Today’s mini meditation, led by Mara Branscombe, is a practice of connecting with the energy of the elements as a way to reset and shift our energy. This is a short, powerful practice. Don’t miss it!

Today’s episode of The Mindful Minute is a conversation with Mara Branscombe about the power and simplicity of everyday rituals as a form of soul care.

Together, we chat about what ritual is and why it matters now more than ever. Mara explains how to begin a daily ritual, and why she chose the elements and the Wheel of the Year as the framework for her book.

In today’s class, we stop trying to fix what we feel. The grief, the fear, the rage, the numbness - all the things we ‘shouldn’t’ feel but wow, do we ever feel. Loudly. Insistently. And importantly.

These aren’t feelings to be ignored, sugar-coated, covered up or silenced. Our meditation practice enables us to feel with courage and compassion, and when our meditation practice ends, we have the strength and clarity to take the next right step.

In today’s class, we stop trying to fix what we feel. The grief, the fear, the rage, the numbness - all the things we ‘shouldn’t’ feel but wow, do we ever feel. Loudly. Insistently. And importantly.

These aren’t feelings to be ignored, sugar-coated, covered up or silenced. Our meditation practice enables us to feel with courage and compassion, and when our meditation practice ends, we have the strength and clarity to take the next right step.

It is quite common to be inexperienced at allowing our difficult feelings to be as they are.

When we are scared, often we run.

When we are angry, often we fight.

When we are sad, often we numb.

Our meditation practice allows us the opportunity to return to the present moment, to acknowledge what it is that we are truly feeling, and then to ask ourselves -

“Can I be with this?”

The answer to this question guides our next response.

When we suffer, when we struggle with big emotions, step one is to consciously acknowledge what you feel. Step two is to stop being afraid of what you feel.

Our meditation practice allows us the opportunity to return to the present moment, to acknowledge what it is that we are truly feeling, and then to ask ourselves -

“Can I be with this?”

Meditation can’t make you feel better about school shootings.

Meditation can’t make you feel better about hate-based violence being perpetuated over and over again.

Meditation can’t make you feel better about political decisions you disagree with.

What meditation can do is help us acknowledge and allow how we feel, and in a way, this does make us feel a bit “better”.

Ontological Anxiety is what we feel when our state of being or our existence feels unsafe and/or threatened. Over the last several years, I’ve noticed that my meditation practice, which started out as a way to help me feel less stressed at work, has really morphed into a practice that helps me mitigate my own ontological anxiety.

Join me for today’s episode of The Mindful Minute as we lean into our meditation practice as a support for suffering. As always, we have a brief discussion followed by a 20-minute guided meditation. Join me!