Guided Practices and Meditations 

 

Guided practices and meditations to help pause, enhance your awareness, compassion and gratitude. These were recorded during live online practice sessions with small groups, or recorded spontaneously at my home, which doesn’t have a recording studio 😉

My hope is you’ll be able to hear past the flaws to enjoy the these guided practices and meditations!

 

Noticing (6 minutes)

 

Meditation practice is the practice of paying attention to what is without judgment. So ‘what is’ in this moment could be a thought or a stream of thoughts. It could be a sensation in the body like feeling your back against the chair. It could also be an emotional tone of peace or anxiety, sadness or contentment. And it doesn’t really matter what you’re noticing — the thoughts, the feelings, the sensations — what matters is your ability to just notice without judgment.

 

Gratitude (4 minutes)

 

Often when we feel gratitude the natural response is to want to offer it back or do something to bring kindness to another because we feel grateful for kindness that’s been shown to us.

 

Embodied Compassion (9 minutes)

 

Stability is the quality of compassion that when confronted with suffering does not move but stays put. It stays rooted. It’s the quality that arises when we notice other people feeling anxiety or stress around us and we become more present and more stable.

Spaciousness is the quality of compassion that is non-judgmental. So in this spacious quality any experience is ok — negative emotions, positive emotions, difficult interactions, easy interactions — it’s all ok. Spaciousness is that quality of compassion that has plenty of room to hold any experience.

Warmth is the quality of compassion that is nurturing like getting a hug from someone that you care about. That feeling of warm connection you have a really good conversation or a good laugh with someone.

I first learned a version of this practice from Kelly McGonigal, PhD.

 

Tonglen (23 minutes)

 

Tonglen is an incredibly powerful Tibetan Buddhist compassion practice that increases our capacity to stay resourceful when confronted with the negativity or suffering of others. I’ve written about Tonglen here and here.