own location. When we began planting, we relied on the constellations and the Sun to plant and sustain crops. Yet today, most modern humans have lost t...
Apr 11, 2024•47 min
The Mindful Minute has a NEW NAME and NEW LOOK! After 8 years, I have updated the name to more accurately reflect the content offered here. Welcome to Our Mindful Nature! Today, we are kicking off a month of astronomical-inspired meditations and interviews in honor of next week’s total solar eclipse. A solar eclipse happens when, at just the right moment, the moon passes between the sun and Earth blocking the sun’s light. On April 8, 2024, 13 states will experience a total solar eclipse, for m...
Apr 04, 2024•25 min
The Mindful Minute has a NEW NAME and NEW LOOK! After 8 years, I have updated the name to more accurately reflect the content offered here. Welcome to Our Mindful Nature! How many episodes can I devote to birds, you ask? Well, I haven’t found a limit yet…! Today on Our Mindful Nature, we are talking about two of my favorite things - Oracle cards and Birds! Dr. Chanti Tacoronte-Perez is joining us to introduce a new somatic oracle deck titled Birdsong. Dr. Chanti is a Cuban-American artist-author...
Mar 28, 2024•1 hr 19 min
The Mindful Minute has a NEW NAME and NEW LOOK! After 8 years, I have updated the name to more accurately reflect the content offered here. Welcome to Our Mindful Nature! This is a special bonus episode of Our Mindful Nature. Last week, we kicked off the spring season with an exploration of migration, and the episode along with the guided meditation were filled with the sounds and images of migration as recorded by nature field recordist Nick McMahan. Today, I’m joined by Nick to give you a bit ...
Mar 25, 2024•35 min
The Mindful Minute has a NEW NAME and NEW LOOK! After 8 years, I have updated the name to more accurately reflect the content offered here. Welcome to Our Mindful Nature! One of the markers of spring is the migratory movement of so many species towards their breeding grounds - salmon, Monarch butterflies, and so many different species of birds. In this special Spring Equinox episode, I want to delve into 3 specific migrations as reflection points for our own contemplative journey this spring. Wi...
Mar 21, 2024•24 min
Friends, you might have noticed something BIG today as you clicked ‘play’ on this episode… The Mindful Minute has a NEW name!!! After 8 years of sharing recordings of Monday night meditation class on this podcast; I felt it was time to shift, to level up, to adjust in response to the times we find ourselves in… As a meditation teacher, when I share what I do, I very often hear 1 of 2 comments: I want to meditate but I just don’t have enough time I tried meditation once but I think too much And s...
Mar 14, 2024•28 min
Why is a meditation podcast chatting with a cookbook author, you ask? It’s a great question. I have been paying a lot of attention to the practices in my day that support my well-being the most because I continue to hear from listeners (and experience myself) that we are doing our meditation practices and yet, we are still struggling. We still feel stress, anxiety or fear. And so, while this podcast will always honor meditation first and foremost, I want to also honor the other pieces that suppo...
Mar 07, 2024•1 hr
In today’s meditation practice, we listen to the sounds of melting snow. Now, I don’t know about you, but it never really occurred to me that melting snow makes a sound. It does. It produces a smooth, slow gurgle. No drips, just a near constant murmur that reminds us that change is happening in every moment. The daffodils are pushing up, the hyacinth will bloom soon. The literal and metaphorical arrival of spring is imminent. It is time to think about what will plant during this ripe time. Huge ...
Feb 29, 2024•13 min
This month, we have explored the season of winter as a way into our meditation practice. We have looked at winter in our external landscapes, as well as our internal landscapes. We've listened to the sounds of winter, we've talked about wolves and our animal nature, and today, we're going to dive a little bit more into the creativity of winter. I was deeply inspired by a recent essay written and illustrated by Candace Rardon titled, ‘ Like A Garden in Winter ’. Candace is an author, illustrator,...
Feb 22, 2024•48 min
Today’s meditation practice is one that evokes the emotions of winter, wolves, and a deep connection to our wild selves. It is called Call of the Wolf… and it isn’t for the faint of heart. This practice is an invitation. It is an unearthing of your wild, instinctive nature. Not wild as in exuberant or loud; but wild as in the self that is born of and inextricably connected to the natural world . It is allowing us to fine-tune our inner listening and our relationship to our own wise intuition. Wo...
Feb 15, 2024•19 min
