Our host is engaged in a Thanksgiving project, which is eliciting as much irrepressible joy and gratitude in her as she expresses for her radio broadcast. Tune in to hear what has her so unbelievably excited; and engage in a meditation designed to foster happy thanks living.

No need to wait for everything to be going our way in order to be grateful. When we include taking inventory of things to appreciate, as part of our spiritual practice, we unearth a pile of previously unnoticed blessings for which to give thanks.

We’re focused on cultivating gratitude in this month’s Practice Project, so what better way to get started than with a thanksgiving celebration of our own. Special guest Sarah McLean returns to help us celebrate six years on the air. And, while she’s at it,  she inspires us with unexpected ways to stay appreciative.

In the previous episode, we heard from author and former Buddhist monk Stephan Bodian about the benefits of cultivating awareness. In this final Practice Project for October, he returns as we investigate whether there may be more beyond mindfulness.

The lyrics of an old movie soundtrack say love and marriage go together like a horse and carriage. So, too, do mindfulness and stillness. During the meditation in part three of this month’s Practice Project, author Stephan Bodian officiates the happy marriage of blissful stillness and present moment awareness.

Your mother was right when she encouraged you to sit up straight. In this Practice Project, focused on cultivating awareness, we pay attention to our seated posture—on and off the mat.

Are you someone who goes through your days on autopilot, relentlessly clinging to the comfortable and familiar? Our host’s intention for this episode—and indeed the entire Practice Project for the month of October, on Cultivating Awareness—is to bring attention to those habitual ways of being and nudge you out of predictability.

Our host knows firsthand the restorative benefits of putting one’s feet up for a quick rest when feeling overwhelmed or stressed. However, when she recently signed up for a new yoga class she didn’t expect the whole class would be about chilling out on the mat! During this episode’s meditation, special guest Anita Bailey coaxes us into gentle postures to help us repose in stillness too.

We’re in a contemplative mood for this episode’s Practice Project with special guest Carolyne Mathlin, who teaches us how to unhook from thoughts and images and, through the art of Centering Prayer, meander to that place of stillness within, where we experience God Presence beyond all words.

We’re easing ourselves into the Touching the Stillness September Practice Project with two practitioners of the Blue Mountain Center of Meditation; who guide us on how to talk our way into a quiet place using a “mantram,” poem, or psalm of prayer.