Many of you have let us know how much you love the music which accompanies each episode of Meditative Story. You’ve also expressed that Meditative Story helps you wind down and get a better night’s sleep. So today, we’re introducing Sleep Song, a beautiful companion to our classic Meditative Story episodes. Created by our gifted in-house composers, Sleep Song is designed to help you enter a relaxed state, conducive to a good night’s rest – but it’s also a wonderful complement to studying, journaling, painting, yoga, or mindfulness practices. We hope you enjoy today’s Sleep Song, and invite you to explore the full library by following Sleep Song wherever you get your podcasts.

Original music from composer Ryan Holladay.

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Meredith Goldstein writes the wildly popular Love Letters column in the Boston Globe, but for much of her life, she’s viewed romantic relationships as a trap. Meredith grows up seeing the limitations of her mom’s insular life, and knows she wants more for herself. It’s only when the pandemic forces her to slow down that she realizes the beauty in giving attention to each moment, rather than always thinking about the next five things. Years after Meredith’s mom passes away, she emulates the way she lived her life, and finds that leaning into simple routines unlocks a surprising feeling of euphoria.

If this story resonates with you, we’d love to hear from you. Please take a moment to share your reflections by rating and reviewing Meditative Story in your podcast player. It helps other listeners find their way to show, and we’d be so grateful.

Each episode of Meditative Story combines the emotional pull of first-person storytelling with immersive music and gentle mindfulness prompts. Read the transcript for this story: meditativestory.com

Sign up for the Meditative Story newsletter: https://meditativestory.com/subscribe

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today’s special meditation features a parable from our friends at The One You Feed podcast. If there are two opposing forces working within us, a proverbial good wolf and a bad, how do we foster the positive attributes we’d like to see grow, while keeping the less desirable traits at bay? In celebration of our collaboration with The One You Feed, Rohan leads us through a meditation on how to defang our inner “bad” wolves with compassion, and embody the positive qualities we’d like to cultivate.  

Listen to Rohan’s appearance on The One You Feed: https://www.oneyoufeed.net/how-to-embrace-mindfulness-in-everyday-life/

If this episode resonates with you, we’d love to hear from you. Please take a moment to share your reflections by rating and reviewing Meditative Story in your podcast player. It helps other listeners find their way to show, and we’d be so grateful.

Each episode of Meditative Story combines the emotional pull of first-person storytelling with immersive music and gentle mindfulness prompts. Read the transcript for this story: meditativestory.com

Sign up for the Meditative Story newsletter: https://meditativestory.com/subscribe

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Silvia Vasquez-Lavado is the first openly lesbian woman to climb the famous Seven Summits, a bucket list of the highest mountain on every continent. But while preparing for the seventh summit, a peak that has eluded her climb after climb, she realizes that she can’t charge forward with the same conquering mentality. Denali — the highest mountain peak in North America — leads her to discover the importance of self-compassion over the desire for conquest when dealing with life’s greatest obstacles.

You can purchase her new memoir, In the Shadow of the Mountain, which further explores her journey to the Seven Summits and the trauma that it unpacks, here: https://amzn.to/3uaJh2b

Each episode of Meditative Story combines the emotional pull of first-person storytelling with immersive music and gentle mindfulness prompts. Read the transcript for this story at: www.meditativestory.com

Sign up for the Meditative Story newsletter: https://meditativestory.com/subscribe

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Throughout his life, pastry chef Duff Goldman — best known for his long-running Food Network show Ace of Cakes — is driven by his desire to make things and see them out in the world. As chef, painter, woodworker, and musician, he strives to deliver a visceral sensation with his art that is sometimes hard to express in words. This week, Duff shares the story of how the things we create often communicate our thoughts and feelings more clearly than spoken language ever could.

Find Duff on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Amazon

If this story resonates with you, we’d love to hear from you. Please take a moment to share your reflections by rating and reviewing Meditative Story in your podcast player. It helps other listeners find their way to show, and we’d be so grateful.

Each episode of Meditative Story combines the emotional pull of first-person storytelling with immersive music and gentle mindfulness prompts. Read the transcript for this story: meditativestory.com

Sign up for the Meditative Story newsletter: https://meditativestory.com/subscribe

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Garrett McNamara is a legend in the surfing world who’s ridden some of the biggest waves on the planet. To maintain his surfing career, Garrett spends all his time and energy chasing the next big swell. But when he unexpectedly gets knocked off his board, he has to step away from doing the thing that makes him the happiest. He tells the story of how he learns to embrace all the moments life has to offer, rather than always chasing the next wave.

Find out more about Garrett and the McNamara Foundation: https://www.garrettmcnamara.com

Find Garrett on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mcnamara_s/?hl=en

If this episode resonates with you, we’d love to hear from you. Please take a moment to share your reflections by rating and reviewing Meditative Story in your podcast player. It helps other listeners find their way to show, and we’d be so grateful.

Each episode of Meditative Story combines the emotional pull of first-person storytelling with immersive music and gentle mindfulness prompts. Read the transcript for this story: meditativestory.com

Sign up for the Meditative Story newsletter: https://meditativestory.com/subscribe

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

By the time Sharon Salzberg is 16 years old, she knows the people around her don’t admit to suffering, much less talk about it. A year later, she makes a life-changing decision to travel alone to India to study meditation. It doesn’t all go as expected. Through the journey’s disappointments, discomforts, and surprise lessons, she finds an unexpected friend: herself. In today’s Meditative Story, Sharon talks about how being kind, especially to herself, became her biggest mountain to climb.

Learn more about Sharon:

Website: sharonsalzberg.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/sharonsalzberg

Twitter: www.twitter.com/sharonsalzberg

Facebook: www.facebook.com/SharonSalzberg

YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/SharonSalzbergVideo

Medium: www.medium.com/@sharonsalzberg

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/sharonsalzberg

If this episode resonates with you, we’d love to hear from you. Please take a moment to share your reflections by rating and reviewing Meditative Story in your podcast player. It helps other listeners find their way to show, and we’d be so grateful.

Each episode of Meditative Story combines the emotional pull of first-person storytelling with immersive music and gentle mindfulness prompts. Read the transcript for this story: meditativestory.com

Sign up for the Meditative Story newsletter: https://meditativestory.com/subscribe

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The many highs of Tig Notaro’s comedy career (Emmy and Grammy nominations, creating TV shows, and hosting the “Don’t Ask Tig” podcast) may seem predestined. Yet these are all things that seem beyond the realm of possibility for young Tig. In the early 2000s she’s told that because she’s a woman, and she’s gay, and she’s low-key and deadpan, she’ll never make it. Today, she shares the story of how she learns to keep going, no matter how impossible the road may seem, and to remember that there’s no one way to get somewhere.

Listen to Michael Imperioli's Meditative Story, "Michael Imperioli: having the courage to create": https://listen.meditativestory.com/MichaelImperioliPIO

Find Tig’s tour dates: tignotaro.com

Listen to Tig’s podcast, Don’t Ask Tig: dontasktig.org and

Listen to Tig's podcast True Story: headgum.com/tig-and-cheryl-true-story

Follow Tig on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TigNotaro

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therealfluffnotaro/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tignotarocomedy/

If this story resonates with you, we’d love to hear from you. Please take a moment to share your reflections by rating and reviewing Meditative Story in your podcast player. It helps other listeners find their way to show, and we’d be so grateful.

Each episode of Meditative Story combines the emotional pull of first-person storytelling with immersive music and gentle mindfulness prompts. Read the transcript for this story: meditativestory.com

Sign up for the Meditative Story newsletter: https://meditativestory.com/subscribe

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

From the outside, Niall Breslin — known by legions of Irish fans as Bressie — appears to have led a charmed life. He’s had a professional Rugby career, achieved national stardom as a musician, and been a coach on The Voice of Ireland. But behind all those achievements lies Niall’s struggle with repressed emotions and generations of unresolved pain. In this week’s Meditative Story, Bressie shares how he learned to embrace the parts of himself he once buried. The parts that showed him how to heal and led him to become one of Ireland’s leading mental health advocates.

Listen to Henry Shukman's Meditative Story "What deep listening unlocks for me": https://listen.meditativestory.com/HenryShukmanPIO

Find out more about Bressie: https://www.niallbreslin.com/

Follow Bressie on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bressie/

Discover Niall’s podcast, Where is my mind: https://lemonadamedia.com/show/where-is-my-mind/#!

Learn about Bressie's mental health charity, Lust for Life: https://www.alustforlife.com

If this episode resonates with you, we’d love to hear from you. Please take a moment to share your reflections by rating and reviewing Meditative Story in your podcast player. It helps other listeners find their way to show, and we’d be so grateful.

Each episode of Meditative Story combines the emotional pull of first-person storytelling with immersive music and gentle mindfulness prompts. Read the transcript for this story: meditativestory.com

Sign up for the Meditative Story newsletter: https://meditativestory.com/subscribe

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In today’s Meditation, Rohan reflects on the theme of creating calm, inside and out. Please join us in applying some simple practices to help balance our outer and inner worlds.

This year, we’re again marking Mental Health Awareness Month, an important campaign started by Mental Health America all the way back in 1949. The position of mental health and mental illness in our cultures has changed so much in those seventy odd years, but despite that change there still remains issues such as stigma, access to care and finding the right kind of support at the right time. Today’s meditation originates from the theme of this year’s campaign, Look Around, Look Within.

For more information on this year’s Mental Health Awareness Month campaign, Look Around, Look Within, please visit Mental Health America’s website: https://mhanational.org

Tools and resources for organizations, businesses and individuals: https://mhanational.org/mental-health-month

We’d love to hear your tips and insights for creating harmony between our external and internal environments. Please send your thoughts to [email protected]. We’ll then share back some of your ideas with the Meditative Story community later this month!

Each episode of Meditative Story combines the emotional pull of first-person storytelling with immersive music and gentle mindfulness prompts. Read the transcript for this story: meditativestory.com

Sign up for the Meditative Story newsletter: https://meditativestory.com/subscribe

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.