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12 Minute Meditation · Yesterday · 17 min

A Meditation to Help Build Your Capacity to Navigate Difficulty

When we're facing disappointment or challenge, it's easy to default to negative narratives about who we are inherently: I'm a failure. What's wrong with me? I never do anything right. This week, teacher Rich Fernandez invites a different perspective: When we shift from naming an existential trait (like, I must be a loser) to naming a temporary experiential state (like, I'm experiencing a setback that's discouraging), then we can actually return awareness and agency to ourselves and navigate a way through the challenge. Rich Fernandez has dedicated his career to building more purposeful, mindful, and high-performing workplaces. He is the former CEO of Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute (SIYLI), co-founded Wisdom Labs, and has also served in senior roles at eBay, J.P. Morgan Chase, and Bank of America. Currently, he is the Head of Executive Development at Gap, Inc. The transcription of this guided meditation will be online and in our app at Mindful.org next week. Stay curious, stay inspired. Sign up for our free newsletter mindful.org/signup or download the app for free at mindful.org/app. Show Notes Find more from Rich Fernandez here. Go Deeper Learning how to navigate difficulty is a core human skill, and naturally one of the most challenging. For more resources on how mindfulness can help build resilience, compassion, and wisdom for the tougher seasons of life, check out these articles from Mindful: Why Imagination—Not Resilience—Might Help You Heal From Heartbreak Elaine Smookler on How Setbacks Can Breed Resilience Deep Resilience: The Wisdom of Making Friends with Your Mind Swimming, Walking, Running—Why Mindful Movement Can Boost Resilience Learning to Meditate Through Difficulty For another guided practice on staying steady when things feel like they're falling apart, try: Staying Grounded through Difficulty And more from Mindful here: More episodes of 12 Minute Meditation Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing yourwords@mindful.org.

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transcript

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show notes

When we're facing disappointment or challenge, it's easy to default to negative narratives about who we are inherently: I'm a failure. What's wrong with me? I never do anything right.

This week, teacher Rich Fernandez invites a different perspective: When we shift from naming an existential trait (like, I must be a loser) to naming a temporary experiential state (like, I'm experiencing a setback that's discouraging), then we can actually return awareness and agency to ourselves and navigate a way through the challenge.

Rich Fernandez has dedicated his career to building more purposeful, mindful, and high-performing workplaces. He is the former CEO of Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute (SIYLI), co-founded Wisdom Labs, and has also served in senior roles at eBay, J.P. Morgan Chase, and Bank of America. Currently, he is the Head of Executive Development at Gap, Inc.

The transcription of this guided meditation will be online and in our app at Mindful.org next week.

Stay curious, stay inspired. Sign up for our free newsletter mindful.org/signup or download the app for free at mindful.org/app.

Show Notes

Find more from Rich Fernandez here.

Go Deeper

Learning how to navigate difficulty is a core human skill, and naturally one of the most challenging. For more resources on how mindfulness can help build resilience, compassion, and wisdom for the tougher seasons of life, check out these articles from Mindful:

For another guided practice on staying steady when things feel like they're falling apart, try: Staying Grounded through Difficulty

And more from Mindful here:

More episodes of 12 Minute Meditation

Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing yourwords@mindful.org.

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