This week we're diving into the foundation of meditation -- mindfulness. In this episode I chat a bit about what mindfulness is, why the vulnerability of meditation is important, and how we can use this practice to get us used to accepting, nonjudgmentally, where we are at this moment. It’s not easy, but it’s so worth it. If you’d like to listen in, take a moment to check in with what’s really going on today and congratulate yourself for that willingness to be vulnerable.

We're starting off with the basics in our first season. This week I lead listeners in a body scan meditation and talk a bit about why this type of practice is great for beginners and people getting back into meditation after a break.

A body scan is a mindfulness exercise in which you allow your mind to rest on different parts of the body in sequence, using your breath and your attention on different areas as your guide. This is a great starter mindfulness practice. It's wonderfully versatile, easy to try, and allows you to start with what you've got. Enjoy!

When's the last time you felt successful? Do you take note of your wins every day or does it feel like something big needs to happen before you notice it?

Honestly, I want to make success a daily occurrence in your life, and I've got a fantastic mindfulness exercise that you can use over and over to help you get started. Not only that, but I've got a little info in today's ep that explains why it's so important to notice all of our successes – even the teeny ones – and how doing that intentionally can benefit your mind in the long haul.

This week the podcast all about YOU. What do you want to focus on? At this point in your practice you may be ready to take the reins a bit and set your own intentions in your meditation. Awesome! Love that journey for you (said with an Alexis Rose wink, naturally).

But... where do you start? In today's episode we chat about this very question and enjoy a meditation designed to guide you just enough to choose your own adventure. As always you can listen in above, and if you want to jump straight to your meditation practice you can scrub to 7 1/2 min to get there. You do you, babe! We’re all here for it.

Season one finale! We're wrapping up with a great technique Dr. Rebecca recommends for lowering anxiety, decreasing tension, and falling asleep -- progressive muscle relaxation. Feel free to use this episode to fall asleep as it skips the outgoing message and ends with the most soothing meditation -- press play and drift off.

Let's all take a deep breath, shall we? The breath can be a really great tool that you can choose to use in your meditation practice. Breath work can ground you, help regulate your autonomic nervous system, manage anxiety, get deeper into your meditation… so many cool benefits. And you can use specific breathing techniques to add structure or depth to our mindfulness practice quickly and easily.

With that in mind, I’m using this episode to go into more depth about breath work in meditation. I also teach you three breathing techniques that can be great for mindfulness and anxiety control and, as always, lead a quick, breath-guided meditation.