Top 316 results for “meditations”
Tea Meditations
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Guided Sleep Meditations
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How to Use Guided Meditations
Guided meditation can be used to promote better sleep, reduce stress and anxiety, and even to relieve chronic pain.
6 Meditations For Personal Transformation
“While personal transformation may not be the goal for everyone, I can’t help but think so many people limit themselves.”
4 Mini Meditations for a Peaceful Holiday Season
Spirituality is accessible even during the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, if we make it a practice in our everyday lives.
3 Meditations for Group Healing
In a world that feels divided, mantras for group unity and transformation.
51 Meditations for Tending the Heart Fire
Find your flow with these “micro meditations” for renewal, connection, and inner strength.
7 Affirmations for Daily Walking Meditations
Many new studies suggest that mindful walking is good, not only for mental health, but also to relieve stress. Moreover mindfulness, in general, is shown to improve chronic inflamm…
4 Moving Meditations to Still Your Mind
When you consider a practice of meditation, you probably envision yourself with eyes closed, sitting cross-legged and immobile. Yet many spiritual exercises use postures and moveme…
5 Meditations for Navigating Negative, Anxious Thoughts
Navigating negative, anxious thoughts is hard. It’s hard when your mind ruminates on rigid thoughts: I should do things quickly. I should be more productive. I should never say thi…
3 Popular Meditations For Seasonal Affected Disorder (SAD)
Here are three spiritual and holistic techniques that you can use to help you with SAD
A Kid Shucking Corn: Meditations on Being Present
My mother is a true-blue Midwestern farm girl, born and raised on an 80-acre homestead north of Detroit. We visited the farm often when I was a child, and even though most of the l…
Music Review: Cello & Piano Meditations, Music for Relaxation and Healing
Cello & Piano Meditations: Music for Relaxation and HealingDavid Darling and Jacqueline Tschabold BhuyanSounds True Some years ago, pianist Jacqueline Tschabold Bhuyan suffer…
20 Calming or Invigorating Mini Meditations You Can Practice Every Day
Inspiration for practicing kindness and breathing in the beauty of daily moments and the miracles that are our lives.
Audio Meditation: Gratitude
A short meditation to instantly bring love and compassion to yourself so that you can bring love and gratitude to the world.
Meditating With Your Anger
An audio meditation to engage with our anger and compassion without shame.
What We Still Don’t Know about Mindfulness Meditation
Despite the hype, researchers are still exploring the benefits of meditation and how much practice we need to achieve them.
5-Minute Pratyahara Meditation to Focus the Mind and Calm Anxiety
Use this guided meditation to draw the senses closer to connect with the body in the present moment.
Audio Meditation for Connecting to the Heart
The heart holds our love, connection, joy, and forgiveness. It can also hold grief and anxiety. Sometimes what the heart feels is very different from what the mind thinks it wants.…
The Fullness of Emptiness: A Guided Breath Meditation
This guided meditation explores the bottom of the breath.
Guided Meditation for Loving Your Belly
This meditation will help you to explore your own belly, offering it thanks, appreciation, and perhaps a little bit of healing.
Podcast: Kevin Anderson, PhD on Using Nested Meditations as a Powerful Tool
The creator of the nested meditation form shares how to use playful language to release heavy emotions.
4 Intuition Meditation Scripts to Access Higher Self
Follow these four intuition meditation scripts to enhance your intuition and clairvoyance.
The Power of the Moon
Tap into the power of the moon with these easy practices for moon spirituality.
Earth Meditation for Safety and Calm
Feeling stressed or overwhelmed? Slow down and connect to Earth energy, which is grounding and calming. Allow Earth to remind you where you came from and all the potential you still have ahead of you. Take a few deep breaths and rest with your original mama: Earth.
Harmony Meditation
Practice these breathing exercises, guided visualizations, and meditations that promote inner balance, and the recognition of expansive unity.
Getting to Know Our Anger by Connecting with Our Bodies
Excerpted from Detox Your Heart
New Moon Meditation: The Goddess of Loneliness
A preview of Moon Meditations: 16 Nights for Desire, Heartache, and Connection
Lunar Reflections
Julie Peters, the author of Secrets of the Eternal Moon Phase Goddesses, shares her wisdom on building a moon practice.
Faith Hunter
Faith Hunter is the author of Spiritually Fly: Wisdom, Meditations, and Yoga to Elevate the Soul.
Kevin Anderson PhD, Psychotherapist
Kevin Anderson, Ph.D. is a psychologist, poet, and writer who lives in the Toledo, Ohio area. His two most recent books are Now is Where God Lives: A Year of Nested Meditations to …
Julie Peters
Julie Peters (MA, E-RYT, YACEP) has been practicing yoga and meditation for 25 years and ran Ocean and Crow Yoga Studio in Vancouver, BC, for more than a decade. She has writt…
The Force of Kindness
Change Your Life with Love and Compassion By Sharon Salzberg There is a thread that runs through all the world’s great wisdom teachings and religions, crossing the barriers of ti…
Christian Mystics
365 Readings and MeditationsBy Matthew Fox“Christendom adjusts itself far too easily to the worship of power. Christians should give more offense, shock the world far more than the…
A Sound Sleep
Guided Meditations with Relaxing Music & Nature Sounds By Dudley and Dean Evenson Husband-and-wife team Dean and Dudley Evenson address the needs of two types of stressed-out ins…
The Lunar Tao
Meditations in Harmony with the SeasonsBy Deng Ming-DaoHARPERONE In this book of daily meditations, Deng Ming-Dao reflects on the origins and historical mythology from Taoism, Bud…
The Dunrobin Session
Pauline Oliveros and Jesse StewartNUUN RECORDSOliveros has explained deep listening as “listening in every possible way to everything possible to hear no matter what one is doing.”…
The Second Book of the Tao
By Stephen MitchellPenguin Press, 2009, $25.95Adapted from two anthologies of Chinese wisdom compiled probably between 300 and 100 B.C.E. (the Chuang Tzu by Master Chuang, and the …
Eckhart Tolle's "Music for Inner Stillness"
Music has always been a way to get in touch with emotion, nature, and inner stillness. And who better to choose a compilation of songs to promote relaxed presence than Eckhart Toll…
Book Review: Deeper Dating
Deeper Dating How to Drop the Games of Seduction and Discover the Power of Intimacy By Ken PageShambhalaI have some excellent news: You don’t need to be a size …
Music Review: Om Land
Om LandDavid Vito GregoliDharmapalaOm Land is the latest offering from award-winning composer David Vito Gregoli. The album is a loving meditation on the divine sound OM, with the …
Book Review: Dream Yoga
Dream YogaIlluminating Your Life Through Lucid Dreaming and the Tibetan Yogas of SleepBy Andrew HolecekSounds TrueDream Yoga is a book that makes big promises: According to author …
Music Review: Kala
KalaTrevor HallVanguard RecordsTrevor Hall’s new album, Kala, was written in Hawaii and recorded in Los Angeles and reverberates with an eclectic mix of reggae, Sanskrit chant, and…
Play This Mind Game with Fruit and Nuts
Recently I was running a workshop on the MB-EAT program for therapists experienced in mindfulness meditation. We started with a mindfulness eating practice that focused on making c…
Surprised by Grace
How often are you startled by afresh spiritual awareness — a simple and unexpected new metaphor for your life journey? Discover 'nested meditation’ and experience how wordplay can open your soul.
Join a Movement Called Squam
Four years ago, Elizabeth Duvivier had a high-powered job in product development. She had watched her company grow from a small, single-owner entity to a corporate behemoth and was…
Yoga for Emotional Trauma
By creating a healing environment for your body through yoga, you can transform emotional trauma into well-being, release suffering, and come home to your body’s natural capacity for health and joy.
Do Healing Frequencies Work?
There is growing interest in using sound for various ailments and to boost human health. Do healing frequencies work? Research suggests they do.
The Usefulness of Quieting the Mind
In large corporate environments and intimate retreat settings, meditation mentor Mirabai Bush shares the usefulness of quieting the mind and the benefits it brings to daily life.
"Samsara": A Cinematic Meditation
Two decades after rewriting the language of documentary filmmaking in the groundbreaking Baraka, director Ron Fricke and writer-producer Mark Magidson are adding the next chapter w…
Just Say Yes
Dr. Ron Alexander sat listening to the record company executives and staff he’d been hired to help. They’d sought him out as a mindfulness expert and corporate consultant to help t…
Ritual Science
A new field of research explores how diverse spiritual practices use the same scents, sounds, and movements to tap into our deepest selves.
Zen Medication: Can Meditation Heal Us?
A study published in the July Journal of Psychiatric Practice reveals that Zen meditation and its secular sister, mindfulness meditation, effectively reduce depression, anxiety, an…
Find the Right Tea to Soothe Body and Soul
Find the right tea to soothe yourself, body and soul.
Two New Books for Finding Real Joy in Relationships
Two new books in the field of positive psychology show us how to find real-life joy in our relationships.
Surprise Yourself with a Nested Meditation
One of the more ingenious tools we’ve found for reframing a tough situation—or simply having fun with words—is a process that psychologist Kevin Anderson calls nested meditation. I…
Eckhart Tolle: The Easier Path
The renowned spiritual teacher on getting stuck in the future and saving the planet.
The Healing Power of Chant
Kirtan practitioner Snatam Kaur finds the vibrations that move us, body and soul.
5 Questions for Sharon Salzberg
1. What important lesson came out of your childhood?Maybe most strikingly, the impermanence and uncertainty of life. As a child I had no ability to extract the sweet from the bitte…
Lana Dalberg: The Divine Feminine
Rabbi Rami Shapiro spoke to activist and theologian Lana Dalberg about women's spiritual experiences and the power of Divine Femininity.
Up All Night
As she struggles to accept the sounds of violence between predator and prey, writer Tai Moses learns to hear beauty in the darkness.
Classical Musician Serenades the Chakras
Musician Miriam Jameson shares the story that inspired her new album.
Purify with Gong Healing
Since their invention in the Bronze Age, gongs have served many purposes: as Shamanic healing aids, to announce the start of ceremonies, as parts of orchestras or to eliminate bad …
Rabbi Rami: "I Find Myself Wishing My Dad Would Die?"
Roadside Assistance for the Spiritual Traveler
How to Soak in Divine Brine
Why? Because we’re always pickling in something…
The Value of Mental Pictures
How One Woman Fights PTSD With Guided Imagery
Heart Art mandala'verse: Original Art and Poetry for the Heart
An excerpt from SaraSwati Shakti's new book.
Rabbi Rami: How Do I Keep My New Year’s Resolutions?
Roadside Assistance for the Spiritual Traveler
Jade Eggs for Yoni Yoga
A thousand years before Dr. Kegel, Taoist’s created this sensually healing practice
A Brain Surgeon’s Guide to Horse Sense
Tapping into the wisdom of “prey” species.
My Practice: Mindful Walking in Town
In “My Practice,” we share personal routines that create wellness and happiness from spiritual teachers, yogis, nutritionists, and more, in hopes to inspire your own healthy rituals.
Wake up from Unworthiness
An Interview with Tara Brach
My Practice: Listening to the Basil
A zen priestess shares how she brings mindfulness into her kitchen
6 Ways Improving One Nerve Can Change Your Health
While no one will argue the importance of building strong muscle tone, what might be more important to your health is the tone of a surprisingly complex nerve bundle that stretches…
How I Finally Awakened from My Past Lives
Sometimes an unnecessary burden can be very useful
The Process of a Miracle Cure
Until my cancer diagnosis, I’d never been ill. I was terrified and nothing was helping me conquer the fear. Initially, I felt a traumatic paralysis, the fast-breathing, huddled fea…
Emotional Hygiene
An Interview with Daniel Goleman
If You Feel Like a Weird Yoga Alien…
Joining or starting a “sangha” can support your personal growth.
Our Top 10 Apps for Health & Wellness
Pull out your smartphone and get ready to download these healthy tools.
Stop Self Criticizing, Start Meditating
According to the experts, meditation lessens the extremities of negative thoughts, changes patterns of belief and facilitates learning how to forgive yourself.
Why I’m a Student of Thich Nhat Hanh
“I know of no spiritual teacher or person who more fully embodies peace and compassionate understanding than Thich Nhat Hanh, or Thay, as he is lovingly known by his students.”
The Week I Burned My Ego
A life-changing adventure on what’s called Path of Love
Finding Refuge From Anxiety
One author offers her thoughts on taking a 5-week, $500 vacation from anxiety.
Restorative Yoga to Open Your Heart
Find internal peace with this practice designed to powerfully and gently open the heart center
Letter to the Inner Child
Try this writing practice of forgiveness: Visualize the person you felt hurt by as an 8 year old.
5 Questions for Mary Oliver
Beloved poet and natural world evangelist Mary Oliver pulls the curtain for a rare glimpse behind her writing and life. Her new book of prose, Upstream, filled with gorgeous essays…
Rabbi Rami: As a fundamentalist Christian, am I safe from Muslims?
Question: I consider myself a fundamentalist Christian, and I fear Muslims coming to America. Is Islam compatible with American values?Rabbi Rami: If by “Islam” you mean fundamenta…
Creative Spiritual Practices for Your Family this Lent
Sponsored Content from Chalice Press
Care of the Soul: Your Highest Self
I’m always writing about depth—deep feelings, deep thoughts, deep relationships. But I know too well that when you focus too much on one quality, its opposite begins to stir, compl…
Finding Quiet
7 places to experience silence
Creatively Facing Fear
Make fear your ally for the creative process
Find Your Path
Interspiritual wisdom to help you find your spiritual style, choose the grand questions that call you, and create your personal practice.
6 Ways to Stop Arguing and Start Listening
Explore ways to lay down the swords and work on our listening skills when faced with a potential argument.
How to Commute Inward
In her beautiful book Still Writing: The Perils and Pleasures of a Creative Life, Dani Shapiro writes, “The deeper I immerse myself in the details—and they are mostly pleasur…
When You Need Stillness
Lately, my mind has felt very crowded. There are so many thoughts bumping up against each other in my brain. You have sooooo much to do. Did you call this person? Pay that bill? R…
Practicing Self-Care During Stressful Times
When stress strikes, self-care often takes a backseat. “The ability to care for oneself is predicated on the ability to consistently go inward and listen to what is there with open…
Why Do We Do Long Sittings?
Our meditation group had six stalwart sitters yesterday for our four-hour block sitting, in spite of the our city’s annual summer festival being in full swing, the gorgeous weather…
Ritual: Go Inward With the New Moon
This week there was new moon in the sky, did you notice it? Aha! That was a trick question! The new moon is also referred to as the dark moon because it is the only time of the mon…
5 Reasons Not to Meditate
I’ll be honest: I’ve never liked meditating. I’ve dabbled in it, and forced myself to sit for 30 day meditation challenges, and it was boring and hard. Plus life is so busy: Five m…
Expose Yourself: A New Year Intention, Inspired By the Moon
Setting New Year intentions by the moon.
Accidental Meditation: You're Already Doing it
Most people think they are bad at meditating. Can’t sit still and turn your thoughts off for at least 20 minutes? You’re not bad at meditating, you’re just a human with a brain.Act…
Video: Vortex Healing at Sedona's Enchantment Resort
Known for its majestic red rocks, healing energy vortexes and spiritual mysticism, for centuries, Sedona, Arizona served as sacred ground for the Native Americans. Today, millions …
The Ultimate De-Stressing Daily Routine
Put this anti-stress routine on your to-do list for a more zen approach to daily life.
11 Ways to Decalcify Your Pineal Gland for Wellbeing
When you decalcify the pineal gland—known as the third-eye chakra—you remove calcium phosphate deposits. This can lead not only to better health and wellbeing but to higher consciousness.
Befriending Pain
Over the last several years, I’ve come to believe that the greatest, most powerful, most courageous thing we can do in our lives is learn to befriend our pain. This idea is a majo…
The Gift of a Head Covering in Kundalini Yoga
1. Khalsa, Siri Guru Granth Sahib Ji,
2. The Teachings of Yogi Bhajan, July 7, 1989
A Prayer for All Beings
This winter I was in the Bahamas at the Sivananda Yoga Ashram for an interfaith symposium, a very good place to be if you are seeking a break from the cold New England winters! I f…
Four Legal Entheogens for the Spiritual Explorer
Throughout human history, spiritual seekers have used sacred plants and fungi for healing, visionary encounters, and mystical experience. Though this history has been largely obfus…
9 Keys to Lasting Happiness
According to the ancient philosophy of the Vedanta, there are two types of happiness. The first comes from things turning out the way we’d like them to, i.e. getting what we want. …
A Practice to Heal Prejudice
How loving-kindness meditation taps the roots of empathy
How Mindfulness Helps Caregivers More Than Positive Psychology
Mindfulness offers benefits for caregivers when success is “The first time I have not cried all the way to the mailbox…”
Morning Meditation Mini Challenge
“Woke up, fell out of bed...” Do you start your day running around, like the gentleman in The Beatles’ song, “A Day in the Life”? He staggers downstairs, downs a cup of coffee, gra…
2014 Holiday Gift Guide
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Book Review: Fulfilled
How the Science of Spirituality Can Help You Live a Happier, More Meaningful Life
Marketplace - Sep/Oct 2016
Books, services, education and products that are sustainable and environmentally friendly.
Marketplace - Jan/Feb 2016
Books, services, education and products that are sustainable and environmentally friendly.
What Really Happens When We Meditate
An interview with Daniel Goleman and Richard Davidson about their new book, Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body
Live as an Everyday Mystic
How are you participating in co-creating paradigm shifts in your personal and professional lives as we usher in this new era?
Awakening to the Kalachakra
How easy it is to completely miss the inner wisdom of our ancient wisdom traditions.
Film Review: Walk With Me
Narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch (his rich, mellifluous baritone is immediately recognizable), this beautifully immersive documentary was produced over three years among the Buddhi…
Podcast: Lama Surya Das on Dogs as Teachers
Rami asks Lama Surya Das, “Does a dog have Buddha nature?”
10 Ways to Make Meditation Practice A No-Brainer
Set yourself up for successful meditation practice.
Sit Up Straight: How to Deepen Your Meditation with Better Posture
If you’ve been meditating for some time now, but haven’t been able to deepen your practice, it may be time to check your posture.
Strategies for Overcoming Resistance and Distractions in Meditation
Here are some strategies that will help you stay steady on the path of a regular meditation practice.
From Holidaze to Holydays: A 7-minute Reset
An audio meditation to help reset from your worst self to your best self.
Music Review: Solo
“Most people would never realize that I am closer to Thelonious Monk than to any other artist,” writes Wadada Leo Smith in the liner notes for his latest album, Solo: Reflections a…
5 Ways to Claim Body Acceptance
Instead of making resolutions, reshape your attitude about your body.
The One Relationship You Can Never Leave
Do the work of being in a loving, healthy, committed relationship with ourselves or suffer the rest of our lives with an internal roommate we hate.
Maria Shriver
Maria Shriver lives an extraordinary life— a mother of four, a Peabody Award–winning and Emmy Award–winning journalist and producer, a six-time New York Times best…
This Summer Camp Teaches Stop, Breathe & Think
And it changes the world, one interaction at a time.
10 Ways to Use a Library for Creative Inspiration
Relax, rejuvenate, and nurture your imagination between the shelves.
Meditation Medication: Grounding for Anxiety or Overwhelm
The first in three-part meditation series inspired by Ayurveda.
Intuition and Spirituality
When it comes to trusting your intuition, spirituality can help you differentiate between genuine intuition and a bout of paranoia.
Journey and Connect with the Divine
Join Dr. Jayanath Abeywickrama of Sri Lanka for 4 days of ancient healing wisdom and self discovery at the Redwoods in Scotts Valley, California.
The Infinite Transforming Power of Mind
An excerpt from In Search of Wisdom: A Monk, A Philosopher, and Psychiatrist on What Matters Most
Mindfulness
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Caroline Griffith
Caroline Griffith is a Spiritual Dog Trainer, founder of Canine Flow, creator of RelaxDog Meditations, and author of The Best Dog Diet Ever. canineflow.com…
From the Editor: November/December
It’s the best possible time to be alive, when almost everything you thought you knew is wrong!” That line, from Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia, helped us find fellow seekers for the launch…
Contributors - November/December 2018
Contributors to our September/October 2018 issue: Kevin Anderson PhD, Julia Cameron, Deborah Gordon MD, Alena Hennessy, Erik Sean Larson, Hal Robinson
How Meditation and Magick Saved My Life on Death Row and After I Was Finally Set Free
Excerpted from HIGH MAGICK: A Guide to the Spiritual Practices That Saved My Life on Death Row
Practices for Death and Rebirth for Scorpio Season
Honor your grief as we enter into the season of generative death and prepare for the coming season of rebirth.
5 Tips for Holiday Stress Management
Here are a few tips for keeping calm and taking care during the holiday season.
Separating Physical Pain from Emotional Pain
When we suppress emotional energy, it lands in the energy system for the physical body, generating or exacerbating pain, illness and disease.
Moon Practice: Ritual for a Spring Full Moon
On the full moon, create a ritual that has meaning for you.
What's Your Game of Thrones?
Not everyone excels at flights of fancy, but for those stuck on the ground, maybe fantasizing can become a useful practice.
Has Meditation Gotten Too Easy?
When people are meditating so they can perform better at work, we have to ask: Is that really the point?
Featured Artist Deedee Cheriel
S&H editor Ben Nussbaum chatted with Deedee about her spiritual journey and how it intersects with her art, simplicity, and why images of mothers are so important to her.
5 Reasons You’re Not Sleeping
If you are struggling to get a good night’s rest, you may want to address these common sleep disruptors.
Gift of Crisis
The Gift of Crisis: How I Used Meditation to Go From Financial Failure to a Life of Purpose is the story of Bridgitte Jackson's journey from shame and fear towards a life she loves.
Book Review: The Gifts Beneath Your Anxiety by Pat Longo
Anxiety, panic attacks, sadness, and heightened sensitivity can carry with them a multitude of other effects—headaches, depression, and impediments from life’s joys. However…
6 Crystals to Help You Sleep
Find the right crystal for your sleep issue, and you'll soon be lost in dreamland.
4 Yoga Poses to Save You From Burnout
Create space for self-healing with a yoga sequence designed to cultivate your receptive nature.
Your Creative Spark
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Trauma Shake
Mind-body medicine pioneer Dr. James S. Gordon shares a technique to shake loose trauma from the body.
Notice Prayer When It Happens
In this week’s The Soul of Therapy, psychologist Kevin Anderson, PhD, stresses that prayer is simply recognizing when joy, gratitude, compassion, or awe happen.
Surviving the Holidays
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What’s the Weirdest Thing You’re Thankful For?
“I’m thankful for nondairy creamer, locking doors, and never having to take algebra again.”
A Sound Bath: Ways to Use Sound and Music to Promote Wellbeing
“Sound and music can quickly alter your mood, affecting your subconscious mind. Listening to music is a relatively inexpensive, easily accessible solution to elevate your awareness and your emotional states.”
Meditation Apps: Do They Work for Us or Against Us?
"Meditation takes practice, and in the beginning, like any new skill, meditation can seem challenging."
8 Tricks for Controlling Holiday Binge Eating and Drinking
Avoid overeating and drinking too much this holiday season by mindfully focusing on giving yourself pleasure rather than trying to numb the pain.
Elena Mironov
Elena Mironov (www.elenamironov.com) is a Zurich-based senior yoga and meditation teacher, educator and author with over 15 years of teaching experience, 90+ yoga retreats and over…
9 Wellness Resources for Black Women When Life Gets You Down
Black Girl Magic can’t protect us from everything. Here are nine online resources to help black women keep our cool when racism rears its ugly head.
Rewild Yourself to Feel Connected
Rewilding means reconnecting with your “wild untamed soul.” Remember the way home with this practice.
A Good Night’s Sleep
Is anything better than waking up refreshed? Are you unable to answer that question because you don’t remember what waking up refreshed feels like? We can relate. Read on if you or anyone you love needs tips on how to get a good night's sleep.
7 Ways to Sharpen Your Intuition
Intuition can become mute, stifled, or drowned out when we find ourselves out of balance. Here are some ways to help you get grounded so that you can reconnect with that inner voice.
Dealing with COVID-19: 5 Ways to Control Coronavirus Anxiety
Is coronavirus news ramping up your anxiety? Does the thought of social distancing make you fret? Try these five strategies to help you cope.
Moon Rituals: Tending Your Internal Garden
“New moons are related to water and fertility. Metaphorically, in the dark of the new moon, we pause to consider our desires, set intentions, and think about what we might want to put our energy into as the moon waxes towards full.”
Podcast: Spirituality in the Time of Coronavirus, Part 2
Maintaining your psychological and spiritual health during the coronavirus crisis.
"I Feel Like I'm Losing It"
Question: My 80-year-old mother died six months ago—nine weeks after she was diagnosed with cancer. Our relationship was complicated. I loved her dearly but she was also the …
Book Review: Neurodharma
We can leverage mental tools to tap into desired feelings of calm, contentment, peace, focus, and non-judgement, and move away from stress and anxiety.
re/VIEW: Sharon Salzberg
Renowned Buddhist meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg’s first book on meditation was Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness, which she penned in 1995. Since then, she ha…
Breath as Prayer
Many forms of prayer take the same amount of time to complete. This time—especially with 5.5-second breathing—has powerful physiological benefits.
Wild Lovingkindness: Creating Mettā Connections
“That's so meta.” ... From self-reflective to the Buddhist mettā (cultivating benevolence), “we can practice wild lovingkindness to extend beyond one being, beyond humanity.” Here, 5 mettā moment starters, plus a practice for reflecting on your wild connections.
Women’s Meditation
There’s no reason meditating has to be painful, says staff writer JULIE PETERS. As long as you are in your own thoughts and feelings, meditation can happen anywhere.
Follow the Spirit of Your Heart Through Meditation and Awareness
Here are 7 simple soulful steps you can take every day to bring more light to your heart chakra.
Healing Mother Earth: Seek Within
“The Seeking Our Humanity trilogy is a masterwork for saving Mother Earth right now. A glorious call to action ... the method will surprise and delight you. ... Let the healing begin.”
What’s Your Doggie’s Dosha?
Canine wellness expert Amanda Ree dishes ayurvedic wisdom via dog dosha quizzes, balancing your furry friend's dosha and customizing it to meet your BFF's unique needs.
Books We Love
This year, our Books We Love section examines self-care from an ayurvedic perspective, how food affects mental health and immunity, and how to cultivate a moon practice, and more.
E-Wellness
From medical appointments to yoga classes, the world has gone virtual—and it’s working. Brandi-Ann Uyemura digs into the future of care.
Just Be: How Doing Nothing Sparks Creativity
“In terms of achievement, relaxing and ‘doing nothing’ can be extremely beneficial for nurturing creativity.”
“I’m Turned Off by the Higher Power Language in A.A.”
“The brightness of an incandescent bulb is determined by how many twists are in its filament. Each twist increases the resistance of the wire, which in turn makes the filament heat up more and glow brighter. Likewise, each twisted, broken aspect of our lives can add to our capacity to be a light.”
An Old and Surprisingly Helpful Definition of Sin
What if we define sin as “anxious self-centeredness”? When we empty ourselves of lower energies, what takes their place?
Faux Paws: Common Sayings Animal Lovers Should Avoid
Thingifying animals is a thing (Sure! I'll be your guinea pig!)—and words matter. Here are tips for kinder and more mindful, animal-inclusive speech from the world’s wisdom traditions.
The Way of Gratitude: A Minister’s View on Connection
The Way of Gratitude author and prominent Unitarian Universalist minister Galen Guengerich dives deep on faith, belonging, morality, and, of course, gratitude.
Choose Hope and Healing in Divided Times
Become part of a collective lifting up of humanity by actively choosing hope and healing and by sending light into a divided world.
Reconnecting and Recommitting to Mother Earth
The courage and strength to take a stand for our planet can be found through reconnecting with the energy and ease of Mother Earth.
What to Do With the Winter Blues
This year is bluer than most—and this may be the bluest winter on record. Fight the winter blues in five ways.
Yoga for Better Sleep
You can improve your sleep just by implementing bedtime yoga sequences into your daily practice. Yoga for better sleep can be done from the comfort of your own bed.
Sleep Better Tonight
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Notes From Your Therapist: The Humanity in Grief
When heart-wrenching loss entered therapist Allyson Dineen’s life, she began writing meditations and affirmations for herself to process her grief and shared them on social media. Here is an excerpt from that collection, Notes From Your Therapist.
This Printer May Not Exist: From Believing to Knowing
Does God exist? There are other questions that are even more important, such as “How can I live as a light in a world struggling with darkness?”
Refresh Body and Spirit With a Moon Practice
Does your New Year’s Resolution feel like a distant memory? The moon provides a monthly fresh start.
The Wisdom of Trees
Discover the wisdom of the trees with a grounding tree meditation script and audio.
Invoking the Mystical Phoenix
The phoenix appears throughout the world as a symbol of rebirth and resilience. How can you invoke the power of the mystical phoenix in your daily life?
Reclaim Rest: A Rest-Guided Meditation to Help You Connect to Calm Instantly
Reclaim rest with a rest guided meditation that will take you on a journey of self-exploration.
Yoga and Mental Health
Yoga and mental health are inextricably intertwined. Yoga helps promote mindfulness, healing from trauma, and boosts creativity.
The Spiritual Meaning of the Easter Season
“Regardless of what traditions you follow, the spiritual meaning of Easter is a new light after sacrifice or tribulation.”
Examen Practice: Following the Thread
An examen practice can assist in finding and interpreting the thread of spirituality that is always in your life.
5 Touchstones for “Good Enough” Parenting
The good news? Research shows that parents don’t have to be perfect to raise secure children.
Father’s Final Words Not the Last Word
Psychotherapist Kevin Anderson offers advice to S&H readers. “As professionally prepared as you were for your father’s dying process, there are no credentials or letters after our names that can fully prepare us for losing a loved one.”
Humbling Reminders to Live Heavily Meditated
“Buddha was right: difficulty and suffering keep coming at us in small and large ways. If we’re not doing daily practice, we will just get better at adding to our suffering.”
Iwígara: Embracing the Spirituality of Plants
Thinking of botanical entities as relatives, what might we learn from connecting to our earth-tethered kin?
A Mystical Truth Hidden in “I Am Never Good Enough in My World”
Transform Self-denigration into Self-actualization by making some much-needed edits to the sentence “I am Never Good Enough in My World.”
The Camino Vibe
Can’t head to Europe for the Camino De Santiago? You can craft a small pilgrimage close to home.
Music Review: We Are
We Are is the powerful new album from pianist/singer Jon Batiste, his first full-length studio album since Hollywood Africans in 2018. These 13 songs optimistically celebra…
Moon Practices
Tap into the power of the moon with moon practices that sync your spiritual life with the natural world. Discover meditations, rituals, affirmations, and many more moon practices.
Is Meditation Teacher Training Right for Me?
With interest in spirituality surging, the need for qualified meditation teachers has grown. Is meditation teacher training right for you?
High Summer and the Divine Feminine
What kind of summer do you want to have? Explore the divine feminine within yourself, whatever your gender.
Parasympathetic Stimulation: How to Improve Your Vagal Tone
Cold therapy, vocalization, and socializing are just three of six ways to improve vagal tone and reduce stress.
9 Steps to Zen & Inner Peace
What is the secret to happiness and spiritual expansion? Follow these 9 steps to zen and develop an inner state of balance and tranquility.
Ana Lilia
Ana Lilia is a certified breathwork teacher and healer leading thousands of people to intimately connect with their breath as a pathway for transformation. Ana channels her intuit…
Benefits of Catnip … For Humans Too!
Repel mosquitos, chill out, and get a good night’s sleep with catnip.
Be Happy the Greco-Roman Way
You can thank the ancients for everything from democracy to libraries, the alphabet to zoology. What do they say about happiness?
Stop Suppressing, Start Examining
Faith Hunter, author of Spiritually Fly: Wisdom, Meditations, and Yoga to Elevate the Soul, offers a technique for diving deep with your demons.
Books We Love 2021
Discover your new reading list: S&H’s guide to books we love, from upcoming titles to past favorites.
The Branches of Grief Yoga
Open your heart, tap into joy, and explore the transformative healing nature of Grief Yoga.
Are You Blocked? Take This Chakra Quiz to Find Out
Answer eight chakra quiz questions to determine where there’s imbalance in your system and how you can realign.
Astrology Studies: An Introduction to Elemental Wisdom
Answer four quick questions to identify which of the classical elements are healthy or weak within you.
Have You Tried Mimicked Fasting?
Mindful mimicked fasting combines a novel formula of nutrients with deep spiritual connection.
Four Mentors and the Spiritual Quest
You are on a spiritual quest ... and you may meet four archetypal mentors, including the professor and the guru.
Podcast: Pamela Seelig, Threads of Yoga
Rabbi Rami and Pamela Seelig discuss the yoga sutras, quieting the mind, yoga as an antidote, the eight-limb path, and more.
Tuning In to the Wisdom of Winter
Winter marks another completion around the sun—a perfect occasion to contemplate what’s most important to us.
Sensing a Traumaversary
On a tragic anniversary—a traumaversary—ask yourself: What does your body need?
Deb Dana on Anchoring Your Nervous System With Polyvagal Theory
Polyvagal Theory expert Deb Dana explores anchoring into your nervous system and connecting to your body’s neural pathways for calmness, safety, and connection.
Death Awareness: Wrestling, Reflecting, and Revising the Final Act
Practicing death awareness need not be morbid. It can help you live your values more fully and cherish your life.
7 New Ways to Get Closer to Your Partner This Valentine’s Day
Ask questions, read each other’s dreams, make chakra soups, and more.
4 Water Meditation Techniques
Find some water—in a fountain, a pool, infused in a glass on your nightstand—and balance your energy center with water meditations.
New Home, Old Traditions
Kate Madden Yee describes her spiritual journey, which took her back to a home that is both new and familiar.
The Good Noise: Sound Medicine Works
While researchers are still exploring the mechanism of sound medicine, studies show that sound therapy boosts spiritual wellbeing and reduces anxiety and pain.
Science & Spirit: All About Aging
Organs age at different rates, even a little alcohol shrinks your brain, and steps matter.
How to Identify and Work With Your Power Animal
Supporter power animals offer potent energetic medicine, wisdom, and teachings. Your core power animal is with you every day for your entire lifetime.
Anxiety Toolkit: Naming Your Anxiety and Sending It a Message
Wrapping your arms around anxiety is about speaking directly and compassionately to your anxiety.
Reading as a Spiritual Exercise
Reading isn’t just about gaining new knowledge or relaxing. It can be a spiritual practice in its own right.
5 Ways to Practice Body Neutrality as You Age
Let go of the pressure to love your body. As you age, body neutrality helps you see your body as a resource whose value is constant.
How to Avoid Place Blindness
Place blindness is a form of apathy that sets in when we don’t spend enough time outdoors. Overcome place blindness “to feel alive, to feel good.”
5 Best Crystals for Focus
Can’t concentrate? Wear, carry, or display fluorite and other crystals for focus.
When a Tension Gets Attention
Flummoxed by self-esteem issues? Give up on self-esteem and move to Self-awareness.
Book Review: Around the World in 80 Spiritual Places
Defining spiritual places is the first order of business, a task made joyful by the abundance of landscapes, locales, buildings, and sites to choose from. A highlight of the book’s…
What Is Color Meditation?
Discover how the creator of The Color Meditation Deck used color meditation to change her perspective, and how you can, too.
Your Spiritual Growth Is a Risk to Other Peoples’ Lives
When we walk the path of personal transformation, our actions are no longer only for ourselves. They affect the world.
How to Use an Oracle for Your Meditation Practice
Explore how an oracle deck can help you strengthen your meditation practice, become more present, and stay grounded no matter what.
7 Meditation Techniques to Support You Through Grief
Feeling overwhelmed by the depths of loss? One of these meditation techniques (and 10-minute guided meditation) may prove supportive.
All It Takes Is 11 Minutes
Discover how much easier your meditation practice can be with one specific helpful tool.
Practices to Reconnect With Your Body
Want to reconnect with your body but not sure how? Discover practical steps.
The Soul of Therapy: Back to the Present
A psychotherapist offers some wisdom for a reader experiencing the loneliness and stress of divorce.
10 Health Benefits of Meditation for Seniors
Explore how meditation can provide profound health benefits, especially for seniors.
How to Forest Bathe With Your Dog
Familiar with forest bathing? Try this meditative practice with your pup for an added benefit.
The Dark Side of Gratitude
While practicing gratitude can increase our wellbeing, sometimes we have to step beyond gratitude to find a better life. Learn how to navigate the dark side of gratitude.
Amusing Grace, How Sweet the Sound
Is there a place for laughter in trauma therapy? Our resident psychotherapist dives in.
Podcast: Julie Peters, Decolonizing Therapy
Why does decolonizing therapy matter? Body-based counselor and Spirituality & Health staff writer Julie Peters explains.
23 Great Places to Pause, Reflect, and Renew
Our 2023 Retreat Guide features 23 unique retreat centers design to help you heal, restore, and connect with your highest self. Where will you retreat to this year?
Trauma Stewardship Tips for Animal Lovers
It's important for animal advocates of all kinds to take care of themselves. Discover some top tips on how to steward trauma instead of letting it consume you.
Navigating With Soul
How can you get a sense of whether a therapist will be a soulful, healing presence in your life? Explore six things to watch for in your first few sessions.
Book Review: Relighting the Cauldron
Take a moment to envision the core of the Earth as a cauldron bubbling over a fire. What would happen if this fire were extinguished? This sobering question is raised by Rev. Wendy…
Book Review: Opening to Darkness
Facing challenges might be typical of human experience, but confronting the darkness within those challenges is an individual matter, if not a compelling choice—the governing theme…
Diving Deep Into Darkness
Zen Buddhist priest Osho Zenju Earthlyn Manuel shares her wisdom on leaning into life’s many difficulties and invites us to explore our relationships to darkness and blackness as we know them.
Demystifying the Talking Cure
Talk therapy—and the process of finding the right therapist—can be confusing. Here are nine ways to make accessing the "talking cure" easier.
Living New Questions
Explore ways to shift the self-judging questions you're asking yourself into more compassionate ones that can help support healing.
Awakening to the Wisdom of the Oak
Kristoffer Hughes is the chief of the Anglesey Druid Order in Wales, and his mission—through his school of myths and workshops and books—is to provide everyone a bite from the cauldron of modern Druidry.
The Key to a Good Night's Sleep
Explore how one app is helping people fall asleep each and every night with their library of soothing sleep tracks.
Brian Cox
Brian Cox was born in Kenya in 1960. A three-time winner of the President’s Trophy at Seattle University, he received a Master of Arts in Holistic Studies in Mind-Body Regulation f…
Uniting Hearts and Souls: A Journey Through Bhakti Fest
Welcome home. Join us this year for 3 days of kirtan, yoga, and community-building when Bhakti Fest returns to Joshua Tree September 15-17. Learn more about the heart-opening conscious event.
Heart-Based Decision Making: Journey Inward With Breath & Heart
Explore the process of learning to make decisions from your heart center.
Embracing Wholeness: The Path to Holistic Living at Bhakti Fest
Bhakti Fest offers seekers a chance to build conscious community while nourishing their own spirits. Learn more about this year's gathering, happening September 15-17 in Joshua Tree, California.
3 Keys to Thriving: How to Have Purpose, Prosperity, and Ease
Discover these three powerful keys to step into a purpose-filled, prosperous, and easeful life.
3 Ways to Connect to Your Landscape
Interested in nature spirituality but not sure where to start? An herbalist and druid offers three ways to connect to your local landscape.
Experience Emotional Healing Through Chanting the Psalms
Chanting the Psalms, regardless of your own spiritual tradition, can offer deep healing for the subtle body. Learn more about the history of this practice and how to incorporate the Psalms into your life.
The Man and the Method Behind a Surprising Meditation Study
Explore the surprising science behind Heart Rhythm Meditation, a unique and simple technique to calm the mind and spirit.
How to Make Meditation a Habit—the Buddhist Way
Meditation practice not sticking? Get back to the basics and find exactly what works for you in these 12 helpful steps.
5 Quick Ways to Manage Big Emotions
Overwhelming emotions are common but often feel insurmountable. Try these five techniques to ground yourself and unwind.
Awakening From Suffering
Discover your soul's true purpose as your life takes on a deeper meaning. Realize that our collective purpose is to share our love and that this is the true meaning of life.
Swami Premodaya
Swami Premodaya is a spiritual teacher, author, and founder of the International Centers of Divine Awakening. For a full schedule of events and programs, as well as a free guided m…
Meditation: A Gateway to Exploring Your True Nature
Meditation practices are renowned for helping people quiet their minds, leading to a greater sense of peace and serenity.
Lessons from Dhumavati, the Tantric Goddess of Despair
The Tantric goddess Dhumavati is a dark aspect of the Great Goddess and offers great teachings about rejection, disappointment, and despair. Explore what we can learn from her story.
My Journey from Head to Heart
Explore one philosophy professor's personal review of the OJAYA "Armor" technique—a most rare and potent practice of effortless and blissful deep meditation.
Uncover Your Inherent Goodness
How can we rediscover our goodness and live out that truth daily so that we might thrive in every aspect of our lives? What if the secret to rediscovering our goodness is to look inward?
Qi Gong: An Ancient Antidote for Modern Stress
Qi gong master Lee Holden teaches how to return to the body for balance, peace, and vitality.
What Is a Salt Cave, and How Can It Help Us Heal?
Working with the elements can help us ground emotionally and access a deeper connection with ourselves. Learn how salt caves can support our emotional health.
Why Should We Meditate?
Explore one spiritual teacher’s thoughts on the ways in which we unconsciously meditate on unhappiness, and how to reverse that pattern.
Accelerate Your Spiritual Awakening with the Golden Ray Initiations
The Golden Ray Initiations isn't just a course; it's an experiential voyage into the depths of your spiritual being.
The Ultimate Guide to Choosing the Right Energy Healing Certification for You
The first step to finding your calling as an energy healer is to follow what resonates with your heart and aligns with your spiritual philosophy.
Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) for Relationships
The Emotional Freedom Technique, also known as tapping, has been proven to help manage anxiety, stress, and trauma. It can also support us in cultivating healthy relationships.
Enlightened Perspectives: Kate Bowler Shows Grace in Gravity
Discover how Kate Bowler, author of Everything Happens for a Reason and Have a Beautiful, Terrible Day, navigates cancer, faith, and joy.