Mindfulness Meditation with Dawn Mauricio

Dawn Mauricio
  • 5.0 (20)
  • Mental Health

Insight helps us see. Practice helps us change. I’m a Buddhist meditation teacher and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner sharing weekly guided meditations to support clarity, choice, and embodied change. While mindfulness may help us see more clearly, it’s consistent practice that builds the capacity to respond—especially in moments of overwhelm, grief, and uncertainty. Follow for meditations from 5 to 30 minutes, including mindfulness of the body, open awareness, and practices for meeting life as it is. Learn more at dawnmauricio.com. dawnmauricio.substack.com

  1. Kindness as Companion

    1d ago

    Kindness as Companion

    In this practice, kindness is your anchor as you notice what’s actually here—the texture of how you’re arriving, the subtle pushes and pulls of feeling tone. Rather than being caught in the story of good or bad, you’re observing the landscape itself, allowing you to relax with what’s present instead of subtly resisting it. Practice reflection: We spend so much energy trying to be in the “right” state—calm when we’re anxious, energized when we’re flat, peaceful when we’re overwhelmed. We treat our actual experience as a problem to solve rather than something to observe. But what if the shift came not from changing what’s here, but from how we relate to it? The Buddhist concept of upekkhā (equanimity) is a kind of warm, clear seeing that isn’t reactive. When you label an experience as “good” or “bad,” you’ve already stepped into a position of judgment and grasping. But when you notice the feeling tone itself—the pull toward pleasantness or away from unpleasantness—you create space, you’re no longer caught. You can observe what’s happening without automatically being moved by it. In daily life, this might look like noticing you’re anxious without immediately trying to fix it, noticing you’re frustrated with someone without automatically acting on that frustration (so! hard!), noticing joy without clutching it so tightly it slips away. Kindness is what makes this possible—not kindness as niceness, but as gentleness with yourself in the act of noticing. You’re not bad for being caught; you’re just human, and in the noticing itself, you’re already free. 🗓️ explore ways to deepen your practice and study here 🌱 learn more about somatic experiencing for qt/bipoc here 💌 receive a monthly letter in your inbox here This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dawnmauricio.substack.com

    15 min
  2. Allow, Investigate, Release

    Jun 11

    Allow, Investigate, Release

    In this practice, you'll work with whatever arises—moods, emotions, sensations—through the lens of allowing, investigating, and recognizing it's not yours. When something feels compelling or challenging, can you let it be here without fighting it? Get curious about how it moves, shifts, evolves. The heart of the practice is touching into non-identification—all that moves through you is simply nature being expressed because of causes and conditions coming together in this moment. ----- Practice Reflection: We tend to identify so strongly with what arises—anger means we’re an angry person, anxiety means something is wrong with us, a harsh thought means we’re unkind. But what if these experiences are more like weather moving through you than something intrinsic to who you are? The Buddhist teaching of causes and conditions (pratītyasamutpāda) suggests that nothing exists independently and everything arises from a complex web of factors—lack of sleep, the news you read, a conversation that triggered you, the coffee you had. As a result, your reaction is nature expressing itself through the particular conditions present right now. But! Even though what is arising is not our fault, it is still our responsibility. Yes, you didn’t cause the conditions, but you are responsible for what you do with what arises. You can investigate it with curiosity, choose how you respond, and repair when you’ve acted unskillfully. That’s the balance—it’s not your fault, but it is your responsibility. In daily life, this means catching yourself in a spiral and remembering: this, too, is nature. The irritation with your partner isn’t who you are, it’s what’s arising given the tiredness and stress and hunger of this moment.—and you can still choose to pause before you snap, still apologize, still show up differently, if not just now, then in the future. The practice isn’t about becoming someone different or bypassing accountability, it’s about recognizing you were never the problem to begin with, while also knowing you have the capacity to respond with intention. ----- 🗓️ explore ways to deepen your practice and study here 🌱 learn more about somatic experiencing for qt/bipoc here 💌 receive a monthly letter in your inbox here This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dawnmauricio.substack.com

    30 min
  3. Awareness in Motion

    Jun 3

    Awareness in Motion

    In this meditation, you’re guided to slow everything down—your noticing, your feeling, your thinking, your breathing. We move so fast and do so much already in our daily lives; the invitation here is to have your practice be a place where slowing down isn’t another task to do but permission to meet this moment with kindness. --- Practice reflection: Slowing down in daily life isn’t about doing things in slow motion. but rather about catching when you’re on autopilot—reaching for your phone, rushing through a meal, responding before you’ve fully listened—and asking: what if I slowed down here? Your body registers speed differently than your mind does. You might think you’re fine, but your shoulders are up by your ears, your breath is shallow, your jaw is clenched. Slowing down somatically means letting your body catch up to where you actually are—feeling the weight of the fork in your hand, noticing you’re standing at the counter eating instead of sitting, and so on. It might sound small, but these micro-pauses create space for something different to happen. You do so much already. What if slowing down, even for a few seconds at a time, could be a place where you don’t have to do anything at all? --- 🗓️ explore ways to deepen your practice and study here 🌱 learn more about somatic experiencing for qt/bipoc here 💌 receive a monthly letter in your inbox here This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dawnmauricio.substack.com

    9 min
  4. Slowing Down

    May 27

    Slowing Down

    In this meditation, you’re guided to slow everything down—your noticing, your feeling, your thinking, your breathing. We move so fast and do so much already in our daily lives; the invitation here is to have your practice be a place where slowing down isn’t another task to do but permission to meet this moment with kindness. --- Practice reflection: Slowing down in daily life isn’t about doing things in slow motion. but rather about catching when you’re on autopilot—reaching for your phone, rushing through a meal, responding before you’ve fully listened—and asking: what if I slowed down here? Your body registers speed differently than your mind does. You might think you’re fine, but your shoulders are up by your ears, your breath is shallow, your jaw is clenched. Slowing down somatically means letting your body catch up to where you actually are—feeling the weight of the fork in your hand, noticing you’re standing at the counter eating instead of sitting, and so on. It might sound small, but these micro-pauses create space for something different to happen. You do so much already. What if slowing down, even for a few seconds at a time, could be a place where you don’t have to do anything at all? --- 🗓️ explore ways to deepen your practice and study here 🌱 learn more about somatic experiencing for qt/bipoc here 💌 receive a monthly letter in your inbox here This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dawnmauricio.substack.com

    17 min
  5. Being Held

    May 20

    Being Held

    In this meditation, you’re invited to explore trust through two layers of support—the earth that is already holding you, and beyond the physical, another kind of holding: all of your past practices, the way awareness finds its way back even when you’ve drifted completely. We often grip in meditation, trying to stay present through sheer effort. But what if you could relax a little more than you usually give yourself permission to? What if trust meant under-efforting instead of pushing? The ground won’t let you fall. Awareness won’t abandon you. The invitation is to let yourself be held. ----- Practice reflection: Faith, or saddhā in Pāli, often translated as conviction or confidence, and at its heart is trust—the kind of trust that develops when you notice something actually working, even if you can’t explain how it works. Faith is what lets you soften and relax. In practice, the ground won't let you fall and awareness comes back. In daily life, this looks like letting conversations unfold without scripting every response, letting projects develop without controlling every detail, letting yourself be imperfect without constant course-correction. Faith is about trusting that you don't have to get it right, and in so doing, mysteriously, it turns out all right. ----- 🗓️ explore ways to deepen your practice and study here 🌱 learn more about somatic experiencing for qt/bipoc here 💌 receive a monthly letter in your inbox here This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dawnmauricio.substack.com

    12 min

  6. May 13

    Nourishing Natural Insight

    In this meditation, you'll work with a paradox at the heart of practice: mindfulness requires effort and is also part of your natural essence. You'll be guided to gather your attention around an anchor—breath, sound, sensation—and return to it each time the mind wanders. Then comes the shift: when you notice the mind has wandered, you're actually noticing awareness returning. Can you celebrate that instead of judging it? Practice Reflection: The Five Faculties in Buddhism—faith, effort, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom—aren’t new qualities to “collect” but rather they’re qualities we’re already cultivating wherever we are on our path of practice and a map that leads us to a freedom from suffering. In daily life, they can show up in ordinary moments. Faith is trusting that turning toward difficulty leads somewhere good. Effort is the energy you bring when you ask “What would serve me right now?”… and actually listen. Mindfulness is catching the moment you realize you’ve been on autopilot. Concentration is staying with one thing long enough to actually be present. Wisdom is recognizing the (unhelpful) patterns—doomscrolling leaves you anxious, certain interactions drain you, rest isn’t laziness—and choosing differently. The practice is learning to strengthen them intentionally, so when life gets overwhelming, you have something to come back to. 🗓️ explore ways to deepen your practice and study here 🌱 learn more about somatic experiencing for qt/bipoc here 💌 receive a monthly letter in your inbox here This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dawnmauricio.substack.com

    27 min
  7. Arriving and Attuning

    Apr 29

    Arriving and Attuning

    This meditation invites you to practice meeting your experience as it is, regardless of what arises. It’s less about staying with one thing, and more about learning how to be with whatever shows up, whether it’s thoughts, emotions, sensations, without needing to push them away or get pulled in. Over time, there may even be a softening in how personally things are taken, and a bit more room for experience to move through on its own. ----- Practice reflection: It’s pretty common to relate to thoughts and emotions as if they’re who we are—this is me, this is mine. It’s no wonder we get caught in them and build a whole world around what the mind is saying. The Buddha pointed to another way of seeing: that experience is shaped by causes and conditions, and is not-self (anatta). Not to dismiss or detach, but to unbind and free us. In other words, things happen but they’re not me or mine. You might try this in simple moments during your day. When something strong arises, like feelings or really believable thoughts, notice it as experience—as something being known—rather than something you are. Nothing needs to be pushed away, and it doesn’t have to be taken so personally. Over time, this can loosen the grip and give us a taste of freedom. ----- 🗓️ explore ways to deepen your practice and study here 🌱 learn more about somatic experiencing for qt/bipoc here 💌 receive a monthly letter in your inbox here This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dawnmauricio.substack.com

    30 min
  8. What Else Is Here

    Apr 22

    What Else Is Here

    This guided meditation invites a gentle widening of awareness. Instead of getting pulled into any one experience, the invitation is to include more, to notice what is here, and what else might also be here. It’s a meditation rooted in curiosity and permission, where nothing needs to be pushed away or held onto, and experience can unfold in a more open, connected way. ----- Practice reflection: In our daily life, it’s easy for the mind to narrow in on one thing—a thought, a reaction, a story—and take it as the whole truth. From there, we can get pulled into seeing things in a fixed or personal way. View shapes so much of how we move through the world. It often starts as patterns, becomes norms and values, and over time can harden into fixed views or opinions. When we cling to them (and when we’re not open to being called in, called out, or receiving feedback), the Buddha pointed to the friction this creates: “Those who grasp at perceptions and views go about butting their heads in the world.” (Bikkhu Thanissaro’s translation of the Magandiya Suta in the Sutta Nipata) One way to recognize you are clinging to certain views or opinions is to notice whenever you feel a tension in your body, particularly when in relationship with others. Then quietly ask yourself “Am I clinging to a view right now? What view am I clinging to?” Practices like what else is here? can gently open things up. Not so you lose your perspective, but so it’s held a little more lightly, making space for other viewpoints, and a more responsive, less reactive way of being with others. N.B.: Just because there is a view being held doesn’t make it “wrong” or “bad.” If you are unsure if a certain view is skillful or not, you might take your reflection further as ask “Does it lead to a freedom from suffering for myself and others, now and in the future? If it causes harm, does it cause the least amount of harm possible?” ----- 🗓️ explore ways to deepen your practice and study here 🌱 learn more about somatic experiencing for qt/bipoc here 💌 receive a monthly letter in your inbox here This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dawnmauricio.substack.com

    15 min
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5
out of 5
20 Ratings

About

Insight helps us see. Practice helps us change. I’m a Buddhist meditation teacher and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner sharing weekly guided meditations to support clarity, choice, and embodied change. While mindfulness may help us see more clearly, it’s consistent practice that builds the capacity to respond—especially in moments of overwhelm, grief, and uncertainty. Follow for meditations from 5 to 30 minutes, including mindfulness of the body, open awareness, and practices for meeting life as it is. Learn more at dawnmauricio.com. dawnmauricio.substack.com

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