Practicing self-compassion takes practice.  

Mindfulness and body scan meditations can ease pain and help you notice comfort, backed by research.

During a difficult week, Julia turns to a gentle question: “What else is true?” This mindfulness practice makes room for pain and worry while helping us notice the care, support, and moments of relief alongside them.

A smooth stone, a quiet moment, and three things you’re grateful for. Julia shares a simple bedtime practice for noticing the ordinary comforts, meaningful moments, and small joys in everyday life.

“Drive safely.” “Good luck.” “I can’t wait to see you.” Our everyday messages can be small acts of loving kindness. Explore how the care we share through a simple text connects to this heartfelt mindfulness practice.

Pause and reconnect with the present moment through your five senses. This simple mindfulness practice invites you to slow down, savor summer, and notice what’s around you.

A simple a-ha moment offers a reminder: patience, acceptance, and kindness are practices we can offer ourselves, too. Explore what it means to let yourself be a beginner and make a fresh beginning each day.

Has an emotion, thought, or sensation ever hijacked your morning before you even had your coffee? One moment you're fine — the next you're irritable, contracted, or just... off. Most of us have been conditioned to push those feelings aside, fix them quickly, or talk ourselves out of them. But what if the most powerful thing you could do was simply be with them?

CMP recently completed our new program, Goodnight Meditations, a 4-session program that met weekly on zoom. I'm reflecting on participant feedback and how mindfulness contributes to healthy habits and experiences at bedtime.

Through our mindfulness practice, we awaken to each new moment with kind curiosity.  When we direct our curiosity inward, we might notice: how it feels to breathe, sensations in the body, thoughts on the mind, and we may notice a variety of emotions coming and going. Holding time and space for this noticing, with kind curiosity, can provide insight into how we're doing and lead to self-care strategies if needed.

On Thursdays CMP brings a weekly mindfulness meditation program to a group of people reentering society after incarceration, and in yesterday's session we shared Empathetic Joy as the main meditation.