My mindfulness practice is one of the habits I have to be most conscious and deliberate about. It doesn’t take much for it to slip. Like many of the most impactful practices we talk about in the Elevate Program, it falls into the category of important, but not urgent. Meaning it’s most suseptible to disappearing when life gets loud.
Now, more than ever, I am hyper-aware of the consequences of defering my practice. It’s subtle, but I notice a frenetic energy that creeps into my days. My mind accelerates the pace of my day, unconsciously and unproductively. Yes, I’m getting things done, but there’s a pressure underneath that doesn’t need to be there.
When I’m in my practice, I move more slowly. And more gets done. I feel calmer.
As I often say, mindfulness is a force multiplier for every other tool in our toolkit. It’s what allows us, when things get hard or stressful, to slow down enough to notice what’s happening and actually choose our response. Without it, we’re just reacting. With it, we have options.
There are lots of ways to build a mindfulness practice. Meditation is one of them. And if you’ve been curious but haven’t known where to start, or if you’re looking for something new, I hope this article becomes a helpful resource.
Below is a playlist of meditations from the Insight Time App, organized by time, with a short description of each, so you can find something that fits where you are.
Hope you enjoy!
And, if you have any meditations you love, please drop them in the comments below for others to enjoy!
Around 5 Minutes
Five Minutes of Self-Compassion • Lisa Abramson • 4 min
Body-based and inward-focused. This meditation guides you to settle into your body and extend kindness to yourself. Great for a midday reset or rough moment.
Five Minute Meditation • Hugh Bryne • 5 min
Simple breath-and-present-moment awareness meditation. Invites you to scan for tension, return to the break, and recenter in the body.
Five-Minute Morning Practice on Gratitude • Julie Ela Grace • 5 min
Guided gratitude practice with light body scan and visualization. Designed for the morning but works anytime you want to shift your lens.
Awakening Your Best Self • Davidji • 5 min
Intention-setting and inner inquiry. Prompts you to ask what you most want to unfold and plant it as a seed. More inward and reflective than body-focused.
Under 10 Minutes
Beginners Body Scan • Dora Kamau • 7 min
A thorough, accessible body scan that moves through the whole body. Calm pacing, great for anyone new to body-based practice.
The Joy of Gratitude • Ida Speyer • 7 min
Gratitude-focused with a heart-centered feel. Guides you to notice small everyday blessings and anchor into positive emotion. Short and genuinely moving.
Short Check-In to Ground Yourself and Become Present • Iris Ruffe • 6 min
Turning your focus inward to attune to your inner state. Include gentle thought-labeling and ends with setting an intention. Good for transitions between tasks.
Gratitude Meditation • Katie Willey • 10 min
Guided gratitude with body awareness woven in. Prompts reflection on what you’re grateful for while staying connected to breath and surroundings.
Manifesting From The Quantum Field • Helen Fletcher • 9 min
Visualization-forward and expansive. This one moves beyond the body and into possibility — guiding you to align your energy with what you want to create and step into it as if it's already real. A good pick for when you want your practice to feel generative rather than just settling.
Under 20 Minutes
Daily Centering: Your 20-Minute Anchor • Sarah Blondin • 19 min
Heart-centered and quietly powerful. Sarah Blondin guides you back to the steady, unwavering part of yourself that exists beneath whatever the day is throwing at you. Less about technique, more about remembering.
Flow Writing For Deep Self-Listening • Sarah Blondin • 13 min
This one's a little different — it's less a meditation and more a guided writing practice. Sarah walks you through a flow-writing session designed to get you past your inner editor and into what's actually going on beneath the surface. Bring a notebook. Good for when you sense something is stirring but can't quite name it yet.
Hopefully, this serves as a jumping-off point or offers some new options for you to explore.
There’s no single right way to practice, and not every meditation will land the same way for every person. My biggest encouragement when it comes to meditation is: try a lot of things. Different lengths, different styles, different teachers. Pay attention to what resonates.
