A single breath can reset your whole day. We explore how to build steady attention by feeling one complete cycle of breathing—inhale, pause, exhale, pause—while softening the shoulders, easing the jaw, and letting judgment fall away. The practice is short, portable, and honest: no special gear, no perfect posture, just a relaxed yet alert stance and a willingness to notice what’s already happening in your body.

We start by setting up a supportive posture and tuning into contact points—feet on the floor, seat on the chair, hand on the belly—to make awareness tactile rather than abstract. From there, we shift into mindful breathing, tracking the visceral sensations that mark each phase of the breath. Instead of forcing a pace, we invite natural rhythm and curiosity, treating distractions and judgments as passing events. This small act of returning to the breath strengthens focus, regulates the nervous system, and builds emotional clarity without turning mindfulness into another performance.

Practicality takes center stage. You can bring this one-cycle practice into real life: on a commute, while cooking dinner, waiting in line, or winding down for sleep. As you repeat it, continuity of attention grows, stress spikes resolve more quickly, and everyday decisions feel simpler because you’re grounded in the present moment. We close by pointing to future tools that will layer onto this foundation—ways to broaden attention through the senses and make mindful awareness even more resilient throughout the week.

Want more practices like this? Follow the show, share this episode with a friend who could use a reset, and leave a quick review so others can find these simple, effective tools. Your breath is always with you—let it bring you back.

🖤 Black Friday Sale: Get our biggest discounts of the year on all mindfulness trainings: https://mindfulnessexercises.com/premium-mindfulness-meditation-trainings/

Support the show

Coupon code and the link are down below, but that will expire shortly
Feel free to text me at 415-939-1126

Certify To Teach Mindfulness & Meditation

Since 2015, we've trained over 2,000 people to teach mindfulness in healthcare, business, education, yoga, sports teams, and the U.S. Government.

⁠⁠⁠⁠MindfulnessExercises.com/certify⁠⁠⁠⁠

Certify At Your Own Pace: Just complete 40 hours of self-paced meditation + online workbook completion with lifetime access to personalized support.

Deepen Your Own Mindful Presence: Whatever your starting place is, we will help you deepen your own embodied, experiential understanding.

Teach With Integrity & Authenticity: We help you find your unique voice to make mindfulness relevant and practical for your own students or clients.

Receive International Accreditation: Trusted by Fortune 500 companies, international healthcare centers, coaching schools, and the U.S. Government.

Boost Your Career: Use our templates to quickly form your own paid mindfulness courses, workshops, keynotes or coaching packages.

20% BLACK FRIDAY COUPON CODE: PODCAST

What if narrowing your attention could make your daily life feel wider, calmer, and more vivid? We dive into the practical craft of concentration and show how a single, steady focus becomes the quiet engine behind reliable mindfulness. Rather than forcing the mind, we build a friendly runway—gladdening the mind with gratitude and warmth—so attention settles without strain and the nervous system knows it is safe to rest.

We walk through concrete anchors that meet different temperaments: counting exhales in simple cycles, sensing breath at the belly or nostrils, receiving whatever sound arrives, or repeating short phrases of loving kindness. You’ll hear why long stretches of silence matter during counting, how to restart at one without self-judgment, and what “relaxed steadiness” feels like when you’re doing it right. Along the way, we unpack clear metaphors: the adjustable flashlight that moves from wide-open awareness to a narrow beam, the body scan as a midpoint on the spectrum, and breath mindfulness as a flexible practice that can widen for strong emotions before returning to the anchor.

By the end, you’ll understand when to choose pure concentration, when to lean into broader mindfulness, and how both interlock to create durable presence. Expect grounded tips on posture, effort, and self-talk, plus a compassionate take on distraction that turns each lapse into a cue to return. If you’ve struggled to keep attention from slipping, this conversation offers a simple blueprint you can use today to stabilize focus and carry that clarity into work, relationships, and rest.

If this resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend who’s building a practice, and leave a quick review—tell us which anchor worked best for you and why.

🖤 Black Friday Sale: Get our biggest discounts of the year on all mindfulness trainings: https://mindfulnessexercises.com/premium-mindfulness-meditation-trainings/

Support the show

Coupon code and the link are down below, but that will expire shortly
Feel free to text me at 415-939-1126

Certify To Teach Mindfulness & Meditation

Since 2015, we've trained over 2,000 people to teach mindfulness in healthcare, business, education, yoga, sports teams, and the U.S. Government.

⁠⁠⁠⁠MindfulnessExercises.com/certify⁠⁠⁠⁠

Certify At Your Own Pace: Just complete 40 hours of self-paced meditation + online workbook completion with lifetime access to personalized support.

Deepen Your Own Mindful Presence: Whatever your starting place is, we will help you deepen your own embodied, experiential understanding.

Teach With Integrity & Authenticity: We help you find your unique voice to make mindfulness relevant and practical for your own students or clients.

Receive International Accreditation: Trusted by Fortune 500 companies, international healthcare centers, coaching schools, and the U.S. Government.

Boost Your Career: Use our templates to quickly form your own paid mindfulness courses, workshops, keynotes or coaching packages.

20% BLACK FRIDAY COUPON CODE: PODCAST

A quiet room, a slower week, and a simple question that matters: what truly makes someone ready to teach mindfulness? While recovering from COVID, I took time to reflect on the difference between healthy hesitation and unhelpful overconfidence—and why the best teachers often start from humility rather than hype.

We walk through a practical rule of thumb shared by senior mindfulness teachers: when invited to teach, thoughtful caution can signal integrity, while quick certainty can reveal a mismatch in motivation. I dig into what that looks like in real life—respect for lineage and evidence-based methods, eagerness to keep learning, and the willingness to prioritize student welfare over personal status. We explore how ego can slip into the role through grand promises or a rush to scale, and how that energy often reduces connection, sensitivity, and care.

From there, we center the motivation that sustains good teaching: compassion. If the driving force is to help people navigate stress, anxiety, and pain with presence and kindness, the teacher’s stance becomes service rather than performance. That intention shapes everything—language, pacing, trauma-informed choices, and the quiet discipline of ongoing practice. I share simple readiness checks you can use before stepping onto the path: Are you open to mentorship? Are you patient with your development? Do you feel tenderness for the teachings themselves and for those you hope to serve?

If you feel called to teach, let your caution be a doorway, not a barrier. Let compassion lead and let the integrity of the teachings guide your next steps. Listen now, share with a friend who’s considering teacher training, and leave a review to tell me what keeps your motivation clear.

🖤 Black Friday Sale: Get our biggest discounts of the year on all mindfulness trainings: https://mindfulnessexercises.com/premium-mindfulness-meditation-trainings/

Support the show

Coupon code and the link are down below, but that will expire shortly
Feel free to text me at 415-939-1126

Certify To Teach Mindfulness & Meditation

Since 2015, we've trained over 2,000 people to teach mindfulness in healthcare, business, education, yoga, sports teams, and the U.S. Government.

⁠⁠⁠⁠MindfulnessExercises.com/certify⁠⁠⁠⁠

Certify At Your Own Pace: Just complete 40 hours of self-paced meditation + online workbook completion with lifetime access to personalized support.

Deepen Your Own Mindful Presence: Whatever your starting place is, we will help you deepen your own embodied, experiential understanding.

Teach With Integrity & Authenticity: We help you find your unique voice to make mindfulness relevant and practical for your own students or clients.

Receive International Accreditation: Trusted by Fortune 500 companies, international healthcare centers, coaching schools, and the U.S. Government.

Boost Your Career: Use our templates to quickly form your own paid mindfulness courses, workshops, keynotes or coaching packages.

20% BLACK FRIDAY COUPON CODE: PODCAST

Pressure doesn’t have to crush you; it can refine you. George Mumford—renowned mindfulness teacher to championship teams and communities far from the spotlight—joins us for a deeply practical journey through presence, performance, and the courage to be yourself. We open with a simple “arriving” practice that resets the nervous system, then build on the five superpowers that underpin lasting change: right effort, concentration, insight, trust, and mindfulness. George is clear-eyed about motivation—you can’t force anyone to want it—and generous with strategies for planting seeds so readiness can take root.

We push into the mechanics of flow without the hype. Flow isn’t hunted; it’s prepared for. George unpacks challenge–skill balance, why 4 percent beyond comfort is a sweet spot for growth, and how the cycle of struggle, release, flow, and rest creates a new normal. He shares stories from prisons and pro locker rooms where a single sound becomes a mindfulness bell and reactivity loosens. Emotions aren’t obstacles but information; using awareness, acceptance, compassionate action, and assessment, we learn to channel energy without identification. The result is strong self-efficacy—confidence built from mastering difficulty—that makes persistence possible when feedback is thin.

For teachers and leaders, George offers a map for finding your voice: emulate early, then listen for the path of heart and let daily life be your retreat. Create pockets of stillness, read widely, lean on suitable conversation, and keep integrity front and center—right view, right intention, right speech, right action. Do good, avoid harm, purify the heart-mind. Simple, not easy, but repeatable. If you’re ready to trade “chilling” for willing, to stretch by 4 percent and let practice ripple into work, family, and team, this one will stay with you.

If this conversation sparked something, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review to help others find the show. Want to go deeper with George? Explore the Mindful Athlete Course and join the next Q&A.

🖤 Black Friday Sale: Get our biggest discounts of the year on all mindfulness trainings: https://mindfulnessexercises.com/premium-mindfulness-meditation-trainings/

Support the show

Coupon code and the link are down below, but that will expire shortly
Feel free to text me at 415-939-1126

Certify To Teach Mindfulness & Meditation

Since 2015, we've trained over 2,000 people to teach mindfulness in healthcare, business, education, yoga, sports teams, and the U.S. Government.

⁠⁠⁠⁠MindfulnessExercises.com/certify⁠⁠⁠⁠

Certify At Your Own Pace: Just complete 40 hours of self-paced meditation + online workbook completion with lifetime access to personalized support.

Deepen Your Own Mindful Presence: Whatever your starting place is, we will help you deepen your own embodied, experiential understanding.

Teach With Integrity & Authenticity: We help you find your unique voice to make mindfulness relevant and practical for your own students or clients.

Receive International Accreditation: Trusted by Fortune 500 companies, international healthcare centers, coaching schools, and the U.S. Government.

Boost Your Career: Use our templates to quickly form your own paid mindfulness courses, workshops, keynotes or coaching packages.

20% BLACK FRIDAY COUPON CODE: PODCAST

We share simple, grounded ways to feel anger, sadness, depression, and fear without judgment, then channel that energy into healing and meaningful action. We also invite you to a live online retreat with practices, Q&A, and resources to support resilience.

• naming natural emotions after a public tragedy
• why feeling is essential for healing
• mindful steps for anger, sadness, depression, fear
• opening within your window of tolerance
• resources from Sharon Salzberg, Gabor Maté, Rick Hanson
• live retreat schedule, format, and accessibility
• discounts, bonuses, and certificates of completion
• texting for personal guidance and links to trainings

Coupon code and the link are down below, but that will expire shortly
Feel free to text me at 415-939-1126

🖤 Black Friday Sale: Get our biggest discounts of the year on all mindfulness trainings: https://mindfulnessexercises.com/premium-mindfulness-meditation-trainings/

Support the show

Coupon code and the link are down below, but that will expire shortly
Feel free to text me at 415-939-1126

Certify To Teach Mindfulness & Meditation

Since 2015, we've trained over 2,000 people to teach mindfulness in healthcare, business, education, yoga, sports teams, and the U.S. Government.

⁠⁠⁠⁠MindfulnessExercises.com/certify⁠⁠⁠⁠

Certify At Your Own Pace: Just complete 40 hours of self-paced meditation + online workbook completion with lifetime access to personalized support.

Deepen Your Own Mindful Presence: Whatever your starting place is, we will help you deepen your own embodied, experiential understanding.

Teach With Integrity & Authenticity: We help you find your unique voice to make mindfulness relevant and practical for your own students or clients.

Receive International Accreditation: Trusted by Fortune 500 companies, international healthcare centers, coaching schools, and the U.S. Government.

Boost Your Career: Use our templates to quickly form your own paid mindfulness courses, workshops, keynotes or coaching packages.

20% BLACK FRIDAY COUPON CODE: PODCAST

Your mind drifts the moment you sit to breathe, and that’s not a problem to fix—it’s the raw material of practice. We unpack why a healthy brain loves to roam, how the default mode network fuels both distraction and creativity, and why chasing an empty mind sets you up for frustration. Instead of fighting thoughts, we show you how to work with them using a simple cycle: notice, note, and return.

We walk through grounded metaphors that make mindfulness feel tangible: watching thoughts float past like leaves on a river, resting as the open sky while weather moves through, and standing on the platform as trains arrive and depart. These images help loosen the pull of story so you can see thoughts as passing events rather than orders you must obey. From there, we hone practical skills—finding a vivid breath anchor, starting with five consistent minutes, and sitting with an upright, relaxed posture that supports calm alertness.

The heart of the message is kindness. Self‑criticism after a lapse is just another distraction; gentleness shortens the time it takes to return. Every return to the breath is a repetition that strengthens awareness, and the moment you realize you’ve wandered is the moment you succeed. Over time, this builds a quieter nervous system, less reactivity, and a clearer choice point in daily life. If you’re ready to stop wrestling with your mind and start training it with patience, this conversation offers tools you can use today.

If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a friend who’s struggling to “quiet the mind,” and leave a quick review to help others find these practices. Your words make a real difference.

🖤 Black Friday Sale: Get our biggest discounts of the year on all mindfulness trainings: https://mindfulnessexercises.com/premium-mindfulness-meditation-trainings/

Support the show

Coupon code and the link are down below, but that will expire shortly
Feel free to text me at 415-939-1126

Certify To Teach Mindfulness & Meditation

Since 2015, we've trained over 2,000 people to teach mindfulness in healthcare, business, education, yoga, sports teams, and the U.S. Government.

⁠⁠⁠⁠MindfulnessExercises.com/certify⁠⁠⁠⁠

Certify At Your Own Pace: Just complete 40 hours of self-paced meditation + online workbook completion with lifetime access to personalized support.

Deepen Your Own Mindful Presence: Whatever your starting place is, we will help you deepen your own embodied, experiential understanding.

Teach With Integrity & Authenticity: We help you find your unique voice to make mindfulness relevant and practical for your own students or clients.

Receive International Accreditation: Trusted by Fortune 500 companies, international healthcare centers, coaching schools, and the U.S. Government.

Boost Your Career: Use our templates to quickly form your own paid mindfulness courses, workshops, keynotes or coaching packages.

20% BLACK FRIDAY COUPON CODE: PODCAST

Anne Cushman explores how mindfulness and creativity feed each other through guided practices, research insights, and lived stories. We trade perfection for presence, play with color and movement, and learn to follow the thread of aliveness into honest work.

• opening space through breath and softening
• honoring life as inherently creative
• reconciling the teacher and the artist selves
• lessons from Spirit Rock creativity retreats
• research on focus, divergence and resilience
• embodiment as the foundation for art
• quick sensory writing to prime awareness
• emotions as fuel and material for making
• movement meditation to trust inner impulse
• lowering standards to escape perfectionism
• visiting scary edges with care and consent
• mandala drawing practice within a circle
• “I am” free writing to outrun the critic
• process over product as a creative ethic

Find her at AnneCushman.com. She oftens lead half day and day longs online, which combine meditation and creative writing and movement

🖤 Black Friday Sale: Get our biggest discounts of the year on all mindfulness trainings: https://mindfulnessexercises.com/premium-mindfulness-meditation-trainings/

Support the show

Coupon code and the link are down below, but that will expire shortly
Feel free to text me at 415-939-1126

Certify To Teach Mindfulness & Meditation

Since 2015, we've trained over 2,000 people to teach mindfulness in healthcare, business, education, yoga, sports teams, and the U.S. Government.

⁠⁠⁠⁠MindfulnessExercises.com/certify⁠⁠⁠⁠

Certify At Your Own Pace: Just complete 40 hours of self-paced meditation + online workbook completion with lifetime access to personalized support.

Deepen Your Own Mindful Presence: Whatever your starting place is, we will help you deepen your own embodied, experiential understanding.

Teach With Integrity & Authenticity: We help you find your unique voice to make mindfulness relevant and practical for your own students or clients.

Receive International Accreditation: Trusted by Fortune 500 companies, international healthcare centers, coaching schools, and the U.S. Government.

Boost Your Career: Use our templates to quickly form your own paid mindfulness courses, workshops, keynotes or coaching packages.

20% BLACK FRIDAY COUPON CODE: PODCAST

We explore a nuanced look at mindfulness: its benefits, the ethics behind how it is taught, and the critiques around commercialization and depoliticisation. William Edelglass helps us test the line between personal practice and social change with clear questions, research, and examples.

• Angela Davis’s question about mindfulness and injustice
• critiques of commodification and the mindfulness industrial complex
• instrumental use versus ethically grounded practice
• popularity of apps, corporate programs, and military adoption
• research on well-being, emotion regulation, and limits
• risks of individualising distress without systemic change
• reconnecting practice to Buddhist ethics and social responsibility
• trauma-informed design, consent, and community support
• practical ways to teach with integrity and context
• invitation to share perspectives and join deeper study

Join our mindfulness teacher certification program at mindfulnessercises.com/certify to deepen your practice and discover your authentic voice
Give a five star review or share this with friends so that we can help others

🖤 Black Friday Sale: Get our biggest discounts of the year on all mindfulness trainings: https://mindfulnessexercises.com/premium-mindfulness-meditation-trainings/

Support the show

Coupon code and the link are down below, but that will expire shortly
Feel free to text me at 415-939-1126

Certify To Teach Mindfulness & Meditation

Since 2015, we've trained over 2,000 people to teach mindfulness in healthcare, business, education, yoga, sports teams, and the U.S. Government.

⁠⁠⁠⁠MindfulnessExercises.com/certify⁠⁠⁠⁠

Certify At Your Own Pace: Just complete 40 hours of self-paced meditation + online workbook completion with lifetime access to personalized support.

Deepen Your Own Mindful Presence: Whatever your starting place is, we will help you deepen your own embodied, experiential understanding.

Teach With Integrity & Authenticity: We help you find your unique voice to make mindfulness relevant and practical for your own students or clients.

Receive International Accreditation: Trusted by Fortune 500 companies, international healthcare centers, coaching schools, and the U.S. Government.

Boost Your Career: Use our templates to quickly form your own paid mindfulness courses, workshops, keynotes or coaching packages.

20% BLACK FRIDAY COUPON CODE: PODCAST

The ground keeps moving, but our old habits try to pretend nothing has changed. In this mini episode, James Baraz talks honestly about what this moment is saying to us: we’re not separate, our choices echo, and we can learn to respond with more care than fear. 

James Baraz's website: https://www.awakeningjoy.info/

Starting with a simple practice—paying attention—we trace how mindfulness exposes the threads that bind our lives together, from family routines to global supply chains. 

When you feel those threads, John Muir’s idea that everything is hitched to everything else stops being a quote and becomes a compass.

From there we explore a handful of principles that travel well across crises and calm alike. 

Actions have consequences—call it karma or cause and effect—and that truth invites more deliberate choices at work, at home, and in public life. Integrity is not a moral badge; it’s the felt ease of living one story instead of juggling two. 

Stewardship shows up as everyday compassion, the kind that checks in on neighbors, protects shared resources, and invests in long horizons. And change, while hard, becomes probable when intention outweighs inertia.

 James talks about that tipping point and how a clear why turns into practical habits that actually stick.

These stories help us see our agency: the power to align values with action and to widen our circle of concern without burning out. Mindfulness ties it all together as a gateway to clarity — creating just enough pause to interrupt reactivity, meet complexity, and choose the next right step.

If this conversation resonates, share it with someone who’s ready to lead with care. Subscribe for more grounded, practical insights, and leave a review to tell us which principle you’re practicing this week.

🖤 Black Friday Sale: Get our biggest discounts of the year on all mindfulness trainings: https://mindfulnessexercises.com/premium-mindfulness-meditation-trainings/

Support the show

Coupon code and the link are down below, but that will expire shortly
Feel free to text me at 415-939-1126

Certify To Teach Mindfulness & Meditation

Since 2015, we've trained over 2,000 people to teach mindfulness in healthcare, business, education, yoga, sports teams, and the U.S. Government.

⁠⁠⁠⁠MindfulnessExercises.com/certify⁠⁠⁠⁠

Certify At Your Own Pace: Just complete 40 hours of self-paced meditation + online workbook completion with lifetime access to personalized support.

Deepen Your Own Mindful Presence: Whatever your starting place is, we will help you deepen your own embodied, experiential understanding.

Teach With Integrity & Authenticity: We help you find your unique voice to make mindfulness relevant and practical for your own students or clients.

Receive International Accreditation: Trusted by Fortune 500 companies, international healthcare centers, coaching schools, and the U.S. Government.

Boost Your Career: Use our templates to quickly form your own paid mindfulness courses, workshops, keynotes or coaching packages.

20% BLACK FRIDAY COUPON CODE: PODCAST

We explore mindful self-discipline as a blueprint for freedom, not a joyless grind. Through aspiration, awareness, and action, we show how to beat engineered distraction, strengthen willpower, and make steady progress without shame.

https://mindfulnessexercises.com/podcast

• self-discipline linked to higher happiness and smoother daily life
• attention economy pressures and engineered distraction
• definitions of self-discipline, willpower, habits, motivation
• decision fatigue evidence and belief effects on willpower
• three pillars framework aspiration, awareness, action
• want-to goals versus have-to goals
• PAW method pause, awareness, willpower
• neutrality over shame to sustain energy
• never zero commitment to protect identity and streaks
• reframing choices to align with long-term values
• building empathy with your future self
• the real reward is who you become

Start somewhere. Define one want-to goal, try one PAW pause, or commit to never zero today.

🖤 Black Friday Sale: Get our biggest discounts of the year on all mindfulness trainings: https://mindfulnessexercises.com/premium-mindfulness-meditation-trainings/

Support the show

Coupon code and the link are down below, but that will expire shortly
Feel free to text me at 415-939-1126

Certify To Teach Mindfulness & Meditation

Since 2015, we've trained over 2,000 people to teach mindfulness in healthcare, business, education, yoga, sports teams, and the U.S. Government.

⁠⁠⁠⁠MindfulnessExercises.com/certify⁠⁠⁠⁠

Certify At Your Own Pace: Just complete 40 hours of self-paced meditation + online workbook completion with lifetime access to personalized support.

Deepen Your Own Mindful Presence: Whatever your starting place is, we will help you deepen your own embodied, experiential understanding.

Teach With Integrity & Authenticity: We help you find your unique voice to make mindfulness relevant and practical for your own students or clients.

Receive International Accreditation: Trusted by Fortune 500 companies, international healthcare centers, coaching schools, and the U.S. Government.

Boost Your Career: Use our templates to quickly form your own paid mindfulness courses, workshops, keynotes or coaching packages.

20% BLACK FRIDAY COUPON CODE: PODCAST