Viral Mindfulness the Podcast

Already listened to The Sound of Summer? This practice is for you. Several listeners asked for a version with fewer words and more space to simply breathe, chant, and practice. So here it is. Recorded live beneath the Colorado sky, you'll hear birdsong, fresh mountain air, and the gentle sounds of summer as we move through the traditional seed sounds of the seven chakras together. There is very li...

What if meditation didn't begin with silence? In this gentle guided practice, we'll travel through the seven chakras using the traditional seed sounds that have accompanied contemplative practice for centuries. Beginning at the base of the spine and gradually moving upward through the body, each sound becomes an invitation—not to believe anything or achieve a particular state—but simply to notice,...

This week I'm inviting you to rethink meditation from the ground up. What if prayer wasn't something you said... What if prayer was something you breathed? Drawing inspiration from John O'Donohue's beautiful reflections on breath, spirit, and spontaneity, I explore a gentler, more sustainable way of practicing meditation—one that doesn't depend on perfection, long sessions, or getting your mind to...

This week I found myself reflecting on a provocative idea: no animal, plant, ocean, or nervous system in nature knows what a Monday is. Inspired by a piece from recovery writer Bobby Op, I explore how modern life asks us to live according to industrial timelines while our bodies still long for something older, slower, and more natural. I share reflections from my 11-year sobriety anniversary, a po...

What can a light scarf teach us about shame, identity, recovery, and freedom? In this Pride Month episode of Viral Mindfulness, Alexander Blue Feather shares a treasured audio recording from 01 June 2018 featuring his dear friend, Dr. Jude Theriot. What begins as a playful conversation about a lightweight scarf and grape Hi-Chew candy opens into something much deeper: the hidden shame many men car...

In this first spring episode of Viral Mindfulness, Alexander Blue Feather reflects on grief, transition, and what it means to be present with someone who is dying. After sharing updates from his new South Bay home and the one-year threshold of his father’s passing, he responds to a listener’s question about how to support a brother in hospice and how to navigate the possibility of a peaceful passi...

Are you feeling disillusioned? Disappointed? Bitter? Sour? In this final installment of the Winter Soul Care Series, Alexander Blue Feather offers a powerful closing reflection on self-compassion as medicine for modern life. Opening with Rebecca Del Rio’s poem Prescription for the Disillusioned, this episode explores how the overly critical mind contracts the soul. Be inspired to learn how compass...

Modern life trains us to move faster. You must produce more, respond quicker and stay endlessly available. I give your soul permission to refuse this pace. In Episode Six of the Winter Soul Care Series, Alexander Blue Feather invites you into a therapeutic, imaginal space to explore geological speed. This is the pace at which the soul actually heals, remembers, and transforms. Drawing from Francis...

In this episode of the Winter Soul Care series, Alexander invites you into a gentle writing practice centered on one essential question from Francis Weller: What core practices help sustain your intimacy with soul? Listeners are encouraged to pause, set a timer, and write—without editing or judgment—before returning to hear Alexander’s lived response, recorded along the ocean at Huntington State B...

In this episode of the Winter Soul Care series, Alexander invites you into a simple, grounding writing practice inspired by the work of Francis Weller. Following the previous walking meditation, this episode shifts from movement to the page—using writing as a way to give the mind something nourishing to chew on. You’re offered a single reflection question: In what ways do you nourish the ritual of...

In this gentle installment of the Winter Soul Care series, Alexander Blue Feather invites you into a shared walking meditation—recorded live along the shoreline at Huntington State Beach. Drawing inspiration from the teachings of Thích Nhất Hạnh, this episode transforms the ordinary act of walking into a practice of presence, grounding, and return. You’ll explore core principles of mindful walking...

In this episode of Viral Mindfulness, I explore repetition as a core value of the soul and a vital practice for staying awake in unordinary times. Part five of the Winter’s Edge Soul Care series, this teaching draws on Francis Weller’s work to examine how repetition fosters depth, memory, devotion, and resilience—countering our cultural pull toward novelty, progress, and forgetting. Through storie...

In this episode of Viral Mindfulness, I explore the gift of restraint as a powerful and often overlooked soul practice. Drawing from Francis Weller’s teachings, this fourth installment of the Winter’s Edge Soul Care series invites us to slow down, hold back, and allow insights, grief, creativity, and longing to ripen rather than rush toward expression or consumption. We reflect on restraint as bot...

In this Winter’s Edge check-in episode, I pause at the beginning of 2026 to reflect, breathe together, and tend the nervous system in the midst of winter, grief, and collective uncertainty. Lighting a candle, I acknowledge the anniversary of last year’s Southern California fires, honor those living with loss, and invite us into a moment of shared warmth and compassion. I offer a preview of what’s...

In this third episode of my Winter’s Edge Soul Care series, we explore the art of vesseling. The creation of a safe, patient container where deep inner work can unfold in its own time. Drawing from Francis Weller, I reflect on how grief, sorrow, and other tender emotions require a holding space shaped by attention, devotion, silence, and trust. I share personal stories from my Mormon past, early e...

In this second teaching of my seven-part Winter’s Edge Soul Care series, we explore the reverence of approach. How the way we meet our inner life shapes what becomes possible in return. Drawing from Francis Weller and John O’Donohue, I reflect on why reverence, softness, curiosity, and humility open us to revelation, while judgment, rushing, and spiritual intensity close the aperture of perception...

Welcome to Winter’s Edge and to Part One of a seven-episode series on how to care for your soul during the long dark of winter. In this opening teaching, I explore “the grandeur of the soul”—the first of seven soul-care themes drawn from Francis Weller’s newest book, In the Absence of the Ordinary: Soul Work for Times of Uncertainty. Together, we look at why winter is the perfect season to tend th...

Welcome to Autumn’s Edge — that threshold space where we lean toward winter, darkness, and the long soul-season ahead. In this episode of Viral Mindfulness, I check in from Southern California on Monday, November 24, 2025, and share what’s been unfolding at the edge of autumn and winter. I tell the story of Harvey’s seventh birthday trip to Nashville — cowgirl party, barn, drum set and all — and y...

Over ten years ago, in a bathroom of a swanky stranger's apartment in downtown Los Angeles, strung out and afraid, I looked up and whispered: “God, I need help.” That moment became the turning point. On June 23, 2015, I put down meth, in August, cannabis, and September 23, alcohol and every other substance. I haven’t picked them up since. A decade later, I’m celebrating ten continuous years of sob...

On September 24, 2025, I celebrated ten years of continuous sobriety from all mind-altering substances. A full decade. In this episode, I reflect on that journey—alongside the grief, uncertainty, and overwhelm so many of us are navigating right now. From global instability to personal heartbreak, we're living through what therapist and writer Francis Weller calls “the Long Dark.” I share insights...

If you’ve been craving a return to center, this episode is for you. I’m thrilled to finally invite you into Make Sit Happen—my brand new 21-day meditation adventure, created for anyone ready to build a practice that feels soulful, sustainable, and real. Whether you’ve never meditated before or you’ve wandered off the cushion and want to begin again, this course offers a grounded and gentle path: ✴...

This is your first September dispatch and a quick intimate check-in. In this soul-bearing State of the Union, I reflect on the wild swirl of the past six weeks: illness, unexpected change, travel to the East Coast, and a frightening accident with my beloved Harvey. She’s healing. We’re healing. And in the quiet aftermath, I return to you, with a voice steadied by presence and gratitude. I share a...

Meet the piano piece that’s been with me most of my life. In this solo episode, I share the story behind Waking Blue. A song I began composing at age 13, long before I had language for who I was becoming. From Beethoven to Salt Lake City, from Ensign Peak to Southern California, this melody carried me through moves, grief, queerness, and awakening. Waking Blue is a piece about impermanence and mem...

In this heart-forward installment of Dear Alexander, Blue Feather responds to a soul sibling’s question: What stories do you remember of your dad, Cardell, and what’s helping you now in the midst of grief? What unfolds is part tribute, part time-travel, and full embodiment of what it means to grieve with depth and beauty. From fire poles and Lake Powell to sleeping beneath stars and sneaking HBO g...

For years, I’ve carried around a simple little illustration: a kid sitting beside a river, with the words: “Everyone should sit next to a river and listen.” This 10-minute meditation was recorded during my first morning camping near Redfish Lake, Idaho, beside the Salmon River and under the gaze of the Sawtooth Mountains. It's green. It's lush. And it's a quiet invitation to make sit happen. Bring...