What We’re Listening To

Guided Meditation

“Walking Meditation,” Claire Villarreal

Chances are you’re spending a lot more time sitting around these days. Shake things up and get moving with this short walking practice from meditation teacher Claire Villarreal. You’ll start by checking in with the entire body and then tap into all the sensations in your foot as you slowly walk back and forth in your space. This is an opportunity to explore an activity usually performed on autopilot—and a great way to get out of your mind and into the present moment.
insighttimer.com

MUSIC

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, “Hollywood”

“Hollywood” is a 14-minute epic and the last track on Ghosteen, the first album written after the unexpected death of Nick Cave’s teenage son Arthur in 2015. In this haunting and tragic track, Cave recounts the story of Kisa Gotami, a grieving mother who begged the Buddha to help her bring her child back to life. The Buddha agreed to help if she brought him a mustard seed from a house where no one had died. But Kisa never collected one, as Cave sings, because in every house someone had died.
nickcave.com

Guided Meditation

Susan Kaiser Greenland, “A ladle of self-compassion, from ‘Mindful Parent, Mindful Child’”

Cool yourself off with a ladle of self-compassion in this Thich Nhat Hanh–inspired practice relayed by mindfulness educator Susan Kaiser Greenland. This guided meditation helps you soften and free up more space in your heart so that you can meet whatever comes your way with love. The exercise is a quick hit—a 9-minute break from negative thoughts and criticism culminating in a visualization of compassion washing over you like cool water on a scorching summer day.
susankaisergreenland.com

PODCAST

Ten Percent Happier (Episode 226), “The Dharma of Instagram Yung Pueblo (Diego Perez)”

Diego Perez, the creator of the very popular Instagram account Yung Pueblo (“young people”), joins Dan Harris to talk about finding Vipassana at age 23 after years of heavy drug use and despair. Nearly a decade later, Perez now spends a significant amount of his year either sitting or serving at Goenka retreats, and he says he views his Instagram page—images of black text on a white background with poems based on his meditation experiences—as another opportunity to serve others.
tenpercent.com