Have you ever had a wet nose interrupt your meditation? My friend and I have circled this lake for years. It’s about three miles around, with a swimming area, baseball diamond, dog run, and huge old firs and cedars. We’ve walked and talked our way through our kids...
“April showers bring May flowers.” Or, as Thich Nhat Hanh put it, “No mud, no lotus.” Trials, which can be hard to bear, often spur growth. Beautiful blossoming, even. Yet when too much difficult stuff hits us all at once, we can feel swamped, sodden, struggling to...
The Body Scan is a mindful tour through your body. This practice deepens awareness of the body, strengthens attention, and supports a more grounded, present-centered feeling for life. The Body Scan can also reveal stresses and emotional issues that you haven't become...
This core meditation for our Mindful Self-Compassion program connects compassion practice with a feeling of equanimity. Loosely based on the Tibetan Buddhist Tonglen meditation, Giving and Receiving Compassion involves inviting the feeling of receiving all that you...
The practice of Affectionate Breathing is a core Mindful Self-Compassion practice. This practice "warms up" the core mindfulness practice Awareness of Breathing by bringing elements of self-kindness and inviting a feeling of being nurtured by the breath. Affectionate...
In strengthening the ability to be present and grounded, "anchoring" attention with felt present-moment experience is deeply helpful. While many practices do this using breath as the object of attention, the anchoring meditation helps you explore other options. These...
Just over a year ago, a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd. Like so many individuals and organizations, Mindfulness Northwest heard this wake-up call. Instead of an immediate public response, we’ve turned inward, toward self-examination. We wanted to...
Explore these videos on mindfulness practice at your own pace. Thanks to King County’s employee wellness program, Balanced You, for supporting the creation of these videos. Anchoring Meditation – 8 minutes Self-Compassion break – 6-minute...
The ferry was running late. New to island living, my friend hadn’t planned for the ways wind and water might shape his day. Now he would miss his meeting. Frustrated, he texted a colleague to ask her to cover for him. But wait! They seemed to be speeding up. The boat...
In my favorite holiday movie, Home for the Holidays, single mother Claudia Larson (the fabulous Holly Hunter) is living the full catastrophe. In the span of 24 hours, she gets fired, kisses her (now former) boss, and comes down with a cold. She’s headed to visit her...
