We welcome you to the kitchen table of the legendary eco-spiritual teacher Joanna Macy, where we’ll dive into what it takes to live with our hearts and integrity intact in this time of global crisis. You’ll be guided into these conversations by Jess Serrante, a longtime activist and student of Joanna’s. Together, we’ll discover abiding wisdom that can help us stay joyful and energized as we work toward a more just and life-sustaining world.
Join us on April 22 for the first of 10 episodes of this powerful and transformative new podcast.
Friendship is a vital need. Without caring connections with others, we suffer physically, psychologically, and spiritually. In his new book, Spiritually, We, Sah D’Simone shares a collection of teachings, stories, practices, and techniques to “open ourselves to the dance” of relationship and help end the epidemic of loneliness in our time.
Enjoy Tami Simon’s conversation with the uniquely savvy and always sassy Sah, as they discuss: cultivating friendships that hold and carry you; transformation through trauma; Somatic Activated Healing® and its application with heartbreak; letting go of our stories and coming into our feelings; freedom from conditioning; discovering your “unstruck goodness”; practicing radical friendliness with everyone; the Spiritually, We liberatory equation; healing through community; shifting from intellectualization to embodied insight; the foundational step—taking personal responsibility; inviting people into your inner world; the power of presence; punitive justice vs. restorative justice; social integration; why “connection is the cure”; and more.
Note: This episode originally aired on Sounds True One, where these special episodes of Insights at the Edge are available to watch live on video and with exclusive access to Q&As with our guests. Learn more at join.soundstrue.com.
What do I do when a loved one is suffering? How do I have empathy if I’m getting a divorce or losing my job? If my family treats me unfairly? Or if I’m emotionally overwhelmed or in chronic pain?
If you’ve ever asked yourself these questions, I’ve written The Genius of Empathy for you. It also includes a beautiful foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
In the book, I present empathy as a healing force that helps you overcome obstacles in your life with dignity, grace, and power. As a psychiatrist and empath, I draw from my insights and present techniques from my own life and from the healing journeys of my clients, students, and readers. As I say in the book, “Empathy softens the struggle, quiets the unkind voices, and lets you befriend yourself again.”
Empathy doesn’t mean being “on call” 24 hours a day for those in need. Empaths can often wear an invisible sign that says, “I can help you.” However, if you want to heal yourself, have better relationships, and contribute to healing our tumultuous world, you must learn how to set healthy boundaries and observe, not absorb, the energy of others.
To start taking a more proactive role in how much empathy you give others at any one time, I suggest that you keep in mind the following “rights.” They will help you maintain a healthy mindset and prevent or lessen any empathy overwhelm that might arise:
I have the right to say a loving, positive “no” or “no, thank-you.”
I have the right to set limits with how long I listen to people’s problems.
I have the right to rest and not be always available to everyone.
I have the right to quiet peacefulness in my home and in my heart.
Practice: Take a Sound Break to Repair Yourself
Plan periods of quiet to recover from our noisy, fast-paced world. This helps calm your nervous system and your mind, an act of self-empathy.
It’s rejuvenating to schedule at least five minutes of quiet or, even better, complete silence for an hour or more where no one can intrude. As I do, hang a Do Not Disturb sign on your office or bedroom door. During this reset period, you’ve officially escaped from the world. You’re free of demands and noxious sounds. You may also get noise canceling earbuds to block out noise.
If too much quiet is unsettling, go for a walk in a local park or a peaceful neighborhood to decompress from excessive sound stimulation. Simply focus on putting one foot in front of the other, which is called mindful walking. Nothing to do. Nothing to be. Move slowly and refrain from talking. If thoughts come, keep refocusing on your breath, each inhalation and exhalation. Just letting life settle will regenerate your body and empathic heart.
Embracing your empathy does require courage. It can feel scary. If you’re ready to discover its healing power, I would be honored to be your guide to helping you in overcoming your fears and obstacles, and enhancing this essential skill for long-term change.
Though many of us have never met, I feel connected to you. Connection is what fuels life. While empathy is what allows you to find peace. With both, we can make sense of this world together.
Digital Audio
Ignite empathy as a superpower for personal healing, deeper relationships, and more potent work in the world. New York Times bestselling author Dr. Judith Orloff draws on insights from neuroscience, psychology, and energy medicine to show us how to access our sensitivities, soothe our nervous systems, and embody our most fierce and authentic selves.
Our modern worldview emphasizes the material factors that impact our health and well-being — such as our genetics, lifestyle, or environment. From the shamanic perspective of our indigenous predecessors, however, there are unseen, spiritual influences that are equally vital and valid to recognize. In this podcast, Tami Simon speaks with her partner of over 20 years, shamanic healer and teacher trainer, Julie Kramer, about learning to connect with the helping spirits that are always available to guide and support us.
This long-awaited conversation explores: absolute integrity in the practice of spiritual healing; Core Shamanism and the work of Michael Harner; taking a posture of humility and respect; the lineages of earth-based spiritual practice; using natural trance states to enhance our perception of non-ordinary realities; benevolent versus malevolent origins, and how to protect yourself from ill-intentioned spirits; the frequently-asked question, am I making this up?; meeting your guides from a place of maturity; equality in relationship; when guides intercede—and when they don’t; the ever-present element of mystery; conviction in your work; the path of “ennobling the heart”; the shamanic skill known as “psychopomp”; compassionate depossession; relying on your own experience; living in an intra-dimensional reality; and more.
Note: This episode originally aired on Sounds True One, where these special episodes of Insights at the Edge are available to watch live on video and with exclusive access to Q&As with our guests. Learn more at join.soundstrue.com.
Through centuries of reductionist science, we’ve come to believe that we live in a random universe. But that old paradigm is beginning to change. Since the advent of quantum physics, we’re realizing what the ancient wisdom traditions have always known: we are each an inseparable aspect of the cosmos, with the potential to cocreate a future based in love and awareness. “Take your protein pills and put your helmet on,” fellow spiritual explorers, for this revelatory, provocative, and adventurous podcast with Tami Simon and visionary author Dr. Jude Currivan.
You’ll learn about supernormal phenomena and “walking between worlds”; the big breath (instead of the big bang); reframing our universe from a great object to a great thought; the exquisite, finely tuned relationships of information we call the laws of physics; the initial simplicity and evolutionary directionality of our universe; the “disease of separation” at the root of human dysfunction; finding purpose as finite beings in a finite universe; the holographic nature of the cosmos; black holes and the event horizon; breakthroughs after breakdowns; the sixth mass extinction and the choice to consciously evolve; the law of love; and more.
Note: This episode originally aired on Sounds True One, where these special episodes of Insights at the Edge are available to watch live on video and with exclusive access to Q&As with our guests. Learn more at join.soundstrue.com.
How do we stem the tides of fear and aggression sweeping over our divided world? How can we spread the love that heals and uplifts everyone? Sharing insights from her bestselling book, Dying to Be Me, and her latest work, Sensitive Is the New Strong, Anita Moorjani offers her hope-giving answers to these questions of compelling urgency for our times.
Tune in for this remarkable teacher’s inspiring (and in many ways utterly mind-blowing) conversation with Sounds True’s founder, Tami Simon, as they discuss: a nonlinear understanding of time; living fearlessly; how to attune to the helping beings that surround us at all times; raising your vibrational frequency; the practice of asking for signs; following your intuition; how humanity’s belief in scarcity is contributing to our self-destruction; the root cause of the divisiveness in today’s world, and why we need a new way of defining “strength”; moving beyond limitations inherited from our families and cultures; the consequences of repressing oneself; becoming unapologetically who we are; the body as a reflection of our state of consciousness; multiple lives, one soul; embracing your gifts as an empath; and more.
Note: This episode originally aired on Sounds True One, where these special episodes of Insights at the Edge are available to watch live on video and with exclusive access to Q&As with our guests. Learn more at join.soundstrue.com.
