Short Guided Meditations from a Variety of Buddhist Teachers

When Tricycle first launched For the Moment: Short Practices for Relief and Resilience last May, we hoped that the brief guided meditations could provide some calm amid growing anxieties about COVID-19. Over a year into the pandemic, even though the world is slowly opening back up as vaccines become more widely available, many of us are still grappling with feelings of anxiety, loss, and isolation. For those looking to stay grounded, here is a selection of guided meditations from a variety of teachers across the Buddhist traditions.

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Working with Anxious Thoughts
with Craig Hase

You’re not alone if you’ve noticed yourself experiencing more anxiety than usual this past year. The pandemic, social distancing, and even the thought of returning to “normal life” spurred anxiety for many people. Here, Craig Hase guides us through a short practice for working with anxious thoughts that begins with dropping into the breathing body. Hase holds a PhD in counseling psychology and has spent years practicing in the traditions of Zen, Vipassana, and Vajrayana Buddhism.

Bringing Our Practice into the Workplace
with Pamela Weiss

In this two-part episode, Insight Meditation and Soto Zen teacher Pamela Weiss leads a before and after work meditation. In the first part, Weiss invites us to ground ourselves before the workday by setting an intention—a quality to engage and cultivate within the activities of our daily life and work. In the second part, she invites us to reflect on this intention at the end of the day and ask ourselves, “How did it go?”

Before Work:

After Work:

Be a Walking Buddha
with Mindy Newman

Grab your headphones and step outside for this walking meditation led by psychotherapist and meditation teacher Mindy Newman. During the walk, Newman offers instructions to help us cultivate love and compassion for all beings we cross paths with:

Try to imagine what it would be like if everyone, every being you encounter, could be totally free from suffering. Know that just this wish, this desire, this seed of an idea, is healing to your own mind.

Welcoming and Liberating Fear
with Loch Kelly

In this episode, Buddhist teacher and psychotherapist Loch Kelly leads us through a meditation on shifting our relationship to fear. The practice begins with acknowledging our fear, then welcoming it, and finally liberating it.

Interconnectedness with Nature
with Dekila Chungyalpa

“You are part of nature, and you belong here,” says Tibetan Buddhist and conservation scientist Dekila Chungyalpa in this episode as she shares a breath practice for heightening our awareness of our interconnectedness with the natural world.

Goodnight Metta
with Sumi Loundon Kim

Sumi Loundon Kim, a Buddhist chaplain and student of the Theravada tradition, offers a goodnight metta meditation that can be practiced from the comfort of our beds as we wind down for the night. You can follow along on your own or with family members and children.

This is a practice to accompany Sumi’s article, “Goodnight Metta: A Bedtime Meditation for Kids.”

Working with Strong Emotions
with Jessica Angima

In this episode, mindfulness teacher Jessica Angima invites us to bring to mind an area in our lives in which we’ve been experiencing a strong emotion, whether it’s difficulty in a relationship or problems at work. She then guides us through a practice on how to approach these strong emotions with honesty and compassion.