Balanced Mind with Julie Potiker

Julie Potiker leads you through this self compassion meditation. She completes the meditation with the poem, "The Endless Waltz", by James Crews.

This version ends in music allowing you to drift off into sleep.

This Endless Waltz, by James Crews

In this endless waltz of give and taketrust and receivetoday, I am the one who must open his armshold the door for whatever wants to entertap of rain on glass, scurry of tiny flyacross the window screen, beaded with droplets"please stay", I say to everythingthat must someday goheart as hollow as a begging bowluntil I seeI am begging to be filled by what I already have.

-James Crews

Continue your mindfulness journey with Julie - through her writings. Her latest book is, "Gentle Currents: Poems of Pause & Peace", a collection of poems focusing on themes of nature, self-compassion, and tranquility.Her other books include,"SNAP: From Calm to Chaos", and "Life Falls Apart, But You Don't have To: Mindful Methods for Staying Calm in the Midst of Chaos". All are available on Amazon.com.Follow Julie on YouTube and Facebook at Mindful Methods for Life.comThis podcast is available on iTunes, iHeart, Blubrry and everywhere you listen to podcasts.

Julie Potiker leads you through this self compassion meditation. She completes the meditation with the poem, "The Endless Waltz", by James Crews.

This Endless Waltz, by James Crews

In this endless waltz of give and taketrust and receivetoday, I am the one who must open his armshold the door for whatever wants to entertap of rain on glass, scurry of tiny flyacross the window screen, beaded with droplets"please stay", I say to everythingthat must someday goheart as hollow as a begging bowluntil I seeI am begging to be filled by what I already have.

-James Crews

Continue your mindfulness journey with Julie - through her writings. Her latest book is, "Gentle Currents: Poems of Pause & Peace", a collection of poems focusing on themes of nature, self-compassion, and tranquility.Her other books include,"SNAP: From Calm to Chaos", and "Life Falls Apart, But You Don't have To: Mindful Methods for Staying Calm in the Midst of Chaos". All are available on Amazon.com.Follow Julie on YouTube and Facebook at Mindful Methods for Life.comThis podcast is available on iTunes, iHeart, Blubrry and everywhere you listen to podcasts.

Breathe in peace and tranquility through this guided meditation led by Julie Potiker. She completes the meditation with the poem, "All the Ways to Name a Dragonfly", by Ellen Rowland.This version ends with music allowing you to drift off into sleep.

All the Ways to Name a DragonflyWhat if your first thought upon wakingwas not of all you have to do, or how sadand frightening the world is, but this:I am alive. In a body. On a day I have never met.Hello, you beauty.What if, instead of reaching for a dark screen,you stood on the back porch of this weeping,sought the bay window of the sky seeping peachlight into your soul, or maybe slate, salmon,cerulean, painting the day alive with swathesof impossible color right before your eyes.What if, despite your knotted heart, you made a listof everyone you love, anthologized the weedsin your yard, collected seeds, feathers, and lost poems,made a lexicon of all the ways to name a dragonflyin this world: libellule, vážka, dreóilín, pilivesa, spāre.What if you then made something with your hands—a daisy chain, bread, a potholder, a salad of dandelions—and gave it to someone near, a neighbor, a child, a stranger,because the others are too far away. This matters, too.And what if, today, you allowed yourself to feel the rough huskof all you are—every fault, fear, scab and scar—so that the goalis not to be right or good, but to be whole. Like somethingslightly bruised in the fruit basket on the kitchen table, you sinkyour teeth in and bite anyway, like it’s the very first time.-Ellen Rowland

Continue your mindfulness journey with Julie - through her writings. Her latest book is, "Gentle Currents: Poems of Pause & Peace", a collection of poems focusing on themes of nature, self-compassion, and tranquility.Her other books include,"SNAP: From Calm to Chaos", and "Life Falls Apart, But You Don't have To: Mindful Methods for Staying Calm in the Midst of Chaos". All are available on Amazon.com.Follow Julie on YouTube and Facebook at Mindful Methods for Life.comThis podcast is available on iTunes, iHeart, Blubrry and everywhere you listen to podcasts.

Breathe in peace and tranquility through this guided meditation led by Julie Potiker. She completes the meditation with the poem, "All the Ways to Name a Dragonfly", by Ellen Rowland.All the Ways to Name a DragonflyWhat if your first thought upon wakingwas not of all you have to do, or how sadand frightening the world is, but this:I am alive. In a body. On a day I have never met.Hello, you beauty.What if, instead of reaching for a dark screen,you stood on the back porch of this weeping,sought the bay window of the sky seeping peachlight into your soul, or maybe slate, salmon,cerulean, painting the day alive with swathesof impossible color right before your eyes.What if, despite your knotted heart, you made a listof everyone you love, anthologized the weedsin your yard, collected seeds, feathers, and lost poems,made a lexicon of all the ways to name a dragonflyin this world: libellule, vážka, dreóilín, pilivesa, spāre.What if you then made something with your hands—a daisy chain, bread, a potholder, a salad of dandelions—and gave it to someone near, a neighbor, a child, a stranger,because the others are too far away. This matters, too.And what if, today, you allowed yourself to feel the rough huskof all you are—every fault, fear, scab and scar—so that the goalis not to be right or good, but to be whole. Like somethingslightly bruised in the fruit basket on the kitchen table, you sinkyour teeth in and bite anyway, like it’s the very first time.-Ellen Rowland

Continue your mindfulness journey with Julie - through her writings. Her latest book is, "Gentle Currents: Poems of Pause & Peace", a collection of poems focusing on themes of nature, self-compassion, and tranquility.Her other books include,"SNAP: From Calm to Chaos", and "Life Falls Apart, But You Don't have To: Mindful Methods for Staying Calm in the Midst of Chaos". All are available on Amazon.com.Follow Julie on YouTube and Facebook at Mindful Methods for Life.comThis podcast is available on iTunes, iHeart, Blubrry and everywhere you listen to podcasts.

Breathe in what you need right now, and then breathe out what you want to send to others through this guided meditation led by Julie Potiker. She completes the meditation with the poem, "Can You Imagine", by Mary Oliver.

Can You Imagine?Mary OliverFor example, what the trees donot only in lightning stormsor the watery dark of a summer's nightor under the white nets of winterbut now, and now, and now - wheneverwe're not looking. Surely you can't imaginethey don't dance, from the root up, wishingto travel a little, not cramped so much as wantinga better view, or more sun, or just as avidlymore shade - surely you can't imagine they juststand there loving everyminute of it, the birds or the emptiness, the dark ringsof the years slowly and without a soundthickening, and nothing different unless the wind,and then only in its own mood, comesto visit, surely you can't imaginepatience, and happiness, like that.

Continue your mindfulness journey with Julie - through her writings. Her latest book is, "Gentle Currents: Poems of Pause & Peace", a collection of poems focusing on themes of nature, self-compassion, and tranquility.Her other books include,"SNAP: From Calm to Chaos", and "Life Falls Apart, But You Don't have To: Mindful Methods for Staying Calm in the Midst of Chaos". All are available on Amazon.com.Follow Julie on YouTube and Facebook at Mindful Methods for Life.comThis podcast is available on iTunes, iHeart, Blubrry and everywhere you listen to podcasts.

Breathe in what you need right now, and then breathe out what you want to send to others through this guided meditation led by Julie Potiker. She completes the meditation with the poem, "Can You Imagine", by Mary Oliver.

Can You Imagine?Mary OliverFor example, what the trees donot only in lightning stormsor the watery dark of a summer's nightor under the white nets of winterbut now, and now, and now - wheneverwe're not looking. Surely you can't imaginethey don't dance, from the root up, wishingto travel a little, not cramped so much as wantinga better view, or more sun, or just as avidlymore shade - surely you can't imagine they juststand there loving everyminute of it, the birds or the emptiness, the dark ringsof the years slowly and without a soundthickening, and nothing different unless the wind,and then only in its own mood, comesto visit, surely you can't imaginepatience, and happiness, like that.

Continue your mindfulness journey with Julie - through her writings. Her latest book is, "Gentle Currents: Poems of Pause & Peace", a collection of poems focusing on themes of nature, self-compassion, and tranquility.Her other books include,"SNAP: From Calm to Chaos", and "Life Falls Apart, But You Don't have To: Mindful Methods for Staying Calm in the Midst of Chaos". All are available on Amazon.com.Follow Julie on YouTube and Facebook at Mindful Methods for Life.comThis podcast is available on iTunes, iHeart, Blubrry and everywhere you listen to podcasts.

Enjoy this open awareness meditation led by Julie Potiker. She completes the meditation with the poem, "I Pray to the Birds", by Terry Tempest Williams.

This version ends with music allowing you to drift off into sleep.

I Pray to the Birds, by Terry Tempest Williams

I pray to the birds.I pray to the birds because I believe they will carry the messages of my heart upward.I pray to them because I believe in their existence, the way their songs begin and end each day—the invocations and benedictions of Earth.I pray to the birds because they remind me of what I love rather than what I fear.And at the end of my prayers, they teach me how to listen.

-Terry Tempest Williams

Continue your mindfulness journey with Julie - through her writings. Her latest book is, "Gentle Currents: Poems of Pause & Peace", a collection of poems focusing on themes of nature, self-compassion, and tranquility.Her other books include,"SNAP: From Calm to Chaos", and "Life Falls Apart, But You Don't have To: Mindful Methods for Staying Calm in the Midst of Chaos". All are available on Amazon.com.Follow Julie on YouTube and Facebook at Mindful Methods for Life.comThis podcast is available on iTunes, iHeart, Blubrry and everywhere you listen to podcasts.

Enjoy this open awareness meditation led by Julie Potiker. She completes the meditation with the poem, "I Pray to the Birds", by Terry Tempest Williams.

I Pray to the Birds, by Terry Tempest Williams

I pray to the birds.I pray to the birds because I believe they will carry the messages of my heart upward.I pray to them because I believe in their existence, the way their songs begin and end each day—the invocations and benedictions of Earth.I pray to the birds because they remind me of what I love rather than what I fear.And at the end of my prayers, they teach me how to listen.

-Terry Tempest Williams

Continue your mindfulness journey with Julie - through her writings. Her latest book is, "Gentle Currents: Poems of Pause & Peace", a collection of poems focusing on themes of nature, self-compassion, and tranquility.Her other books include,"SNAP: From Calm to Chaos", and "Life Falls Apart, But You Don't have To: Mindful Methods for Staying Calm in the Midst of Chaos". All are available on Amazon.com.Follow Julie on YouTube and Facebook at Mindful Methods for Life.comThis podcast is available on iTunes, iHeart, Blubrry and everywhere you listen to podcasts.

Join Julie Potiker as she leads this gentle meditation practice focusing on what you need right now. Is it love, energy, calm, peace? She completes the meditation with two poems, "Spring", by Ellen Rowland, and "Bring Me The Sun", by Julie Potiker.

This version ends with music allowing you to drift off into sleep.

Spring, by Ellen Rowland    -after James PearsonHow can I love this springwhen winter still holds hate quivering in its jaws,holds hope frozen in fear,hunts the human heartlike a soft trembling rabbit?I only want to be a bee among beestumbled from sleep by the warmscent of lilacs on an unsuspectingbreeze, belonging itself into thisbeautiful, troubled world as thoughblossoms might hold the answer.

~Ellen Rowland

Bring Me the Sun, by Julie PotikerWhile the world wars I sitlistening to birdsongis that a wrentitor a song sparrowI know the towhee’s croakthe mourning dove’s low notethe click and humof hummingbirdthe mockingbird challenges meits phrases just beyond namingThen Wellington bounces toward me, black eyes shining, intent,a lemon-yellow toy in his mouth, bringing me the sun

~Julie Potiker

Continue your mindfulness journey with Julie - through her writings. Her latest book is, "Gentle Currents: Poems of Pause & Peace", a collection of poems focusing on themes of nature, self-compassion, and tranquility.Her other books include,"SNAP: From Calm to Chaos", and "Life Falls Apart, But You Don't have To: Mindful Methods for Staying Calm in the Midst of Chaos". All are available on Amazon.com.Follow Julie on YouTube and Facebook at Mindful Methods for Life.comThis podcast is available on iTunes, iHeart, Blubrry and everywhere you listen to podcasts.

Join Julie Potiker as she leads this gentle meditation practice focusing on what you need right now. Is it love, energy, calm, peace? She completes the meditation with two poems, "Spring", by Ellen Rowland, and "Bring Me The Sun", by Julie Potiker.

Spring, by Ellen Rowland    -after James PearsonHow can I love this springwhen winter still holds hate quivering in its jaws,holds hope frozen in fear,hunts the human heartlike a soft trembling rabbit?I only want to be a bee among beestumbled from sleep by the warmscent of lilacs on an unsuspectingbreeze, belonging itself into thisbeautiful, troubled world as thoughblossoms might hold the answer.

~Ellen Rowland

Bring Me the Sun, by Julie PotikerWhile the world wars I sitlistening to birdsongis that a wrentitor a song sparrowI know the towhee’s croakthe mourning dove’s low notethe click and humof hummingbirdthe mockingbird challenges meits phrases just beyond namingThen Wellington bounces toward me, black eyes shining, intent,a lemon-yellow toy in his mouth, bringing me the sun

~Julie Potiker

Continue your mindfulness journey with Julie - through her writings. Her latest book is, "Gentle Currents: Poems of Pause & Peace", a collection of poems focusing on themes of nature, self-compassion, and tranquility.Her other books include,"SNAP: From Calm to Chaos", and "Life Falls Apart, But You Don't have To: Mindful Methods for Staying Calm in the Midst of Chaos". All are available on Amazon.com.Follow Julie on YouTube and Facebook at Mindful Methods for Life.comThis podcast is available on iTunes, iHeart, Blubrry and everywhere you listen to podcasts.