Guided Meditations with Samantha Case

Nadi shodhana, also known as alternate nostril breathing, is a breathing practice that involves alternating the breath between left and right nostrils. It’s believed to balance the flow of energy, or prana, in the body, and it’s also known to bring ease to the nervous system. It might help to blow your nose before this practice, and if you’re feeling particularly stuffy you might consider practici...

I’ve found in my practice that even taking five minutes in the middle of the day or between activities can bring a greater sense of ease and grounding to my whole day. This short but impactful practice is supportive during those busier days when it feels more difficult to set aside a longer chunk of time for meditation. Enjoy this meditation from a posture of lying down, seated, or standing. Wishi...

Begin the day by welcoming in gentle movement and dropping into awareness. We begin by standing, and then make our way to the floor. Prepare for some light movement, wearing loose and comfortable clothing. You might also want to have a cushion or pillow nearby for our seated movements. For more products, writings, and resources centered around mindfulness, visit www.samanthacase.com

This meditation can be helpful mid-day or moments when you feel your mind falling into the trance of thoughts. The mind has a tendency to push-and-pull us around all day, getting caught in loops of thought or stuck in overthinking. By allowing thoughts to pass like clouds in a sky and switching on our awareness of the body, we become less caught in the mind’s powerful current. “In those moments wh...

We return to the basics of meditation in this simple practice. Though meditation is a lifelong and layered process, it’s simple by nature. First, we rest our awareness with an anchor: the in and out flow of the breath, sensations in the body, or sounds as they come and go freely. Then, when we notice our awareness has drifted off (most often to thoughts and all the knocking about in the mind), we...

In this meditation, we focus on cultivating the quality of gratitude. We ease our way into the practice by first moving through a simple body scan and then resting awareness with the breath before opening to gratitude. We use the image of a candle flame to symbolize our expression of gratitude as well as the warmth it generates. As always, when you notice the mind drifting to thoughts during the p...

Hard emotions are a natural part of experiencing life as a human. For many of us, our tendency is to distract ourselves, numb out, or suppress the discomfort that arises in the body with difficult emotional states. Instead, so often what the emotional pain in our bodies needs is acknowledgment by being held in spacious awareness. In this meditation, we move through a brief body scan before resting...

In this short talk I discuss the misconception that meditation = peace, and I normalize the vast range of experiences that might come up for us in meditation. I also share some about my own experience of feeling and sitting with discomfort in meditation. Enjoy! For more products, writings, and resources centered around mindfulness, visit www.samanthacase.com

In this simple mindfulness meditation we start by bringing awareness to the body, then rest in the presence of our breath. This meditation begins with quite a bit of guidance, then progressively allows more space for silence and self-guidance. In this space, the practice is to continually notice when the attention wanders, and then return to the breath or another anchor, like body sensations or so...

In phases of uncertainty and instability, grounding through the body is particularly important to help us stay centered and connected to our physical experience of the world. Body scans can also be supportive for people who tend to ruminate, overthink, or experience anxiety. Moving awareness through the body helps move our focus from the mind and into our somatic (bodily) experience. As I guide yo...

Start the day (or take a break in the middle of the day) with this standing, gentle movement practice to ground your energy and bring your awareness into the body. If you’re unable to stand, you can just as easily do this practice while seated in a chair with you feet on the ground. We spend so much of the day using our minds, analyzing, and thinking. This is an embodiment practice to balance your...

Breathing techniques offer instant medicine to an unregulated nervous system. This technique, called 4-7-8 breathing, is an emotional regulation tool and involves inhaling through the nose for a count of 4, holding the breath for 7 seconds, and then exhaling through the nose for a count of 8 seconds. It can bring immediate relief to an anxious mind and body, help you to calm the nervous system bef...

This is a meditation that can help you tune into feelings of safety, grounding, and stability by remembering your inseparable and nourishing connection to nature. We begin with a body scan to help bring ease into the body, and then we soften into a visualization practice where we grow roots and branches to connect to the earth and sky and remember our innate belonging. For more products, writings,...

In this meditation for beginners, we begin by bringing awareness to the body before settling our attention with the breath. For some people, using the breath to anchor the attention can actually have the opposite effect and produce anxiety rather than feel calming. If it’s difficult for you to be with the breath, you can always anchor your attention on awareness in the body instead: sensations in...

Equanimity refers to a state of being where we are able to maintain a balanced and steady state of mind regardless of what’s happening in our lives, whether it’s on a small scale or a large scale. I felt inspired to offer this talk for the new year because I think it's a good time to be reminded that we have the capacity to relate to our experiences differently. On any given day, and especially wi...

Happy New Year! In this meditation we slow things down and welcome in several deep, long breaths to fill the body with new energy and carry out stagnant energy. The New Year often comes with tremendous energy and a desire to work toward new goals and visions. In this meditation we practice pausing and slowing down to rest in the New Year before pushing ahead. Enjoy! For more products, writings, an...

The Winter Solstice is a beautiful and special time in nature when the sun pauses on its axis and we are invited to pause, too. On the shortest day of the year, or maybe in this season of winter, join me to pause in the space of darkness before we welcome the light in. In this meditation we honor the duality in both nature and ourselves as we move with the image of a candle flame through the diffe...

Standing meditations can help us feel more connected to the body and to the earth below us, increasing our sense of stability and grounding in the present moment. We begin by tuning into the feet, then move our awareness through the body before resting our attention in the body or the breath. We don’t bring much movement into this practice, so if it feels good for you to roll your shoulders or sha...

In this talk, we explore the power of living with gratitude, what can get in the way of feeling gratitude, and how we can intentionally cultivate it in our lives, including recognizing the interconnected nature of life and the impermanence of all things. We’ll also discuss how it’s normal to have moments in life when it feels hard to access gratitude. Then, we’ll close with a brief meditation to h...

We open this meditation with a body scan, taking our time to tune into and relax various parts of the body. Beginning in the body can help the mind to calm and the body to feel more grounded. We then take some time to be with the breath. Like the poem at the end speaks to, when we take time to be with ourselves and connect with the breath, it is like sowing clover for a world in need of so much ca...

This is a calming and grounding meditation that invites a softness into the body and a softness around the heart. Sometimes when we sense tension in the heart space, what we need is to pause and lean into the vulnerability of what we feel. For more products, writings, and resources centered around mindfulness, visit www.samanthacase.com

This five minute meditation invites the body to calm down and drop into the moment. The practice "pause, relax, open" can be especially helpful in moments when we're caught in reactivity or notice the grip of familiar thought and behavioral patterns. By pausing, relaxing, and opening, we interrupt this habitual process. For more products, writings, and resources centered around mindf...

A full day of work can leave us feeling worn out and checked out. This can make it difficult to turn off from work and be present with our loved ones and ourselves. Often times, presence and stillness can be just a few deep breaths away. In this meditation we create space for deep breathing to help the nervous system relax. Let this meditation be a restful transition from work to the rest of your...

At any moment we can drop into presence. Our senses are a portal into present moment awareness. In this meditation, we move our focus from sight, sounds and bodily sensations before resting with the breath. The practice of tuning into our external and internal environments can be done at any moment to help ground us. For more products, writings, and resources centered around mindfulness, visit www...

We ease into this body scan meditation with a little movement, and then we take our time moving from the bottoms of the feet to the top of the head. Body scans can be grounding and especially supportive for people who spend a lot of time getting caught in the mind and repetitive thoughts. It’s normal to be able to sense into some parts of the body more than others. If there’s areas that feel numb...