This month, as kids are transitioning back to school in the Northern Hemisphere, I thought it would be fun if all of us meditators also ‘go back to school’ and revisit some of the key teachings {and primary obstacles!} that help us recommit to and deepen our meditation practice. Within this meditation series, we have been dissecting 3 of the most common stumbling blocks when it comes to a meditation practice. Already, we have talked about the 3 primary forms of laziness {part 1}, the sneaky ways...
Sep 22, 2022•31 min
In this mini meditation, you will hear me talk about what it takes to make safe spaces both in our practice and within communities like my new Awakened Heart Meditation Community. The meditation today guides us through a primary practice and reminds us of the vital instructions for a deep meditative experience: What do we do with our bodies? With our breath? With our minds? This practice is a great option if you are looking for basic guidance, feeling a bit lackluster in your meditations lately,...
Sep 19, 2022•27 min
This month, as kids are transitioning back to school in the Northern Hemisphere, I thought it would be fun if all of us meditators also ‘go back to school’ and revisit some of the key teachings {and primary obstacles!} that help us recommit to and deepen our meditation practice. This week’s obstacle is far too important to ignore: Forgetting the Instructions I know you know the basics of how to meditate. We talk about them all the time and I mention them in every guided meditation. But the truth...
Sep 15, 2022•39 min
This meditation is focused on connection to self and others as a source of support in tough times. I shared it as part of the launch of my new meditation community: Awakened Heart. 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. Learn more about my Awakened Heart Meditation Community: https://www.merylarnett.com/awakened-heart-meditation-community I...
Sep 12, 2022•27 min
Today, I am going to talk to you about something near and dear to my heart, but first let me start with some truths: These last several years have been incredibly tough. Being a parent during a pandemic challenged me in ways far deeper and more complicated than I could have ever guessed. The political landscape in this country creates a constant state of deep fear in my body. The eco-crisis has my anxiety at an all-time high. The loss of body autonomy for women in the United States had me spiral...
Sep 08, 2022•29 min
Today’s mini episode is a practice dedicated to helping you discover the sneaky ways that laziness shows up in our meditation practice and helps us listen for the antidote that we need in order to move deeper into our practice. Join me for this guided meditation. 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. Learn more about my Awakened Heart Medi...
Sep 05, 2022•23 min
Summer is often a season of fluid, flexible schedules. There might be camps for the kids, vacations, dealing with other people’s vacation schedules… Every week feels a little different and when that is the case, I notice that my meditation practice shifts. The time of day that I practice is a little less consistent. Sometimes I practice for shorter periods. I practice indoors more with the extreme heat. And now... The kids are going back to school. I saw pumpkin flavored goodies at the grocery s...
Sep 01, 2022•36 min
Today’s mini meditation, led by Mara Branscombe, is a practice of connecting with the energy of the elements as a way to reset and shift our energy. This is a short, powerful practice. Don’t miss it! You can learn more about Mara at https://marabranscombe.com/ And you can find her new book at https://www.ritualasremedy.com/ 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 lo...
Aug 29, 2022•8 min
Today’s episode of The Mindful Minute is a conversation with Mara Branscombe about the power and simplicity of everyday rituals as a form of soul care. Mara is a mother, writer, yogi, artist, teacher, mindfulness leader, ceremonialist and spiritual coach. She is the author of a new book “Ritual As Remedy: Embodied Practices For Soul Care.” Mara is passionate about weaving the art of mindfulness, self-care, creativity, mind–body practices, and earth-based rituals into her life and work, and she h...
Aug 25, 2022•41 min
In today’s class, we stop trying to fix what we feel. The grief, the fear, the rage, the numbness - all the things we ‘shouldn’t’ feel but wow, do we ever feel. Loudly. Insistently. And importantly. These aren’t feelings to be ignored, sugar-coated, covered up or silenced. Our meditation practice enables us to feel with courage and compassion, and when our meditation practice ends, we have the strength and clarity to take the next right step. Join me for today’s mini meditation. These mini medit...
Aug 22, 2022•19 min
This class was recorded just after the Supreme Court’s official overturn of Roe v. Wade in the United States. In the aftermath, women across the country are dealing with the heartbreaking loss of autonomy over our own bodies. It is incredibly poignant to be teaching the final installment of the ‘When We Suffer’ meditation series. In the previous 2 classes, we discussed how to acknowledge what we feel, and how to stop being afraid of what we feel. In today’s class, we stop trying to fix what we f...
Aug 18, 2022•30 min
It is quite common to be inexperienced at allowing our difficult feelings to be as they are. When we are scared, often we run. When we are angry, often we fight. When we are sad, often we numb. Our meditation practice allows us the opportunity to return to the present moment, to acknowledge what it is that we are truly feeling, and then to ask ourselves - “Can I be with this?” The answer to this question guides our next response. Join me for a mini meditation designed to help us stop being afrai...
Aug 15, 2022•20 min
When we suffer, when we struggle with big emotions, step one is to consciously acknowledge what you feel. Step two is to stop being afraid of what you feel. This fear of feelings might show up as: I can’t bear this It will always feel this way I SHOULDN’T feel this way This SHOULDN’T be this way These thoughts are often cues that we have left the present moment, and that we have left our mindfulness practice and it is time to return. Our meditation practice allows us the opportunity to return to...
Aug 11, 2022•34 min
Meditation can’t make you feel better about school shootings. Meditation can’t make you feel better about hate-based violence being perpetuated over and over again. Meditation can’t make you feel better about political decisions you disagree with. What meditation can do is help us acknowledge and allow how we feel, and in a way, this does make us feel a bit “better”. Meditation is an invitation to Acknowledge what you feel Stop being afraid of what you feel Release the need to fix what you feel ...
Aug 08, 2022•26 min
Do you know what Ontological Anxiety is? Ontological Anxiety is what we feel when our state of being or our existence feels unsafe and/or threatened. Over the last several years, I’ve noticed that my meditation practice, which started out as a way to help me feel less stressed at work, has really morphed into a practice that helps me mitigate my own ontological anxiety. Every new crisis - pandemics, mass shootings, environmental, political - creates the exact same feelings in my body. Equal part...
Aug 04, 2022•34 min
I’m doing something a little bit scary this month… I am taking off the entire month of July. For the last six months or so, I’ve been wondering - how does someone who is self-employed take a sabbatical? And what I finally realized is no one else is going to give me permission. I’m the only one who can make that choice. And so {gulp} I am doing it. For the next 6 weeks, there will be no live classes, no new podcast episodes, no creating of any kind. My intention is that instead, this time will be...
Jun 16, 2022•7 min
Often, we are scared to fully enter time because we operate from a place of deficit. Somewhere, someway, we were sold the belief that there isn’t enough time and that we are not in control of what little time we do have… The secret truth is that time is ours to play with. The time we dedicate to eating, sleeping, making money, and caring for others - this time is sacrosanct and given priority. But prayer, meditation, study, pleasure - these are fit in only in stolen seconds. The truth is, you do...
Jun 13, 2022•15 min
In this 2-part series, we are looking at meditation as the nexus of space, time, and body-soul. Last week, we explored how we might fully enter space, the heartbeat of the earth and our resonance when we fully connect in this way. This week, we tackle the concept of time. Perhaps the most frequent refrain I hear as a meditation teacher is…. “But, I don’t have time?!”. Often, we are scared to fully enter time because we operate from a place of deficit. Somewhere, someway, we were sold the belief ...
Jun 09, 2022•34 min
In today’s mini meditation, we investigate what it means to be fully connected to space. If meditation is the nexus of space, time and soul - how do we step into our space completely and mindfully? In electromagnetic fields, a form of space, there is attraction, repulsion, movement, holding together, and transformation from one type of energy to another. Join me for a mini meditation inviting you to explore your relationship with space. These mini meditations are meant to support a daily home pr...
Jun 06, 2022•17 min
Recently, I was having a discussion regarding the nexus of space, time, and soul - a meeting point I think of as the practice of meditation - when someone suggested that this exploration was a form of Spiritual Physics. If you’ve listened to this podcast for any length of time you know I often pull in theories, quotes and ideas from physicists so this term feels spot on for the work we do in meditation. The definition of physics is - Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundam...
Jun 02, 2022•32 min
Today’s mini meditation is a special self-care practice. You will hear poet James Crews read his poem, Self-Care, and then I will share his invitation for reflective journaling. Grab a notebook, a pen, and a cup of tea. Settle into a comfortable seat and join us! You can find this poem and reflection {and many others!} in James’ new book, The Path to Kindness. You can find The Path to Kindness at your local, independent bookstore, and you can learn more about James at jamescrews.net Big thank yo...
May 30, 2022•8 min
For quite awhile now, I have wanted to bring a conversation about poetry to The Mindful Minute. Over the years, I’ve found more and more a connection between reading poetry and my meditation practice, and today, I get to finally explore this connection with poet James Crews! James Crews’ work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Sun Magazine, Ploughshares, and The New Republic, as well as on Ted Kooser’s American Life in Poetry newspaper column. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing fr...
May 26, 2022•47 min
Dr. Andrew Newberg, a neurotheologist, shares a short practice with us of defining our innermost values and making sure that our actions support those values. You can listen to his full interview on the 5.19.22 episode - Spirituality and Meditation. 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. Join my FREE meditation community here: https://medit...
May 23, 2022•7 min
Dr. Andrew Newberg, one of my favorite former guests, is back with us today to talk about mindfulness, spirituality and our mental well-being. I’ve just wrapped a meditation series, Can Meditation Unite Us, that has reflected on the overlap of several spiritual traditions, and I thought it would be interesting to talk to Dr. Newberg about what happens in our minds and our bodies as we engage with spiritual practices. Dr. Newberg is a neuroscientist and a pioneer in the neurological study of reli...
May 19, 2022•45 min
2+ years into a pandemic, when we’ve been enforcing various levels of separation in our daily lives, we are mentally and emotionally unwell. And we find ourselves in this moment with time, space and nature all reminding us that to heal is to connect. Yet, this is really hard at this moment because we’ve created neural pathways of separation. Luckily, we know that meditation is a practice of creating NEW neural pathways, and not only that - meditation is a practice of being present, non-judgmenta...
May 16, 2022•17 min
Within this series, we are exploring the concept of unity through our meditation practice. So often, we look at our meditation practice through the lens of its 3 tenets: presence, non-judgment, and compassion. Most of the time, I break these tenets down into their individual practices so that we can explore them each in a deeper way - BUT, this can create the mistaken belief that we can ONLY focus on one tenet at a time, or that if we tried to do it all we would have to meditate for an hour. The...
May 12, 2022•36 min
Being a mom; trying to become a mother; or not becoming a mother is likely one of the most difficult experiences of your life. We love our children, we worry endlessly, and we often experience the vast extremes of emotions with them or with our own seeming successes or failures. One of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves in relation to the word ‘mom’ is a practice that refills and strengthens our emotional reserves. Join me in this practice of lovingkindess just for the mama-hearts out ther...
May 09, 2022•12 min
*This episode originally ran in 2018, and I am delighted to replay it for you this week as we celebrate the mamas. Happy Mother’s Day, mamas! This short meditation is a chance to sit and be with it all. Being a mother is its own complex mess of emotions, feelings and thoughts. And, we are here for it. All of it. Celebrating the joys, the sorrows, the triumphs and the defeats. Celebrating the mundane and the magnificent. We are here for it. We are here for each other. Happy Mother’s Day. If you e...
May 05, 2022•12 min
We are so entrenched in our sides, our tribes, our ideological beliefs, that it feels almost impossible to comprehend how someone could feel or believe differently. Take any political issue, and my guess is that you can’t even believe how someone on the other side could think their choice is a good one, and yet - Even in this inability to comprehend, we know that ‘they’ are thinking the exact same thing about ‘our’ beliefs and choices. It blows the mind, doesn’t it? How is resolution or unity po...
May 02, 2022•15 min
This month, we are paying attention to the overlap of Easter, Passover, and Ramadan, and the way the universe seems to be reminding us of what is most important - Our connection to each other and to the planet. In our meditation practice, we can also explore our sense of unity. One of the tenets of a mindful meditation practice is non-judgment. We talk about this idea of not judging ourselves, our thoughts or our emotions quite often, but what about our judgment of others. We are so entrenched i...
Apr 28, 2022•32 min
