Bart van Melik is a guiding teacher at the Community Meditation Center in New York and our Teacher of the Month for January. In this conversation with executive producer DJ Cashmere, he gets refreshingly honest about his own tendency to worry — and shares a bunch of practical tools for when your mind won’t stop spinning through worst-case scenarios.
We talk about:
Why mindful breathing sometimes doesn’t work (and what to do instead)
The practice phrase “this wants to be seen right now”
How to work with your aversion to worrying (which can be worse than the worry itself)
Why talking about your fears with other people is so crucial
The question “what is this?” as a low-barrier entry point to awareness
How the Buddha’s teaching on clinging shows up in anxious thinking
Why community and sangha aren’t optional extras
If you want more from Bart, check out the 10% with Dan Harris app where he’s got meditations and live sessions throughout January.
