Mindfulness Man: Recent Episodes
Chris Manning
This is a podcast offering free guided mindfulness meditation and talks about the subject. I try to help others come to the great gift of peace in their daily lives.
When autumn comes, the trees do not fight to keep their leaves. They do not cling. They let go, releasing each leaf with quiet acceptance, knowing that this is not the end—just another part of the cycle.
We, too, must learn to let go. Let go of old versions of ourselves. Let go of past hurts. Let go of what no longer serves us. And like the trees, we must learn to do so gracefully—not as an act of loss, but as an act of trust.
I hope you have enjoyed the course.
For much more of my work follow me on Insight Timer by searching for my name, Christopher Manning
Trees care for each other. If a tree is sick, its neighbours share nutrients to help it recover. They are not separate; they survive together."
The Hidden Life of Trees:
Beneath our feet, trees are whispering to each other. Through their roots, they pass sugars and nutrients, sending help to the sick, the struggling. An old mother tree will nourish her saplings, even after she herself has begun to wither. Trees do not live alone; they thrive in networks, connected through unseen threads of care.
We, too, are held in invisible networks of love and support. Even when we feel alone, there are roots beneath us—people, ancestors, the earth itself—nourishing us in ways we may not always see.
Let’s meditate
"A tree can be only as strong as the forest that surrounds it."Quote from The Hidden Life of Trees:
I grew up in Nottinghamshire England, only a few miles away from the famous Sherwood Forest. I remember playing as a child in and around the major oak, a tree that legend has it was the hideout of Robin Hood. It’s the largest oak in England weighing in at 23 tonnes. The major oak is ancient, a thousand years old.
last year I went on solitary retreat, just me, in a cabin, in the woods. At the edge of those woods was also an ancient oak, If I remember correctly, it was 600 years old. I sat and meditated on it and all of the changes that have occurred in its world, whilst it has remained, strong, patient and stable. I thought of my dear grandparents, being born, raised and leaving this world, and how this great expanse of time was absorbed by the tree, with very little change.
Trees do not rush. They do not force themselves to grow before their time. A beech tree may take 80 years before it bears its first fruit. Some trees wait centuries before they reach their full height. They trust time, trust the slow unfolding of life, trust that each season brings what is needed.
As humans, we struggle with this. We want things to happen now. We want answers, results, transformations overnight. But the trees remind us: growth is slow. And that is not a flaw—it is nature’s way.
So now, let’s meditate
Here I am offering a three day audio course I created for Insight Timer, in which we meditate on lessons learned from the trees.
You will find the audio introduction in this post. The days of the course will follow.
Welcome to Roots Of Life, a journey into the quiet, ancient wisdom of trees.
Buddhist master Ajahn Chah said “Everything is teaching us”. He frequently pointed his disciples towards nature as a teacher, and for me, a great teacher is the forest.
We often think of trees as still, silent things. But beneath the bark, beneath the earth, a great conversation is always unfolding. Trees are speaking—to each other, to the wind, to the soil, to time itself. And if we slow down, if we listen, we can hear them.
This course is an invitation to do just that.
A little about me: I am a painter, trees being my favourite subject, a writer and meditation guide who has always found solace in the natural world. My work is woven with mindfulness, poetry, and a deep love for the wild. Trees, especially, have been my quiet companions, teaching me the kind of wisdom that isn’t found in books, but in the hush of the forest.
For three days, we will sit with the trees as our teachers, learning from their patience, resilience, and quiet generosity. Each day, we will explore a lesson they offer us—through story, reflection, and a meditation designed to root you into their wisdom.
Follow me on Insight Timer by searching for my name, Christopher Manning.
Here is a practice on self compassion.
You can find much more of my work here on my insight timer profile
Or here on my Substack Newsletter
In this episode I lead you through a mindful journalling meditation, it is designed to draw the deepest wisdom from your life.
Follow me on Substack for much more on mindfulness practice.
journalling #journaling #mindfulness
This week I talk about self acceptance and offer a guided meditation to help you to come to peace with yourself and your situation.
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To make a one off donation to support the podcast click here
meditation #mindfulness #SELFacceptance #selflove
This episode explains my current situation and offers a short guided meditation.
To Follow me on Insight Timer Click Here
To make a one off donation to support the podcast click here
meditation #mindfulness
I'm not very active here these days. Sadly, financial support has dwindled and I'm back to supporting the majority of these podcast fees by myself. I will continue to pay for hosting because there's over ten years work here, I don't want to just throw that away. I have over the years received hundreds of messages to say how much it has helped people, so that's something to smile about.
I cannot however justify the time to make new recordings. A podcast can easily take a whole day of my time. I will upload recordings I have made for other platforms from time to time.
You can find me on alternative platforms below:
Substack Here I post written work, video and audio
Facebook Here I go live (Tonight at 7.45pm- Join us)
Youtube I am about to start uploading lots of video to here
Peace
No intro.
Straight into practice.
Working with sadness.
Come and join me on substack https://mindfulnessman.substack.com/
In this episode I interview author Nate Klemp and speak about his upcoming book, 'Open'.
Nate Klemp, PhD, is a writer, philosopher, and entrepreneur.
He is the author of the new book OPEN: Living With an Expansive Mind in a Distracted World. Nate is also the coauthor of the New York Times Editors’ Choice The 80/80 Marriage: A New Model for a Happier, Stronger Marriage and the New York Times Bestseller Start Here: Master the Lifelong Habit of Wellbeing.
Nate cofounded the mindfulness training company Life Cross Training and holds a B.A. and M.A. in philosophy from Stanford University and a PhD from Princeton University.
Today I am giving you the gift of thirty days of my time and in return I ask for your commitment to show up.
Thirty days of meditation, same place, same time, on the mindfulnessman Facebook page, also streamed on mindfulness in daily life.
7.30pm uk time, every evening, starting today 30th December, I will lead a meditation class.
We will sit together and cover mindfulness, loving kindness, affirmation practices and other practices designed to make our lives more joyful.
Here is the link. https://fb.me/e/1LUdYnGyB
Share it, invite your friends and family, let’s not let another year slip by without living the life we were meant to live.
In this live show I introduce something called a Gatha.
They are poetic phrases linked with the breath.
if you like it let me know and I will expand on them for a longer meditation.
In today's episode I talk about deepening meditation practice.
In response to several followers' requests, I have recorded another long guided meditation which comes after the talk.
I hope you enjoy it.
I have been very busy over on Insight Timer too. If you want another long guided meditation practice try this.
I have also recorded a sleep practice for any of you who would like to get better sleep and incorporate mindfulness into your sleep. You can find that practice here.
If you enjoy my guided meditations over on Insight Timer pleas leave me a good review as it helps them to get noticed.
Have a wonderful week.
Peace.
This is a short meditation which can be practiced anywhere. Repeated several times a day it will really help you to remain mindful throughout the day.
To meditate is to walk the path of the greatest happiness.Within you now, lies a joy that is indescribably beautiful.You may have had a brief encounter with the inner well and tasted the sublime waters of the interior life.These are the only waters capable of quenching the thirst, of bringing a profound peace and contentment that radiates through one’s whole being and out into the world.Meditate with me now.
This week we have a guided meditation which is relaxed and aims to open you up to experiencing mindfulness in the whole body.
I am writing a weekly newsletter with brand new content. If you haven't already, subscribe here https://mindfulnessman.substack.com/
A quick chat and a guided meditation outside. Make the noises of traffic and bustle part of your practice. I am sending a newsletter of ways to live mindfully with exclusive content I won’t be sharing on social media. You can subscribe here: https://mindfulnessman.substack.com
In this show I guide you through the practice of RAIN.
It is a powerful meditation that will help you enormously if you practise it regularly.
I now have a regular newsletter in which I will give pointers on living your best life. It is free, so come and sign up at the link below:
https://substack.com/@mindfulnessman
In this episode I encourage you to embrace sadness as a route to wholeness and joyful living.
I devised a meditation of around ten minutes to help open you up to sadness now, or when it arrives in the future.
I have started a substack and will be regularly sharing my reflections on there, so do subscribe, link below.
https://substack.com/profile/105196159-christopher-john-manning
In this live show we meditate, tuning into our own inner joy.
Have a listen and let the beautiful well up in you.
In this show I talk about restlessness and how to work with it. We then sit for a short meditation.
A short talk about being at home in the body, ending with a guided meditation to help us to make the most of every moment.
Thanks again to the great kindness shown by the supporters of this show. Anita Gwatney, Mark Buchannan Claire Jenkins, Mickel Polam, Henrietta Nemeth, Diane plocek & Jayde Sant.
This is a guided meditation to help you to work with anxiety and worry.
No intro, straight into the meditation.
The closer we get to our anxiety, the more we can see the potential of freedom from it.
If you don't want to become a patron, you can always show your appreciation with a one-off donation here https://ko-fi.com/mindfulnessman
In this episode I open with a short story about resilience.
We then move into a short meditation I designed to help you to get in touch with this enormous inner resource.
I have been away from podcasting because of the huge amount of time they take to produce. I would like to offload the editing to a professional. If these podcasts help you please consider financially supporting them and helping me to reach my goal of being able to afford to have them professionally edited.
If you would rather make a one off payment to help please make it to my kofi account here https://ko-fi.com/mindfulnessman
Much appreciated.
This podcast was recorded live on the subject of beginners mind.
It also includes a guided meditation at the end to help you to experience what is truly meant by it.
Join me on Sunday 4pm UK Time for "Sunday Sessions."
This is a live podcast in which we will talk through a subject and then a guided meditation together.
We had one last week and it was great as everyone joined in in the chatbox.
If you don't follow the podcast, please do to be informed about upcoming shows.
Also, I also have a whatsapp group in which I send links to live meditation classes I teach. These classes are always free. Message me if you want the details.
Enjoy this short podcast reflecting on the beauty of winter mornings.
Have a wonderful weekend.
We all need a little inner comfort right now, life is really difficult for so many.
If we practise this, our hearts will bloom and we will find inner joy.
Come and follow me on instagram as I'm about to start live meditation classes back up there.
https://www.instagram.com/mindfulnessman/
mindfulness #selflove
This is a guided practice on mindful eating.
Eating mindfully is a great opportunity to strengthen our practice with little to no extra time investment. It also helps us to bring mindfulness out into our daily lives.
Mindfulness practice can easily be made a battleground if we fail to recognise that we patiently yield to it rather than hunt it down.
In this episode I talk about the power of seeing mindfulness in the feminine, yin rather than yang, and then lead a short guided meditation.
Come over to my instagram account for guided meditation and other related content.
Loving Kindness Meditation Part 2.
Straight into meditation, no intro music, no talk. Nw you can just download or bookmark this practice to return to it daily.
This meditation builds on last week's practice.
How do you feel about some episodes like this?
This is a loving kindness meditation practice which focusses on opening the heart.
It is a practice used to cultivate a boundless heart and to aid the arising of great inner joy.
No talking in this episode, just straight into meditation.
The next episode will be the same.
Although not spoken here I am truly grateful to all of the patrons fro supporting the show.
Just me checking in to say the next two shows will be intro free. No talk, just loving kindness meditation. I take this opportunity to thank my patrons who support this show financially.
Seneca says the things you run from are inside of you.
How clear this is to see, we are always running from our own experience.
I would add that wherever we go we carry what is within us.
This means the love and strength we gather in meditation are carried with us everywhere.
Our happiness is so easily destroyed by the feeling that everything is doomed. The climate, nuclear war, fuel poverty, recessions, on and on it goes.
Entangled in this kind of thinking will never bring peace.
Let's meditate together and find freedom from all of this.
Apologies for the delay. Thank you for your patience. Here is a concentration meditation.
Enjoy this Deep relaxation whenever you feel the need.
I am teaching lots of live meditation at the moment. you can find me in all of the places below
https://www.instagram.com/mindfulnessman/
https://www.facebook.com/mindfulnessmannew
https://insig.ht/Himghd2zdtb?utm_source=copy_link&utm_medium=live_stream_share
Enjoy this meditation to help defuse anger.
Part 6 of the mindfulness course is also now available to the patrons of the show. You can access this course from as little as $1 per month.
Just simply click to become a patron.
Join me in this meditation which leans on no method to stay aware.
It can be really helpful in building string mindfulness without the aid of an object.
The next stage of the mindfulness course will be up shortly for patrons, apologies for the delay,
I must be growing soft in my old age.
Here is a meditation you don't even have to get out of bed for.
welcome the morning with me and get your day off to a beautiful, open-hearted start
A live meditative chat outside in nature. A loving kindness meditation along with a reading of two of Mary Oliver’s poems.
meditation #mindfulness
A deep relaxation practice recorded on a live podcast.
Comeback tomorrow Sunday 3rd July, 7pm GMT for another live show. We will meditate together and you can ask me any questions you might have,
We truly can be free from worry.
Let me know what you think of the live shows and if I should do more.
Do you have any issues with the shows being live and therefore less polished?
Five minute meditation practices can be a great addition to our regular practice.
Try this five minute practice a few times a day to keep bringing mindfulness back into your day.
Life is incredibly mysterious.
What are we doing here?
Is there meaning?
Do we make our own meaning?
We live in a beautiful world but to experience it we first need to know we are not truly seeing it.
This is an increasing problem too due to us living in the Information Age. We are now bombarded with unprecedented levels of data and our brain has not evolved to be able to handle it all.
So we’re lost in a digital storm, endless passwords to be reset, endless semi-real engagement through a screen and notification after notification.
We are digging a deep hole on otherwise flat terrain and then we’re falling into that hole, in short, we are causing our own suffering.
How about we stop digging, stop catastrophising, stop making a bigger deal out of things than they are?
Come and join me in this gratitude meditation.
Try practising it daily for a week and see how powerful it can be.
This episode is about finding the wisdom of the breath at a much deeper level than just an object to focus on.
Mindfulness sees even the tasks we hate as an opportunity to grow.
Take this challenge with me. Every day for a week repeat this affirmation. The more you repeat it the more powerful its impact will be.
AFFIRMATION
“I commit to challenging the things I find difficult in life and to perform them with mindfulness, knowing that self knowledge will grow much more from the difficult than the easy.”
There are so many ways in which we can boost the clarity of mind and stillness of body to help support our meditation practice.
Here I speak about the habits that I have discovered have worked for me.
In this episode we look at mindfulness and the beauty it can bring into our lives just by being.
Come and join me on facebook here
Music By Gotama & Tim "Iron Keys"
Happy New Year.
This year you are going to get your meditation practice together.
This is the most helpful tool I've ever discovered to do that.
Join me on my mindfulnessman facebook page here
The same hand that pats you on the back with praise could beat you in the next instance. Can you see that?
Can you see too that the praise you have received may have come by fortunate chance, you made little effort but here is praise.
Let's explore that now in a meditation.
Come over to my page facebook page
My first live on here. Please bear with me if the audio isn’t quite right yet. I’d appreciate any feedback, positive or negative. Thank you. Peace
What is real strength?
I believe it is the ability to bear with the difficulties of life and to find meaning in them.
Through mindfulness we can reframe difficulties as we get closer to them to find out what they really are.
In this week's session I teach a two part method for working with difficult feelings, that helps us to become strong and serene.
Come over to my facebook page to get to know me better.
mindfulness
Learn breath meditation with me and let your days become filled with wonder.
There are going to be up days.
There are going to be down days.
There are going to be days of numbness, when the day feels completely wasted.
Which of those days are the most important in the grand scheme of a life?
The days you experience life, the days you were fully alive and feeling whatever you were dealt on that day; these are the days that count.
My most tragic days built in me, something of immense value. I am carried by these days.
It’s as if my bones were forged in the flames of the foundry of hell. What was brittle is now unbreakable steel.
Looking back it all makes sense from here.
My inner teacher has built the road before me for my own highest good.
Life was my guru all along.
Special thanks to Tim Iron Keys for the intro track & Edoy for the track that accompanies the poem.
With meditation we learn that a happiness higher than sense pleasures exists.
Try this quick meditation to start to see the greatest happiness unfold in your life.
There is an enormous weight we carry in trying to control the perceptions others have of us. We want to be seen a certain way and when there is a threat to the image we have built and try to hold on to, we go into struggle mode in order to protect it.
The reality though, is that people will see us how they see us. What they’re seeing is a mere fraction of what has actually happened. Our actions are so deeply intertwined with a whole lifetime of their conditioning, that it’s really not up to us how we are perceived.
Follow me on Instagram here
Please excuse the lowfi tech this week. My computer and mic combination seem to have given up working properly so until that’s sorted I hope you still benefit from this podcast I’m its rawest form.
Mindful Eating, I believe is the answer to food addiction issues. Best- selling author, addiction expert and wonderful friend of mine Gillian Riley, agrees.
Join me in this conversation with her and if you're inspired, why not try the trial for her upcoming course at eatinglessonline.com
It's a struggle out there in the world right now, so we need to make our minds our allies rather than our enemies.
I've written these affirmations to help you to stop struggling and to dive inside of yourself for the strength that is always there.
Self Compassion is an incredibly powerful practice. Try this guided meditation and see for yourself just how self compassion can help us in our moments of need.
A live recording in which we meditate on birdsong. It sounds staged because one bird seemed to be interacting with me. I assure you it wasn’t. Maybe it was just a beautiful connection.
birdsong #mindfulness #meditation
The boundless heart, the source of true joy. Here on solitary retreat, I dive into the heart and offer a short guided meditation practice.
A very easy guided meditation in which we come to stillness and feel the gentle flow of the breath.
This is useful for anyone who says "I can't meditate"
Practise this daily to feel a great sense of peace in your life.
A conversation with Dr. Kirren on how self-compassion can help us with our mental health, followed by a great healing practice.
Healing #selfcompassion #compassion #mindfulness
There's a real magic that happens when we help others. This generosity is called dana in Buddhism. I truly believe bacause I see it in my own life, that helping others always benefits me. In fact, I would go as far as to say, I receive my greatest blessings from giving of myself to others; be that time, tuition, physical gifts or even a smile.
We are wired for altruism. How beautiful.
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