Loving-kindness meditation, also called metta,  springs from a basic understanding of human nature: On one hand, we might truly believe that  compassion makes the world better—and on the other, we might struggle to offer it to ourselves and to others for various reasons. 

Metta practices, like the one Dr. Emma Seppälä leads this week, offer a simple, structured way to help us  gently expand our capacity to both give and receive love. 

As a bestselling author, Yale lecturer, and international keynote speaker, Emma Seppälä teaches executives at the Yale School of Management and is faculty director of the Yale School of Management’s Women’s Leadership Program. A psychologist and research scientist by training, her expertise is the science of happiness, emotional intelligence, and social connection. Her bestselling book The Happiness Track (HarperOne, 2016) has been translated into dozens of languages. Her new book is Sovereign (Hay House, 2024). Seppälä is also the Science Director of Stanford University’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education.

The transcription of this guided meditation will be online at Mindful.org next week. 

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Show Notes

Find more from Dr. Emma Seppälä here.

Go Deeper

If you want to understand more about the practice of loving-kindness, why it matters, and how to build it—even with difficult people or in times when you aren’t feeling very compassionate—here are some articles to get you started: 

• Wise Engagement with the World: What to Do When You Wish Things Were Different
• Loving-Kindness Meditation with Sharon Salzberg

For more practice, here’s another meditation to try: A 12-Minute Meditation for Self-Compassion and Loving-Kindness.

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Shame is one of the most complex and difficult human emotions to experience and process. 

This week, we’re refreshing a meditation from Dr. Patricia Rockman, who offers a practice to meet shame with courage, tenderness, and curiosity. The more we can sit with these difficult emotions, the more we build resilience, self-knowledge, and self-trust—which are the most powerful natural antidotes to shame.

Patricia Rockman, MD, CCFP, FCFP is a family physician with a focused practice in mental health. She is the senior director of Education and Clinical Services at the Centre for Mindfulness Studies, Toronto. Rockman is also an associate professor at the University of Toronto, Department of Family Medicine, cross appointed to Psychiatry. She has extensive experience practicing individual psychotherapy, leading therapy groups, and training healthcare providers in mindfulness-based interventions, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and change management for stress reduction. She is a freelance writer, yoga teacher, and meditation practitioner.

The transcription of this guided meditation will be online at Mindful.org next week. 

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Show Notes

Find more from Dr. Patricia Rockman here.

Go Deeper

Shame is a universal and challenging human experience. If you’d like to learn more about where it comes from and how mindfulness can help heal the wounds of shame, these three articles can help:

• Feeling Lonely? 4 Ways to Release Shame and Build Healthy Relationships
• Tame Your Money Shame
• The Downward Spiral of Shame

For more practice, here is another Meditation for Working with Shame.

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In this week’s guided meditation, teacher and author Melli O’Brien offers a practice that uses gentle, steady awareness to help you find your calm center again when you’re feeling wound up with stress or anxiety.

Melli is a mindfulness educator and mental health coach with over two decades of experience. She is also cofounder of Mindfulness.com and the Mindfulness Summit—the world’s largest mindfulness conference. Melli has distilled and synthesized her knowledge on resilience, stress management, peak performance psychology, positive neuroplasticity training, and mindfulness into The Deep Resilience Method, released as her book Deep Resilience in February 2025. 

Starting July 15th, Melli is hosting The Deep Resilience Experience, a 30-day online course that will help you build unshakeable inner strength in 15 minutes a day. 

The transcription of this guided meditation will be online at Mindful.org next week. 

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Show Notes

Find more from Melli O’Brien here.

To learn more about Melli’s upcoming Deep Resilience Experience (and how you can get $350 in bonus gifts when you sign up before July 15th), click here. 

Go Deeper

Want to understand more about the connection between practicing mindfulness and easing anxiety? These three articles are a great place to start:

• Unwinding Your Anxiety Habit Loop 
• Most Habit-Change Tools Fail With Anxiety—Here’s One that Works
• Why Does My Anxiety Keep Coming Back?

For more practice, here are 5 Guided Meditations for Panic and Anxiety that you can try when you need support.

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Sometimes the best gift we can give ourselves is just a moment set aside for quiet, breath, and reminding ourselves of who we really are. 

In this gentle guided practice, Kimberly Brown uses simple repeated phrases to ground attention and offer a place to rest and reset. 

Note that this practice includes longer pauses of complete silence for reflection and presence. If you want more time, feel free to pause the recording as you go.     

Kimberly Brown is a meditation teacher and author. She leads classes and retreats that emphasize the power of compassion and kindness meditation to reconnect us to ourselves and others. She studies in both the Tibetan and Insight schools of Buddhism and is a certified mindfulness instructor. Her book Happy Relationships: 25 Buddhist Practices to Transform Your Connection with Your Partner, Family, and Friends, is published with Prometheus Books. You can learn more about Kimberly on her website, www.meditationwithheart.com.

The transcription of this guided meditation will be online at Mindful.org next week. 

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Show Notes

Find more from Kimberly Brown here and read her recent (and timely) article on Mindful.org.

Go Deeper

Want to learn more about how taking intentional breaks can make your days better? These two articles are a great place to start:

• Break Up Your Work Day with Purposeful Pauses
• How to Get Good Pause

For more practice, try this 12-Minute Meditation to Cultivate Calm and Clarity that you can turn to when you’re feeling stressed or overwhelmed and need a break.

And more from Mindful here:

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It might seem counterintuitive, but intentionally tuning into what’s distracting you can actually help strengthen your ability to focus. 

In today’s guided practice, meditation teacher Toby Sola introduces what he calls a “concentration algorithm.” This practice will help you identify which type of sensory experience you are naturally drawn to, and then give you a structure for how to focus on it, so that you can quickly attain deep concentration.

Toby Sola is dedicated to helping you create a feedback loop between your meditation practice and your ability to make the world a better place. Toby has been teaching meditation for two decades and has refined his craft through years of monastic training and close collaboration with the world-renowned teacher Shinzen Young. He is an award-winning designer and founder of the Brightmind Meditation app.

Note that this practice includes long pauses of complete silence to give you time to spend in contemplation. If you want more time, feel free to pause the recording as you go. 

The transcription of this guided meditation will be online at Mindful.org next week. 

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Show Notes

Find more from Toby Sola and his company Brightmind here.

Go Deeper

Want to learn more about training your attention? Here are two articles we think you’ll love:

• Paying Attention to the Space In Between
• Reclaiming Our Attention From “Convenience”

For more practice, try this 3-Part Focused Attention Meditation Series you can use to strengthen your focus when you feel distracted.

And more from Mindful here:

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When we are stressed or overwhelmed, or when our mind feels like it’s spinning out of control—it’s easy to forget that simply dropping into the body can be a powerful way to interrupt thEse thought loops.  

In this week’s refresh, meditation teacher Tara Healey guides us through a practice to calm the mind, notice sensations in the body, and bring awareness to the present moment. 

If you’d like the transcription of this guided meditation, it will be online on Mindful.org next week. 

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Show Notes

Learn more about Tara Healy here.

And more from Mindful here:

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Today, meditation teacher and bestselling author Jon Kabat-Zinn guides us through a silent walking meditation—a great addition to your mindfulness toolkit and a way to enter more deeply into the vitality & sensory richness of what is happening in & around you right now. [link]

We mostly think of walking as an activity that is supposed to accomplish something: getting from point A to point B, exercising, reaching our daily step goals. And of course, those are all great reasons to go for a walk. 

In today’s practice, meditation teacher and bestselling author Jon Kabat-Zinn offers up another way that you can experience a walk—simply as a way to enter more deeply into the vitality and sensory richness of what is happening in and around you right now. 

A walking meditation isn’t about getting anywhere or accomplishing anything. It’s just about being with each step, fully here, where you actually are. There is no arriving, other than continually arriving in the present moment.     

If you’d like the transcription of this guided meditation, it will be online on Mindful.org next week. 

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Show Notes

Learn more about the work and research of Jon Kabat-Zinn here.

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Tonglen, sometimes called loving-kindness meditation, is a Tibetan practice of giving and receiving. 

In Tonglen, we open ourselves to our entire experience, including what is painful and difficult. We acknowledge our suffering, including the suffering we share with others. Then, we release intentions for peace, healing, and love out into the world.  

In today’s meditation, teacher Kimberly Brown guides us through a gentle practice based on Tonglen. This meditation is a space for us to simply experience our struggle, to breathe in any tension or tightness, and to breathe out love, both as a sense of openness and ease, and also as a way of being at peace with ourselves and others. 

Note that this practice includes longer pauses of complete silence for reflection and presence. If you want more time, feel free to pause the recording as you go.     

If you’d like the transcription of this guided meditation, it will be online on Mindful.org next week. 

Stay curious, stay inspired. Join our community by signing up for our free newsletter, where we share compelling insights and actionable ideas to enrich your everyday life. Connect with us at mindful.org/signup.

Show Notes

Find more from Kimberly Brown here and read her recent (and timely) article on Mindful.org.

And more from Mindful here:

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Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing [email protected].

When we are experiencing difficult emotions or situations, our first impulse is often to look for a way out—usually through distracting, numbing, running, or denying.  

But what if the key to getting to the other side of difficulty is to simply be with it, offering the discomfort our courageous awareness and presence? 

In this week’s practice, author and meditation teacher Ed Halliwell guides us through a meditation we can lean on when things get tough.  

Note that this practice includes longer pauses of complete silence for reflection and presence. If you want more time, feel free to pause the recording as you go.     

If you’d like the transcription of this guided meditation, it will be online on Mindful.org next week. 

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Show Notes

Find more from Ed Halliwell here.

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You might not think of mindfulness as being a resource to help with decision-making, but moments of intentional silence can sharpen our mental clarity and help us discern which choices feel most aligned. 

In this guided practice, meditation teacher Toby Sola offers a simple technique you can use, whether you’re facing a life-changing choice or are just feeling overwhelmed by all the small decisions that often crowd our busy lives.  

Note that this practice includes pauses of complete silence that might be longer than our listeners are accustomed to. This is to give you time to spend in contemplation. If you want more time, feel free to pause the recording as you go.     

If you’d like the transcription of this guided meditation, it will be online on Mindful.org next week. 

Stay curious, stay inspired. Join our community by signing up for our free newsletter, where we share compelling insights and actionable ideas to enrich your everyday life. Connect with us at mindful.org/signup.

Show Notes

Find more from Toby Sola and his company Brightmind here.

And more from Mindful here:

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Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing [email protected].