A Meditation on the Art of Stopping (Extended Version)

We often think of mindfulness and meditation as sustained states—when in reality, it’s just a collection of micro-moments of stopping, breathing, really noticing our own bodies and our own lives, getting distracted, and then coming back again. Over and over. As this week’s teacher Shalini Bahl puts it, today’s guided practice is about the art of stopping: letting go of our regular habits of the mind—the pushing, pulling, running in circles— and instead just being for a moment. This is an extended practice, but as a bonus, we’re also sharing a micro-practice version of The Art of Stopping that you can take into busy days. And don’t miss Shalini’s new article on that’s all about the power of micro-practices to affect our daily choices. Shalini Bahl, PhD, is the award-winning author of and founder of , where she offers daily live micro-practices for real-world engagement. Through her teaching, writing, and TEDx talks, she focuses on building practical mindfulness skills that disrupt default patterns and restore clarity, integrity, and care. 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 or download the app for free at . Show Notes Find more from Shalini Bahl . Go Deeper For more resources on the power of the pause, check out these resources on Mindful.org: For more practice pausing before making choices by compassionately interrupting patterns, try: And more from Mindful here: Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing .

You can listen to A Meditation on the Art of Stopping (Extended Version) online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

A Meditation on the Art of Stopping (Extended Version) is an episode from The Mindful Podcast by mindful.org.

This episode is 00:20:31 long.

This episode was published on May 22, 2026.

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