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Tending the Heart Fire

Tami Simon speaks with Shiva Rea, a world-renowned teacher of vinyasa flow yoga and the founder of Samudra Global School for Living Yoga. Shiva has created many video, audio, and music programs with Sounds True, and most recently released her much-anticipated first book, Tending the Heart Fire: Living in Flow with the Pulse of Life. In this episode, Tami speaks with Shiva about what it means to be a “fire-keeper;” the power of attuning ourselves to the natural cycles of the sun, moon, and seasons; how we can reconnect to the pulse of life even in our modern world; and an on-the-spot practice we can do to tend to the fire of our own heart. (66 minutes)

The Forgiveness Challenge: Shifting from Narrow Mind t...

Tami Simon speaks with Rabbi Rami Shapiro, the co-director of the One River Wisdom School. Rabbi Rami writes the column “Roadside Assistance for the Spiritual Traveler” for Spirituality & Health magazine, and hosts the How to Be a Holy Rascal show on Unity Online Radio. With Sounds True, he has created The Forgiveness Challenge, a three-week online intensive course on radical acceptance. In this episode, Tami speaks with Rabbi Rami about dealing with situations where we find it challenging to forgive, the importance of asking others to forgive us, and how looking deeply into the areas of life that require forgiveness can illuminate meaning in our lives. (71 minutes)

Iyanla Vanzant: Truth is Light

Iyanla Vanzant is an author and expert on personal empowerment whose work includes five New York Times bestsellers and many appearances onstage, over the radio, and on television as the host of Iyanla: Fix My Life. With Sounds True, Iyanla has created several audio programs, including Giving Thanks and Living from Your Center. In this episode of Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon and Iyanla speak about cultivating intimacy with God and holding onto faith during trying times. They mull on values that are seemingly fading from modern society—including integrity, accountability, and even trust itself. Finally, Iyanla and Tami discuss the unique calling that every person has, and how that calling gives birth to one’s true and most authentic self.
(58 minutes)

Larry Ward: Mindfulness in Action, in Business

Larry Ward is both a Baptist minister and a teacher of the Buddhist dharma, personally ordained by Thich Nhat Hanh. A lifelong advocate for nonviolent social change, Larry draws his main inspiration from the life and works of Martin Luther King, Jr. He will be a featured presenter on Sounds True’s Year of Mindfulness program. In this episode of Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon and Larry discuss how to tap into inner reservoirs of resilience and the factors that keep us from performing our very best work. They consider issues of race and ancestral healing in a time when these questions are prominent in the wider culture. Finally, Larry encourages listeners to develop a “fierce equanimity” and explains just what that means in day-to-day life. (64 minutes)

This is a new day. A mindful day. Our day.

It’s still dark
when one small bird
fluffs his feathers
And lifts his voice
To sing up the sun.
Snuggled deep in our dreams,
we hear his clear song.
And we open our eyes
To the gift of a new day.
This day.
Our day.

Years ago, we attended a family meditation retreat with the beloved Buddhist teacher Thich
Nhat Hanh. The children loved him. He showed them how to count their breaths from one to
ten. (The best part was finding ten perfect stones to move from one pile to another.) During
walking meditation, he urged them all ahead with a running meditation. Another time, the
children served tea to the adults, moving carefully and slowly, focused intently on the task at
hand.

Today, there is growing recognition that practicing mindfulness has benefits for children
regardless of religious or spiritual background. From preschools to middle schools, educators
are incorporating mindfulness into their learning communities as a way to help young people
cope with emotions and anxieties.

Mindfulness can also start at home. Here in Oregon, the OPEC (Oregon Parenting Education
Collaborative), a public-private parenting education effort, provides evidence-based parent
resources on mindfulness: “The Benefits of Practicing Mindfulness with Children at Home.”

I hope my new picture book, Mindful Day, with gorgeous illustrations by talented California
artist Shirley Ng-Benitez, will also be helpful to families. Rather than a how-to, the story instead
follows a young girl, along with her mom and little brother, as they go about the simple,
ordinary activities of a day: eating breakfast together, getting dressed, brushing teeth, and
going to the market.

 

Shirley’s child-friendly artwork makes the characters come to life and examples of how to
practice mindfulness are integrated into the text. As the young girl pops a raspberry into her
mouth she says, “I chew slowly. It tastes sweet as summer.” She also practices being aware of
her breath. “Together we breathe: in out, soft slow. I look and listen. I play.”

 

 

Mindful Day was inspired by the time I’ve spent with my toddler grandson. I hope readers will embrace Mindful Day and make mindfulness part of their own family life. In this way, we can better treasure each precious moment—and help our children learn to do the same.

 Thank you,
Deborah Hopkinson

 

Deborah Hopkinson has a master’s degree in Asian Studies from the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, where she studied the role of women in thirteenth-century Japanese Buddhism. She lived in Honolulu for 20 years and practiced Zen Buddhism with the late Roshi Robert Aitken, founder of the Diamond Sangha and Buddhist Peace Fellowship. She lives near Portland, Oregon. For more, visit deborahhopkinson.com.

 

 

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The Urban Monk’s Inner Stillness Training

Dear readers,

 

I’m honored and proud to announce the release of The Urban Monk’s Inner Stillness Training. It’s the work I’ve been longing to do because the world has been saturated with superficial “how-to” advice and quick shortcuts to enlightenment, peace, happiness, weight loss, and whatever else can be promised.

That’s not reality.

In actual reality, we work to find our inner truth and delve deeply into the awareness that’s cultivated through our practice. It’s a process and it brings us home. The real work is authentic, meaningful, and restorative. It isn’t always easy, but it is raw and it is real.

When I entered dialogue with Sounds True, I laid it out there. I wanted to speak freely about the work and deliver a proper download from my lineage that can help people really get there. They jumped on the idea. I’m proud to say we have produced a very powerful program that “goes there” and doesn’t pull punches. It doesn’t make silly promises and doesn’t linger on the tabloid nonsense. It’s what I got from my teachers and what you deserve—an authentic path toward inner stillness.

The premise of the Taoist alchemical work I’m teaching is about cultivating the light of awareness and turning it around to discover one’s true Self. It is profound and rewarding— should you choose to do the work.

I invite you to take a journey with me and explore the inner realms. There’s so much richness, wisdom, peace, and strength you can draw upon once you’ve found the connection. It’s yours to discover.

 

Let’s take a walk,

Pedram Shojai, OMD    

New York Times Bestselling Author, Producer, and Founder of Well.org

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