Andres Gonzales is the co-founder of the Holistic Life Foundation and for the past 16 years, he has taught yoga to diverse populations around the world ranging from Baltimore City public schools to mental health facilities. He has also partnered with John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Health and the Penn State’s Prevention Research Center on a Stress and Relaxation Study. This week, Andres Gonzales shares a breathing meditation to help you activate your vagus nerve and enter a state of relaxation.

A Practice to Activate Your Vagus Nerve with Andres Gonzales

This week, Mindful’s founding editor Barry Boyce leads a "touch and go" practice. In this practice, we're not trying to deal with the issues in our thoughts or with the difficult emotions that might be arising. There's nothing to solve. There's nothing to change. Instead, we're spending time with our mind in this way, and over time, our thoughts can become more transparent and have less power over us because we're fighting with them less.&nbsp; Show notes: Find more from Barry Boyce here: &nbsp; Find Barry’s course, Come As You Are, here: &nbsp; And more from Mindful here:  And find more from Mindful at mindful.org and on our conversation podcast, Real Mindful. Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing .

12 Minute Meditation: A "Touch and Go" Practice with Barry Boyce

If you’re celebrating Thanksgiving this week, we’re sending you warm wishes for a safe and happy holiday. And, in the spirit of season, this week, Steve Hickman offers a gratitude practice for small things. You’ll find this practice featured in our Gratitude Journal, which is a beautiful, lovingly designed collection of essays, articles, and practices, rooted in neuroscience, and featuring writing prompts by Jane Anne Staw, and lots of space for you to draw, write, and reflect on your own relationship with and practice of gratitude. Show Notes Find more from Steve Hickman here:   &nbsp; And more from Mindful here:     Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing .

12 Minute Meditation: Cultivate Gratitude for Small Things with Steve Hickman

Sample tracks from Sharon Salzberg's, "Real Happiness at Work"

Touch-Point Meditation

The bulk of volcanic Mount Meru dominates the Arusha landscape in equatorial East Africa. Looking out from its forested slopes toward the east, its sister volcano, Mt. Kilimanjaro, can be seen on the horizon some 70km distant.

This recording begins in silence under a canopy of tropical forest in the hours before dawn. From far away comes a barely audible murmuring; the huffing of distant colobus monkeys. Like a mexican wave, the sound grows closer, with each successive troupe around the base of the mountain waking the next, until a family of monkeys in the trees overhead begin calling; a wonderful, gruff, barking chorus.

Then it falls silent again. Bush babies call occasionally in the darkness. Soon the dawn birdsong begins, the air becoming filled with the sounds of greenbuls, flycatchers, sunbirds, and groups of colourful turacos which vocalise loudly as they scurry along high branches. Silverey-cheeked hornbills wing overhead, and diurnal cicadas begin buzzing. Birds move around the forest, as do the colobus monkeys, now active and clambering noisily around the treetops.

By late afternoon, other birds are heard, including the dusk singing of an olive thrush. The colobus give their evening chorus and the forest moves imperceptibly into the night.

3 minute audio sample from the 118 minute nature sound album; "Equatorial Africa - The Forests of Arusha", available for download from http://www.listeningearth.com/LE/p-131

Equatorial Africa - The Forests of Arusha - Album Sample

A mindfulness exercise to develop awareness of our own thinking as opposed to being swept away by our thoughts. 

leaves on a stream.

Do you find it a challenge to sustain mindfulness in your daily life? Do you sometimes find yourself falling back into old unhelpful ways of thinking and living that don’t serve you? Even with all the mindfulness teachings and tips out there there is very little guidance on how to really make mindfulness sustainable in your life. 

That's why i created this masterclass with Dr Elisha Goldstein on how to make mindfulness stick in your life. During this masterclass we discuss the things that will make the most profound impact when it comes to truly integrating and sustaining mindfulness into your life. Elisha is a psychologist, author and speaker who synthesizes traditional psychotherapy with mindfulness practices. 

This masterclass is short, punchy, and contains practical tips that have the power to make a huge impact on your life. Enjoy : )

How to Make Mindfulness Sustainable In Your Life: A Mindfulness Masterclass With Elisha Goldstein

As the founder of the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for mindfulness in Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical school, Jon Kabat-Zinn's career has been focused on research in mindfulness. His practice as a student under such teachers as Thich Nhat Hanh and Seung Sahn and his continued daily contemplative practice led him to a long career as he developed Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and defining mindfulness as "awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgementally". He is currently a board member of the Mind and Life Institute and Professor of Medicine Emeritus.
 
The following is an excerpt of an interview from the documentary film 'The Science of Wisdom'. The interview takes place at the International Symposium for Contemplative Studies in Boston hosted by the Mind and Life Institute.

Conversations on Wisdom: Podcast with Jon Kabat-Zinn

In the midst of our busy lives, it’s important to take time to step back and reflect. This is how we learn, grow and stay in touch with what truly matters. But it can be difficult to find time to pause and many don’t know what to focus on in that reflective time.

For that reason I have created this ten-minute mindfulness audio for you. It will help you cultivate greater self awareness, kindness and give you a space to integrate the events of your day. 

It’s best done in the evening before bed (It will also help you get a better nights sleep!) and you might even like to have a journal and pen with you so you can write some reflections in there after the practice

I encourage you to try it out for one week each day to see what effect it has on your life.

This is one of many meditations I have recorded for the Meditation Studio app (my favourite meditation app) – you can find more of their high quality meditations here: https://apple.co/2BAFphK

12 Minute Meditation: A "Touch and Go" Practice with Barry Boyce

mindful.org

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