Wellness Minutes
Designed by an Indian Clinical-Community Psychologist in the US, this podcast is designed by -and- for people who know stress, burnout and overwhelm but also long for sustainable ways to cope and be well.
Short episodes, full of guided practices and short descriptions of why these wellness strategies work.
This podcast is designed to get you thinking about ways to make wellness strategies a part of your everyday life. Each episode is an invitation to pause and take a deep breath.
Episodes
67 episodes
Beyond Self-Criticism: A 4-Minute Compassion Practice
Ever notice how we're often our own harshest critics? The RAIN meditation offers a refreshing alternative—a simple yet profound practice that transforms how we relate to difficult emotions.This brief guided meditation introduces you to ...
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5:13
Spiritual Bypass: When Bliss Becomes Avoidance
Anger burns. It rises in our bodies—sometimes in our racing hearts, sometimes in our flushed cheeks, sometimes in our churning stomachs. But what happens when we try to hold that burning sensation with compassion? Can we speak loudly and firmly...
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5:02
Honoring the Unseen: Reflections on What Keeps Our World Turning
What goes unseen often matters most. Today's meditation centers around six powerful words—loving, kindness, compassion, heart, hands, and head—inviting you to weave them into your own meaningful mantra. The heart of this episode fe...
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4:08
Self-Care Before Service: The Oxygen Mask Principle
Ever noticed how your most depleted moments often follow periods of caring for everyone but yourself? That's no coincidence.Drawing inspiration from the flight safety instruction to secure your own oxygen mask before helping others, thi...
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4:29
Sensory Scavenger Hunt for Your Stressed-Out Mind
Finding yourself caught in a loop of worries or overwhelm? Pause and take a breath. Our bodies have an incredible built-in system for returning to calm, and this episode reveals how to activate it through simple grounding techniques.We ...
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5:18
The One-Minute Rebellion Against Constant Stress
Take a deep breath. Now another. What did you just activate? Your parasympathetic nervous system—the forgotten half of your body's stress-response equation.Most of us have mastered the art of stress. Our sympathetic nervous system—respo...
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5:27
Day 30: Mindfulness Saturdays
To contrast with my busy, "can do - will do - yes absolutely" attitude, I decided to dedicate one day of the week to slowing down and giving myself permission to do nothing. It has been interesting! Hear a little bit about it!
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Season 3
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Episode 30
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5:28
Day 29: Watering the seeds of kindness and compassion
Reflecting on the hard work that goes into kindness and compassion
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Season 3
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Episode 29
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5:15
Day 28: Taking care of yourself is one way you take care of the universe
Remembering a line by Chief Seattle, I reflect on the importance of taking care of ourselves. I also reflect on the wisdom of Adrienne Maree Brown ("Pleasure Activism") who reminds us how the world can only gain from our happiness.
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Season 3
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Episode 28
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5:29
Day 27: Put on your oxygen mask first before helping others
When you take care of yourself- your health and wellness can have a positive impact on others. If you don't refill your own cup but keep offering your cup to others- everyone loses from your ultimately empty cup.
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Season 3
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Episode 27
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5:07
Day 26: Our mental health challenges can serve as a wake-up call
Continuing my reflections on depression and anxiety
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Season 3
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Episode 26
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5:00
Day 25: The phenomenon called Depression and Anxiety
The most common experiences of profound psychological distress - Depression and Anxiety - are not personal failures, they are the mind and body's response to unrelenting stress. This episode names these two experiences and invites you to reflec...
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Season 3
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Episode 25
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5:14
Day 24: Mental Health Awareness week / month/year/life!
Reflecting on how to help yourself decide whether to seek professional help, how to recognize you have gone from stress to STRESSED OUT and how a therapist could help.
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Season 3
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Episode 24
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5:26
Day 23: Sunday Blues
Sunday Blues - like any other feeling - are feedback to us. In this episode, we reflect on Sunday blues and what we can learn about our feelings from the poem Guest House by Jalaluddin Rumi
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Season 3
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Episode 23
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4:51
Day 22: Airplane mode and the case of the missing Episode 21
Sometimes disconnecting from the phone seems like the best way to reconnect with reality. The concrete reality, not just the manifestation of reality (aka deluge of information) our internet-connected devices throw at us.
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Season 3
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Episode 22
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5:20
Day 19: A pinch of Spirituality, anyone?
This is what happens when I have a super busy day and then end up in a Spiritual study group meeting and then wonder - do other people think about this too?
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Season 3
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Episode 19
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4:28
Day 18: How Immigration can be one long process of grief
Immigration, regardless of the motivation behind immigration, comes with such a string of losses. This episode is a reflection on what that grief can look like
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Season 3
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Episode 18
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5:00
Day 17: Invisible work
Recognizing the invisible work we do in our professions and in our homes and communities. Read the poem I referenced: https://pollycastor.com/2019/05/11/invisible-work-poem-by-alison-luterman/
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Season 3
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Episode 17
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4:35
Day 16: Reflecting on ways to defuse the inner critic
The inner critic forgets we are doing our best and the best way to improve ourselves is through reinforcement in the form of kindness and compassion. In this episode I reference the work of Carl Rogers, one of the founders of the Humanistic mov...
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Season 3
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Episode 16
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4:56
Day 15: Compassion towards Health anxiety
Curiosity about our feelings is one form of compassion . today I bring curiosity to health anxiety.
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Season 3
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Episode 15
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4:26
Day 14: finding hope in the little things
Plants can teach us so much and give us so much. Hope you get a chance to reflect on how to plant these seeds of hope in your life. Here is a video from one of my favorite plant parents on YouTube, Garden Up: https://youtu.be/G-w2gpbyGaM
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Season 3
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Episode 14
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4:58
Day 13: Sitting with Fear, one breath at a time
The difficult and sometimes highly unbearable feeling called Fear remains my achilles heel. It incapacitates me and makes it very hard for me to focus, don't know about you! In today's episode I speak a bit about fear and what I have learned fr...
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Season 3
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Episode 13
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4:50
Day 12: Extending compassion to the body
Human civilization has "evolved" to prioritize the brain over the body, much to the detriment of our own holistic health as well as the health of our planet. Today's episode is a reflection on how compassion towards our body is a helpful and co...
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Season 3
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Episode 12
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4:57
Day 11: Let's talk about Anxiety!
How do you talk about this big topic in just 5 minutes? Come listen and find out. And for further information, check out this book (available on Kindle) called Anxiety: Overcome it and live without fear by friend and coll...
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Season 3
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Episode 11
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5:06
Day 10: Inserting mindful pauses throughout the day
Practice the skill of mindfulness by reminding you to pause and bring yourself into the present moment. Tune into today's episode to learn one way to bring your mind and body to the same moment. Essentially, learn how to pause the ...
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Season 3
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Episode 10
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4:41
