Category · Mindfulness Exercises
Conversations, guided practices, and teacher reflections with Sean Fargo and leading voices in mindfulness.
271 episodes
Sean Fargo answers a listener’s question about supporting someone who dissociated during a loving-kindness meditation, with sensory anchors, sound, touch, walking and self-compassion for anxiety and overwhelm.
If you have ever decided you were “bad at meditating” because your mind will not stop thinking, this talk with Susan Piver offers another way to see it. She explains Shamatha Vipassana as noticing where attention has gone and returning to it.
Sean Fargo talks with Buddhist teacher and author Lodro Rinzler about basic goodness, the stories behind feeling “not enough,” and how meditation and acceptance work with shame and self-doubt.
Sean Fargo leads a live community session on staying human in a digital age: a participant on her fears about technology and AI, starting a neighborhood mindfulness group, elder teachers, podcasting as a way to meet people, and Sean’s suggestions for mindfulness with ADHD.
A short guided morning practice: a few deep breaths, a body scan from the feet to the head, the words “calm, strong, focused,” and imagining the day ahead with warm intentions.
A short guided gratitude meditation: noticing one present sensation, thanking people who support your day, a loved one, a small blessing from today, and a minor challenge, then closing with thanks for body and mind.
Sean Fargo talks with Buddhist teacher and author Lodro Rinzler about basic goodness, working with shame and self-doubt, and a loving-kindness practice for someone you find difficult.
A guided loving-kindness meditation of about three minutes, from wishes of well-being for yourself to a loved one, someone in a hard time, a difficult person, and all beings.
A conversation with leadership coach and author Jan Hoath on “joy anyway”: how mindfulness, small daily moments she calls micro joy, and emotional honesty fit together, including in hard seasons.
Susan Piver, Buddhist teacher and founder of the Open Heart Project, on how mindfulness and awareness differ, why you don’t need to stop thinking, eyes-open practice, and how to structure a meditation class.
A short guided loving-kindness meditation: relax the body and breath, then offer wishes of well-being to yourself, someone you love, the people around you, friends and family, and all beings.
Sean Fargo on moving mindfully during meditation, working with discomfort, sitting on the floor or in a chair, and starting a loving-kindness practice, with questions from the community.
A short guided gratitude and breath practice from Sean Fargo for evenings when the mind keeps going: bring to mind something you appreciate, then rest with each breath and a sense of ease and safety.
A short guided reflection that begins with a quote on heartfelt gratitude, then asks how your heart expresses thanks, how gratefulness has nurtured your love, and how others express gratitude from the heart.
A short guided loving-kindness meditation that starts with the breath and body, then offers wishes of well-being to yourself, someone you love, someone going through a hard time, someone you find difficult, and all beings.
A short guided gratitude meditation that moves through health, relationships, money, and protection, asking where gratitude has been present and where it has been unrecognized or forgotten.
Margaret Cullen, psychotherapist, mindfulness and compassion teacher, and author of Quiet Strength, on what equanimity is not, why choosing it doesn’t mean giving up passion, how feeling tone (vedana) works as a gateway, and her working definition of equanimity.
Equanimity for parents, caregivers and helpers: the “not my emergency” boundary, feeling tones as an anchor for awareness, and equanimity as a skill that can be trained. Includes resources from Margaret Cullen, author of Quiet Strength.
A short guided gratitude practice with Sean Fargo: settle the body, appreciate one simple thing you notice, thank someone who supported your day, and close with the breath.
A gentle mindfulness practice with Sean Fargo, built on a quote from Howard Thurman: notice what makes you come alive, look for the patterns, and ask what you can do with that.
Mindfulness of death isn’t about fear—it’s about waking up to what matters. Learn a simple breath practice and discover how reflecting on mortality can help you live more fully, with clarity, presence, and purpose.
A guided meditation with Sean Fargo on softening the body, breath, and resistance, then steering attention toward intention, values, and care.
Grief isn’t something to “get over.” Through mindful grief, we learn to stay with loss, soften judgment, and allow emotions to move naturally. This episode shares practical tools for meeting grief with compassion and presence.
Sean Fargo on meeting resistance to meditation with compassion, including a participant’s question about a student who stopped after two body scan sessions.
Sean Fargo answers community questions after a participant describes an overnight sit: working with physical discomfort, self-compassion, mindful eating at home, and balancing effort and relaxation.
A guided meditation on resting attention in the breath. It starts with the intention to stop striving, then moves through sensations, sounds, thoughts and emotions, using the phrase “simple awareness.”
A short guided Just Like Me meditation with Sean Fargo: bring to mind someone distant or difficult, recognize what you share with them, and close with the wish “May they be well.”
A short guided practice with Sean Fargo: recall a good event in your life, trace what made it possible, imagine how it might never have happened, and appreciate what it brought.
A three-minute guided gratitude practice with Sean Fargo: notice a simple comfort, thank unseen helpers and a loved one, name a bright spot from your day, and close with thanks for body, mind, and the pause.
A live community session with Sean Fargo on meeting physical pain in long sits, working with temptation around food and habit, progressive muscle relaxation, and wise effort.
Sean Fargo talks with Margaret Cullen, author of Quiet Strength, about equanimity as steadiness and care rather than numbing out or detachment.
Sean Fargo on the one-meal-a-day eating practice of his monastery years, using raisins and chocolate for mindful eating, tea as a practice of presence, and a community Q&A on storytelling and emotional regulation.
A one-minute guided practice for waking up, going to sleep, starting a meditation, or heading into a challenging situation: notice mind and body, soften the breath, and bring to mind gratitude and people you care about.
A three-minute guided practice on gratitude and gladness: noticing feelings already present, looking for small things to appreciate, letting them sink in, and holding them alongside disappointment or loss.
Struggling with racing thoughts at night? This loving kindness meditation before sleep uses four simple phrases to calm the mind, cultivate compassion, and help you drift into restful sleep naturally.
A short guided morning practice with Sean Fargo: steady breathing, noticing the body, imagining moments of joy ahead, and setting an intention for the day.
A guided meditation for a daily practice of love and happiness: remembering that everyone wants to be happy, loved and connected, softening sharp judgments, cherishing yourself and others with each breath, and extending appreciation to everyone you meet.
Sean Fargo, in a live community session, on why he expects demand for human mindfulness teachers to keep growing, what embodiment means, a family cuddle couch, and a participant's question about market data.
In this article we explore the Mindfulness of Eating — what it means, why it matters, and how to practice it daily to cultivate awareness, enjoyment, and a healthier connection with your body and food.
A three-minute guided breath meditation with Sean Fargo: soften the body, rest attention on the breath as a home base, note “thinking” when the mind wanders, and return without judgment.
A one-minute guided practice from Sean Fargo: pause, take a breath, and choose a quality of kindness and presence for how you want to show up today.
A guided gratitude practice in which most affirmations are repeated seven times: gifts received from others, gratitude toward others, ourselves and the greater good, openness to love, releasing hurts with compassion, and gratitude for health.
A seven-day mindfulness series on the inner critic, guided by Sean Fargo. Each day takes up one practice: naming what the critic targets, competence, worth, acceptance, a good friend's voice, sensory grounding for rumination, and loving-kindness.
A live-session conversation about fear of AI and starting a mindfulness group close to home. A longtime meditator in the group describes her doubts about training to teach online, and Sean Fargo answers a question about mindfulness for ADHD and points to teachers Mark Coleman and Loch Kelly.
Sean Fargo talks with Anthony Abbagnano, founder of Alchemy of Breath, about conscious connected breathing: how it relates to the Buddhist practice of anapanasati, how facilitators are trained, and how Anthony uses breath with couples and in a classroom.
Two hosts discuss author and teacher Anne Cushman’s work on mindfulness and creativity: her roller-skating dream, the Spirit of Creativity retreat at Spirit Rock, and six principles shared by contemplative and creative practice.
Sean Fargo answers a question from a live session about spiritual bypass: what it looks like, why resisted emotions tend to persist, and a short flow of noticing, sensing, and breathing with a difficult feeling.
Sean Fargo opens a live community session with his view that demand for human mindfulness teachers is rising because people want real connection. A participant asks what market data supports that, and the session includes a head, heart, and body awareness invitation and Sean's family cuddle couch.
A conversation about where AI can support mindfulness practice (personalization, accessibility, practice between sessions) and what it cannot replace (human presence, shared reality), with a look at ethics when AI enters wellbeing spaces.
A short practice for approaching big feelings in small steps: ground in the body, call to mind a mild emotion, notice what happens, and build an emotion inventory sorted by intensity.
Anthony Abbagnano, founder of Alchemy of Breath and author of Outer Chaos, Inner Calm, describes how he uses conscious breathing for anxiety: a four-count inhale with a longer exhale, a personal breath catalog, and why he says hyperventilation needs an expert present.
Nicholas Bradford, founder of the National Center for Restorative Justice, describes the questions he uses after student conflict (what happened, what were you trying to accomplish, who was impacted), what repair and reentry circles can look like, and why he says adults go first.
What to do when mindfulness practice feels inaccessible: the difference between courage and capability, staying within a workable window, testing the thought “I can’t handle this,” and the cue “I can meet this.”
A two-host discussion of interpersonal neurobiology (IPNB), the framework associated with psychiatrist Dr. Dan Siegel: mind, brain, and relationships as one system, epigenesis and neuroplasticity, emotion and the middle prefrontal cortex, memory and trauma, attunement, and the Wheel of Awareness.
Sharon Salzberg guides a short practice of resting attention on a home base, usually the breath: feeling one breath at a time, using quiet notes if they help, choosing another sensation if the breath is not restful, and beginning again when the mind wanders.
Sean Fargo, a former Buddhist monk, explains why he left the monastery, how senior leaders at the Environmental Protection Agency came into the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification, and why he sees reason for hope in mindfulness reaching federal agencies.
A guided meditation of about 21 minutes for settling into the body: grounding through the seat and floor, a slow body scan, the left hand on the heart and the right hand on the belly, awareness of the whole body, and a closing touch of the hands.
A two-host discussion of Richard Rudd’s The Gene Keys: Embracing Your Higher Purpose, a system that pairs the 64 hexagrams of the I Ching with the 64 codons of DNA. Covers shadow, gift, and siddhi, Gene Keys 25, 46, 55, 61, and 63, and the hologenetic profile. The claims about DNA, frequency, and human evolution are the book’s own, as the hosts present them.
James Baraz, co-founder of Spirit Rock Meditation Center and co-author of Awakening Joy, talks about the kind return in meditation, real silence in guided practice, two rules from his teaching path, secular teaching grounded in ethics, and an intention practice.
Sean Fargo sits at the roots of a redwood in his Berkeley backyard and talks about practicing mindfulness outdoors: sensing the elements in the body and in nature, practicing at a park or campground, and teaching outside.
Driving from Bakersfield to Berkeley through California’s Central Valley, Sean Fargo describes how his practice changed the way he feels on the road, and asks a few questions about feeling at home in the body, on the earth and in the air around us.
Sharon Salzberg, co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society, says forgiveness is not amnesia. She leads a loving-kindness practice built on the phrases “May I be safe, be happy, be healthy, live with ease,” offered to ourselves, a benefactor, a neutral person and all beings.
Austin Hill Shaw, a designer and teacher who speaks about creativity, asks what we need in order to be happy and names three core human needs: connection, contribution and meaning. A clip from his talk Feeling at Home in the World.
The holidays can bring joy and stress at once. This episode covers mindful listening, silent loving-kindness for a difficult relative, boundaries, mindful giving, receiving and spending, the STOP pause, savoring the senses, and giving your full presence.
A participant in a live session asks Sean Fargo how to coach people who are overwhelmed or neurodivergent and build a wall of perfection. Sean starts with safety and self-compassion, then offers mindful walking, breath awareness and a choice of pleasant practices.
Sean Fargo describes how he begins a sitting: grounding, sensing into the body, getting curious about the predominant sensation, and letting it guide what he does next.
Insight Meditation teacher and author Justin Michelson talks with Sean Fargo about The Dharma of Healing: bowing to what scares us, leading with compassion instead of aversion, the four turnings of healing, nature as support, and his native edible plant nursery.
A short talk on marking the turning points of the day (dawn, noon, mid-afternoon, dusk and bedtime) with small pauses, such as stopping at the door or taking off your shoes, and on gratitude as a way of feeling at home.
Sara-Mai Conway, a yoga and meditation teacher and writer, shows how to structure a yoga class like a guided meditation, with an intention, a body of practice and a closing dedication, and how to use silence, rest and savasana.
A guided practice of about five minutes for waiting in line: breathe, notice tension in the jaw, shoulders and belly, feel your feet on the ground, and wish yourself, the people around you and the staff patience and kindness.
Dr. Gabor Maté, a physician and author, answers Sean Fargo’s question about which emotions people suppress most, and explains his view of healthy anger, the brain’s emotion systems, and the links he sees between suppressed emotions and illness.
Sean Fargo introduces a series of mindfulness exercises for PTSD in three stages (self-soothing, reconnecting with emotions, longer-term healing) and leads a short breathing and body-softening practice. Includes safety guidance.
A two-host audio discussion of Joseph Goldstein's book The Experience of Insight, covering the Three Refuges, bare attention, breath anchors, walking and eating meditation, the Eightfold Path, the Five Hindrances and how to keep practicing in daily life.
Sean Fargo's three-minute talk on making mindfulness relevant to the people you teach: asking about their challenges and experience, finding wording and practices they can relate to, and his 900-minute teaching curriculum.
A guided mindfulness meditation led by Sean Fargo at the start of a live session: grounding in the room and body, sensing the breath, and accepting what is here. Includes his explanation of mindfulness, concentration and visualization, working with rumination, and acceptance as a form of love.
Austin Hill Shaw, a designer and teacher who speaks about creativity, asks what we need in order to be happy and names three core human needs: connection, contribution and meaning. A clip from his guest teacher talk.
George Mumford, mindfulness teacher and author of The Mindful Athlete, leads a short practice of arriving in the body: sitting with the sternum open, feeling the body's contact with surfaces, and breathing and knowing it.
A short guided breathing practice: settle into a posture that is relaxed and alert, then stay aware of one full cycle of breath, the inhale, the exhale, and the pause between.
A guided concentration practice built on counting exhales, with the anchors the guide names, why a silent practice helps, and a participant's question on how concentration differs from mindfulness.
Sean Fargo shares a rule of thumb from very senior mindfulness teachers: some reservation about teaching is a good sign, and strong confidence may not be. The notes add readiness questions for aspiring teachers.
Sean Fargo, recorded in the wake of a week of school shootings in Texas, says it is important to feel what we feel, and asks a few questions for meeting anger, sadness, depression, and fear without judgment.
An episode on why the mind wanders: the default mode network as the episode describes it, the notice, note, return cycle, the river, sky, and train-station images, and practical tips including kindness and starting with five minutes a day.
William Edelglass, Director of Studies at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, lays out common ethical and political critiques of mindfulness, including commercialization and the claim that it individualizes distress, and some possible responses.
Sean Fargo on acceptance in mindfulness practice: why he had moved away from the word, a guided meditation on the layers of the body, and a live Q&A from the certification program on worry, short breath, and fierce compassion.
Sean Fargo hosts George Mumford, author of The Mindful Athlete, in a live session for mindfulness teachers and trainees. George, who has taught mindfulness to elite athletes and executives, covers his five superpowers, right effort, working with emotions through the Four A's, flow, and practice in daily life.
Anne Cushman, author and senior retreat teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, leads a live session for mindfulness teachers and trainees on mindfulness and creative expression. She guides a short meditation, tells how she reclaimed her own creativity, and teaches principles with practices in sensory writing, movement, mandala drawing and an I am free-write.
Two hosts walk through the three pillars of mindful self-discipline (aspiration, awareness and action), the PAW method and the Never Zero rule, and what they say research on self-control, willpower and decision fatigue shows about happiness.
Sean Fargo, a former Buddhist monk and founder of Mindfulness Exercises, shares eight keys to teaching mindfulness, from compassion and working with self-doubt to trauma-sensitive guiding and community.
Sean Fargo talks with Julie Lythcott-Haims, author of How to Raise an Adult and Real American, about the body-awareness practice she learned in her late 30s, shame and fear as obstacles, writing her memoir, helicopter parenting, and finding common ground with strangers.
Sean Fargo shares an excerpt from a live Q&A call in which a student who has practiced for about five years describes feeling stuck. Sean answers with an update to your inner blueprint, listening to stuck emotion, asking for support, and returning to this moment with curiosity.
Sean Fargo talks with Loch Kelly, a meditation teacher, psychotherapist and founder of the Effortless Mindfulness Institute, about effortless mindfulness: short “glimpses” of awareness, a guided glimpse practice, releasing inner barriers, and imposter syndrome among teachers.
Sean Fargo, a former Buddhist monk, talks about how concentration and mindfulness support each other, using an image from a teacher in his lineage, Ajahn Chah: two ends of the same stick. He describes concentration practices from a live session and answers listener questions about the five hindrances, grasping, and choiceless awareness.
In this episode of the Mindfulness Exercises Podcast, Sean Fargo answers a certification student’s question about where to begin as a new mindfulness teacher. He suggests starting with who you feel called to serve and teaching from your own practice, and draws on his early teaching work in prisons, healthcare and corporate settings.
Sean Fargo leads a short concentration meditation from a live session. It starts with a sense of safety and a reflection on moments of goodness in your life, then rests attention on the breath at the nostrils, a small point of sight, and a sense of care in the heart.
Sean Fargo opens a live community session with a short welcome, then leads a brief guided meditation: survey the body for the strongest sensation, notice what is here without an agenda, and allow it to be as it is. It can be used lying down at night or as a quiet pause in the day.
Sean Fargo talks with Dr. Steve Haberlin, an assistant professor at the University of Central Florida who studies meditation and mindfulness with college students. They cover student stress, the practices Haberlin has used in class, what his research found, and the risks of introducing mindfulness too quickly.
In this episode of the Mindfulness Exercises Podcast, Sean Fargo speaks with Dr. Dan Siegel—psychiatrist, bestselling author, and pioneer in interpersonal neurobiology—about redefining the mind, the power of integration, and how practices like the Wheel of Awareness can support healing, resilience, and wholeness.
Sean Fargo reads a list of common unhelpful mental models, such as “If it isn’t perfect, it’s a failure,” then leads a guided practice that works with the body, what you focus on, and the words you choose. The three-part practice is inspired by Tony Robbins.
Sean Fargo talks with Inna Segal, internationally bestselling author of The Secret Language of Your Body, about her account of healing from back pain, psoriasis, and anxiety, and the practices she teaches for listening to the body. Her healing accounts are her own experience and are not medical advice.
Sean Fargo talks with Ariel Garten, co-founder of Muse, the brain-sensing meditation headband. They cover how its real-time EEG feedback works, what the app measures, and what she says the birds-and-storm soundscape teaches about equanimity.
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