Balanced Mind With Julie Potiker

In this guided meditation led by Julie Potiker you will focus on a being who brings you joy - and then move into classic loving kindness phrases. She completes her meditation with the poem, "Dream Life", by Billy Collins.Dream Life, by Billy CollinsWhenever I have a dream about Poetry,which is not very oftenconsidering how much I think about her,she appears as a seamstresswho works in the window of a tailor's shopin a section of a provincial cityladen with a grey and heavy sky.I know the place so wellI could find the dimly lit shopwithout asking anyone for directions,though the streets are mostly empty,except when I saw a solitary manlooking in the window of a butcher's,his hands in the pockets of his raincoat.Poetry works long hoursand rarely speaks to the tailoras she bends to repair the fancy costumesof various allegorical figureswho were told by Thrift how little she charges.Maybe the ermine collar on the robeof Excess has come looseor a rip in the gown of Abandonneeds mending, and no questionswill be ask

Focus on giving love to yourself and others as you follow this guided meditation led by Julie Potiker. She completes the meditation with the poem, "Listening", by Julie Barton.Listening, by Julie BartonI rebuilt my ancestral altar. Two nights later, two great-horned owls stood near my front door.I knew they were my grandparents wholingered. They said in the next morning’s meditation, Where we are,masculine and feminine don’t exist. (I heard it like an apology.) We’re all just energy here. (I heard: We had it so wrong.)It’s just love.I replied, That’s what the trees say too.I inhaled with my still warm body, asked for guidance. Let go, they said. Keep going. Write with your eyes closed.-Listening, by Julie Barton (from, Out With Lanterns, a daily poetry practice).Find out more about using mindfulness in everyday life through Julie's books, "SNAP: From Calm to Chaos", and "Life Falls Apart, But You Don't have To: Mindful Methods for Staying Calm in the Midst of Chaos". Both are available on Amazon.com.Follow Ju

Find peace and connection through this guided meditation led by Julie Potiker. She completes the meditation with the poem, "Community", by James Crews.Community, by James CrewsScience now tells uswhat we have knownsince the beginning:you and I are made of light.And if atoms can be birthed by long-gone starswhose signatures we stilltrace in every night sky,and if these atoms cancome together to formsomething as complexand compassionateas a human being, thenmaybe we too canjoin hands, make somenew and sacred thingthat will save us all.-Community, by James CrewsFind out more about using mindfulness in everyday life through Julie's books, "SNAP: From Calm to Chaos", and "Life Falls Apart, But You Don't have To: Mindful Methods for Staying Calm in the Midst of Chaos". Both are available on Amazon.com.Follow Julie on YouTube and Facebook at Mindful Methods for Life.comThis podcast is available on iTunes, iHeart, Blubrry and everywhere you listen to podcasts.

Goodness - is the focus of this guided meditation. What is it you need to hear to make you feel good? Julie Potiker completes the meditation with a reading of her poem, "Holy Stop".Holy Stop, by Julie PotikerA little after 2pmI exit the 5-south freeway at Loma Santa Fe.At the traffic light, two women with bright green vestsCROSSING GUARD in tall black letters.Outstretched armgrasping pole with big red stop signhats with brimssunglasses shielding eyesfrom the California sun.A precious jobA vital taskshepherding school children.Three vest clad women, one vest clad mana Santa Claus beardPerhaps a grandpa.Or merely a good neighbor.A generous offering.A lovely way totake good care of children.These are the things we can do in this messy lifewhere nature wreaks havoc24-hour news cycle shaking you for attention.It might be standing on a street corner,shielding your eyes from the sun,holding a stop sign.Holy, stop, perfect.-Holy Stop, by Julie Potiker.Find out more about using mindfulness in everyday life through Jul

Breathe in goodness...for yourself...and others through this guided meditation led by Julie Potiker. She completes the meditation with the poem, "You Matter", by James Crews.You Matter, by James CrewsAll we can do in times like theseis offer things to say to others:You matter to me. The Mason jarof chicken soup given to a neighbor,or the clay mug shaped by the handsof a friend, with a dog and goldfinchpainted on the side - how it arrivedin the mail unbroken. A phone call out of the blue, or message that says:Thinking of you. Let's wrap each otherin gestures so true, no one ever doubtshow much they belong, no one everquestions whether or not to stay.-You Matter, by James Crews.Find out more about using mindfulness in everyday life through Julie's books, "SNAP: From Calm to Chaos", and "Life Falls Apart, But You Don't have To: Mindful Methods for Staying Calm in the Midst of Chaos". Both are available on Amazon.com.Follow Julie on YouTube and Facebook at Mindful Methods for Life.comThis podcast is available on

Find your center as you move into the New Year with this guided meditation led by Julie Potiker. She completes the meditation with the poem, "Life and Death", by Mary F. Lenox.Life and Death, by Mary F. Lenox On the day of our birth, We begin our journey toward deathNeedless to say,Every living being on this planet today will not be here in 120 years.That’s twelve decades from now Most will be gone soonerI certainly willSo, what does that mean? Time matters!Each day is a gift from the divineThe cells of the body are in continuous cycles of hello and goodbyePeople come and go in our livesThe world we inhabit is changing before our very eyesIf I live 20 more years, I will be approaching my 100th birthdayI know not the day or hourWhen I will leave this earthly planeNor do othersThe answer is clear to meLoveNow!Celebrate life Now!Smile at trees, birds, and the seaNow!Love beautyNow!Love MusicNow!Let go of anything that does enhance my lifeNow!Speak the truth with an open heartNow!Honor, respect, and care for my b

Join Julie Potiker as she guides you through this meditation focusing on what it is you need - for yourself. She completes the meditation with the poem, "Try Softer", by James Crews."Try Softer", by James CrewsHonor wherever you arewhether the door to your lifehas blown off its hinges,or you find the simplest joysitting in a patch of winter sunon that corner of the carpetwhere you love to stretch.Try softer, not harder—giving yourself a safe placeto land your attention, restingin this threshold momentthrough which wind, snowand light all enter alike.—James Crews"SNAP: From Calm to Chaos", and "Life Falls Apart, But You Don't have To: Mindful Methods for Staying Calm in the Midst of Chaos". Both are available on Amazon.com.Follow Julie on YouTube and Facebook at Mindful Methods for Life.comThis podcast is available on iTunes, iHeart, Blubrry and everywhere you listen to podcasts.

Breathe in and visualize a Hanukkah candle - lit with love, glowing. Julie Potiker completes the meditation with the poem, "The Back of Our Hands", by Annette Friend."The Back of Our Hands," by Annette Friend.My nephew's afternoon wedding in upgradedJersey City - a rose covered Chuppah overlooksthe sun-speckled Hudson River, the jagged NYC skyline.My granddaughter, six, sits on my lap,in a flowered pink dress, beige patent leathershoes with tiny bows, softly touches the backof my hand, traces brown liver spots, blue veins,red splotches of skin damaged by too much sun,baby oil slathered teenage skin at the Jersey Shore.Her pure, pink skin, unblemished, smoothas rose petals, in stark contrast to my time splatteredcovering. She maps the spots up and down my armas if trying to decipher clues about my life."What happened her?" she whispers,points to a thin white scar on my thumb."Cut myself with a knife making latkes.I'll be more careful when I come to visit,and we make latkes for Hanukkah."Her pearly fingertips m

In this guided meditation, led by Julie Potiker you will be focusing on your gifts and what it is you need right now. She completes the meditation with the poem, "At the Market", by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer."At The Market", by Rosemerry Wahtola TrommerNow when I walk through the marketI think of how someone else herebeside the stir-fry cart and the tie-dye tenthas just lost a belovedand is hiding tears behind sunglasses.Not knowing who they are,I try to treat everyone with kindness.Meanwhile the day is beautifulfor everyone, no matter how whole,how broken our hearts. It gathers us allin a grand blue embrace.I stroll through the gift of a Fridaymorning surrounded by arugulaand strawberries, muffins, lilies,and all these other fragile hearts,all of us saying Excuse me, Good morning,How are you, It's nice to see you today.-At The Market, by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer(from "The Unfolding poems").Find out more about using mindfulness in everyday life through Julie's books, "SNAP: From Calm to Chaos", and "Life Fal

What would be most helpful for you to hear right now. Is it hope, healing, peace? Julie Potiker guides you through this meditation and finishes with her poem, "Considering Poetry".Considering Poetry, by Julie PotikerNo furrowing of browsNor squinting of earsI like the message to ripple on clear fresh waterPerhaps a river streamFlowing over stones smoothed by the agesPerhaps more rhythmicallyDynamicallyThe pull of the moonStacking up the seaAs it breathes in and outIn and outNever endingCreating the sandDrenching it with giftsEnduring through time -Julie PotikerFind out more about using mindfulness in everyday life through Julie's books, "SNAP: From Calm to Chaos", and "Life Falls Apart, But You Don't have To: Mindful Methods for Staying Calm in the Midst of Chaos". Both are available on Amazon.com.Follow Julie on YouTube and Facebook at Mindful Methods for Life.comThis podcast is available on iTunes, iHeart, Blubrry and everywhere you listen to podcasts.

Right now, in this moment, what is it you need to hear? Julie Potiker helps you focus on that question through this guided meditation. She completes the meditation with the poem, "Reciting Poems to Each Other in a Difficult Time", by Rosemerry Wahtola TrommerReciting Poems to Each Other in a Difficult Time, by Rosemerry Wahtola TrommerIt might have looked as if we stayedin our respective squares—nine separate rooms made of pixels—but for an hour the poems we shared leapedthrough the screen and into our bloodstreamuntil all our lines were gloriously blurredand our wounds were gently tendedby the medicine of Berry’s day-blind starsand Wellwood’s ferocious dance of no hope,Hopkins’s shining from shook foiland Roethke’s wondering Which I is I?In another time, there would have beena fire at the center. Someone would play a drum.But in this time, I felt it inside me, the fire,as poems blazed to meet the great cold.I felt it inside me, the human drum,that reminds me the heart beatsnot for itself, but the world.For a

Enter the holiday season and finish the year with gratitude and thankfulness - for those who helped you throughout your life. Who has helped you become the person you are today? Breathe in acknowledgment of their contribution to your life's journey - breathe out thankfulness. Julie Potiker completes her meditation with the poem, "Thank You", by Ross Gay.Thank You, by Ross Gay.If you find yourself half nakedand barefoot in the frosty grass, hearing,again, the earth's great, sonorous moan that saysyou are the air of the now and gone, that saysall you love will turn to dust,and will meet you there, do notraise your fist. Do not raiseyour small voice against it. And do nottake cover. Instead, curl your toesinto the grass, watch the cloudascending from your lips. Walkthrough the garden's dormant splendor.Say only, thank you.Thank you.-Thank You, by Ross Gay Find out more about using mindfulness in everyday life through Julie's books, "SNAP: From Calm to Chaos", and "Life Falls Apart, But You Don't have To: Mindful

Open your heart to compassion through this guided meditation led by Julie Potiker. She completes the meditation with a reading of the poem, "So I Can't Save the World", by —Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer"So I Can't Save the World", by —Rosemerry Wahtola TrommerSo I can’t save the world—can’t save even myself,can’t wrap my arms aroundevery frightened child, can’tfoster peace among nations,can’t bring love to all whofeel unlovable.So I practice opening my heartright here in this room and being gentlewith my insufficiency. I practicewalking down the street heart first.And if it is insufficient to share love,I will practice loving anyway.I want to converse about truth,about trust. I want to invite compassioninto every interaction.One willing heart can’t stop a war.One willing heart can’t feed all the hungry.And sometimes, daunted by a task too big,I ask myself, What’s the use of trying?But today, the invitation is clear:to be ridiculously courageous in love.To open the heart like a lilac in May,knowing freeze is possi

This meditation led by Julie Potiker focuses on our connection to others. We are the light, we are connected, and we are the helpers. She completes the meditation with the poem, " Look for the Helpers", by James Crews."Look for the Helpers", by James CrewsToday, I will look for the helpers-the woman pouring sunflower seedsfrom an orange bag into the feeder,and a chickadee, having eaten its fill, lifting offso another can feast there.Someone holding open the fogged-over door of the coffee shopfor a stranger who smiles and says thank you in spite of the news.I will watch workers dressed in neon vests with shovels and buckets,filling potholes across the city, the asphalt steaming as they spread itover the street, then tamp it down, repairing what they can.-"Look for the Helpers", by James CrewsFind out more about using mindfulness in everyday life through Julie's books, "SNAP: From Calm to Chaos", and "Life Falls Apart, But You Don't have To: Mindful Methods for Staying Calm in the Midst of Chaos". Both are avai

Using your breath, breathe in peace and hope through this guided meditation led by Julie Potiker. She completes the meditation with a reading of the poem, "Hope", by Lisel Mueller."Hope", by Lisel MuellerIt hovers in dark cornersbefore the lights are turned on,it shakes sleep from its eyesand drops from mushroom gills,it explodes in the starry headsof dandelions turned sages,it sticks to the wings of green angelsthat sail from the tops of maples.It sprouts in each occluded eyeof the many-eyed potato,it lives in each earthworm segmentsurviving cruelty,it is the motion that runs the tail of a dog,it is the mouth that inflates the lungsof the child that has just been born.It is the singular giftwe cannot destroy in ourselves,the argument that refutes death,the genius that invents the future,all we know of God.It is the serum which makes us swearnot to betray one another;it is in this poem, trying to speak.-Hope, by Lisel MuellerFind out more about using mindfulness in everyday life through Julie's books, "SNAP:

Find a quiet place to settle into your own stillness through this guided meditation led by Julie Potiker. She completes the meditation with the poem, "Natural Silence", by James Crews.Natural Silence, by James CrewsIt's not easy to find the silencebehind traffic noise and the rush of a jetdragging its contrails through the sky.But here it is again in the in-between,when I learn to listen long enoughto the call-and-response of birdsong,to wind pulsing in the canopies of trees,and every wing-flutter of the phoebewho's built her cup of a nest out of mossand mud beneath the eaves of our house.I know the stillness will last for justa few beats before the roar of a Harleytakes over, and a tractor rumbles throughthe rocky field outside my window.So I sink into it while I can, as I do into waterso clean and clear, for a moment at leastI swear I can see to the bottom of everything.-Natural Silence, by James Crews (from "Unlocking the Heart; Writing for Mindfulness, Courage, and Self-Compassion", by James Crews).Find o

While sitting in quiet meditation - bring in phrases of loving kindness to yourself; may I be safe, may I be happy, and may I find moments of ease. Julie Potiker completes the meditation with the poem, "Choices", by James Crews."Choices", by James CrewsYou can grieve the leaves strippedfrom the maple, all that emptyspace between bare branches,or you can bless the abundanceof light shining through, buffingthe pine boards of the floor untilthey turn the color of clover honey.You can mourn the cone-flowersnow shriveled and brown, saythe whole world’s gone to ruin,or you can stand at the windowwatching the lively yellow blossomof a goldfinch feasting on eachcrown of seeds, sending more thana few back home, down intothe open ground, which knowshow to receive them.—James CrewsFind out more about using mindfulness in everyday life through Julie's books, "SNAP: From Calm to Chaos", and "Life Falls Apart, But You Don't have To: Mindful Methods for Staying Calm in the Midst of Chaos". Both are available on Amazon.com.F

Take some time to slow down your mind and your body - as you sit, relax and breath through this guided meditation led by Julie Potiker. She completes the meditation with her poem, "Self-Care.""Self-Care", by Julie PotikerSelf-care is in my spine, stampedin my vertebrae after a decadeof teaching mindful self-compassion.It keeps my skeleton fro collapsingin a heap on the earth when disaster strikes.It raises me a little taller when joy, awe,or ecstasy bursts out of me like a hoseaimed at a five-alarm fire. It saved my life,this practice of seeing and allowing all of me,the jagged and sticky bits included.It orients me to a wider lens, my feetin other shoes, with an impulse to help,if i can. The nuts-and-bolts changebased on circumstance, but there areconstraints - the breath, feet rootedon solid ground, hand on heart, prayersspooling out, connecting with peoplewho love me and whom i love,and remembering I belong, I am enough,I am complete -- and so are you."Self-Care", by Julie PotikerFind out more about using

Slow down and connect to yourself and the beauty that surrounds around you through this guided meditation led by Julie Potiker. She completes the meditation with the poem, "Watson", by Julia Fehrenbacher."Watson", by Julia Fehrenbacher.I'm pretty sure our new kitten thingsour middle-aged dog is his mama.At first, he hissed and made himself bigwhenever he saw her, but nowhe nestles into the warm curveof her belly and purrs. He evencloses his eyes while shelicks him clean.The other day, he helped himselfinto the pantry, and, I swear, triedto open the doggy jerkyfor his new mama. After dinnerthey chase balls and each otheraround the house untilone of them has to lie down.Two entirely different speciesshowing us what love looks like,teaching us how to hissless, how to purr more.-"Watson", by Julia Fehrenbacher.Find out more about using mindfulness in everyday life through Julie's books, "SNAP: From Calm to Chaos", and "Life Falls Apart, But You Don't have To: Mindful Methods for Staying Calm in the Midst of Chaos

Compassion is the focus of this guided meditation led by Julie Potiker. Breath in compassion for yourself - and out for others. She completes the meditation with the poem, "Komorebi," by James Crews.Komorebi, by James CrewsFor what must have been a full minutein the spacious eternity of an eveningat the ragged end of summer, I stoodin the kitchen as the sun dropped downbehind the trees at the exact right placefor it to dance, shadow and light, acrossthe swirled grain of the maple counter.The Japanese call it komorebi, this playof sunshine breaking through the gapsin leaves, now dappling my hand as Ireach for my mug of tea. One of thosecountless small miracles we seldom thingto name in English, a simple rewardfor laying down the knife and leavinga carrot half-chopped on the cutting board,to be heard for at least this one out ofthe 1440 minutes I was granted today.-Komorebi, by James Crews.Find out more about using mindfulness in everyday life through Julie's books, "SNAP: From Calm to Chaos", and "Life Falls A