Effortless Mindfulness with Loch Kelly

Jun 25

In this episode, we take a fresh look at the journey from our everyday, habitual sense of ego-centered identity—the “small self”—toward discovering and living from our True Nature or what IFS calls Self Leadership. Through a guided glimpse practice and gentle inquiry at the end, we explore how to unblend from the thinker or manager part of the mind and shift into the spacious, compassionate presence of Self. You’ll learn to recognize the levels of identity—from ego-centered small self to Self Essence, Self Energy, and then Self Leadership. Rather than dissolving parts or pushing them away, we honor them as expressions of natural humanity. By shifting into Awake Awareness as the foundation of Self Essence, we gain access to qualities like clarity, curiosity, and compassion, allowing us to relate to our parts from the Self within that has the capacity to heal us. This episode offers a direct taste of what it's like to unhook from our ego's effort and rest in the open-hearted, effortless flow of Self Leadership. You'll walk away with a glimpse practice for identifying your parts, creating space around them, and leading your inner life from the natural wisdom of Self. This isn’t about spiritually bypassing or calming our parts—it’s about welcoming, listening, and returning home to who you truly are. Mindful Glimpse The episode features Loch offering a guided practice called “From Small self to Self Leadership.” These mindful glimpses serve as invaluable tools for experiencing ways to access the awake consciousness that is already here within all of us. You can now explore all of Loch Kelly’s practices and teachings on the new Mindful Glimpses app, found at https://lochkelly.org/mindful-glimpses . This innovative meditation and wellness app offers daily micro-meditations, step-by-step programs, and simple-yet-advanced tools for awakening. EM+IFS Training If you want to explore today's topic in more depth, shifting from small self to authentic Self, please check out the Effortless Mindfulness and IFS training program . Loch Kelly Bio Loch is the creator of the Mindful Glimpses app , and an award-winning author, psychotherapist, and nondual meditation teacher. He is also known for his unique practical methods that support awakening as the next natural stage of human development. Backed by modern neuroscience and psychology, Loch introduces Effortless Mindfulness, which combines an ancient form of nondual meditation and IFS psychology that allows immediate access to our embodied awake nature which arises as our calm, clear, and compassionate healing capacity. Connect with Loch: Mobile App: https://lochkelly.org/mindful-glimpses Website: https://lochkelly.org/ ...

May 21

In part two of this deep conversation, two “happy” masters of meditation, Loch Kelly and Henry Shukman, explore a range of topics and questions through the lens of awakening as a natural human potential. What can we learn about how to shift into awake mind and heart to live with and recover from injury and long Covid? What is effortless focus and flow, aka Flow Know? And why is it so important for meditation and mindfulness practitioners to understand the distinctions between conventional mindfulness and more direct paths like Zen and Effortless Mindfulness? And finally, what are the benefits of new emergent spiritual models that integrate nondual mindfulness and Internal Family Systems? How does it work and how are models like this different from more traditional approaches to waking up and growing up? Loch and Henry Shukman engage with these questions and more. Part 1 Recap In part one, Loch and Henry Shukman explore their similar and unique approaches to awakening. With delight and curiosity, they share some of their own initial awakening experiences. They also discuss their process of discovering and unfolding and how they share it with students. To this end, they unpack and illuminate the contemplative art and science of Inquiry and Koans as ways to shift out of the chattering mind and into our already awake heart mind. Henry talks about his experience with Zen Koans and Loch shares his Mahamudra approach to inquiry. Loch calls this Glimpsing, and it emphasizes immediate experiential pointers which help practitioners directly realize their already awake nature. Henry Shukman Bio Henry Shukman is a meditation teacher, poet, author, and co-founder of the single-path meditation app The Way. His most recent books are Original Love: The Four Inns on the Path of Awakening (HarperOne) and the Zen memoir One Blade of Grass . He has taught at Google, the New York Times, Harvard Business School and Medical School, and the Institute of American Indian Arts. He has written several award-winning and bestselling books of fiction and poetry. His poems have appeared in The New Yorker, Guardian, Times and Sunday Times. He has an M.A. from Cambridge and an MLitt from St Andrews. Mindful Glimpse The episode features Loch offering a guided practice called “Learn to Stay in Your Heart.” These mindful glimpses serve as invaluable tools for experiencing ways to access the aw You can now explore all of Loch Kelly’s practices and teachings on the new Mindful Glimpses app, found at https://lochkelly.org/mindful-glimpses . This innovative meditation and wellness app offers daily micro-meditations, step-by-step programs, and simple-yet-advanced tools for awakening. EM+IFS Training If you want to explore today's topic in more depth, shifting from small self to authentic Self, please check out the Effortless Mindfulness and IFS training program . Loch Kelly Bio Loch is the creator of the Mindful Glimpses app , and an award-winning author, psychotherapist, and nondual meditation teacher. He is also known for his unique practical methods that support awakening as the next natural stage of human development. Backed by modern neuroscience and psychology, Loch introduces Effortless Mindfulness, which combines an ancient form of nondual meditation and IFS psychology that allows immediate access to our embodied awake nature which arises as our calm, clear, and compassionate healing capacity. Connect with Loch: Mobile App: https://lochkelly.org/mindful-glimpses Website: https://lochkelly.org/ ...

Apr 23

In this deep conversation, two “happy" masters of meditation, Loch Kelly and author of Original Love , Henry Shukman, explore their similar and unique approaches to awakening. With delight and curiosity, they share some of their own initial awakening experience. They also discuss their process of discovering and unfolding and how they share it with students. To this end, they unpack and illuminate the contemplative art and science of Inquiry and Koans as ways to shift out of the chattering mind and into our already awake heart mind. Henry talks about his experience with Zen Koans and Loch shares his Mahamudra approach to inquiry. Loch calls this Glimpsing, and it emphasizes immediate experiential pointers which help practitioners directly realize their already awake nature. Henry and Loch also lean into questions around the importance of integrating ancient wisdom approaches with contemporary models of psychology and human development. Other key areas of their trans-traditional dialogue include recognizing ordinary experiences and pain as opportunities for awakening. They also talk about the role of personal loss in awakening and the role of personal storytelling in teaching. They both agree that awakening is the discovery of what Henry calls Original Love (instead of Original Sin) and what Loch calls Unconditional Love, which allows us to live from Awake Loving Flow. Mindful Glimpse The episode features Loch offering a guided practice called “Compassion Is Already Here.” These mindful glimpses serve as invaluable tools for experiencing ways to access the awake consciousness that is already here within all of us. You can now explore all of Loch Kelly’s practices and teachings on the new Mindful Glimpses app, found at https://lochkelly.org/mindful-glimpses . This innovative meditation and wellness app offers daily micro-meditations, step-by-step programs, and simple-yet-advanced tools for awakening. EM+IFS Training If you want to explore today's topic in more depth, shifting from small self to authentic Self, please check out the Effortless Mindfulness and IFS training program . Loch Kelly Bio Loch is the creator of the Mindful Glimpses app , and an award-winning author, psychotherapist, and nondual meditation teacher. He is also known for his unique practical methods that support awakening as the next natural stage of human development. Backed by modern neuroscience and psychology, Loch introduces Effortless Mindfulness, which combines an ancient form of nondual meditation and IFS psychology that allows immediate access to our embodied awake nature which arises as our calm, clear, and compassionate healing capacity. Connect with Loch: Mobile App: https://lochkelly.org/mindful-glimpses Website: https://lochkelly.org/ ...

Mar 26

What if there were another way to focus that is not stressful or exhausting? And what if this other way of effortless focus and flow gave us more energy and tapped us into an inherent sense of clarity, compassion, and wholeness? Three Kinds of Effortless Flow In this episode of the Effortless Mindfulness podcast, Loch Kelly introduces us to different types of awareness and uncovers a remarkable and innate human capacity called Effortless Focus. In conventional mindfulness and daily life we try to "pay attention” and “concentrate" by using narrow attention like a flashlight. With effortless focus we learn a unique Indo-Tibetan approach to open awareness and then upgrade to a connected flow that most of us know. Loch introduces three types of flow that we can learn to access any time of the day. They’re called absorbed flow, panoramic flow, and awake loving flow. Each of these has its own unique qualities to help you transcend chronic attentional issues like burnout, ADHD, workaholism, overthinking, OCD, hyper stress, low energy, and an inability to concentrate. And most importantly, these levels of flow are not just peak experiences but a new way of relating and creating. They're stable dimensions of your own Self that can become your new normal. In this episode, you’ll learn what it means to shift out of your limited chattering mind and live from the zone of Effortless Focus. Effortless Focus Mindful Glimpse The episode features Loch offering a guided practice called “Effortless Focus.” These mindful glimpses serve as invaluable tools for experiencing ways to access the awake consciousness that is already here within all of us You can now explore all of Loch Kelly’s practices and teachings on the new Mindful Glimpses app, found at https://lochkelly.org/mindful-glimpses . This innovative meditation and wellness app offers daily micro-meditations, step-by-step programs, and simple-yet-advanced tools for awakening. EM+IFS Training If you want to explore today's topic in more depth, shifting from small self to authentic Self, please check out the Effortless Mindfulness and IFS training program . Loch Kelly Bio Loch is the creator of the Mindful Glimpses app , and an award-winning author, psychotherapist, and nondual meditation teacher. He is also known for his unique practical methods that support awakening as the next natural stage of human development. Backed by modern neuroscience and psychology, Loch introduces Effortless Mindfulness, which combines an ancient form of nondual meditation and IFS psychology that allows immediate access to our embodied awake nature which arises as our calm, clear, and compassionate healing capacity. Connect with Loch: Mobile App: https://lochkelly.org/mindful-glimpses Website: https://lochkelly.org/ ...

Feb 25

In this episode, Loch introduces the map and practices of non-dual presence. A lot of us have heard about non-duality before. But how many of us have a truly embodied experience of this profound and transformative dimension of our own consciousness? Nondual Presence Map In Loch’s model of The Five Levels of Mind, he refers to non-dual presence as the Fourth Level of Mind — Unity Mind. Throughout the episode, Loch leads you through an experiential inquiry into the nature of both bliss and emptiness and how non-dual presence represents the life-changing union of these two. We all like peak experiences of bliss. But what if the natural experience of our body on a fundamental level was a subtle pervasive Bliss. In this episode, you’ll get answers to fundamental questions like: What does non-dual presence feel like? How can you begin to embody this for yourself? How is it different from Subtle Energy, Pure Awareness, and the Mindful Witness? And most importantly, how can you access non-dual presence in your own life to foster a new baseline of unconditional love and Self Leadership. Glimpse & Nondual Meditation The episode features Loch offering a guided practice and nondual meditation called “Awake-Awareness Energy Embodied.” These mindful glimpses serve as invaluable tools for experiencing ways to access the awake consciousness that is already here within all of us. You can now explore all of Loch Kelly’s practices and teachings on the new Mindful Glimpses app, found at https://lochkelly.org/mindful-glimpses . This innovative meditation and wellness app offers daily micro-meditations, step-by-step programs, and simple-yet-advanced tools for awakening. EM+IFS Training If you want to explore today's topic in more depth, shifting from small self to authentic Self, please check out the Effortless Mindfulness and IFS training program . Loch Kelly Bio Loch is the creator of the Mindful Glimpses app , and an award-winning author, psychotherapist, and nondual meditation teacher. He is also known for his unique practical methods that support awakening as the next natural stage of human development. Backed by modern neuroscience and psychology, Loch introduces Effortless Mindfulness, which combines an ancient form of nondual meditation and IFS psychology that allows immediate access to our embodied awake nature which arises as our calm, clear, and compassionate healing capacity. Connect with Loch: Mobile App: https://lochkelly.org/mindful-glimpses Website: https://lochkelly.org/ ...

Jan 29

In this episode, Loch explores the progressive stages of mindfulness. This contrasts with common definitions of mindfulness which only feature the first stages of concentration and witnessing. In addition, Loch introduces a nuanced map of consciousness which includes important distinctions and levels. In this model, which is based on the Indo-Tibetan approach, mindfulness begins similarly with calm abiding—focusing attention on one object as the main type of awareness. Here the goal is to settle the mind, nervous system, and body. In this method we use a narrow beam of attention, like a flashlight trained on a single object. To illustrate, Loch talks about the neuroscience research that shows how this represses the default mode of mind-wandering and creates a calm state by using the task mode for a simple task. This creates a temporary calm during meditation but is not an essential calm that we can live from. As we progress on the path of mindfulness, we gain the first insight into the changing contents of thoughts, feelings, sensations, and mind objects. In the process we shift into the mindful witness, where the flashlight of awareness shifts from narrow to wide beam or street light. And then the second insight dawns on us that neither our mind nor our self sense is solid. In the next step, we make the pivotal shift to turn awareness around to see what is aware once we are no longer operating from the self-centered and thought-based sense of “me.” Thus we enter into the advanced stages of mindfulness found in Indo-Tibetan and Zen traditions. This insight represents a new foundation of mind and identity as we become mindful of Mind or aware of Awareness. Then, once we discover that this wordless awareness is knowing, the next insight is that there is no separation between empty awareness and the contents or forms that arise. This nondual mindfulness—often called Same Taste—is mindful of the interdependence of life. The next stage of mindfulness Loch talks about is Effortless Mindfulness, also known as bodhicitta or non-meditation in the mahamudra tradition. Loch proposes that this represents a potential next level of human development. A mindfulness from awake loving flow that brings together wisdom, safety, connection, clarity and unconditional love. You can now explore all of Loch Kelly’s practices and teachings on the new Mindful Glimpses app, found at https://lochkelly.org/mindful-glimpses . This innovative meditation and wellness app offers daily micro-meditations, step-by-step programs, and simple-yet-advanced tools for awakening. EM+IFS Training If you want to explore today's topic in more depth, shifting from small self to authentic Self, please check out the Effortless Mindfulness and IFS training program . Loch Kelly Bio Loch is the creator of the Mindful Glimpses app , and an award-winning author, psychotherapist, and nondual meditation teacher. He is also known for his unique practical methods that support awakening as the next natural stage of human development. Backed by modern neuroscience and psychology, Loch introduces Effortless Mindfulness, which combines an ancient form of nondual meditation and IFS psychology that allows immediate access to our embodied awake nature which arises as our calm, clear, and compassionate healing capacity. Connect with Loch: Mobile App: https://lochkelly.org/mindful-glimpses Website: https://lochkelly.org/ ...

Dec 18, 2024

In this episode, Loch unpacks how his unique approach to awakening fuses two powerful and transformative systems—Effortless Mindfulness (EM) and Internal Family Systems (IFS). Each of these systems asserts that our true Self is ever-present and inherent. We don’t need to create or develop anything to realize our true nature. In Effortless Mindfulness, we uncover this ever-present Self (aka the IFS Self) directly. Each of these systems is the missing link for the other. EM+IFS solves the psychological problem of trying to develop a strong and kind ego and also the Buddhist problem of calling the ego an illusion with the goal of “no self.” IFS Exercises In this episode Loch leads us through powerful IFS exercises designed to evoke the IFS Self and the shift to Self Leadership, where the ego is part of the team and neither an enemy nor an illusion. What kind of IFS exercises and parts work therapy help us to become aware of our sub-personalities? And what role does learning the markers of the 8 c’s of the IFS Self play in living from awake loving consciousness? Loch explains how doing IFS exercises like parts mapping and healing with parts therapy is essential not only to reduce our suffering but for accessing our true nature. What does Self leadership as the next stage of human development look like in the world in and as you and me? How do we consistently make decisions based on wisdom and love instead of our egos or our protective parts? EM and IFS offer us a model for recognizing the interdependence of all our parts, so that we can truly live from a ground of awake loving flow. [ Want to learn more about IFS and parts work? Read Loch’s article on Integrating Parts Work Therapy and Effortless Mindfulness ] Self-Led IFS Training Online Effortless Mindfulness & Self-Leadership A Self-Paced Workshop in Effortless Mindfulness and IFS >> Get Instant Lifetime Access to the Course Loch Kelly Bio Loch is the c You can now explore all of Loch Kelly’s practices and teachings on the new Mindful Glimpses app, found at https://lochkelly.org/mindful-glimpses . This innovative meditation and wellness app offers daily micro-meditations, step-by-step programs, and simple-yet-advanced tools for awakening. EM+IFS Training If you want to explore today's topic in more depth, shifting from small self to authentic Self, please check out the Effortless Mindfulness and IFS training program . Loch Kelly Bio Loch is the creator of the Mindful Glimpses app , and an award-winning author, psychotherapist, and nondual meditation teacher. He is also known for his unique practical methods that support awakening as the next natural stage of human development. Backed by modern neuroscience and psychology, Loch introduces Effortless Mindfulness, which combines an ancient form of nondual meditation and IFS psychology that allows immediate access to our embodied awake nature which arises as our calm, clear, and compassionate healing capacity. Connect with Loch: Mobile App: https://lochkelly.org/mindful-glimpses Website: https://lochkelly.org/ ...

Nov 20, 2024

In this episode, Loch introduces you to the essential shift in the Effortless Mindfulness Awakening Process (EMAP)—Awake Aware Mind. He addresses the often elusive but essential question: What is it like to directly experience our already Awake Mind? The goal in EMAP is not a sustained experience. Instead, we aim for an orientation, recognition, and realization of this already awake and ever-present dimension of our own consciousness. The key is to shift out of the thought-based knowing of “ I think therefore I am ” by having awareness rest back and know itself as both the subject and object of knowing. From this spacious and pervasive way of simply being, you are aware of pure awareness—as what knows directly—without needing to refer back to thought for a second opinion. To help facilitate this shift, Loch leads you through three powerful experiential inquiries and glimpses. Mindful Glimpses: (00:13:33)-Embodied awareness to effortless awareness (00:58:03)-Awareness of senses to awareness of awareness (01:33:43)-Finding awake awareness between your thoughts In the first Glimpse, you’ll traverse everyday mind into the conventional mindful witness. From here, you’ll attend to the contents of body and brain and then turn awareness around to look through the meditator and discover Awake Aware Mind. Your Awake Mind is free from fear, worry, and shame and welcomes all positive and negative experiences as waves on the ocean of our awake humanity. In the second Glimpse, you’ll unhook from thinking and move through the doorways of seeing and then hearing, decentering your normal head-centered awareness. Then you’ll move into hearing and the auditory field, mingling awareness with space so that awake space is both outside and within all of life. And in the final Glimpse, Loch guides you into an inquiry to help you discover and identify the ever-subtle awareness of awareness between thoughts and words. This is a simple yet profound practice recommended by the Dalai Lama. You can now explore all of Loch Kelly's practices and teachings on the new Mindful Glimpses app, found at https://lochkelly.org/mindful-glimpses . This innovative meditation and wellness app offers daily micro-meditations, step-by-step programs, and simple-yet-advanced tools for awakening. Loch Kelly Bio Loch is the creator of the You can now explore all of Loch Kelly’s practices and teachings on the new Mindful Glimpses app, found at https://lochkelly.org/mindful-glimpses . This innovative meditation and wellness app offers daily micro-meditations, step-by-step programs, and simple-yet-advanced tools for awakening. EM+IFS Training If you want to explore today's topic in more depth, shifting from small self to authentic Self, please check out the Effortless Mindfulness and IFS training program . Loch Kelly Bio Loch is the creator of the Mindful Glimpses app , and an award-winning author, psychotherapist, and nondual meditation teacher. He is also known for his unique practical methods that support awakening as the next natural stage of human development. Backed by modern neuroscience and psychology, Loch introduces Effortless Mindfulness, which combines an ancient form of nondual meditation and IFS psychology that allows immediate access to our embodied awake nature which arises as our calm, clear, and compassionate healing capacity. Connect with Loch: Mobile App: https://lochkelly.org/mindful-glimpses Website: https://lochkelly.org/ ...