Just What You Need Meditation - Sleep Version

Balanced Mind with Julie Potiker

This meditation may be just what you need right now. Julie Potiker completes this guided meditation with her poem, "Sunday Morning June 1, 2025".

This meditation ends with music allowing you to drift off into sleep.

Sunday Morning June 1, 2025, by Julie Potiker

Stretched out on the thick grey sofa cushion,

the courtyard still cool with early light.

Above me, the carob tree

leans in—its green leaves filtering the sun,

green pods long and thick,

not yet brown or curled with time.

Before me,

a swath of pale blue Texas ranger

shimmers like sky.

Tucked above and below,

magenta moss rose spills in bright whispers.

Closer to the ground,

white dog rose lifts its face,

next to the flame of alstroemeria—

orange petals flared with red,

as if the morning is speaking in color.

In another bed,

tiny prairie flea-bane

mends the spaces between

hybrid tea roses—

their soft blush in peach and pink

rising like a slow breath.

California tree poppy—floppy, wild—

leans toward the bold crimson bottle-brush.

The soundtrack, a bird symphony.

The rhythmic coo of the mourning dove.

The grosbeak’s steel tapping.

The sparrow and finch melodies,

warbler, towhee, woodpecker—

each voice layered into the morning

like a choir without need for harmony.

Allen’s hummingbird stitches

between sage vine and air,

a flash, then absence.

I stay still.

Let the morning hold me.

Let the petals, birdsong, feathers, the light

be enough.

This is the benediction I needed.

-Julie Potiker

Find out more about using mindfulness in everyday life through Julie's books, "SNAP: From Calm to Chaos", and "Life Falls Apart, But You Don't have To: Mindful Methods for Staying Calm in the Midst of Chaos". Both are available on Amazon.com.

Follow Julie on YouTube and Facebook at Mindful Methods for Life.com

This podcast is available on iTunes, iHeart, Blubrry and everywhere you listen to podcasts.