Daily Meditations
This page holds content of the daily meditations recorded throughout the series from January through March 2025. For the weekly classes go to the course main page.
WEEK ONE
Day One
Day Two
Day Three
Back to the breath. Over and over.
There’s definitely some intention required and some effort. But we/re not trying too hard.
Like a butterfly landing on a flower.
When I first started this type of meditation I found it boring and repetitive.
Now I love the simple opportunity every breath gives to to let everything else fall away and get present in this moment.
Day Four
This meditation is a bit of a hybrid where we start with placing our attention on our breathing but then also notice the physical sensations from the whole body in any given moment.
Meditation is about becoming more familiar with the present moment, but also becoming more familiar with our own minds.
Day Five
Recorded live on Zoom.
Also available as a downloadable audio file.
Day Six
Another hybrid where we start with awareness of the body and then move that same awareness to the breath.
Keep working on this idea that distraction is part of the meditation.
Try to avoid frustration or judgement at the nature of the mind.
Day Seven
The last day of this week’s daily meditations. Recorded live on Zoom.
Also available as a downloadable audio file.
WEEK TWO
Day Eight
The first day of this week’s daily meditations. Recorded live on Zoom.
Also available as a downloadable audio file.
Day Nine
The second day of this week’s daily meditations.
Continuing to work on this week’s ‘Building Blocks of Meditation”. Today looking at attention, focus, awareness all with curiosity.
Always remembering to be gentle with ourselves when our attention flits somewhere else.
Day Ten
The second day of this week’s daily meditations.
Continuing to work on this week’s ‘Building Blocks of Meditation”. Today looking at attention, focus, awareness all with curiosity.
Always remembering to be gentle with ourselves when our attention flits somewhere else.
Day Eleven
The third day of this week’s daily meditations.
Now trying on this approach to the present moment, as if it is the only thing that actually exists.
Letting go of all the aspects of our life that we carry around in our head, our past, our future, our worries, our fears.
Day Twelve
The fourth day of this week’s daily meditations.
Starting to play with this attribute of non-judgement.
Judgement, or at least discernment can be very useful. However it is often an automatic reaction to anything (everything?) and in meditation we are trying something else – just being in this moment, as it is, as we are.
Day Thirteen
The sixth day of this week’s daily meditations as we look at this building block of non-striving. Recorded live on Zoom.
Also available as a downloadable audio file.
Day Fourteen
The last day of this week’s daily meditations as we look at the building blocks of letting go and starting again. Recorded live on Zoom.
Also available as a downloadable audio file.
WEEK THREE
Day Fifteen
The first day of this week’s daily meditations as we look to practice ‘noting’ meditation. Recorded live on Zoom.
Also available as a downloadable audio file.
Day Sixteen
The second day of this week’s daily meditations as we continue to practice ‘noting’ meditation. Recorded live on Zoom.
Also available as a downloadable audio file.
Day Seventeen
Counting the breaths. Just adding this little bit of structure to our awareness of breathing.
Day Eighteen
Placing our attention into the present, with noting – and then seeing what happens next.
Letting everything go except our awareness of breathing in, and breathing out.
It’s a process where we gradually become more familiar with the moment, and with our minds.
Day Nineteen
Breathing with counting. Keeping the attention and focus on the breath, but with a little structure.
Also available as a downloadable audio file.
Day Twenty
Fully present in this moment. Letting everything go except this next breath.
Breathing in, breathing out.
Day Twenty-One
The last day of this week’s daily meditations. Recorded live on Zoom.
Also available as a downloadable audio file.
WEEK FOUR
Day Twenty-Two
The first day of this week’s daily meditations. Recorded live on Zoom.
Also available as a downloadable audio file.
Day Twenty-Three
Developing from this week’s emphasis on distinguishing between what we are actually experiencing in this moment as opposed to what’s going on in our heads.
A bit of regular mindfulness and then some See, Hear, Feel technique.
Day Twenty-Four
Take a few minutes to let go of everything we’re bringing to the moment, letting go of what we think this moment should look like, could look like, or what it shouldn’t look like. Letting go to recognise this moment of reality just as it is.
Day Twenty-Five
‘See, Hear, Feel’, is this technique where we take a step back from our mind and observe our attention from moment to moment.
Start with placing attention on the breath, and then watch where it goes next.
Day Twenty-Six
It can sometimes take a minute or two to find your rhythm with ‘see, hear, feel’ meditations.
Just try to keep persevering, starting again as many times as you need and then suddenly you will find yourself in a flow.
Until you notice you’re no longer in flow and then just start again.
Recorded live on Zoom, but also available as a downloadable audio file below.
Day Twenty-Seven
We are choosing to place our attention on this moment, this breath, these body sensations, the sound you hear right now.
Day Twenty-Eight
Our last meditation focussing on mindfulness for a while. Today a mix of everything we’ve looked at – breath, body, sound, and ‘noting’ the mind itself.
WEEK FIVE
Day Twenty-Nine
This week we are practicing mantra meditation where we repeat a syllable, a word, or a phrase over and over.
Today we are just trying to remember the guideline of ‘gently, gently, gently’.
So much of our lives is spent doing things, solving things, planning, worrying, analysing, judging. In meditation we are letting go of all that.
In this practice we are trusting this process that has been done by people across all cultures for thousands of years.
Allow the mantra to do what it does, gently leading you into the stillness that is inherent at the core of your being.
Day Thirty
Continuing our practice of mantra meditation.
Simply allowing the sound of the mantra and the silence between mantras to fully absorb your attention.
Day Thirty-One
The sound of the mantra is key, but so is focussing on the silence between the mantras.
See if you can get as absorbed by the silence as the mantra itself.
Day Thirty-Two
Mantra meditation can be as simple as you want, but there is also the possibility of adding sonething.
Some people dance to a mantra, chant it, visualise something or have any number of other variations.
One thing you might consider today is to add an intention, a feeling, or a flavour to your mantra such as gratitude, love, kindness or reverence – whatever moves you.
Day Thirty-Three
One of the meanings given to the word ‘mantra’ is that it is a ‘crossing-over’ of the normal, everyday, chatty mind.
Perhaps consider that what we are doing is allowing the mantra to help us ‘cross-over’ our normal mind in order to access the stillness and calm beneath.
One suggestion in meditation is that this stillness is always there in our consciousness and this practice is helping us become more familiar with this part of ourselves.
Day Thirty-Four
Sometimes a meditation really flows and we find stability, a rhythm, some stillness. But sometimes it doesn’t.
Today we’re remembering that there is always in essence a choice, between giving up and sticking with it and starting again.
Choosing to stick with it and to start again, over and over, makes all the difference in meditation and can also show up as useful in every aspect of our lives.
Day Thirty-Five
The last day of this week’s daily meditations looking at mantra.
Recorded live on Zoom.
Remembering that in meditation we are trying to access that part of our consciousness, always there, that is calm, wise, and still.
Also available as a downloadable audio file.
WEEK SIX
Day Thirty-Six
This week we are practicing metta, or loving kindness meditation.
Recorded live on Zoom.
Starting today with a three part meditation, trying not to try too hard, but merely to do our best.
Also available as a downloadable audio file.
Day Thirty-Seven
At first this style of metta meditation can feel a little contrived or artificial, but stick with it. It is a little different but the effects are profound, powerful and worth it.
Day Thirty-Eight
We have a beautiful part of ourselves that is kind, generous, loving.
We all also have a less beautiful side that is judgmental, self pitying, and often whiny and complaining.
Originally recorded live on Zoom.
In meditation we are reminding ourselves of the beautiful part and choosing to spend a few minutes coming out of that place instead of our less fun part.
Also available as a downloadable audio file.
Day Thirty-Nine
“Your task is not to seek for love but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” – Rumi
Day Forty
When we are attempting to send our best intentions towards neutral, difficult people, or even all beings, it is not so much for their benefit as it is for us to find our barriers.
Over time you may notice that these barriers aren’t quite as solid as they might seem and may start to soften.
Day Forty-One
No matter how we’re feeling – good, or less good – we always have this capacity within us for kindness, generosity and love.
Just do your best with however you are showing up today.
And then see if you want to take part in the little experiment at the end.
Day Forty-Two
The last day of this week’s meditations. Originally live on Zoom.
And also available as a downloadable audio file.
WEEK SEVEN
Day Forty-Three
This week we are moving into the Compassion Meditations. Similar to loving-kindness but fractionally different.
We are stepping into the space that recognises life is hard and allowing ourselves to bring forward our compassion.
Day Forty-Four
Awakening, uncovering, and cultivating this tender part of ourselves, the quivering of the heart in response to suffering, our compassion.
Day Forty-Five
These meditations of the heart are expressions of generosity. And while this generosity doesn’t involve giving anything material it remains one of the highest and kindest gifts we can offer.
Nevertheless, it takes courage to practice this, to stand in the space of acknowledging suffering and simply wishing for it to not be there.
Day Forty-Six
On a very blustery day in Edinburgh it reminds us that sometimes the mind is calm, sometimes it is blustery.
Often it is on the blustery days that we don’t feel like meditating but it is also on these days that we then feel most grateful for giving it a go.
Day Forty-Seven
Finding that generosity that is inherent in all of us and always there.
This is not the part of us that always shows up in life.
And that can be quite confronting to start to notice that judgement, criticism, superiority show up as much as they do instead of these higher parts of ourselves.
As such, this can take some courage to keep going.
But it’s just that we are now becoming aware of it. So keep going – it has to be worth it
Originally broadcast live on Zoom but also available as a downloadable audio file.
Day Forty-Eight
Reminding ourselves of this more generous, kinder part of ourselves.
We don’t have to do this.
We don’t have to come from a place of love or compassion.
But when we remember to, or choose to, our lives are the richer for it.
Day Forty-Nine
The last day of this week’s focus on compassion meditation.
Recorded from the live Zoom version.
And also available as a downloadable audio file.
WEEK EIGHT
Day Fifty
This week we’ll do a different meditation everyday covering many of the different techniques we’ve covered over the seven weeks to here.
Today we go back to the classic breath meditation.
Focussing our attention like a spotlight on this breath, right now, and letting everything else fall away.
Also practising being gentle with ourselves when we notice we’re distracted, and then practising starting again.
Day Fifty-One
Sticking with breath meditation this morning but adding in some ‘noting’.
As we notice the inhale we quietly ‘note’ to ourselves ‘breathing in’, and ‘breathing out’ with the exhale.
Still trying to let everything else fall away except being fully present in this moment with this breath.
Still practising being gentle with ourselves when we notice we’re distracted, and then starting again.
Day Fifty-Two
Keeping focussed on the breath but this time counting the breaths.
In and out is one, and then try to hold focus up to ten.
If you get distracted, try to avoid the trap of judging yourself and instead notice what the mind does, let it go, and start again.
Day Fifty-Three
Attention can be focussed on a single object like the sensation of breathing, sort of like a spotlight, or it can be more broad, taking in everything in this moment, more like a floodlight.
Today we are paying attention in this broader way, what is sometimes known as choiceless awareness, or open-field awareness noticing everything we are experiencing in the present moment.
Day Fifty-Four
Back to mantra meditation where we simply allow the mind to repeat a syllable, a word or phrase over and over.
Listening in our mind to the sound of the mantra, and also listening to the silence between mantras.
In all meditation there is a balance between effort and yet not too much effort. In this more than most techniques there is even less effort required and we can simply trust that the mantra will do what it has done for people across all cultures for centuries.
Day Fifty-Five
Loving kindness practice has us opening our hearts, uncovering our innate generosity and cultivating this kind part of ourselves.
Sending best wishes to various people, ourselves, and all beings.
Repeating the phrases may seem forced, saccharine, or just twee. Yet they have a subtle force and you are encouraged just to keep saying them and watching for surprising effects.
Day Fifty-Six
A bit of an amalgam of different techniques today with some breath meditation, leading into wider awareness of every sensation in this moment, into mantra meditation and finishing with a brief loving kindness practice.
This is the last of our current series of daily meditations. Tomorrow, the hope is to keep this going.
Perhaps by simply starting again at Day 1.
