Just Sit: The Mindful15 Guided Meditations

Episode 79 (Part 1 in the Compassion series) - I hope I don’t need to work very hard to convince you that compassion is a desirable thing. Compassion causes you to treat others with respect and help them when they’re in distress. Compassion makes you feel good, because you have fewer negative reactions to others and you get satisfaction from being able to contribute to their well-being. It also helps you solve problems; when you care about others, you opt to partner with them instead of opposing them, and that typically results in more effective solutions.

Episode 75 - Have you taken an unplanned break in your meditation routine? Are you looking to get back on track? Here’s how to go about it successfully.

Episode 74 - Sometimes, meditation feels like a struggle, but the points where we feel challenged are typically the best opportunities for growth in our practice. I know, if I’m feeling restless, bored, upset, frustrated… there’s something I need to learn to accept, something to which I need to apply non-judgemental awareness.

Episode 73 - When you notice a thought arising during meditation, you are coached to let go of that thought and return your attention to the breath. But, this is easier said than done, especially on days when your mind is very active. I have an alternative to struggling with your busy mind.

Episode 72 - I have a feeling that some will look at today’s episode title and scoff. They’ll think, “I already know how to meditate.” I hope you’ll give this episode just a little time, though. I believe it’s worthwhile to review basics now and again, because over time, it’s easy to become rigid about how to practice correctly, and this rigidity can get in the way or practicing successfully.

Episode 70 - At the end of some of my guided meditations, I coax you to set an intention to take your mindful state of mind with you as you move from the meditation into the rest of your day. But, why bother? Because setting an intention helps to lead you where you want to go.

Episode 69 - When we set goals, we often look ahead to the finish line. We determine what we want to achieve and give ourselves a deadline by which we should achieve it. For example, your goal might be, “I want to establish a meditation habit by the end of this month.” Sometimes, we don’t even give ourselves a deadline in the future. We just expect ourselves to enact the behaviour immediately, e.g., “I am going to meditate every day.” When we fail to achieve our goal by the deadline, chances are good we’ll give up.

Episode 68 - We’ve talked about how to improve willpower, how to create a habit and apply flexibility when troubleshooting your habit-building plan. But, we’re not done yet. I firmly believe, if you’re meditation goal matters, you should use every success-promoting tool you can find. Today, I’m sharing another of my favourites: visualization for overcoming obstacles. This technique can help you anticipate obstacles, plan strategies to deal with them, and mentally practice those strategies to boost your chances at success.

Episode 66 - In last week’s episode, I gave you some tips for boosting your willpower so you could reach your meditation goal, or any self-improvement goal for that matter. Today, I want to describe a method that takes willpower out of the equation altogether.

Episode 65 - It’s time to begin crafting your new year’s resolutions. Or, maybe you don’t ever make them. Today’s episode, however, is not specifically about new year’s resolutions. It’s about reaching your self-improvement goals at any time of the year. Of course, on Mindful15, I make the assumption that your goals involve meditation, but the discussion here can be applied to any kind of goal setting initiative.

Episode 64 - Do you ever have trouble sleeping? Do you find yourself lying in bed with thoughts of the day churning in your mind? A mindful evening routine can help calm your mind and improve your sleep quality.

Episode 63 - If you’re like me, the minute you force yourself out of bed your mind begins to race with thoughts about the day. Not just any thoughts. My mind goes right into problem-solving mode, imagining all the things that will come up to challenge me during the day and preparing to do battle against them. It’s not the most peaceful way to start the day, but there’s a reason why it happens.

Episode 60 (Part 1 of the Meditation Misconceptions series) - Monkey mind is a common metaphor for the wildly busy thoughts we sometimes experience during meditation. If your meditation practice is still young, you may find yourself struggling to calm your thoughts, but there’s something mature meditators know that you don’t: Monkey mind is not a problem to be solved.

Episode 59 - I have a friend who loved to slip into daydreams while meditating. She told her meditation teacher that she noticed she was being distracted by daydreams, but chose to keep daydreaming because it was so pleasant. The teacher said that was well and good if my friend intended to strengthen her daydreaming skills, but didn’t help much if she intended to build meditation skills.

Episode 58 (Part 3 of the Acceptance series) - My husband and I spend a lot of time in Canadian Rocky Mountains. He’s an amature wildlife photographer (you’ve seen some of his photos on Mindful15.com). People who see his pics often ask “How do you see so much wildlife? I go to Jasper all the time and I never see anything.” His response: “You’re driving too fast.” It takes a long time, and a lot of bad photos, to get one good bear picture. To catch something wonderful and rare, you have to slow down and look carefully.

Episode 57 (Part 2 of the Acceptance series) - The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently released a report recommending an attempt to limit warming to 1.5℃ instead of the previously recommended 2℃. The mainstream media have presented this report in a startling way, reporting that we have only 12 years to limit warming before the effects are too large to manage. My concern with this reporting is I see it generating depression, anxiety, fear and overwhelm and, as a consequence, many are concluding that there’s no hope.

Episode 54 - Am I doing this right? I don’t think I’m capable of meditating. I can’t calm my mind. Maybe this isn’t worth the effort -- It’s natural for beginners to have some doubts about their meditation practice. Even seasoned meditators can experience periods of self-doubt.

Episode 52 - Establishing a steady meditation habit is often the most challenging part of meditation. Until the habit is well established, it’s common to experience days when you just don’t feel like meditating. Today I’m going to give you simple method for getting past this common obstacle.

Episode 50 - Today I want to answer a question about meditation posture submitted by one of our biggest supporters, Brendan.

Episode 49 - So, it’s not like I go around broadcasting to one and all that I’m a meditation teacher, but whenever the topic comes up in conversation, there’s a good chance that someone will say to me, “yeah, I should meditate, but [insert excuse here].” What about you? Do you think you should meditate more?