10 min
Meditation · Judson Brewer
Body Scan
A ten-minute guided body scan, led plainly and without music.
Overview
What does mindfulness point to?
Mindfulness describes a family of secular practices that adapt techniques from Buddhist meditation, especially from the Theravada and Zen traditions, for use outside a religious framework. It is taught in clinics, schools, workplaces and research settings, usually without reference to rebirth, karma or a specific cosmology.
Programmes typically combine body-based attention such as the body scan, breath awareness and sitting meditation, often structured as an eight-week course. Because the approach deliberately separates technique from doctrine, it raises its own questions about what is gained and what is left out when a contemplative practice is adapted this way.
Attention, paid on purpose, without judgment, to the present moment: that is the whole instruction.A central teaching within Mindfulness
Teachers
Voices within this path.
Compare background, approach and format before choosing a teacher to follow.
MBSR
Jon Kabat-Zinn
Founder of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
View profile →KN
Self-compassion
Kristin Neff
Psychologist and researcher known for her work on self-compassion, drawing on mindfulness and Buddhist psychology.
View profile →Retired
Mindfulness & Racial Healing
Ruth King
Mindfulness teacher, mentor, and founder of the Mindful of Race Institute.
View profile →
Emotion Codex
Vera Helleman
Dutch former psychotherapist, bestselling author and educator who developed the Emotion Codex, a framework mapping eight stages of emotional awareness.
View profile →DW
Secular mindfulness
Diana Winston
Director of UCLA Mindful, offering secular, clinically-oriented mindfulness instruction to a broad public audience.
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Unified Mindfulness
Shinzen Young
American meditation teacher and creator of Unified Mindfulness, a systematic, secular framework for categorising and training attention.
View profile →Upcoming events
Upcoming events in mindfulness.
Retreats, dialogues and online gatherings connected to this path.
∞
Wednesday Weekly Meditation and Talk with Dr. Rick Hanson
Online · Weekly online meditation and talk
FreeWeekly online meditation and talk
∞
Life Practice Program
Online · Weekly online practice call
See event pageWeekly online practice call
∞
Free Weekly Online Mindfulness Class with Diana and Guests
Online · Weekly online class
See event pageWeekly online class
∞
Guided Mindful Awareness Meditation at the Hammer Museum
Los Angeles, California, United States · Weekly guided meditation
See event pageWeekly guided meditation
Talks & videos
Selected talks.
Talks and conversations from teachers within this path.
20 min
Talk · Judson Brewer
The Mind and Addictive Behaviour
Twenty minutes on what his lab found when experienced meditators were put in a scanner.
61 min
Talk · Judson Brewer
Unwinding Anxiety
An hour on anxiety as a habit rather than a condition, and what that changes about working with it.
9 min
Talk · Judson Brewer
A Simple Way to Break a Bad Habit
Nine minutes on the habit loop, and on curiosity as the thing that loosens it.
Listen
Recordings from mindfulness.
Voices from this path and the schools within it, playing from the platforms the teachers publish on.
Shinzen YoungMindfulness
Y YouTube
Introduction to Unified Mindfulness with Shinzen Young
Shinzen Young introducing the Unified Mindfulness system, on YouTube.
Mark NepoMindfulness
A Apple Podcasts
Mark NepoMindfulness
S Spotify
7,000 Ways to Listen (Part 1)
Mark Nepo on Oprah's Super Soul, on how illness opened his listening.
From the podcast Oprah's Super Soul
Peter RussellMindfulness
A Apple Podcasts
Peter Russell: Meeting Exponential Change with a Quiet Mind
Tami Simon talks with Russell about accelerating technological change outpacing the human mind, and about effortless stillness as the practical response to it.
Discernment
Clarity should include the human context.
Mindfulness programmes are often taught by instructors with clinical or educational training rather than within a lineage of spiritual authority. That can be a strength, but it also means the usual questions about a teacher's training and accountability apply differently here.
Ask about contextIs a statement philosophical, meditative, relational or practical?
Notice powerHow are authority, money, intimacy and complaints handled?
Include embodimentDoes the teaching make room for emotion, the body and nervous-system limits?
Keep agencyA useful teacher supports clear choice rather than demanding surrender of judgement.