Mindfulness Exercises, with Sean Fargo
Practical, trauma‑sensitive mindfulness for everyday life — and for the people who teach it. Expect grounded guided meditations, evidence‑informed tools, and candid conversations with leading voices in the field.
Hosted by Sean Fargo — former Buddhist monk, founder of MindfulnessExercises.com, and a certified Search Inside Yourself instructor—each episode blends compassion, clarity, and real‑world application for practitioners, therapists, coaches, educators, and wellness professionals.
What you’ll find:
• Guided practices: breath awareness, body scans, self‑compassion, sleep, and nervous‑system regulation
• Teacher tools: trauma‑sensitive language, sequencing, and ethical foundations for safe, inclusive mindfulness
• Expert interviews with renowned teachers and researchers (e.g., Sharon Salzberg, Gabor Maté, Byron Katie, Rick Hanson, Ellen Langer, Judson Brewer)
• Clear takeaways you can use today—in sessions, classrooms, workplaces, and at home
Updated 2-3x weekly. Follow the show, try this week’s practice, and share one insight in a review to help others discover the podcast.
Explore more resources and training at MindfulnessExercises.com and the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification.
Mindfulness Exercises, with Sean Fargo
Feeling Competent - Dealing With The Inner Critic (Day 2)
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Ever catch your mind declaring you incompetent after a single slip. We go straight to the heart of that voice and gently dismantle its all or nothing rules with a short, steadying practice you can repeat anytime. Instead of debating the critic, we map its favorite phrases, notice how it lands in the body, and build a kinder, truer standard for competence that leaves room for learning.
We start by naming the core question the critic attacks—am I competent—and get specific about where it shows up: presentations, parenting, creative work, or decisions under pressure. Then we set up a simple posture that feels relaxed and alert, soften the jaw and shoulders, and follow the breath. When the mind wanders and the inner critic jumps in, we label it and return to the breath without drama. That move from judgment to observation trains the nervous system to settle rather than spiral. Along the way, we explore how criticism feels physically—tight chest, closed throat, fluttering belly—and how meeting those sensations with patience builds resilience.
To anchor a new narrative, we add a compassionate phrase: I will make mistakes and that’s okay; everyone makes mistakes. From there, we shift into constructive action: one small step that proves capability in real time. This episode blends mindfulness, self-compassion, and practical coaching so you can interrupt perfectionism, reduce cognitive distortions, and reclaim a grounded sense of competence at work, at home, and in creative projects. If the inner critic has been loud lately, this is your daily reset—simple, repeatable, and honest.
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Certify To Teach Mindfulness: Certify.MindfulnessExercises.com
Email: Sean@MindfulnessExercises.com
Mindfulness Exercises with Sean Fargo is a practical, grounded mindfulness podcast for people who want meditation to actually help in real life.
Hosted by Sean Fargo — a former Buddhist monk, mindfulness teacher, and founder of MindfulnessExercises.com — this podcast explores how mindfulness can support mental health, emotional regulation, trauma sensitivity, chronic pain, leadership, creativity, and meaningful work.
Each episode offers a mix of:
- Practical mindfulness and meditation teachings
- Conversations with respected meditation teachers, clinicians, authors, and researchers
- Real-world insights for therapists, coaches, yoga teachers, educators, and caregivers
- Gentle reflections for anyone navigating stress, anxiety, burnout, grief, or change
If you’re interested in:
- Mindfulness meditation for everyday life
- Trauma-sensitive and compassion-based practices
- Teaching mindfulness in an authentic, non-performative way
- Deepening your own practice while supporting others
…you’re in the right place.
Learn more at MindfulnessExercises.com.
Welcome back. We're now on day two of dealing with the inner critic. I'm Sean Fargo. In the last exercise, we looked at three internal core identities that our inner critic tends to harshly attack or critique. The first one is, am I competent? Of course, our inner critic tends to say, no, I'm not competent. Or I don't know what I'm doing. Or why did I do that? I always do the wrong thing. So what does your inner critic really say about how competent you are? It can be really helpful to bring awareness to this. The different situations that occur throughout the day. Are you incompetent in all things, according to the inner critic? Or just certain things? Are you completely incompetent or just not as perfect as you want to be, or feel that you need to be? So looking at the various ways that our inner critic tends to harshly attack us with in terms of competency. Seeing whether you hold yourself to an absolute or a nothing standard. So it can be really helpful to practice a mindfulness exercise around looking at our inner critic in terms of competency. So I invite you to find a posture that feels both relaxed and alert. Can be standing or sitting or lying down. Can have your eyes closed or open or gazed downward, whatever feels comfortable for you.
SPEAKER_00:Can be helpful to soften the belly, loosen the muscles and the face and the jaw, to drop the shoulders and feel your body as it touches the ground or the chair. Bringing awareness to your breath as you breathe in and out. Chances are after several seconds your mind will wander. Notice whether your inner critic comes out to play. What impact does that have on you? In your body and in your mind. Acknowledging I will make mistakes and that's okay. Everyone makes mistakes.
SPEAKER_01:And I invite you throughout the day to bring kind awareness to this issue of competency. I look forward to being with you here again tomorrow for our next session on day three of dealing with the inner critic.
