Douglas Scherer, Ed.D. is a keynote speaker, workshop leader, and coach, dedicated to unlocking individuals and organizations from the confinement of past failures and successes. With a diverse background in mindfulness, leadership, and reflective learning, Dr. Scherer takes a holistic approach to his work and believes in fostering trust, transparency, and collaboration. He is the author of the bestseller "F.O.R.G.E.D.: Six Practices of Great Leaders in Volatile Times," and a professor at Columbia University, where he teaches courses on leadership and technology.

Find out more about his work and book here:

www.DouglasScherer.com

F.O.R.G.E.D. at Amazon.com

Gratitude is a practice that activates parts of the brain that signal pleasure and reward. It can help us produce lasting feelings of self-confidence, self-assuredness and happiness and it can help to rewire the brain to recognize more opportunities to be thankful for. In this way gratitude can lead to grace— a precision and alignment with our highest Self as we move through life. In this meditation we practice remembering, envisioning and feeling into the feeling-sense of gratitude.

This practice is the first in a live, virtual series called Gratitude & Grace. Join us for a deeper dive at the link below. Your first class is Free, just contact me: https://www.cntrdwellness.com/contact

~ Join Us in community for live, online meditation sessions every Saturday morning (https://www.CNTRDwellness.com/classes)

~ Find out about becoming a Meditation Teacher with the online CNTRD Meditation Teacher Training (⁠https://www.cntrdwellness.com/meditationteachertraining⁠) or a Yoga Nidra guide (https://www.cntrdwellness.com/yoganidratraining)

This mindfulness meditation takes you through a practice of gentle awareness of the body and the breath, and then deepens the self-inquiry as you focus solely on the mental space— watching thoughts, memories, daydreams and self talk while remaining unattached and neutral. This practice is meant to strengthen your focus and mental self control while unveiling recurring patterns of thought when practiced regularly.

~ Join Us in community for live, online meditation sessions every Saturday morning (https://www.CNTRDwellness.com/classes)

~ Find out about becoming a meditation teacher with the online CNTRD Meditation Teacher Training (⁠https://www.cntrdwellness.com/meditationteachertraining⁠)

This Yoga Nidra session, also known as "yogic sleep," is a deep relaxation technique that (when practiced regularly) helps manage anxiety and stress in everyday life. It helps to greatly reduce stress hormones and unnecessary stress responses in the body, improve sleep, increase feelings of calm and peacefulness, and strengthens your ability to manage difficult emotions and thoughts. 

In this session we take a guided journey from the body to the breath and then to the moon and back, adding our personal resolution (Sankalpah) when the subconscious is most fertile and receptive.

~ Find out about the new Yoga Nidra Training (online, on demand: https://www.cntrdwellness.com/yoganidratraining)

~ Check out my book 'The Power of Guided Meditation' (https://www.cntrdwellness.com/book) 

~ Join Us in community for live, online meditation sessions every Saturday morning (https://www.CNTRDwellness.com/classes)

This exercise teaches you to witness the feelings and sensations in the physical body as you move through space in a normal walking pattern. Through the lens of a mindful observer, you may notice how the body shifts and adjusts and compensates and cooperates, all while building the strength of your concentration and focus.

You’ll be walking either in a circle inside or on a natural path outside- be that in a park or in your neighborhood. It’s best to walk somewhere where you can slow down just a bit more than usual, preferably a quiet location where you can listen more deeply. Shoes are optional.

~Check out my book 'The Power of Guided Meditation' (https://www.cntrdwellness.com/book) or Join Us in community for live, online meditation sessions every Saturday morning (https://www.CNTRDwellness.com/classes)

When we pay more attention to how we nourish ourselves, what food choices we make, and how present we are while we are preparing food or eating, we can uncover a lot of clues that can inform our eating habits, and that may affect our health. In this exercise we’ll practice maintaining present moment awareness by engaging with our senses fully while eating a snack.

Get ready with a piece of fresh or dried fruit (perhaps a strawberry, a few blueberries or raisins, or a piece of dark chocolate). This will serve as the object of your focus for this meditative experience. Take any comfortable seat (floor, chair, etc) and place the snack in front of you where you can see it easily.

~Check out my book 'The Power of Guided Meditation' (https://www.cntrdwellness.com/book) or Join Us in community for live, online meditation sessions every Saturday morning (https://www.CNTRDwellness.com/classes)

Practicing gratitude can shift our nervous system from a state of chronic stress or heightened alert to a state or rest and reflection and peaceful calm. When we remember and give attention to the things that are working and that have worked for us, no matter how big or small, we for a moment stop 'striving' for more or better and instead shift into a state of appreciation. This state of appreciation allows us to dream, to feel more deeply, and to receive.

~Check out my book 'The Power of Guided Meditation' (https://www.cntrdwellness.com/book) or Join Us in community for live, online meditation sessions every Saturday morning (https://www.CNTRDwellness.com/classes)

This exercise helps you stimulate and tune into the subtle energy centers deep within that govern many physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual processes. You might feel energized, more peaceful and grounded, clearer in thinking and focused, or perhaps find an innovative solution to an issue you’ve been dealing with. You may just feel a wave of calm that takes you into your day more easily… If you'd rather not vocalize the mantras, don’t worry. Just listen and focus on the area near the spine.

~Check out my book 'The Power of Guided Meditation' (https://www.cntrdwellness.com/book) or Join Us in community for live, online meditation sessions every Saturday morning (https://www.CNTRDwellness.com/classes)

Let your mind rest and your body slip off to a deep and healing sleep. This guided meditation will help you to relax the physical body and let go of thoughts and worries so you can awaken refreshed and renewed.

~Check out my book 'The Power of Guided Meditation' (https://www.cntrdwellness.com/book) or Join Us in community for live, online meditation sessions every Saturday morning (https://www.CNTRDwellness.com/classes)

Sometimes negative emotions are useful, but sometimes they can pile up and weigh you down. This meditation guides you into a deep relaxation and a process of loosening and letting go of some of the extra layers of negative emotion or thoughts patterns.

*This meditation is not a substitute for professional medical care.

~Check out my book 'The Power of Guided Meditation' (https://www.cntrdwellness.com/book) or Join Us in community for live, online meditation sessions every Saturday morning (https://www.CNTRDwellness.com/classes)

Compassion is a practice, and we can build our capacity to think and act compassionately through both meditation & visualization and conscious actions. This is a brief meditation to help you tune into your own heart center and vault of compassion and then practice sharing it with yourself and others.

~Check out my book 'The Power of Guided Meditation' (https://www.cntrdwellness.com/book) or Join Us in community for live, online meditation sessions every Saturday morning (https://www.CNTRDwellness.com/classes)

This exercise uses a controlled breath to soothe and relax the nervous system. The sound of the breath becomes like meditative white noise or gentle ocean waves, slowly erasing anxiety and fatigue. 

Use for stress reduction, deep relaxation and better sleep, and to reset your nervous system to a restful state.

~Check out my book 'The Power of Guided Meditation' (https://www.cntrdwellness.com/book) or Join Us in community for live, online meditation sessions every Saturday morning (https://www.CNTRDwellness.com/classes)

This exercise uses conscious control of the diaphragm (the largest breathing muscle) to quickly reset the nervous system and allow access to a deeply relaxed state (rest & digest mode). 

Get situated in a comfortable spot, lying down on your back. Make sure to limit distractions, and use pillows and props as needed so that you can relax more fully and focus on the breathwork.

~Check out my book 'The Power of Guided Meditation' (https://www.cntrdwellness.com/book) or Join Us in community for live, online meditation sessions every Saturday morning (https://www.CNTRDwellness.com/classes)

This guided visualization meditation centers and grounds you in mindful awareness of your body. 

Visualizing a glowing, vibrating orb of light, we encircle and travel the body, allowing it to trace and touch on any parts of yourself that need healing. 

Mind, body, and spirit can be illuminated and warmed in the glow of this orb, fueled by the strong power of our imagination.

~Check out my book 'The Power of Guided Meditation' (https://www.cntrdwellness.com/book) or Join Us in community for live, online meditation sessions every Saturday morning (https://www.CNTRDwellness.com/classes)

This meditation helps you get back in touch with your inner light, or inner genius- that part of you that makes you unique and special and feeds your creativity in this life. 

In ancient times it was thought that each person had their own genius, a guardian spirit of their creative forces, that accompanied them throughout their entire life. 

The word Genius is related to the word Genie- like a genie in a lamp, one’s spirit energy resides within them always, inspiring &  keeping purpose aflame.

~Check out my book 'The Power of Guided Meditation' (https://www.cntrdwellness.com/book) or Join Us in community for live, online meditation sessions every Saturday morning (https://www.CNTRDwellness.com/classes)

Your intuition is your inner guidance system. All of the answers you want and need can be accessed through this higher self. By practicing finding and trusting this innermost self, we can gain clarity and insight on any situation in our lives.

This meditation will help guide you back to this deepest part of your self that is always steering you in the right direction— if you turn an ear towards it.

Pregnancy can come with a lot of anxiety, fear, confusion and worry. It often comes with quite a few physical discomforts, painful areas or other physical dysfunctions. This meditation helps you to reconnect with your body, as it is right now, and to love and accept it. It also helps to relieve fear or worry related to the baby or the birthing process, so mother can maintain a peaceful connection with her baby in utero.

This meditation session starts with some grounding and then dives into the emotional state of vulnerability, and what it could signal for us. We also focus on acceptance of any feelings that surround or are associated with being 'vulnerable'.

Learning to practice self-compassion can help us transform 'negative' emotions into transformative throughways.

This visualization guides you into a relaxed, self-aware state and encourages you to envision the protective mechanisms of your immune system strengthening and becoming increasingly sensitive and effective at protecting you against threats to your wellbeing. 

*This meditation is not a replacement for professional medical treatment

This short guided meditation will help you visualize healing yourself, motivating yourself, and creating in a new powerful way using the power of your mind and imagination. We'll imagine moving a color through the body, touching and filling all areas that need change. And using the power of that color we'll prepare to manifest that which we most desire.