Various locations | Jan 2012
These are guided meditations offered to support your practice.
Learn how to infuse your daily practice with love and kindness by cultivating an open attitude of joy and discovery.
In this gently guided meditation, Trudy Goodman expertly shows, step-by-step, how to bring brightness and compassion into every area of your life, beginning with your breath. A master class in discovering the difference between loving self-awareness and a not-so-loving self-surveillance, this guided meditation is designed to be a sunburst of reinvigoration to any student’s practice, from beginning to advanced.
“Breathe with your skin….with your whole being…the aliveness of this present moment”
"Out of the willingness to experience our wild and untamed mind…we begin to discover/uncover the depth inside of the simplicity of just being here.”
In this 35 minute guided MBSR body scan, Senior Teacher Paloma Cain invites you to experience both the surface and deep interiors of your body from the soles of your feet to the micro-muscles of the face. Accompany the soothing sound of her voice as she guides you through this powerful, evidence-based, meditation practice with proven results for promoting serenity, clarity, and non-judgmental awareness in daily life.
Reset your clock and recharge your battery with this soothing lovingkindness meditation. This practice is designed to guide your awareness inward and teach you to tap into the limitless inner reserves of freedom and ease at the center of your being.
Experience the body beyond the breath in this powerful guided meditation. This creative and invigorating practice invites you to re-experience your subtle anatomy as a shimmering field of sensation — a radically new way to anchor yourself in the immediate experience of the here and now.
“There is an immediate experience of sensation - this river of sensation -- and that immediate experience of sensation is where we learn to rest our attention when we are practicing mindfulness of the body.”
Tuck your To-Do List away and press pause on your day by turning your attention inward for twenty five minutes of contemplative calm. No matter how wild the winds, this gently guided meditation will help you soften the rough edges of your present situation, resting in this moment, using your breath as an anchor.
“Sit up straight right in the midst of experience unfolding…moment to moment.”
Make friends with your thinking mind and experience the wondrous mechanics of cognition in a fresh new way in this creative guided experience. Our thinking mind is not a problem or mistake. This instructional meditation will teach you how lean into and follow your thoughts (rather than try to push them away) and rest right in their center. A powerful antidote to judgmental self-surveillance and an indispensable aid for cultivating equanimity.
Equanimity refers to the mind's capacity for finding balance and stability. These meditation instructions are found within the traditional 4 Brahma Vihara teachings on how to cultivate and awaken the boundless heart. In this practice, equanimity is cultivated and nurtured through the use of phrases and wise intention.
Take ten minutes to connect with your breath and realign your body in this light and restorative guided mediation. With characteristic clarity and calm, Senior Teacher Celeste Young gently guides you to rest and relax into the center of your own natural tranquility.
“The moment you notice you’re lost in the mindstream, you’re no longer lost."
Set a deeply personal intention in this gently guided twenty-four minute metta mediation and allow it to ripple through your bodymind like waves in water after a pebble dropped in a pond. This meditation is perfect for those whose inner child may still be bruised or hurting, and is an excellent way to re-connect with your original innocence and tap into your inner reserves of unbounded joy.
“Gather your attention around the intention to cultivate metta in the heart and mind.”
This guided practice is part of the Mindful Self Compassion (MSC) program designed by Chris Germer and Kristin Neff. Learn how to combine the skills of mindfulness and self-compassion to enhance your capacity for emotional wellbeing. Designed to cultivate a deep and organismic connection to the family of things and remind you that you, too, are worthy of compassion and care.
Working with difficult emotions does't have to be difficult. Learn how to soften the serrated edges of your painful past by practicing the three essential skills of softening, soothing, and allowing. With characteristic verve and aplomb, senior teacher Beth Sternblieb shows you how to do just that, and in doing so, teaches you how to create a safe and healing space around threatening memories. A profound and pragmatic lesson in learning to hold yourself with kindness and compassion.
"Locate emotions in the body...feel them being dissolved in warm water….and remember as you soften, you’re not trying to make anything go away….we’re just softening the outer edges because we care.”
“Within this universe is a heart that actually is happiest when it is doing no harm. “
Sink into the floor and let the body go with gravity in this rejuvenative exploration of earthly embodiment. Exploring the elemental symmetries between our organism and environment, Senior Teacher Beth Steinleib transforms the practice of the ordinary body scan into a vibrant grounding in the immediacy of lived experience. A powerful and effective way to connect your flow with the flow.
“Feeling into the bones of the body, the earth element of the body, let the body body rest on the ground like earth."
Cultivate, develop, and strengthen your awareness through the simple act of choosing to pay attention to each breath. This thirty minute plunge into the stillness of the body is the ideal way to do just that. In doing so, you'll discover that offering your best attention to the moment is actually an act of love.
“By offering this time to yourself...to slow into the experience of your own being, you’re expressing your intention to be a better friend to yourself... to learn how to navigate the ups and downs of life with steadiness, with mindfulness, and with deep self respect.”
Learn to love yourself just the way you are. In this aural infusion of healing and light, Founding Teacher Trudy Goodman dissolves any lingering doubt you may have about your metta practice, washing it gently away in the warm water of this reassuring meditation. The perfect place to begin for planting the seeds for a greater capacity to love.
“May you have the inner and outer resources you need to meet each moment as a friend.”
In this somatically balancing guided meditation, Senior Teacher Diana Gould expertly guides your attention to the plurality of subtle body sensations percolating beneath the level of conscious contemplation. A powerful way of bringing awareness to the energetic field of your body, this practice will help deepen and broaden your experience of the Now….and is a technique you can take with you and practice anytime, anywhere.
In this inspired teaching on metta, Senior Teacher Beth Sternlieb explores the architecture of lovingkindness through the cartography of starlight, likening the generation of metta to the light from long-dead stars that still illuminate the Heavens. A moving portrait of the universe and both the inner and outer space that comprise it, this combined talk and guided practice will reframe your understanding of the power of thought and good intention.
“It is actually the wisdom of the intention - NOT the feeling — that is the beauty of the practice.”
“The circles of being that we pray for have their own circles who depend on them and upon whom they are dependent widening out in every direction, all beings, everywhere without exception."