Podcast
Viral Mindfulness the Podcast
Hosted by Alexander Smith | Mindfulness Teacher · EN
Featured on CNN, viralmindfulness.com, HIV Plus Magazine, The Gay HotSpot, and the cover of Positively Aware—my work as a mindfulness teacher and artist encourages you to discover your spiritual rhythm.
I earned a Master of Social Work (MSW) from the University of Utah in 2003, and a Bachelor of Science from Brigham Young University (1999).
During migration from a basement office (with no windows) at Salt Lake Community College’s Health & Wellness Services, I resigned from the traditional clinical world, and moved my practice online in 2012.
I live near the ocean in Huntington Beach, California, and enjoy yoga, running trails at the Wetlands, bird watching, live theater & music, and painting. As a spiritual muse, teacher, and musician, you're invited to join my online tribe.
28episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Make Sit Happen: A Field Guide to September
Sep 700:27:08Tap to summarizeIf you’ve been craving a return to center, this episode is for you. I’m thrilled to finally invite you into Make Sit Happen—my brand new 21-day meditation adventure, created for anyone ready to build a practice that feels soulful, sustainable, and real. Whether you’ve never meditated before or you’ve wandered off the cushion and want to begin again, this course offers a grounded and gentle path: ✴︎ Daily teachings with video and audio (short & potent) ✴︎ Guided meditations and nature soundscapes ✴︎ Weekly live Zoom calls (recordings available) ✴︎ Writing prompts and walking practices ✴︎ A beautiful community space to connect and reflect ✴︎ Inspired by the teachings of Pema Chödrön, Jack Kornfield, Natalie Goldberg, and Adyashanti You’ll meet the Mirepoix Sisters (Sit, Walk, Write) and explore the 5 natural elements (Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Space) as a metaphor for presence. We begin with the simplest invitation: sit down, breathe, and notice what’s here. In this episode, I’ll walk you through everything you need to know, including how to sign up, what you’ll receive, and why even one minute of sitting each day can open a portal to your soul. I built this for people just like you—curious, creative, maybe a little overwhelmed—and ready to deepen their connection to what matters most. ✨ Enrollment closes tomorrow morning. ✨ Listen in for the full invitation. ✨ We start together, and we begin right where we are. → makesithappen.org
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Sally is a Grandma (and Other Updates)
Sep 400:09:18Tap to summarizeThis is your first September dispatch and a quick intimate check-in. In this soul-bearing State of the Union, I reflect on the wild swirl of the past six weeks: illness, unexpected change, travel to the East Coast, and a frightening accident with my beloved Harvey. She’s healing. We’re healing. And in the quiet aftermath, I return to you, with a voice steadied by presence and gratitude. I share a quote that’s been holding me: about noise, influence, and the sacred need to hear yourself again. I talk about an upcoming meditation course (yes, you can still join makesithappen.org ). And I close with a basement ritual that is pure House of Blue: a hand game called Sally performed with Harvey, charting the journey from infant to forgotten soul—with giggles, tenderness, and theatrical flair. It’s silly. It’s serious. It’s real life. “To be here is immense.” —Rilke Let’s pause together. Come listen.
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WAKING BLUE -- An Original Piano Composition by Alexander Blue Feather
Jul 23, 202500:12:12Tap to summarizeMeet the piano piece that’s been with me most of my life. In this solo episode, I share the story behind Waking Blue. A song I began composing at age 13, long before I had language for who I was becoming. From Beethoven to Salt Lake City, from Ensign Peak to Southern California, this melody carried me through moves, grief, queerness, and awakening. Waking Blue is a piece about impermanence and memory, about the moment (and years) before we fully wake up. I offer the 2011 studio version here: played on a Steinway, wrapped in decades of life. May it meet you in your own season of becoming.
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Dear Alexander: A Listener Asks About Cardell
Jul 21, 202500:33:54Tap to summarizeIn this heart-forward installment of Dear Alexander, Blue Feather responds to a soul sibling’s question: What stories do you remember of your dad, Cardell, and what’s helping you now in the midst of grief? What unfolds is part tribute, part time-travel, and full embodiment of what it means to grieve with depth and beauty. From fire poles and Lake Powell to sleeping beneath stars and sneaking HBO glances in the ‘90s, Alexander shares radiant memories of a father’s devotion. We end with a sacred offering: the first time Alexander returned to the piano after Cardell’s death, playing a live version of “Waking Blue.” With grief as teacher and Francis Weller’s The Wild Edge of Sorrow as guide, this is a field guide to remembering, breaking open, and blooming. This is part of the Dear Alexander series: where spiritual correspondence meets queer Dear Abby, with a piano in the background and a splash of watercolor. Listeners from around the world send in questions, insights, heartbreaks, and aha moments. If you’d like to share what’s stirring in you get started now at viralmindfulness.com/dear-alexander. Let’s keep asking brave questions and listening for the music that answers back.
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Everyone Should Sit Next to a River and Listen (MAKE SIT HAPPEN) Salmon River Meditation, Stanley, Idaho, Summer 2025
Jul 12, 202500:10:01Tap to summarizeFor years, I’ve carried around a simple little illustration: a kid sitting beside a river, with the words: “Everyone should sit next to a river and listen.” This 10-minute meditation was recorded during my first morning camping near Redfish Lake, Idaho, beside the Salmon River and under the gaze of the Sawtooth Mountains. It's green. It's lush. And it's a quiet invitation to make sit happen. Bring your breath to the banks. Let the sound of the river remind you: there's nowhere else to be but here. 🪶 Perfect for a morning pause, midday grounding, or evening reset. 🎧 Best with headphones. 🌊 Part of the Scattering Ashes, Gathering Love series on Viral Mindfulness the Podcast.
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MAKE SIT HAPPEN: Redfish Lake Meditation (Stanley, Idaho)
Jul 12, 202500:10:01Tap to summarizeWelcome to a 10-minute "Make Sit Happen" meditation recorded in real time on the shores of Redfish Lake, Idaho (my father’s home-state, where I recently scattered some of his ashes). This is a gentle, contemplative sit, accompanied by the natural music of lake water meeting the shore. The rhythm of the waves invites you into presence, stillness, and breath. Come take your seat. Let the Sawtooth Mountains hold you. Let the water teach you how to soften. No performance, no perfect meditation, just you, your breath, and this moment. 🎧 Best with headphones. 🌲 Background: Redfish Lake, Stanley, Idaho. 🪶 Part of the Scattering Ashes, Gathering Love series on Viral Mindfulness the Podcast.
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UPDATED AUDIO: Salt and Peppering My Dad's Ashes: My Grief Ritual at Redfish Lake, Idaho
Jul 12, 202500:31:05Tap to summarize🎧 UPDATED AUDIO – Now Ears-Approved! This re-released version comes with smoothed-out sound for your comfort. The original audio had a few sharp turns (thank you for your grace). This one is tuned to invite you into stillness, memory, and meaning. Same content as previous episode in the feed. Feel free to move right along, to the next episode, if you already heard this episode. In this deeply personal episode, I take you with me to Redfish Lake, Idaho. Idaho is my father’s birth-state and now the resting place of part of his ashes. You'll hear raw, real-time reflections from the lakeshore and Redfish Creek, the steady hush of water moving downstream, and a live recording of the words I shared at his celebration of life. We begin with a poem close to my heart, The Long Boat by Stanley Kunitz, read by my dear friend Jude Theriot. a poem I happened to read the morning after my dad passed. This episode is a mosaic of pilgrimage, poetry, grief, and devotion. A dispatch from the road. A ritual in sound. An offering for anyone carrying love and loss in the same tender hands.
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Salt and Peppering My Dad's Ashes: My Grief Ritual at Redfish Lake, Idaho
Jul 5, 202500:28:44Tap to summarizeIn this episode of Viral Mindfulness, Alexander Blue Feather invites you along on an intimate pilgrimage through Idaho’s Redfish Lake, a landscape of dark skies, towering saw-toothed mountains, and quiet revelation. Carrying his father’s ashes, Alexander reflects on grief as a deep form of praise—an apprenticeship with sorrow—and shares how letting go of the search for extraordinary signs revealed the power of simply being present. You’ll hear the poem The Longboat by Stanley Kunitz (read by Jude Theriot) which became a guiding touchstone in the first hours after his father’s passing. This episode includes the original live recording of Alexander’s words spoken at his father’s celebration of life—a tribute to their healing, their chosen relationship as father and gay son, and the courage to love beyond inherited frameworks. Along the way, Alexander brings you into the raw moments of scattering ashes in Redfish Lake and Redfish Creek, offering simple rituals of farewell stitched with humor, gratitude, and tenderness. Part travelogue, part elegy, and part love letter, this is an exploration of how grief, memory, and devotion can transform loss into something luminous. This is a story of lineage, healing, and the way love continues; long after a life has ended. 'The Wild Braid: A Poet Reflects on a Century in the Garden,' by Stanley Kunitz (Author), Genine Lentine Marnie Crawford Samuelson (Photographer)
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