12 Minute Meditation

This guided meditation is an introduction to deep belly breathing which helps you relax and reduce stress. The practice triggers the relaxation response, which is the opposite of the fight-or-flight response.

Show notes: This meditation is adapted from shamashalidina.com.

Shamash Alidina is the author of Mindfulness For Dummies and most recently, The Mindful Way Through Stress.

This guided meditation is about labelling your emotions. Research suggests that the practice helps the amygdala, the structure in the brain that registers danger, become less active.

Show notes: Adapted from The Mindful Self-Compassion Workbook by Kristin Neff and Chris Germer.

Audio: © Christopher Germer & Kristin Neff. Mindful Self-Compassion. June 2017. All rights reserved.

Christopher Germer, Ph.D., has a private practice in mindfulness and compassion-based psychotherapy and is a psychiatry lecturer at the Harvard Medical School/Cambridge Health Alliance.

An excerpt of a longer conversation with Rhonda Magee on mindfulness and dismantling the subtle habits and patterns that separate us. In this excerpt, Magee explores how mindfulness can be both a tool for personal growth and societal transformation—not either or, both "both, and," as she puts it.

A 20-minute breathing meditation that explores thoughts, sensations, and mental states with kind awareness.

This body scan and breath awareness practice integrates relaxation, mindfulness, and gratitude. With it, we can strengthen our ability to notice what arises in our field of awareness—pleasant or unpleasant—with sustained attention.

Show notes: Meditation by Scott Rogers.

Scott Rogers is the founder and director of the University of Miami School of Law's Mindfulness in Law Program where he integrates mindfulness into the law school curriculum, and he is co-founder of the UMindfulness, the University's Mindfulness Research and Practice Initiative.

This guided meditation can be helpful when you're feeling isolated or experiencing difficulty. Connecting with self-compassion reminds us that even though the struggle is a part of life, we can still experience kindness and acceptance.

Show notes: Adapted from The Mindful Self-Compassion Workbook by Kristin Neff and Chris Germer.

Kristin Neff, Ph.D., is an associate professor in Human Development and Culture in the Educational Psychology Department, at the University of Texas at Austin.

Christopher Germer, Ph.D., has a private practice in mindfulness and compassion-based psychotherapy and is a psychiatry lecturer at the Harvard Medical School/Cambridge Health Alliance.

Follow this guided meditation from Cara Bradley to notice your sight, sound, taste, touch, smell, and thoughts.

Steve Hickman leads this guided meditation to practice wishing yourself happiness.

Practice sending loving-kindness to people you feel neutral toward as well as those you have difficult feelings toward. It's only after we've practiced many times that we begin to notice a habit developing—namely, letting ourselves off the hook once in a while.

Show notes: Adapted from a talk from Sharon Salzberg at the Insight Meditation Society. Listen to the full talk.

Sharon Salzberg is a meditation teacher and New York Times best-selling author. She is also the cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society.