Your mind drifts the moment you sit to breathe, and that’s not a problem to fix—it’s the raw material of practice. We unpack why a healthy brain loves to roam, how the default mode network fuels both distraction and creativity, and why chasing an empty mind sets you up for frustration. Instead of fighting thoughts, we show you how to work with them using a simple cycle: notice, note, and return.We walk through grounded metaphors that make mindfulness feel tangible: watching thoughts float past like leaves on a river, resting as the open sky while weather moves through, and standing on the platform as trains arrive and depart. These images help loosen the pull of story so you can see thoughts as passing events rather than orders you must obey. From there, we hone practical skills—finding a vivid breath anchor, starting with five consistent minutes, and sitting with an upright, relaxed posture that supports calm alertness.The heart of the message is kindness. Self‑criticism after a lapse is just another distraction; gentleness shortens the time it takes to return. Every return to the breath is a repetition that strengthens awareness, and the moment you realize you’ve wandered is the moment you succeed. Over time, this builds a quieter nervous system, less reactivity, and a clearer choice point in daily life. If you’re ready to stop wrestling with your mind and start training it with patience, this conversation offers tools you can use today.If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a friend who’s struggling to “quiet the mind,” and leave a quick review to help others find these practices. Your words make a real difference.Support the showCertify To Teach Mindfulness & Meditation Since 2015, we've trained over 2,000 people to teach mindfulness in healthcare, business, education, yoga, sports teams, and the U.S. Government. MindfulnessExercises.com/certify Certify At Your Own Pace: Just complete 40 hours of self-paced meditation + online workbook completion with lifetime access to personalized support. Deepen Your Own Mindful Presence: Whatever your starting place is, we will help you deepen your own embodied, experiential understanding. Teach With Integrity & Authenticity: We help you find your unique voice to make mindfulness relevant and practical for your own students or clients. Receive International Accreditation: Trusted by Fortune 500 companies, international healthcare centers, coaching schools, and the U.S. Government. Boost Your Career: Use our templates to quickly form your own paid mindfulness courses, workshops, keynotes or coaching packages. MindfulnessExercises.com/certify
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16:54
Mindful Creativity, Unlocked
Anne Cushman explores how mindfulness and creativity feed each other through guided practices, research insights, and lived stories. We trade perfection for presence, play with color and movement, and learn to follow the thread of aliveness into honest work.• opening space through breath and softening• honoring life as inherently creative• reconciling the teacher and the artist selves• lessons from Spirit Rock creativity retreats• research on focus, divergence and resilience• embodiment as the foundation for art• quick sensory writing to prime awareness• emotions as fuel and material for making• movement meditation to trust inner impulse• lowering standards to escape perfectionism• visiting scary edges with care and consent• mandala drawing practice within a circle• “I am” free writing to outrun the critic• process over product as a creative ethicFind her at AnneCushman.com. She oftens lead half day and day longs online, which combine meditation and creative writing and movementSupport the showCertify To Teach Mindfulness & Meditation Since 2015, we've trained over 2,000 people to teach mindfulness in healthcare, business, education, yoga, sports teams, and the U.S. Government. MindfulnessExercises.com/certify Certify At Your Own Pace: Just complete 40 hours of self-paced meditation + online workbook completion with lifetime access to personalized support. Deepen Your Own Mindful Presence: Whatever your starting place is, we will help you deepen your own embodied, experiential understanding. Teach With Integrity & Authenticity: We help you find your unique voice to make mindfulness relevant and practical for your own students or clients. Receive International Accreditation: Trusted by Fortune 500 companies, international healthcare centers, coaching schools, and the U.S. Government. Boost Your Career: Use our templates to quickly form your own paid mindfulness courses, workshops, keynotes or coaching packages. MindfulnessExercises.com/certify
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1:22:41
McMindfulness, Money, and Meaning: Critiques of Today's Mindfulness Movement
We explore a nuanced look at mindfulness: its benefits, the ethics behind how it is taught, and the critiques around commercialization and depoliticisation. William Edelglass helps us test the line between personal practice and social change with clear questions, research, and examples.• Angela Davis’s question about mindfulness and injustice• critiques of commodification and the mindfulness industrial complex• instrumental use versus ethically grounded practice• popularity of apps, corporate programs, and military adoption• research on well-being, emotion regulation, and limits• risks of individualising distress without systemic change• reconnecting practice to Buddhist ethics and social responsibility• trauma-informed design, consent, and community support• practical ways to teach with integrity and context• invitation to share perspectives and join deeper studyJoin our mindfulness teacher certification program at mindfulnessercises.com/certify to deepen your practice and discover your authentic voiceGive a five star review or share this with friends so that we can help othersSupport the showCertify To Teach Mindfulness & Meditation Since 2015, we've trained over 2,000 people to teach mindfulness in healthcare, business, education, yoga, sports teams, and the U.S. Government. MindfulnessExercises.com/certify Certify At Your Own Pace: Just complete 40 hours of self-paced meditation + online workbook completion with lifetime access to personalized support. Deepen Your Own Mindful Presence: Whatever your starting place is, we will help you deepen your own embodied, experiential understanding. Teach With Integrity & Authenticity: We help you find your unique voice to make mindfulness relevant and practical for your own students or clients. Receive International Accreditation: Trusted by Fortune 500 companies, international healthcare centers, coaching schools, and the U.S. Government. Boost Your Career: Use our templates to quickly form your own paid mindfulness courses, workshops, keynotes or coaching packages. MindfulnessExercises.com/certify
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22:52
Principles For A Planet-Wide Wake-Up
The ground keeps moving, but our old habits try to pretend nothing has changed. In this mini episode, James Baraz talks honestly about what this moment is saying to us: we’re not separate, our choices echo, and we can learn to respond with more care than fear. James Baraz's website: https://www.awakeningjoy.info/Starting with a simple practice—paying attention—we trace how mindfulness exposes the threads that bind our lives together, from family routines to global supply chains. When you feel those threads, John Muir’s idea that everything is hitched to everything else stops being a quote and becomes a compass.From there we explore a handful of principles that travel well across crises and calm alike. Actions have consequences—call it karma or cause and effect—and that truth invites more deliberate choices at work, at home, and in public life. Integrity is not a moral badge; it’s the felt ease of living one story instead of juggling two. Stewardship shows up as everyday compassion, the kind that checks in on neighbors, protects shared resources, and invests in long horizons. And change, while hard, becomes probable when intention outweighs inertia. James talks about that tipping point and how a clear why turns into practical habits that actually stick.These stories help us see our agency: the power to align values with action and to widen our circle of concern without burning out. Mindfulness ties it all together as a gateway to clarity — creating just enough pause to interrupt reactivity, meet complexity, and choose the next right step.If this conversation resonates, share it with someone who’s ready to lead with care. Subscribe for more grounded, practical insights, and leave a review to tell us which principle you’re practicing this week.Support the showCertify To Teach Mindfulness & Meditation Since 2015, we've trained over 2,000 people to teach mindfulness in healthcare, business, education, yoga, sports teams, and the U.S. Government. MindfulnessExercises.com/certify Certify At Your Own Pace: Just complete 40 hours of self-paced meditation + online workbook completion with lifetime access to personalized support. Deepen Your Own Mindful Presence: Whatever your starting place is, we will help you deepen your own embodied, experiential understanding. Teach With Integrity & Authenticity: We help you find your unique voice to make mindfulness relevant and practical for your own students or clients. Receive International Accreditation: Trusted by Fortune 500 companies, international healthcare centers, coaching schools, and the U.S. Government. Boost Your Career: Use our templates to quickly form your own paid mindfulness courses, workshops, keynotes or coaching packages. MindfulnessExercises.com/certify
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Discipline That Feels Like Freedom
We explore mindful self-discipline as a blueprint for freedom, not a joyless grind. Through aspiration, awareness, and action, we show how to beat engineered distraction, strengthen willpower, and make steady progress without shame.https://mindfulnessexercises.com/podcast• self-discipline linked to higher happiness and smoother daily life• attention economy pressures and engineered distraction• definitions of self-discipline, willpower, habits, motivation• decision fatigue evidence and belief effects on willpower• three pillars framework aspiration, awareness, action• want-to goals versus have-to goals• PAW method pause, awareness, willpower• neutrality over shame to sustain energy• never zero commitment to protect identity and streaks• reframing choices to align with long-term values• building empathy with your future self• the real reward is who you becomeStart somewhere. Define one want-to goal, try one PAW pause, or commit to never zero today.Support the showCertify To Teach Mindfulness & Meditation Since 2015, we've trained over 2,000 people to teach mindfulness in healthcare, business, education, yoga, sports teams, and the U.S. Government. MindfulnessExercises.com/certify Certify At Your Own Pace: Just complete 40 hours of self-paced meditation + online workbook completion with lifetime access to personalized support. Deepen Your Own Mindful Presence: Whatever your starting place is, we will help you deepen your own embodied, experiential understanding. Teach With Integrity & Authenticity: We help you find your unique voice to make mindfulness relevant and practical for your own students or clients. Receive International Accreditation: Trusted by Fortune 500 companies, international healthcare centers, coaching schools, and the U.S. Government. Boost Your Career: Use our templates to quickly form your own paid mindfulness courses, workshops, keynotes or coaching packages. MindfulnessExercises.com/certify
Practical, trauma‑sensitive mindfulness for everyday life — and for the people who teach it. Expect grounded guided meditations, evidence‑informed tools, and candid conversations with leading voices in the field.Hosted by Sean Fargo — former Buddhist monk, founder of MindfulnessExercises.com, and a certified Search Inside Yourself instructor—each episode blends compassion, clarity, and real‑world application for practitioners, therapists, coaches, educators, and wellness professionals.What you’ll find:• Guided practices: breath awareness, body scans, self‑compassion, sleep, and nervous‑system regulation • Teacher tools: trauma‑sensitive language, sequencing, and ethical foundations for safe, inclusive mindfulness • Expert interviews with renowned teachers and researchers (e.g., Sharon Salzberg, Gabor Maté, Byron Katie, Rick Hanson, Ellen Langer, Judson Brewer) • Clear takeaways you can use today—in sessions, classrooms, workplaces, and at homeUpdated 2-3x weekly. Follow the show, try this week’s practice, and share one insight in a review to help others discover the podcast.Explore more resources and training at MindfulnessExercises.com and the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification.