When painful emotions are circling all around, our instinct is often to reach for external reassurance.

In this practice, law professor and author Rhona Magee offers a gentle reminder that the key to calm starts with a simple pause—and we get to choose that.

Rhonda V. Magee is a professor of law at the University of San Francisco. Also trained in sociology and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), she is a highly practiced facilitator of trauma-sensitive, restorative MBSR interventions for lawyers and law students, and for minimizing the effects of social-identity-based bias. Magee has been a visiting scholar at the Center for the Study of Law and Society and a visiting professor of law at the University of California, Berkeley.

The transcription of this guided meditation will be online at Mindful.org next week.

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Show Notes

Find more from Rhonda Magee here.

Go Deeper

Working with challenging, painful emotions is at the heart of mindfulness practices. It’s counter-intuitive, but the key to alleviating the suffering that often accompanies feelings like fear, rage, grief, or jealousy is not to fix or overcome them, but to move toward them with compassion and curiosity. To learn more about building this mindful skill, check out these articles:

• A Mindful Guide to Navigating Difficult Emotions

• Befriend Painful Emotions with the Handshake Practice

• Three Ways Acceptance Helps You Work with Difficult Emotions

• You Can Investigate Your Emotions Without Suppressing Them

For another meditation, here’s A 15-Minute Practice to Soften, Soothe, and Allow Difficult Emotions you can try.

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If you’ve ever tried to push away anxiety or depression when they show up, you probably already know: Fighting these complex, difficult emotions usually doesn’t work. In fact, our resistance often makes the experience even more challenging.

In today’s practice, Ed Halliwell offers a guided visualization based on a foundational mindful question: What if you don’t try to push this experience away, but instead watch it as it plays out?

Ed Halliwell is a mindfulness teacher and writer, based in Sussex and London, UK. He is author of three books: Into The Heart of Mindfulness, How To Live Well By Paying Attention and (as co-author) The Mindful Manifesto and teaches courses and retreats to public groups, in organizations and to individuals, face-to-face and online via Skype. He is also an advisor to The Mindfulness Initiative, which is supporting the Mindfulness All-Party Parliamentary Group to develop mindfulness-based policies for the UK.

The transcription of this guided meditation will be online at Mindful.org next week.

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Show Notes

Find more from Ed Halliwell here.

Go Deeper

Anxiety, panic, and depression can sometimes feel like a vortex we’re sucked into that’s impossible to get out of. It’s important to understand that mindfulness and meditation aren’t cure-alls or instant fixes, and that they’re most effective when used in concert with other healing modalities. There are practices that can help us be with thoughts and feelings in a compassionate, non-judgmental way—and this open-hearted approach can often loosen the grip of difficult moments. If you’d like to explore more about how mindful practices can help improve mental well-being, check out these resources on Mindful.org:

• Practicing Self-Compassion Can Boost Your Mental Health

• Using Mindfulness for Mental Health

• Is Mindfulness a Treatment for Depression?

• 4 Ways to Curb a Panic Attack with Mindfulness

• How Mindfulness Protects Against Postpartum Depression

• ​​Unwinding Your Anxiety Habit Loop

For more practice, here are 5 Guided Meditations for Panic and Anxiety that you can try.

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Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing yourwords@mindful.org.

Our brains are hardwired to notice the negative. It’s part of how our ancient ancestors were able to survive in constantly threatening environments.

But this negativity bias can also make it difficult for us and our kids—even in our comparatively less threatening environments—to navigate daily stressors, like big tests, arguments, or disappointments.

In this shorter practice specifically designed for younger meditators, Dr. Mark Bertin shows kids how to gently guide their attention back to the positive things they might have missed, in order to help soothe the nervous system and bring calm.

Mark Bertin, MD., is a pediatrician, author, professor, and mindfulness teacher specializing in neurodevelopmental behavioral pediatrics. He’s a regular contributor to Mindful.org and Psychology Today. He is the author of How Children Thrive: The Practical Science of Raising Independent, Resilient, and Happy Kids (Sounds True, 2018). Dr. Bertin resides in Pleasantville, New York. For more, visit developmentaldoctor.com.

The transcription of this guided meditation will be online at Mindful.org next week.

Stay curious, stay inspired. Join our community by signing up for our free newsletter: mindful.org/signup

Show Notes

Find more from Mark Bertin here.

Go Deeper

Kids of all ages can benefit from learning and practicing mindful skills. For more resources to help kids and teens build resilience, navigate tough emotions, calm anxiety, and improve emotional regulation, check out these resources on the Mindful site:

• How to Model Mindfulness When Talking to Kids

• The Nature Remedy: Find Freedom from Tech Overload

• 5 Ways to Help Teens Engage in Mindfulness Sessions

• Mindfulness Can Empower Kids and Teens

For more practice, we’ve got an entire collection of meditations to support growing minds. Take-What-You-Need Meditations to Support Kids, Teens, and Young Adults

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