Balanced Mind With Julie Potiker

This meditation may be just what you need right now. Julie Potiker completes this guided meditation with her poem, "Sunday Morning June 1, 2025".This meditation ends with music allowing you to drift off into sleep.Sunday Morning June 1, 2025, by Julie PotikerStretched out on the thick grey sofa cushion,the courtyard still cool with early light.Above me, the carob treeleans in—its green leaves filtering the sun,green pods long and thick,not yet brown or curled with time.Before me,a swath of pale blue Texas rangershimmers like sky.Tucked above and below,magenta moss rose spills in bright whispers.Closer to the ground,white dog rose lifts its face,next to the flame of alstroemeria—orange petals flared with red,as if the morning is speaking in color.In another bed,tiny prairie flea-banemends the spaces betweenhybrid tea roses—their soft blush in peach and pinkrising like a slow breath.California tree poppy—floppy, wild—leans toward the bold crimson bottle-brush.The soundtrack, a bird symphony.The rhythmic coo of

This meditation may be just what you need right now. Julie Potiker completes this guided meditation with her poem, "Sunday Morning June 1, 2025".Sunday Morning June 1, 2025, by Julie PotikerStretched out on the thick grey sofa cushion,the courtyard still cool with early light.Above me, the carob treeleans in—its green leaves filtering the sun,green pods long and thick,not yet brown or curled with time.Before me,a swath of pale blue Texas rangershimmers like sky.Tucked above and below,magenta moss rose spills in bright whispers.Closer to the ground,white dog rose lifts its face,next to the flame of alstroemeria—orange petals flared with red,as if the morning is speaking in color.In another bed,tiny prairie flea-banemends the spaces betweenhybrid tea roses—their soft blush in peach and pinkrising like a slow breath.California tree poppy—floppy, wild—leans toward the bold crimson bottle-brush.The soundtrack, a bird symphony.The rhythmic coo of the mourning dove.The grosbeak’s steel tapping.The sparrow and finch

Breath in loving kindness for yourself, and out for others through this guided meditation led by Julie Potiker. She completes the meditation with her poem, "Going Gently Looks Like".This meditation ends with music allowing you to drift off into sleep.“Going gently looks like” (prompt from Julia Fehrenbacher)This rounded cane chair, my body nestled in cozy fleece, the breeze kissing my thighs, knees, shins, and ankles.Black-headed Grosbeak trilling like a Song SparrowCobweb threads fluttering from the body of the cracked wooden shorebird to its black wire legsWestern Backyard Birds pocket guide dusty atop the Cornell Lab of Ornithology field guide book, on the weathered cement side table.Going gently is me on my second cup of coffee in a mug that says, fill this cup with joy, given to me by a place where I feel belonging and connection.A Cedar Waxwing is here, a Sparrow, the Grosbeak, the wind, and me, going gently.~Julie PotikerFind out more about using mindfulness in everyday life through Julie's books, "SNA

Breathe in loving kindness for yourself, as you breathe out for others through this guided meditation led by Julie Potiker. She completes the meditation with her poem, "Going Gently Looks Like".“Going gently looks like” (prompt from Julia Fehrenbacher)This rounded cane chair, my body nestled in cozy fleece, the breeze kissing my thighs, knees, shins, and ankles.Black-headed Grosbeak trilling like a Song SparrowCobweb threads fluttering from the body of the cracked wooden shorebird to its black wire legsWestern Backyard Birds pocket guide dusty atop the Cornell Lab of Ornithology field guide book, on the weathered cement side table.Going gently is me on my second cup of coffee in a mug that says, fill this cup with joy, given to me by a place where I feel belonging and connection.A Cedar Waxwing is here, a Sparrow, the Grosbeak, the wind, and me, going gently.~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 Do

Julie Potiker lead you through this guided meditation focusing on what you need right now. She completes the meditation with the poem, "How to Love Yourself", by James Crews. This meditation ends with the poem so you can drift off to sleep at the end. How to Love YourselfSit by the open window as long as you can,listening as rain taps out its own rhythmon the canopies of trees at last gone to green.Feel how that music seeps into youas each new droplet sinks into soil,touching earthworm and root, feedingall the small things we cannot see.This solitude is food for you too,the kind of love you give yourselfas you would a guest in your home.Ask: what do you need, how can I help,the way rain offers itself to the world,polishing each stone and leaf, beforedropping down into the grateful ground.—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". Bot

Julie Potiker lead you through this guided meditation focusing on what you need right now. She completes the meditation with the poem, "How to Love Yourself", by James Crews.How to Love YourselfSit by the open window as long as you can,listening as rain taps out its own rhythmon the canopies of trees at last gone to green.Feel how that music seeps into youas each new droplet sinks into soil,touching earthworm and root, feedingall the small things we cannot see.This solitude is food for you too,the kind of love you give yourselfas you would a guest in your home.Ask: what do you need, how can I help,the way rain offers itself to the world,polishing each stone and leaf, beforedropping down into the grateful ground.—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 M

This meditation led by Julie Potiker might be just what you need today. She completes the meditation with the poem, "Imaginal Cells", by James Crews.(This version ends with music so you can drift off into sleep.) Imaginal Cells, by James CrewsLike caterpillars born with imaginal cellsthat know how to become a thing with wings, we too carry a dream inside ourselvesof a different, better world. There will bestruggle, yes, as we claw our way out ofa chrysalis that can no longer keep us trapped,as we give the heart room to breathe, spaceto seek the nectar of flowers, and the nectarof mud and dung alike, feeding on darknesswhen darkness is all there is. If we canimagine a body that breaks free of its owncontainer, if we can envision a place whereeveryone feels safe and welcome, then we canbecome anything. Perhaps it beginswith a small yes stirring in a cluster of cells,and the trust that this—whatever this might beis never the end of the story.-James CrewsFind out more about using mindfulness in everyday life thr

This meditation led by Julie Potiker might be just what you need today. She completes the meditation with the poem, "Imaginal Cells", by James Crews.Imaginal Cells, by James CrewsLike caterpillars born with imaginal cellsthat know how to become a thing with wings, we too carry a dream inside ourselvesof a different, better world. There will bestruggle, yes, as we claw our way out ofa chrysalis that can no longer keep us trapped,as we give the heart room to breathe, spaceto seek the nectar of flowers, and the nectarof mud and dung alike, feeding on darknesswhen darkness is all there is. If we canimagine a body that breaks free of its owncontainer, if we can envision a place whereeveryone feels safe and welcome, then we canbecome anything. Perhaps it beginswith a small yes stirring in a cluster of cells,and the trust that this—whatever this might beis never the end of the story.-James CrewsFind out more about using mindfulness in everyday life through Julie's books, "SNAP: From Calm to Chaos", and "Life Falls A

Breath in peace for yourself - as you breath out peace for others through this guided meditation led by Julie Potiker. She completes the meditation with the poem, "Light Show", by James Crews."Light Show", by James Crews.Before supper, I called upstairs to him:Come see the light show. And withouta moment’s hesitation, he rushed downto the basement to stand next to meon the other side of a pool of sunstretching from the one small windowin the door across the concrete floor.We watched in silence as light movedthrough the leaves of the cherry tree,mingling with shadows, rippling andshifting like the mind when you goquiet enough to isolate each thought—ever-changing, not made of anythingyou can touch. We stood captivatedby that puddle of late light, whichseemed to ask: When was the last timeyou dropped everything and danced?-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

Relax and breathe along with Julie Potiker as she leads you through this healing breath meditation. She completes the meditation with her poem, "In the Habitable Zone".In the Habitable Zone, by Julie PotikerI let the thought settle—dew on my skin—120 light years from my morning coffee,a world, more than eight times biggerthan Earth, orbits a red dwarf star.Spinning steadily in what scientists callthe habitable zone.It could be a Hycean world, coveredin water so deep it forgets land.And maybe, just maybe, tiny beingsfloat there like Earth planktonreleasing dimethyl sulfide intoan atmosphere the stirs with methane,each molecule , a question flung towardus by the James Webb’s patient lens.Science says: 99.7 percent confidence.Still, let’s be careful. There are otherpaths that mimic life. But I want to exhalewonder. Let awe arise like phytoplanktonbasking in the sun. If the universe speaksin more than one place how can we notlisten with our whole hearts. Maybe, justmaybe, we are not aloneafter all.-In the Habitab

Use your breath to focus on what you need right now - through this guided meditation led by Julie Potiker. She completes the meditation with her poem, "11 minutes".11 minutes, by Julie PotikerThe Karmine Line, invisible.But real enough to draw a boundarybetween us and what's beyond.At 62 miles the air gives up its gripand Blue Origin, that sleek silver wish,carries six women through suborbital space into weightlessness.11 minutes, a life can turn inside that.11 minutes, enough to change how the soul spells home.And when they landed they brought space back in their eyes.I watched video of them landinghow they must have looked at the trees, the grass,and each other differentlyas if the whole world had shifted just slightly toward kindness.I wish I could go, feel the silence, see the curve of the earth with my own eyes.But that journey isn't mine.Not this lifetime.Instead, I breathe into the knowing.We are made of stardust,bones, breath, memory already part of the vastness, already connected to everything.Space

Join Julie Potiker as she leads you through this Classic Metta Meditation. She completes the meditation with her poem, "March on Meadowbrook Road".March, on Meadowbrook Road, by Julie Potiker.Down the way from the old Triumph mine, Narrow-leaf Willow, a rust-colored and wild, leans into the breeze.Rubber Rabbit-brush waits in stillness, not yet yellow - there's room here forwhat takes time. Basin Wild Rye a parchment scrap from last year's book, whispers its end in a papery rush.Between patches of snow, soft ground starts to look like something breathing.My boots sink low - just enough to remind me there's life below, waiting to rise, quiet as roots, steady and slow, without need for applause.Chickadees gossip - Black-capped, mountain, in stereo tones stitched through the trees, voices bright. A Northern Flicker taps at Aspens, bare as bones. Does it know the language that flows beneath this frost? Roots that spill messages deep, a network unseen holding hands in sleep.And I stand there, Stetson tipped just r

Find compassion for yourself and those around you through this guided meditation led by Julie Potiker. She completes the meditation with the poem, "The Return of Hearts and Minds", by James Crews.The Return of Hearts and Minds, by James CrewsI wake before dawn this morningto live inside the quiet, to feaston the dark bread of the possible.The house breathes on its own, thoughno footsteps stamp the floor above,no doors slam shut, and nothingstirs outside except for the maskedraccoon, hungry eyes glowing green.I know who I am in these small hours,and watch for signs that daylight isfinally coming, spreading like a blueink that brightens the sky instead ofdarkening it. This early, I imaginethe hearts and minds of everyonewho gave them up the day before,tossed out as easy as paper crumpledon the floor, suddenly returned to them,compassion flowing into each of uslike an IV drip, like fresh light meetingour eyes with the chance to begin again.—James CrewsFind out more about using mindfulness in everyday life throug

Relax into this meditation -- as you breathe in compassion. Julie Potiker completes the meditation with her poem, "Joy has Four Legs and Doesn't Ask for Permission".Joy has Four Legs and Doesn’t Ask for Permission, by Julie PotikerNo one told them about warsor the price of eggs.Mutts and pure breeds of every flavorrun without hesitation,as if the world has always been this open,this forgiving.Wellington leaps and sprints with every dog chasing a ballMadeline rolls her old bones in the wet sand.One black lab charges the waves with a Frisbee in his mouth,another digs fiercely – sand flying above his head -both entirely certain of their purpose.Just now. Just wind. Just sand and saltand the miracle of tails wagging.Nothing in them resists the day.The heaviness in my chest loosens,This is how healing looks—wild, sandy, and grinning.-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 fo

In this guided meditation you will focus on peace, love, and compassion. Julie Potiker competes her meditation with the poem, Prayer, by James Crews."Prayer", by James CrewsI ask for just the slightest shiftin my thinking, the kindest siftingof my busy mind so only wonderand peace are left behind. So thatas I walk in sleet on this spring morningI can see even these muddy rutsmade by careless trucks on the forest trailas harbors of miracle, knowing they willfill with enough snow melt and rainfor tadpoles to swim in come summer,until that sunlit instant when they feelthe flexing of legs in the water beneath them,and leap out onto the ground, their bodieshaving decided, by instinct alone, to besoft and alive in this world.-Prayer, 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 F

Relax into this guided meditation led by Julie Potiker. She completes the meditation with the poem, "Sunflower", by James Crews.Sunflower, by James Crews"Joy is not made to be a crumb."Mary Oliver once wrote, but isn't thathow it often shows up at first? One crumbof attention, then another, and anotheruntil you're able to follow the trailleading to the volunteer sunfloweryou hadn't noticed blooming by the garden."Volunteer," we say, meaning no humanhand nestled that seed in the ground,though the same could be said of joy too,which seems to spring up out of nowherewhen you see the face of the flowerthe French call tournesol, meaning"turned toward the sun." And don't weeach carry a small sun in our cheststhat tells us where to turn, where it's warm,where something bright has struggled upout of the earth, and is now calling our name?-Sunflower, 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: Min

Using your breathe ease into this guided meditation led by Julie Potiker. She completes the meditation with a reading of the poem, "Awe", by James Crews.AweIt's a shiver that climbs the trellisof the spine each tingle a brightwhite morning glory bursting into blossombeneath the skin. It can happen anywhere,anytime, even finding a sleeve of iceworn by a branch all morning, now fallenon a bed of snow. You can choose to pause,pick it up, hold that cold thing in your handor not. Few tell us that wonder and aweare decisions we make daily, hourlyminute by minute in the tiny officesof the heart, tilting the head to look upat every tree turned into a chandelierby light striking ice in just the right way.-Awe, 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 f

This guided meditation may be just what you need today. Julie Potiker completes the meditation with the poem, "The Most Important Thing", by Julia Fehrenbacher.The Most Important Thing, by Julia FehrenbacherI am making a home inside myself. A shelterof kindness where everythingis forgiven, everything allowed—a quiet patchof sunlight to stretch out without hurry,where all that has been banishedand buried is welcomed, spoken, listened to—released.​A fiercely friendly place I can claim as my very own.​I am throwing arms opento the whole of myself—especially the fearful,fault-finding, falling apart, unfinished parts, knowingevery seed and weed, every dropof rain, has made the soil richer.​I will light a candle, pour a hot cup of tea, gatheraround the warmth of my own blazing fire. I will howlif I want to, knowing this flame can burn throughany perceived problem, any prescribed perfectionism,any lying limitation, every heavy thing.​I am making a home inside myselfwhere grace blooms in grand and gloriousabundance,

Julie Potiker leads you in this classic loving kindness meditation focusing on the words - may you be safe, may you be happy, may you be healthy, and may you live you life with ease. She completes the meditation with her poem, "New"."New", by Julie PotikerBundle swaddled snugglysleeps soundlyeyes half moonsdelicate rose lipsupturned dough of noseMiniature handsslender fingersgossamer nailsI will love you forever escapes my lipscoming from a soft place, ancestral place, dropped in and breathed through my heart.At that moment, I feel the truth of it, the threshold created by my first grandchild that I gratefully glide across-this sacred bond, a link in the chain traveling back in time and forward forever.-New, by Julie Potiker.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

This guided meditation led by Julie Potiker focuses on goodness - as you breathe in and out. She completes the meditation with her poem, "February 11th, 2025".February 11th, 2025, by Julie Potiker.Rain is coming, there’s a damp chill as I zip my down jacket, tuck my slippered feet under me in my favorite listening chair under the eaves.Bewick Wrens, tail up, are chirping and trilling in the green leafy branches of the carob trees. When one drops down onto the bricks, I get a close look of his plump little body. I’d love to hold him in my upturned palm.Orange Crowned Warbler gives me the same maternal pang. I’m watching a small one flick leaves off the branches, hearing the thwack as leaf hits bricks.Song Sparrow and House Finch are close - perhaps in the trees near the empty feeders. I’ve paused their food on the recommendation of experts to minimize the risk of bird flu. The white plastic seed container with the twist on lid sits untouched on the stone counter, surrounded by a dozen Mexican limes that let go