What happens when someone tells you to relax? Often, the directive to relax or let go results in further tightening. When we attempt to relax on demand, we just can’t make it happen. Stress can then increase as we wrestle with what we may perceive as failure. Things change when we view letting go as a process versus a goal. In this mindfulness meditation, guided by Sean Fargo, we’re invited to soften our attachment to doing, to soften our need for control. In the process, we experience...

You may have been told that trauma lives in the body until we’re willing to feel it. Research shows, however, that it is counter-productive to turn toward this pain before we feel resourced, safe and supported. So, how are we to know when to apply the gas in our practice, versus when to hit the brakes?   In this episode, we hear from mindfulness and meditation researcher, Dr. Willoughby Britton. She shares helpful advice you can apply today to bring more trauma sensitivity to your practice...

Ancient wisdom traditions recognize the mind not as something limited to the brain, but as an expansive, heart-based awareness that extends throughout the body and beyond. One benefit of mindfulness meditation is that it can help us learn to connect to such awareness, for a profound experience of presence. In this guided meditation, led by Sean Fargo, we are invited to bring an awake and alert energy to the body as a whole. Using this embodied energy, we then sense into the space beyond for a...

Brian Johnson, philosopher, founder and CEO, has spent the better part of the last 20 years studying ancient wisdom and the modern science that supports it. His new book, Areté: Activate Your Heroic Potential, partners that wisdom with the practices that help people integrate it into their daily lives.  Described as “more wisdom in less time,” Areté is a collection of 451 potentially life changing ideas, presented in easy-to-digest microchapters. The book mirrors Brian’s popular online app,...

When we think of courage we often imagine a fierce energy. One that pushes obstacles aside, cuts through barriers and fights battles. But courage can have a gentle energy, too. Sometimes, courage can look and feel like steady, caring presence - especially during mindfulness meditation and the practice of feeling what we feel. In this guided meditation, led by Sean Fargo, we are invited to sense into this moment, just as it is. With courage, we practice staying with our experience, allowing it...

Mindfulness retreats are a valuable opportunity to step away from routine and apply ourselves to deepening our mindfulness. We may devote a single day or multiple days to retreat, either at home or at a retreat center.  Meditation teachers who have completed retreats of their own know full well the benefits of such focused attention on their practice. However, the thought of guiding others through this intimate, intense experience can be intimidating.  In this episode, we hear from meditation...

To tend to something is to show it kindness, gentleness and compassion: to offer it our caring attention. In this guided meditation, led by Sean Fargo, we’re asked to tend to our present experience with kind, loving and spacious awareness.   As we witness change in the body with love and care, the offering of space allows this moment to continue unfolding without the added pain of resistance.   Listen in a safe, quiet place where you can be relatively free from distraction. Practice with eyes...

What we learn from our most beloved mindfulness teachers isn’t always in the words they say, but in how they show up. Just being near someone who exudes a grounded presence and an open heart can be co-regulating and profoundly healing.  Embodied mindfulness is a lifelong practice, but it’s one we can all take part in. Bringing attention and awareness to subtle energies in the body enhances our ability to work with these energies and expand our compassionate presence. In this episode, Sean...

When blown about by life’s movement and strong winds of change, mindfully grounding can have a calming, stabilizing effect. Sensing only downward energy, however, can sometimes have a heavy, depressive effect. In this guided meditation, led by Sean Fargo, we are invited into a state of balance by sensing two opposing energies. We ground down into the earth’s stability and support while also rising up into a dignified, spacious presence. Listen in a safe, quiet place where you can be...

At the very core of our being lies an indestructible, untouched goodness. No matter the suffering we’ve experienced in life, we’re never irrevocably damaged. We are worthy of the care we long for. The question is, do we believe it? In this episode, we hear from Dr. Rick Hanson, meditation teacher, New York Times best-selling author and Senior Fellow of UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center. Dr. Hanson highlights the key inner resources developed through mindfulness that can open our...

What does care feel like? When we care for something, we offer it our attention. We tend to it with gentleness. To remain present with something or someone, to listen and observe, to let be, allow for and accept. These are all caring acts. These descriptors are also characteristics of mindfulness.  In this guided meditation with Sean Fargo, we’re invited to open to this moment, just as it is, with caring awareness. Calm and contentment arise as we turn to sensations in our body and heart with...

Can we improve our health simply by changing our minds? Dr. Ellen Langer says it’s not only possible, but that the mind has far greater influence on our bodies than we currently imagine.  Her belief that we can think our way to better health is rooted in over 40 years of mindfulness research. With each of her 13 books, Ellen Langer has persuaded more and more people that mindfulness makes our health, and everything in our lives, better. In this episode, Sean Fargo speaks with Dr. Langer about...

Loving-kindness meditation, or metta meditation, helps us cultivate feelings of warmth and goodwill toward others. Ideally, we extend this love to all beings, everywhere. For most of us, however, such a boundless expression of care is something we need to work up to.    In this loving-kindness meditation guided by Sean Fargo, we are invited to open the heart by practicing with someone we already have loving feelings for. By bringing mindfulness to the sensation of metta in our body, heart and...

Loving-kindness, or metta meditation, is a unique, thousands of years old method of uncovering the boundless warmth at the center of our being. This contemplative practice is often taught alongside mindfulness, as the awakened heart and mind cannot be separated.  In this episode, we hear from Donald Rothberg, a leading spiritual teacher and author of The Engaged Spiritual Life: A Buddhist Approach to Transforming Ourselves and the World. Rothberg teaches on the history and tradition of...

Every emotion has value, even those we might label as uncomfortable or unwelcome. Anger, for example, can help us set healthy boundaries. Grief can help us process loss, and jealousy can provide us with deep insight. When we allow ourselves to feel what we feel, there’s always something to be learned. In this mindfulness meditation guided by Sean Fargo, we are invited to tenderly listen to the body, the heart and spirit, to sense into what emotions are present and to practice presence with...

Imposter syndrome is felt by new and experienced mindfulness teachers alike. It is a common human experience. Of course, we’d prefer not to feel uncomfortable, and instead, to feel ever-confident in our practice and teachings. In reality, however, imposter syndrome need not be overcome. By taking a mindful approach to imposter syndrome, we can welcome it as an indicator of our care, humility, courage and growth.  In this episode, Sean Fargo speaks with Lou Redmond, meditation teacher, author,...

Shame is the uncomfortable feeling we face having done something we don’t feel good about. Unlike regret, the mindful acknowledgment of a mistake, shame has a quality of self-judgment to it. And whereas guilt is focused on the action, shame is directed to our self as a whole. This can make it challenging to address and compassionately let go of our shame.   In this mindfulness meditation guided by Sean Fargo, we’re invited to face our shame directly. By bringing curiosity to shame and how it...

Life has its ups and downs. It’s just not possible to arrange our world so that we only ever experience the highs. The promise of mindfulness meditation is that it can allow us to access contentment anytime, even amidst significant career and life changes, loss, overwhelming emotions, and the many forms of suffering that we, as humans, share. In this episode, Sean Fargo interviews mindfulness meditation teacher Jeremy Lipkowitz on his experience shifting away from a fixed identity based on...

We all have fears. Some live on the surface, impacting our everyday lives, while others are more subtle. We may experience fear of failure, unworthiness, fear of the unknown, or fear of being alone. It’s also common to fear abandonment, engulfment, or the ultimate fear: non-existence, the fear of death and dying.  Although it may not be possible to become completely fearless, we can find more spaciousness and peace by being with and exploring our fears. In this guided meditation, Sean Fargo...

There are many ways to bring gratitude into your meditation practice, and just as many reasons for doing so. Sensing into gratitude can help settle the body and open the mind. It also brings mindfulness to the infinite beauty that is available in each and every moment.  In this compilation episode, Sean Fargo, founder of Mindfulness Exercises, shares several gratitude meditation practices. The last one is rarely taught in the context of gratitude, but may be the single most powerful means of...

Gratitude meditation is a heart-opening practice that can soothe and relax us by bringing our attention to all that’s going well in our lives and in our own bodies. By shifting our focus from negative thoughts and harmful patterns, we make room for the positive to flourish. In this guided meditation led by Sean Fargo, we cultivate gratitude by bringing to mind a past treasured moment. Sensing appreciation as it is felt by the body deepens the practice by moving it beyond a cognitive...

Have you ever become aware that you’re dreaming, while still in the dream? Lucid dreaming is the act of becoming conscious that we’re dreaming. It’s a skill we can intentionally develop to become more lucid in our waking state. Those who regularly practice mindfulness meditation may be particularly adept at lucid dreaming. In this episode, author and spiritual teacher Andrew Holecek introduces lucid dreaming, dream yoga, and how to best induce these deeply meditative states. Learn more about...

Meditating regularly, at any time of day, can help us fall asleep sooner and sleep more soundly when it’s time for bed. During daytime meditation, we typically try to stay awake and alert while practicing. With sleep meditation, the invitation is to let calm and relaxation take over, to allow yourself to drift off to sleep.  This calm and spacious guided meditation with Sean Fargo can be used as a daytime practice or as a sleep meditation. To meditate yourself to sleep, practice this...

Devotion is not a quality that’s often talked about in secular mindfulness. But perhaps it should be.  Devotion can be an inspiring means of getting out of our heads, out of our own way, and connecting to our own hearts and communities. It need not be reserved for the divine. For mindfulness teachers, devotion can also help reinforce a sense of humility and reverence that makes our teaching both more impactful and fulfilling.  In this episode, Sean Fargo speaks with Oren Jay Sofer about his...