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Encounters With Power

Dear friends,

We are all faced with events in life that make it seem like we have no choice in the matter. Think of a time in your life when you thought the situation you faced gave you no choice. As you reflect back on this event, do you still feel that way? Do you still believe you had no choice, or can you now see choices you could not see then? What can you change and what is not in your power to change?

From a shamanic perspective, there are always many more options than we thought we had because, like a quantum physicist, a shaman does not accept the outward appearance of anything. Our solid appearing bodies are anything but solid at the subatomic level. They are mostly empty space—and if that is so, what might we be able to do with them that we thought we could not?

Walk over hot coals? Pass through a wall? Travel great distances in the blink of an eye? Consider what you have resigned yourself to in your life? Is it just a reality to be endured or is it an essence-created test—an initiatory challenge to motivate you to move beyond it?

Examine your feelings about your fate closely. Is there grief? Is there anger and bitterness—perhaps resentment? These emotions can be clues to your fatalism about certain aspects of your life. Who are you trying to punish with your victim stance? Who are you trying to prove wrong or right in the matter?

If you wish, go back and choose a current situation where you feel you are stuck and do the process again.

This process is just one I’ve learned over the years as I’ve sought out extraordinary healers across the globe. I’ve had terrifying, enlightening, and at times hugely entertaining adventures. Power can destroy us or it can raise us up by teaching us and nourishing us. I may not be a master, but I have learned a few things that you may find helpful on your own quest. I share all of this in my new book, Encounters with Power: Adventures and Misadventures on the Shamanic Path of Healing.

 

Warm wishes to you on your path,

José Luis Stevens

Waking Up – what does it really mean? A free onl...

Beginning May 1, 2015. Tami Simon will speak with today’s leading teachers on the topic of spiritual awakening—what it is, why it matters, and how it changes our lives and our world. The series is yours to enjoy as often as you’d like for the entire month of May. Interviewees include Eckhart Tolle, Tara Brach, Adyashanti, Gangaji, A.H. Almaas, Sandra Ingerman, Ken Wilber, Jack Kornfield, and many others.

More information/ register for FREE here.

A growing number of people are beginning to see things in a radically different way. In other words, more and more of us are starting to “wake up” spiritually—to discover an entirely new identity beyond the usual sense of who we think we are. But what is spiritual awakening, really? How does it happen—and what are the consequences? Is it possible to attune to this dimension of experience at any moment?

In Waking Up, Sounds True publisher and founder Tami Simon speaks with over 30 of today’s leading authors and teachers who will share their personal understanding of spiritual awakening—how it takes place, what changes (and what doesn’t), and how their experiences can inspire and inform our own realization.

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Sounds True’s Hidden Gems – from Tami Simo...

Dear friends, we are happy to offer you a 40% discount off of these “hidden gems” buried within the Sounds True archived, as identified by our founder and publisher, Tami Simon. Including some of Tami’s favorite selections, these titles represent some of the great heart of our offerings, which we are honored to share with you.

Learn more about Tami’s Hidden Gems!

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Moving with Mindfulness: Five Free Video Practices to ...

Mindfulness practice is often thought of as a static or seated activity. But cultivating present moment awareness is something that can be done as a moving practice as well. In Moving with Mindfulness, you will experience five engaging excerpts from our esteemed video archive that will help you unify body and mind, clear energy blockages, and stimulate your body’s innate healing ability.

Download Moving with Mindfulness now.

Practices include:

1. “Mindful Movement #1: Raising the Arms” by Thich Nhat Hanh from Mindful Movements

Thich Nhat Hanh guides you through the first of ten meditative movements used daily by the monks and nuns of Plum Village as a complement to their sitting practice.

2. “Shoelace Pose” by Kim Eng from Yin Yoga

Kim Eng teaches us a gentle sequence called “shoelace pose” to cultivate presence, receptivity, and acceptance toward each moment just as it is.

3. “Qi Massage” by Lee Holden from Qi Gong for Self-Healing

Discover a practice that stimulates qi flow throughout the body, removes stagnant energy and blockages, and activates the immune system.

4. “Classical Sun Salutation” by Shiva Rea from Yoga Shakti

Shiva Rea guides you in this classical yoga practice to connect to your own vitality, strength, and fluidity.

5. “Dance of the Four Elements” by Wyoma from African Healing Dance

Experience Africa’s unique dance heritage through this enjoyable dance intended to connect us with the earth’s energies.

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Let it R.A.I.N – a home for all of you – w...

Dear friends, some years ago a simple, yet powerful approach to working with difficult emotions emerged out of the intersection of the fields of mindfulness and psychotherapy. Come to be known as the “RAIN” technique (an acronym for the four steps of the process), many therapists, meditators, healers, and practitioners have found it to be incredibly helpful for on-the-spot relief and support during challenging times.

Here, friend and Sounds True author, Dr. Rick Hanson, describes the RAIN practice and the benefits is offers. This article was originally published by our friends at The Huffington Post. We hope you find it helpful and beneficial in your own life – and in the work you may be doing with others.

Let it R.A.I.N. – by Rick Hanson, PhD

When you’re young, the territory of the psyche is like a vast estate, with rolling hills, forests and plains, swamps and meadows. So many things can be experienced, expressed, wanted, and loved.

But as life goes along, most people pull back from major parts of their psyche. Perhaps a swamp of sadness was painful, or fumes of toxic wishes were alarming, or jumping exuberantly in a meadow of joy irritated a parent into a scolding. Or maybe you saw someone else get in trouble for feeling, saying, or doing something and you resolved, consciously or unconsciously, to Stay Away From That Place Forever.

In whatever way it happens, most of us end up by mid-adulthood living in the gate house, venturing out a bit, but lacking much sense of the whole estate, the great endowment of the whole psyche. Emotions are shut down, energetic and erotic wellsprings of vitality are capped, deep longings are set aside, sub-personalities are shackled and silenced, old pain and troubles are buried, the roots of reactions — hurt, anger, feelings of inadequacy — are veiled so we can’t get at them, and we live at odds with both Nature and our own nature.

Sure, the processes of the psyche need some regulation. Not all thoughts should be spoken, and not all desires should be acted upon! But if you suppress, disown, push away, recoil from, or deny major parts of yourself, then you feel cut off, alienated from yourself, lacking vital information about what is really going on inside, no longer at home in your own skin or your own mind — which feels bad, lowers effectiveness at home and work, fuels interpersonal issues, and contributes to health problems.

So what can we do? How can we reclaim, use, enjoy, and be at peace with our whole estate — without being overwhelmed by its occasional swamps and fumes?

This is where R.A.I.N. comes in.

How?

R.A.I.N. is an acronym developed by Michelle McDonald, a senior mindfulness teacher, to summarize a powerful way to expand self-awareness. (I’ve adapted it a bit below, and any flaws in the adaptation are my own, not Michelle’s.)

R = Recognize: Notice that you are experiencing something, such as irritation at the tone of voice used by your partner, child, or co-worker. Step back into observation rather than reaction. Without getting into story, simply name what is present, such as “annoyance,” “thoughts of being mistreated,” “body firing up,” “hurt,” “wanting to cry.”

A = Accept (Allow): Acknowledge that your experience is what it is, even if it’s unpleasant. Be with it without attempting to change it. Try to have self-compassion instead of self-criticism. Don’t add to the difficulty by being hard on yourself.

I = Investigate (Inquire): Try to find an attitude of interest, curiosity, and openness. Not detached intellectual analysis but a gently engaged exploration, often with a sense of tenderness or friendliness toward what it finds. Open to other aspects of the experience, such as softer feelings of hurt under the brittle armor of anger. It’s OK for your inquiry to be guided by a bit of insight into your own history and personality, but try to stay close to the raw experience and out of psychoanalyzing yourself.

N = Not-identify (Not-self): Have a feeling/thought/etc., instead of being it. Disentangle yourself from the various parts of the experience, knowing that they are small, fleeting aspects of the totality you are. See the streaming nature of sights, sounds, thoughts, and other contents of mind, arising and passing away due mainly to causes that have nothing to do with you, that are impersonal. Feel the contraction, stress, and pain that comes from claiming any part of this stream as “I,” or “me,” or “mine” — and sense the spaciousness and peace that comes when experiences simply flow.

R.A.I.N. and related practices of spacious awareness are fundamental to mental health, and always worth doing in their own right. Additionally, sometimes they alone enable painful or challenging contents of mind to dissipate and pass away.

But often it is not enough to simply be with the mind, even in as profound a way as R.A.I.N. Then we need to work with the mind, by reducing what’s negative and increasing what’s positive. (It’s also necessary to work with the mind to build up the inner resources needed to be with it; being with and working with the mind are not at odds with each other as some say, but in fact support each other.)

And whatever ways we work with the garden of the mind — pulling weeds and planting flowers — will be more successful after it R.A.I.N.s.

Rick Hanson, Ph.D., is a neuropsychologist and author of Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm, and Confidence (from Random House in October, 2013; in 4 languages), Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom (New Harbinger; in 24 languages), Just One Thing: Developing a Buddha Brain One Simple Practice at a Time (New Harbinger; in 12 languages), and Mother Nurture: A Mother’s Guide to Health in Body, Mind, and Intimate Relationships(Penguin). Founder of the Wellspring Institute for Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom and an Affiliate of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley, he’s been an invited speaker at Oxford, Stanford, and Harvard, and taught in meditation centers worldwide. A summa cum laude graduate of UCLA, his work has been featured on the BBC, NPR, CBC, FoxBusiness, Consumer Reports Health, U.S. News and World Report,and O Magazine and he has several audio programs with Sounds True. His weekly e-newsletter – Just One Thing – has over 91,000 subscribers, and also appears on Huffington Post, Psychology Today, and other major websites.

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Free guide to meditation

When creating the (free) With Insight Guide to Meditation for Sounds True, I wanted to include a short quote for the front page, to summarize at least one way of approaching the meditative journey. When I came across the following description by my friend Shinzen Young, I knew I had found the right one. Nicely said, brother Shinzen:

“The ultimate expression of meditation comes when we can feel all the pains of the world, experience them with mindfulness and equanimity so they dissolve into energy, and then recolor that energy and radiate it out as unconditional love, moment by moment, through every pore of our being.”

Access all of the With Insight Guides here.

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